Tag Archives: history

Where was Old North located?

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Old North, 1856-1966 (click any image to enlarge)

The first building erected on IWU’s campus is referred to as Old North and was built in 1856. The purpose of this post is to clarify confusion about its location on campus.

People often say that it was located where State Farm Hall is today, but it was actually to the East of that and would have stood even a bit East of what is now the sidewalk leading to the entrance of the Center for Liberal Arts (CLA).

Quad Duration Hall. Approximate date 1964 or ’65 due to presence of Old North on right and Sheean not yet started.18-1/17 Aerial Photographs

This can be seen in this slightly elevated view of the Quad (likely taken from the top of McPherson Theatre), when it still held the building known as Duration Hall. Only part of Old North is visible in the upper right of this view, but the shorter building beyond it is what we now know as CLA. Before the remodel that transformed the facade it was called the Sherff Hall of Science. You can also clearly see the dorm we call Magill beyond that. Looking fro the same point of view today, State Farm Hall would block that view of Magill.

To further orient yourself, the street in the foreground is now a sidewalk, but the Hedding Bell and Powell Monument with flagpole are in the same location today. Duration Hall was actually the foundation of IWU’s second building, originally called the Main Hall/Old Main and later renamed Hedding Hall in honor of IWU’s commitment to the alumni of Hedding College when it closed in the 1930s.

Below are three aerial views of the Quad: two with Hedding in the center, on the south side of the East-West sidewalk from where State Farm Hall is today. Note the location of Stevenson Hall (aka, the School of Nursing), built in 1910, and the long sidewalk leading to the entrance of Hedding Hall. Use these as a reference point in the photo above and the one on the left below. Note also the position of Old North in the first and second photos below. The third photo clearly shows the sidewalk leading to the empty space once occupied by Hedding Hall and on the North side of the E-W sidewalk is IWU’s first free-standing library, called Sheean Library. It was in use from 1967-2002, when Ames Library opened, but it remained in that location until it was demolished in 2011 and replaced by State Farm Hall, which opened in 2013.

In the aerial photo below, it is clear that the only thing in the footprint of Sheean/current-day State Farm Hall was a short drive to an expansion of the parking lot that probably served Old North, Old Main, Stevenson and the tennis courts north of Stevenson.

1949 aerial with parking lot north of Duration Hall and adjacent to Stevenson with short drive connecting northeast to Old North.

 

Exploring mistakes in primary sources

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Back in 2015, I asked one of the archives’ student assistants to research and write a blog post about the gate at the West entrance to IWU’s Quad that is known as the Founder’s Gate. The South pillar of the gate contains an excerpt from the Education Report, Journal and records of the … session of the Illinois Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1854, p. 19. The report was submitted by the Chairman of the committee that year W. D. R. Trotter and J. L. Crane, Secretary. (A complete copy of the report I obtained from the Methodist Conference Archives is available on request.)

Architectural features are considered primary sources, but like any other source we can’t take the informaton they hold at face value. The gate that stands at IWU’s West entrance offers valuable lessons that illustrate how trustworthy (or not) primary sources are.

Mis-quoting & implied attribution: As the earlier blog post notes, the quote on the South column of the gate is an abbreviation of the quote in the actual Conference Record. Here is a copy of the complete quote:

Complete quote

This is the text as it appears in the Education Committee Report in the 1854 Conference Record {click to enlarge]

By revising the first clause to read “We stand in a position…” rather than “The Methodist Church, in the west and south-west, stands…” and positioning it next to a column with a dedication to the Founders, the implication is that IWU’s Founders made this the statement as part of their reason for creating the University. Any evidence that they did so at all, let alone in 1850, has yet to surface. However, the chairman of the 1854 Education Committee, W.D.R. Trotter, was one of our Founders, so it might be attributed to him but he is not listed on the North column!

Mistaken transcription: The dedication plaque on the North column of the gate reads “In Memory of the Founders of Illinois Wesleyan University, 1850.”

