International students at IWU during WWI

An exhibit currently on display in The Ames Library (in two cases, near the patio on the entry level) includes photos and written accounts by IWU faculty and students during World War I. These materials and much more are held in the University Archives.

Of particular interest in this exhibit are contributions from students in Professor Jim Matthews’ Fall 2016 FREN 301: Oral Communication class. In a recent conversation with Dr. Matthews, I mentioned that three French women joined students at IWU in the fall of 1918 and Matthews asked his students to learn more about the experiences of these women in the U.S. and respond in French; they contributed English translations for the benefit of visitors to the library’s exhibit.

1920 Wesleyana, p. 156

Idellette and Annette Baron and Jeanne Seigneur, pictured in the 1920 Wesleyana, p. 156

Dr. Matthews and his students discovered several interesting things about the lives of these women in Central Illinois and beyond. Stop by the library before the end of the month or visit th archives anytime!

Research Files: First African-American woman graduate

In an earlier post, we documented the first African-American men to graduate from IWU. Recently I came across an unknown author’s work on the subject of Black student history at IWU (this document is contained in Record Group 11-8/1/6). That author listed Josephine Mabel Jackson, Class of 1910, as IWU’s first African-American woman to graduate. There is no supporting documentation in the University Archives about the race of our students, but we can look elsewhere to confirm this particular claim.

With her name, I was able to ask the Illinois Regional Archives Depository staff for help. A birth registration book confirms that she was born on January 22, 1886 in Delavan, Tazewell County, Illinois, and lists her race as Negro. The entry also shows that her father William W. Jackson, from South Carolina, was a barber. Her mother Dora M. (nee Grady) Jackson was from Mississippi.

Jackson, 1909 Wesleyana

Jackson, 1909 Wesleyana

The photo to the left is our first image of her, where she is pictured among her Junior classmates. Only one source mentions she was involved in the YWCA but a few show that she participated in the Adelphic Society, one of the two literary societies on campus in her day.

No records of that group’s activities exist for this era but according to the 1907/08 Catalogue of Courses, students were advised to join such groups because “there is no single factor in college life that does so much to fit them for speaking in public and learning to think while in the act of speaking.”

 

Jackson cropped from Adelphic groups photo in 1909 Wesleyana

Jackson cropped from Adelphic group’s photo in 1909 Wesleyana

Adelphic Society members, 1909 Wesleyana

Adelphic Society members, 1909 Wesleyana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jackson's Senior class photo

Jackson’s Senior class photo from the 1911 Wesleyana

In the list of graduates published in the June 14, 1910 Argus, her full name is given as Josephine Mabel W. Jackson. There are no documents here that record her thoughts about her life but there are several indications that she remained connected to IWU after graduation. In one case, published by the Alumni Office among their brief class news reports, she sent a donation and greetings.

A brief note in April 1925 is the most substantive report there is on an important event in her life: the death of her mother. It ends with an enigmatic sentence: “Miss Jackson has been an unusually successful science teacher in various High Schools.”

A 1929 book called The Alumni Roll at least confirms the teaching part:
Jackson, Josephine M., B.S.  Graduate Chicago Training School, 1911, Teacher in High School, Harlan, Iowa; 1912-1913, Chicago Training School; Industrial teacher in Institutional Church, Chicago; Evangelistic work; Teacher; Student at State University of Iowa.  Box 67, Delavan, Illinois.

The last picture we have of her comes from a June 1960 alumni news source:

June 1960 IWU Bulletin, Alumni edition

June 1960 IWU Bulletin, Alumni edition

The last time Miss Jackson is mentioned in any of our publications is in September 1968. Bloomington’s Pantagraph says she died, aged 88, on Tuesday June 18, 1974 at Hopedale Medical Complex. The notice states she had been in the Hopedale Nursing Home “for some time.” (subscription needed to access: Wednesday, June 19, 1974 – Page 47).

I am sure there is more to be learned about Josephine Jackson’s life. Readers are invited to stop in and see the newly accumulated references to her in the University Archives. I would be happy to make suggestions for additional research strategies, and will gladly add more to her files with anything new that’s discovered!

