A recently donated framed document revealed a hidden record of campus personnel and Civil War service. It is our practice in the archives to remove and dispose of frames/glass to lessen the chance of injuring people or damaging the artifacts they contain.
When I removed the frame of this view of Old Main and Old North had a fundraising appeal on the back of it. I hadn’t seen this perspective before, with the houses to the left of the Main building, but found the same view in the 1907 Bulletin so we can make a good guess at the date.
The inside of the backing board contained a paper with many lost sections and faded handwriting, describing the office locations and some details about the lives of four IWU faculty: Demotte, Troyer, Sharp, and Baldwin.
Click to enlarge
My attempt at transcribing this writing is below. No doubt a researcher who is curious about this item or these people could use the University’s archival holdings to explore more! [Note: DeMotte is the correct spelling of the first name]
H.C. Demot ….room to
& H. Troyer – left …..the [?]
B.[?]V. Sharp occupied the room
& Wm. M. Baldwin to the right of [?]
Demot was president of the school
afterward for [?]
& Troyer was for [?]
years a minister of [?]
ILL ME Illinois Conference
Baldwin & Sharp
joined Co K 2nd ILL
cav. sharp [?] but a
short time & was discharged on acct of
ill health. returned to Bloomington
& married. his father in law bought a
large Hotel & set sharp up in Hotel bus.