It then lists the following names that, by implication, were all of the Founders: “James Allin, J.E. McClun, Linus Graves, Thomas P. Rogers, H.H. Fell, Ezekiel Thomas, W. H. Allin, Isaac Funk, John Moon, Jesse W. Fell, C.D. James, Silas Waters, C.P. Merriman, David Trimmer, John Magoun, James Miller, John W. Ewing, Jesse Birch, A. Goddard, W.C. Hobbs, David Davis, Peter Cartwright, John S. Barger, Henry Coleman.”

However there are some spelling errors in this list and some other names are missing. The author of a book published for IWU’s 100th anniversary, Elmo Scott Watson, provides a list of all the names and notes that some of the misspellings may have come from an inaccurate transcription in the 1895 history of IWU by William H. Wilder.

The reader can see the names and signatures in the 1850 document known as IWU’s “Birth Certificate” (aka, the Certificate of Incorporation). The 30 listed are:
“James C. Finley, James Miller, James Allin, John E. McClun, John Magoun, William C. Hobbs, Thomas Magee, Charles P. Merriman, Ezekiel Thomas, Thomas P. Rogers, Linus Graves, Peter Cartwright, James F. Jaquess, William J. Rutledge, Calvin W. Lewis, James Leaton, John Van Cleve, Silas Watters, Isaac Funk, David Trimmer, John S. Barger, C. M. Holliday, W. D. R. Trotter, W. H. Allin, William Wallace, W. H. Holmes, J. W. Ewing, Lewis Bunn, Kersey H. Fell, Reuben Andrus.”

Mistaken citation: Both columns contain attributions for the information on them:

  1. On the North we can see “Erected 1922 with Funds donated by the Bloomington Association of Commerce, Arthur L. Pillsbury, Architect”
  2. The day at the bottom of the South column is quite worn but an Argus article from February 13th, 1940 claims that it is “December 18th, 1850.” [n.b., The date on the “Birth Certificate” is December 3, 1850.]

The date on the South column, especially when juxtaposed with the dedication to the Founders on the North column, could lead people to believe that the statement was made by IWU’s Founders in 1850. By checking the original sources, we established that the quote was incomplete and was actually published after a meeting of the Central Illinois Methodist Conference four years later.

It is also important to consider why the Bloomington Association of Commerce erected this Gate in 1922.* That was the year that IWU declined an offer by business interests in Springfield to relocate the University. (see descriptions of this plan on p. 104 the Myers/Teichman book on IWU history and pp. 152-54 of Watson’s.)

In their desire to honor IWU’s Founders, and perhaps as a sign of their belief in the importance of IWU’s presence in the community, the Bloomington Association of Commerce used an excerpt from this powerful sentiment in what IWU leaders often cite as an inspirational call to service (one example is in President Wilson’s February 8, 2006 remarks at Founders’ Day).

President Minor Myers, jr. relates the story of how he went to the Gate to copy the inscription, describes its presumed origins, and notes its addition to the new Ames Library’s Rotunda at the 2003 Founders’ Day Convocation.

Since it is an excerpt, it is appropriate to attribute any use of the abbreviated quote to the Gate and not the Conference Record.

Founder's Gate 1922

The quote from the Gate is also available in The Ames Library’s Jown Wesley Powell Rotunda, where it serves as a reminder to all in the IWU community of their purpose.

*For more on the topic of examining the purpose behind monuments, I often recommend the book Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Got Wrong (1999) by James W. Loewen.

New is a relative term in the archives!

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More than a decade ago we transferred photographic formats like negatives, contact sheets and slides from offices and storage areas in Holmes Hall. This kind of old collection transfer is new-to-us in the sense that researchers and the campus community at-large may not know it even existed. This is a central goal of the archives: make everything old new again through preservation and information-sharing actions.

This fall we transferred what I *think* will be the last group of unorganized photos and the next-to-last large amount of printed records relating to athletics and campus news offices (amounting to approx. 33 linear feet, unprocessed). In the spring we will be bringing over an additonal 20 linear feet of large storage cabinets filled with faculty, subject and photo files organized for use by the University Communications staff.