Presidential Biography: Eric R. Jensen

Jensen is a native of Homewood, IL; he earned his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Michigan and and his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Miami. He most recently served as provost of Hamline University in Saint Paul, MN.
Earlier in his career, Jensen was a faculty member at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Jensen also served as a Visiting Scholar in Economics at the University of Indonesia and worked for four years with the College Board to develop and implement its Financial Aid Strategy Tool (FAST), which enabled participating institutions to individually tailor financial aid offers to admitted students.

 Eric Jensen

Presidential Biography: Richard F. Wilson

Wilson holds a bachelor’s degree in education and an honorary doctorate from Alderson-Broaddus University in West Virginia. He earned master and doctoral degrees in higher education from the University of Michigan.
Wilson served as the president of IWU from 2004-2015. During his tenure, he oversaw two strategic planning efforts, the first completed in 2006 and the second completed in 2014. He is a member of both Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi national honor societies.

Richard Wilson

Presidential Biography: Minor Myers, jr.

Myers was born in Copley, Ohio and graduated from Carleton College in 1968. He earned masters and doctorate degrees in political philosophy, philosophy, and politics from Princeton University. The author of eight books and a musical play, Myers was an avid scholar, encouraging students to pursue their passions at Illinois Wesleyan and beyond.
Before arriving at IWU, Myers was Provost, Dean of Faculty, and Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for five years.

Minor Myers, jr.

Presidential Biography: Wayne Anderson

Anderson was a graduate of the University of Minnesota and received a Master’s from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School before receiving a Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He had been on the staff of the Association of American Colleges and Assistant to the President of John Hopkins for nine years. He was then President and Professor of Political Science at Maryville College. He served as IWU’s 16th President, with a term running from 1986-1988.Wayne Anderson

Presidential Biography: Robert S. Eckley

Eckley grew up in Peoria, IL, graduated from Bradley University in 1942 with a B.A. in economics and completed an M.B.A. at the University of Minnesota, before serving for three years in the Coast Guard on the U.S.S. Davenport.
After WWII, he attended Harvard and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics in 1948 and 1949, respectively. Following two years as an Assistant Professor at Kansas, Eckley served an appointment as an industrial economist at the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City. From there, he became the manager of the Business-Economics Department of Caterpillar.
Robert S. Eckley was elected the 15th IWU President in 1968 and served until 1986.

Eckley, Robert

Presidential Biography: Lloyd M. Bertholf

Bertholf was a native of rural Kansas, attended Friends University, and graduated from Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. He served in the coast artillery in World War I (stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia). Bertholf undertook graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1921 and began his career teaching biology at North Carolina College for Women. For 15 years, he supplemented his teaching income with summer work performing research for the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine. He also taught at Western Maryland College for 25 years, where he was also Dean of Freshman and Dean of Faculty. In 1930, Bertholf received a postdoctoral fellowship to study in Munich on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and in 1948 moved to the West Coast to teach at the College of the Pacific, as a Professor of Biology and Academic Vice-President. In 1958, Lloyd M. Bertholf became the 14th President of IWU and he served until 1968.

Bertholf, Lloyd

Presidential Biography: Merrill J. Holmes

Holmes was the 13th IWU President, 1947 – 1958. Holmes, like many of his predecessors, was a Methodist minister, and also had been an Army Chaplain in the 165th Infantry, which became the famous 69th Infantry in World War I. He taught for three years at Garrett Biblical Institute and later became the Professor of Religion and Philosophy and Dean at Dakota Wesleyan University. For two years, he was the Secretary of Institutes in the Epworth League Department of the Methodist Board of Education, and before coming to IWU, he was the Secretary of the Department of Educational Institutions for African Americans for 14 years.

Holmes, Merrill J.

Presidential Biography: William E. Shaw

Shaw was born in Minnesota in 1869. He graduated from Moores Hill College in Indiana in 1889. He taught in Kentucky for four years and then entered Garrett Biblical Institute where he was given the S.T.B. degree in 1896. Shaw was the corresponding secretary of the Methodist Board of Foreign Missions in New York, as well as a Trustee of IWU for more than three decades, and served on the Board of Trustees before he was made the 12th President of IWU in 1939. His term as President of the University lasted until 1947.

Shaw, William