The papers of Charles Albert Blanchard  minister, reformer, and second President of Wheaton College  consist of both personal papers and administrative archive material.  Collected from several sources since 1950, much of the material was given to the College Archives by Dr. Clyde S. Kilby.  It was among the Blanchard Family materials given to him by Miss Julia Blanchard (daughter of Charles Blanchard) when Kilby was researching his biography of Jonathan Blanchard.  Other material was discovered and gathered during the Wheaton History Project of the early 1970s, and added to the collection.  The papers date from ca. 1865 to 1926 and include biographical information, correspondence, diaries, financial records, manuscripts, memorials, newspaper clippings, personal notes, personal items, photos, published articles and pamphlets, and sermons and addresses.

The material has been divided into six series: Biographical, College Related, Correspondence, Personal, Research, and Written Works. The "Biographical" series contains written recollections of family members, friends, and students recorded after Blanchard's death.  Included are the galley proofs of Frances Carothers Blanchard's biography of her husband, The Life of Charles Albert Blanchard, published in 1932.  Other items are articles from periodicals, letters and telegrams concerning his death, and obituaries.  Over ninety student compositions, written for a rhetoric class in January of 1926, provide personal perceptions of the late president.  The Biographical series includes a subseries of "Memorials," which contains information concerning monuments honoring Charles Blanchard.

The "College Related" series is divided into the subseries of "College Business" and "Interim Presidency Period." The "College Business" category  contains  administrative correspondence dating from 1906 to 1925.  Two studies of Wheaton College by the University of Illinois, dated 1915 and 1925, are included in this sub series.  These were undertaken in order to rate the college for purposes of transferring credits to other institutions.  Also included under "College Related" is a long range plan for "Greater Wheaton College," written in 1921.  A "National Survey of Attitudes of Colleges Toward Certain Evangelical Policies" conducted in 1919 may also be found here.  Signed statements of faith and questionnaires of potential faculty, dated between 1923 and 1925, are contained within this subseries.

The "Interim Presidency Period" subseries contains College Related material dated between December 20, 1925, the date of Charles Blanchard's death, and April 1, 1926, the date James Oliver Buswell, Jr. became the third President of Wheaton College.

Correspondence was divided into four subseries: "General," "Blanchard T. Pettengill Family," "Mary Belle Blanchard Weaver Family," and "Other." The "General" correspondence is the largest of the five categories with items dating from 1858 to 1926.  Its contents include personal letters to and from members of Blanchard's immediate family.

The "Personal" category contains five subseries: Family Materials, Newspaper Clippings, Organizations, Personal, and Topics.  Within the Family Materials has been gathered four manuscripts, each written by one of Blanchard's three wives, and one by his daughter Mary Belle Blanchard.  Blanchard's collection of newspaper clippings include items dealing with the church in society, education, missionary activity, prayer, secret societies, temperance, tobacco, etc.  Blanchard was also involved with several organizations that dealt with issues of interest to him.  Material about three of these organizations (American Messianic Fellowship, Christian Workers' Conference, and National Christian Association) are contained in the Organization subseries.  The Personal subseries contains bill and receipts, collected personalia, notes, photos and other such items that were collected throughout Blanchard's life.  Topics is the last subseries of the Personal series.  This subseries includes material Blanchard collected about temperance and prohibition, and secret societies.

The "Research Material" series contains material written about Charles Blanchard since his death.  Quotations, articles, and correspondence concerning him are filed here.

The "Written Works" series contains both published and unpublished works by Blanchard.  Published items were filed separately from the non published.  Blanchard's published items include articles, books (housed separately), and pamphlets.  Among the unpublished works are several manuscripts and over 800 sermons and addresses.  Topics stressed in the sermons include Christian education, secret societies, and temperance.