Two archives student assistants* have been sorting, rehousing and filing just the photographic formats from this large transfer so that they will be both accessible and preserved in a better environment. When that is complete they will start on the printed materials, many of which are related to the campus publicity and the sports information departments.

inital sort of printed photgraphs

inital sort of printed photgraphs

*The students are Savannah, sorting printed photos, and Arlo, working on photographic negatives. The latter are complementary additions to the 2011 accession that was lacking negatives for many of the contact sheets we added then. The negatives alone account for approx. 4 linear feet of this new accession!

IWU Women’s History via JeopardyLabs

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Several years ago I co-presented on IWU women’s history during a Council for IWU Women Summit with Claudia Brogan (’77), Stephanie Davis-Kahl. I gamified my findings on the topic up to that point by using PowerPoint. Recently I updated it and now it can be played three ways, all at a safe distance in these pandemic times, of course 😉 Test your IWU-quotient today!

1) The version pictured here is as it was originally presented: IWU Women’s History (2021 update) in ppt format.  This version has photos and behind-the-scenes details, not just the facts!

2) There is a link to the JeopardyLabs edition where multiple teams can play: IWU Women’s History
3) And here is the same JeopardyLabs edition but in an embedded format.
Note: numbers 2 & 3 due not have photos since I used their free version 😉

 

Resources for #ScholarStrike @ IWU

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#ScholarStrike

This blog post is a response to the #Scholar Strike that’s being organized by Dr. Anthea Butler of UPenn and Kevin Gannon, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Grand View University.
I am compiling a selection of e-texts here and plan to sit in front of The Ames Library (Tues 9-12:30, Wed 11-2:30). I will be happy to listen to and/or share them with anyone who passes by. Masks and social distancing will be observed!
Many of these links go to IWU sources but anyone in IWU’s community can contribute to this list anonymously and is welcome to read them aloud in front of the library or reflect on them individually.
1) The organizers of this event developed this resource page.
2) Closer to home, Dr. Nicole Brown ’99 gave a stirring address titled “All the Lies are White” during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Teach-In on January 16, 2017. She provided an oral history to the archives’ collection in which she relates examples of IWU’s lack of progress on lasting change with regard to hiring and retaining Black faculty.
3) March 8, 1985 Argus coverage of the Reverend Ralph Abernathy with the headline “The greatest problem in America is racism.” He also spoke at IWU’s Chapel Hour on April 13, 1977. “In a speech entitled ‘A Nation in Crisis,’ Abernathy addressed the issues of unemployment and national health insurance.”
4) Titled “Lest We Forget”, this is a recording of a 1963 meeting in Birmingham, Alabama that includes Revs. Abernathy and King and others. Available though a library subscription.
5) Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider : Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 1984.
6) Smithers, Gregory D. Native Diasporas : Indigenous Identities and Settler Colonialism in the Americas. University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
7) Pimblott, Kerry. Faith in Black Power : Religion, Race, and Resistance in Cairo, Illinois. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.
8) During an October 23, 1967 speech at IWU, Dick “Gregory names U.S. prime racist country.”
9) Sullivan, Denise. Keep on Pushing Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-Hop. Lawrence Hill Books, 2011.
10) “Reform Jewish Movement Votes to Support Reparations for African-Americans.” Israel Faxx, Electronic World Communications, Inc, 2019.
11) Nolen, Claude H. The Negro’s Image in the South: The Anatomy of White Supremacy. The University Press of Kentucky, 2015.
12)This oral history interview Paul Bushnell: Nashville Memories is with Emeritus Professor of History Paul Bushnell and includes memories of training for non-violent protests and being part of lunch counter sit-ins. The interview is conducted by Professor of English Pam Muirhead ’68, who has also been interviewed: once in 2016 (this is the only one with a transcript so far), once in 1997, and once at an unspecified date for an IWU promotional purpose. She gave a presentation in 1989 when she received IWU’s award for teaching excellence.
14) TBD. Additions this list are welcome!]
Still under development as of posting time: a timeline of Civil Rights and other activists who have spoken at IWU. Check back in on it to see additions. You can also use the comments field to suggest people/events you know of that haven’t been included yet!

“How’s Crops, Dean?”

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Film research project homepage

That’s the title for a Paramount Newsreel film describing IWU’s unique tuition exchange program that helped keep students enrolled during the Great Depression. In 2018 I submitted that work to a call for proposals to SourceLab, a digital humanities project at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign planning an Illinois Centennial Edition.

As part of their History 207: Publishing the Past course students reviewed all submissions and chose which projects to work on. One group chose the film of our tuition program and I met with students Virginia Campbell, Ryan Yoakum, and McKenzie Boes-Waddell online, and Virginia and Ryan made trips to our archives over the spring and summer of 2018. SourceLab published the work online as Vol. 1, No. 4 (2019). This link leads to a page with a complete description for the work.

This link leads to all issues published as part of volume 1.

Research Files: The Mission of IWU

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This post records an answer to a question regarding the process for drafting the most recent IWU Mission Statement. It extends that question further to explore the origins of the phrase “liberal education” that appears in the IWU Mission statement.

Most recently, CUPP was charged with revising the Mission Statement as part of the Strategic Planning work done from 2000 to 2003 (see Record Group 10-2/16/6 Strategic Planning Committee, 2003-2004 (Folder1). The first page lists all committee members for the final year and even though the minutes reference a draft revision being circulated, there isn’t one in the packet.

[N.B., Many governance records, like CUPP minutes, are accessible online. If using the site from off campus, an IWU login is needed. I have summarized my findings for those who lack the necessary credentials.]
     We have to go to the CUPP Minutes from August 27, 2003 that note Wes Chapman was taking on the revision work of an earlier version. I have not attempted to find what version they started out with in their minutes because it must have been the published version from the 1990 catalog which shows the most recent wording differences. The only real discussion I saw recorded on the work is in the Faculty Meeting for September 8, 2003 (see pdf p. 5). Most minutes just mention discussion and don’t detail them but a few refer to minor word changes that have nothing to do with the use of the word liberal.
The Board of Trustees made minor revisions at the October 20-21, 2003 meeting and then approved the version adopted by the Faculty (see RG 1-2/9/29 : 2003 Oct. 20-21
Board of Trustees Meeting Packet). The Faculty minutes on this topic are for October 6, 2003 (see p. 3).
AACU Statement on Liberal Learning

The first paragraph of the “AAC&U Statement on Liberal Learning,” 1998 (the complete document is at https://bit.ly/2tZIeFL)

This image is from a document in the Feb. 9-10, 2004 Board of Trustees Meeting Packet. It is part of what the Academic Affairs Committee presented to the full Board for approval of the recent Mission changes. The fact that the back of the AAC&U document has the BOT approved version signifies a relationship between what the AAC&U advocates for and what the Board approved.

     Regardless, the phrase “liberal education” in the context of IWU curricular offerings predates all of this. Skimming backwards from 1989 in the printed catalogs, I find the mission statement using the phrase going back to the 1960s (where I stopped looking).
     I conducted a search of our old catalogs (1851-1954 are freely available online) and the first use of the phrase “liberal education” is in regards to offerings listed by the Women’s Education Association in 1879-80 catalog (p. 50). The next area of IWU to use the phrase is the School of Music in the 1891 catalog (p. 62). Our Home Economics program used it in 1916 (p. 70) and the first use in describing the University as a whole is in 1920 (p 25).
So if the question is how long have we embraced the phrase “liberal education” I’d say it’s been a good, long, time!
1920 Type of Institution statement

1920 Course Catalog, p. 25 (click to enlarge)

Illinois political history in Special Collections

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John Wenum

John Wenum, 1974 Wesleyana

In addition to legislative Illinois alumni, IWU has another connection to Illinois’ political history through the work of Political Science Professor John Wenum who compiled a collection about the fourth (and currently in effect) iteration of Illinois’ Constitution.

John Wenum was a delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention (Con-Con). The work at this Con-Con resulted in a first-ever state Constitution that explicitly guaranteed citizens the right to a healthy environment. Wenum joined IWU’s faculty in 1971 and received the Award for Teaching Excellence in 1992.

Click to enlarge

The Con-Con items in the display pictured here are a Farm Bureau handbook, the Constitutional Convention Newsletter, and correspondence between Wenum and the State Chamber of Commerce. These are just a few selections from the 14 linear feet (unprocessed) collection of materials Wenum gathered during his campaign to become a delegate and his work at the Con-Con itself.

Within The Ames Library’s 4th floor department called Tate Archives & Special Collections are thousands of unique materials and all are available to benefit people in the IWU and surrounding communities.

The items displayed in these posts about Special Collections holdings are just a small portion of the kinds of materials found in Tate Archives & Special Collections. These collections are in a variety of languages and formats (artifact, book, manuscript, and media) and creation dates range from the 11th-21st centuries. Some collections are completely described and identified and some have yet to be thoroughly organized or examined.

Although many holdings do have a direct connection to the University, many are distinct and unrelated to the others such as the supporting materials for research on the people who created and collected the pottery and basketry items displayed in the entry level rotunda.

Curious minds seeking inspiration for creative works and original research are welcome to stop by and explore the possibilities!

Medieval (and other) manuscripts in Special Collections

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Within The Ames Library’s 4th floor department called Tate Archives & Special Collections are thousands of unique materials and all are available to benefit people in the IWU and surrounding communities.

Our collections include 12 medieval manuscript leaves and three manuscript books from the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries. A two volume set of the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus, the first bound facsimile edition of the Old and New Testaments, is also available.

Click to enlarge

[Pictured] A Buddhist manuscript in Pali (shown here in two parts), dating from the 19th century, is at the back of the shelf. The matted leaves are from
(L) a Bible in Latin, on vellum, with contemporary glossing. England, ca. 1220.
(R) a Bible in Latin, on vellum, with decorated initials and marginal penwork, including a scribe’s use of the pointing finger. The text is from Zachariah. Italy, Bologna, ca. 1280.

This display holds just a small portion of the kinds of materials found in Tate Archives & Special Collections. These collections are in a variety of languages and formats (artifact, book, manuscript, and media) and creation dates range from the 11th-21st centuries. Some collections are completely described and identified and some have yet to be thoroughly organized or examined.

Although many holdings do have a direct connection to the University, many are distinct and unrelated to the others such as the supporting materials for research on the people who created and collected the pottery and basketry items displayed in the entry level rotunda.

Curious minds seeking inspiration for creative works and original research are welcome to stop by and explore the possibilities!

Beat Writers Collection in Special Collections

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Within The Ames Library’s 4th floor department called Tate Archives & Special Collections are thousands of unique materials and all are available to benefit people in the IWU and surrounding communities.

Click to enlarge

This image contains parts of a collection consisting of books and periodicals (24 linear feet) published by members of the avant-garde literary movement known as “Beat Writers,” whose counter cultural and non-conformist attitudes helped shape the hippie culture of the 60’s. Some of the writers represented in this collection are Diane diPrima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, and Jack Kerouac. There are approximately eighty others.

The items displayed in these posts are just a small portion of the kinds of materials found in Tate Archives & Special Collections. These collections are in a variety of languages and formats (artifact, book, manuscript, and media) and creation dates range from the 11th-21st centuries. Some collections are completely described and identified and some have yet to be thoroughly organized or examined.

Although many holdings do have a direct connection to the University, many are distinct and unrelated to the others such as the supporting materials for research on the people who created and collected the pottery and basketry items displayed in the entry level rotunda.

Curious minds seeking inspiration for creative works and original research are welcome to stop by and explore the possibilities!