Education

The collection documents several generations of the Poulson family and its role in publishing Poulson's American Daily Advertiser. It includes submissions, woodcuts, and sample issues from the Daily Advertiser; correspondence; genalogical materials; and financial and legal documents. Correspondents include Horace Binney, Benjamin Rush (1811-1877), Samuel Sartain, John Sargeant (1779-1852), and Noah Webster. The genealogical notes address the Poulson, Carlyle, Graham, Gurney, Knorr, and Wood families.

The Presidents 1783-1833 Record Group contains papers related the presidency of the seven men who served at Dickinson from 1783 to 1833. This Record Group corresponds with that of RG 1/1, the Trustees 1783-1833, which also documents the first fifty years of the college. The materials in this record group pertain to the president’s duties in the administration of his office; any papers relating to his employment such as letters of acceptance or resignation and vouchers for salary are housed in RG 1/1. In addition, personal papers of the presidents have been removed to individual collections where applicable. The majority of the papers in this record group are correspondence with individual trustees regarding college business; also included are reports and resolutions from the faculty, as well as drafts of publications dealing with the curriculum. 

Below is a timeline of the presidents of Dickinson College from 1783 to 1833.

1785 – Charles Nisbet
1785-1786 – Robert Davidson (acting)
1786-1804 – Charles Nisbet
1804-1809 – Robert Davidson
1809-1815 – Jeremiah Atwater
1815-1816 – John McKnight
1816-1821 – College closed
1821-1824 – John Mitchell Mason
1824 – Alexander McClelland (acting)
1824-1829 – William Neill
1829-1832 – Samuel Blanchard How
1832-1833 – College closed

The Priestley Award was established by Dickinson College in honor and memory of Joseph Priestley, the eighteenth century scientist and theologian best known as the discoverer of oxygen. Every year the award is presented to a distinguished scientist for his or her discoveries or contributions to the welfare of mankind.

The Priestley Award collection is organized chronologically by the year in which the award was presented. Also included in this collection is some biographical information on Joseph Priestley, general information about the award itself, a history of the award written by Horace Rogers, financial receipts, and information on the 1973 Science for Survival Symposium.

Each yearly award celebration series is further divided into different folders. These divisions include folders for correspondence; event preparation; posters, programs, and invitations; news releases and publications; and nominating committee. Correspondence consists of letters concerning the award and celebration, inter-office memos, and invitations, all arranged chronologically. The event preparation file consists of various papers such as invitation lists, menus, sample letters, itineraries, speech transcriptions, and any other information collected by the President of the College in preparation for that year’s award. The posters, programs, and invitations folders contain ephemeral materials related to the annual event. In the news releases and publications file, all newspaper articles and other writings pertaining to the award or the award winner are maintained. Nominations, ballots, and letters and memos concerning the nominations can be found in the nominating committee file.

Leon Cushing Prince (1878-1937) graduated from Dickinson College in 1898 and received his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law and his masters from New York University. Prince returned to Dickinson in 1907 to become a professor of history, where he would teach for thirty years until his death. He was elected a Pennsylvania state senator in 1928 and served for two terms. The collection contains material dated 1898-1937, and includes correspondence, legal documents, literary materials, printed materials, and other memorabilia. The bulk of the collection centers around manuscripts of Prince's research notes, sermons, speeches, and writings. Other materials in the collection include newspaper clippings, correspondence with other professors regarding lecture appearances, and printed material on the Kiwanis Club.

The records contained in the President George Edward Reed record group pertain only to his time and affairs as president of Dickinson College. As such, no personal papers are included in this record group. For records concerning Reed’s interactions with students, please refer to RG 5/1. The Reed records are arranged into two series: General Business, and Personnel.

The William Charles Ford Reed Collection was donated to the college in 1951 by the sons of William C. F. Reed, Class of 1851. The collection contains some of Reed's student writings, notebooks, and his complete set of school books. A subsequent donation in 1956 consisted of a few papers and 37 school books belonging to William's older sister, Ann Reed. The papers are arranged into three series: Notebooks, Writings, and Miscellaneous. There is also a photograph of William C.F. Reed.

This collection contains the correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings and other materials of Mary Lamb Riley. The bulk of the collection is correspondence sent to Mary Lamb Riley by her mother, Harriet Collins Lamb, and her daughter, Marjorie Lamb Riley. The collection also contains some Collins/Riley family memorabilia, including an announcement for the birth of Marjorie Lamb Riley.

The Charles Arthur Robinson Collection was donated by Charles L. Robinson on January 14, 2012. The collection is housed in two document boxes, one oversized box, 57 photograph folders, and one small artifact box. The collection contains materials related to Charles A. Robinson ('20) and Reba M. Beam’s ('22) Dickinson College careers as well as their married life. It also includes items belonging to Dickinson graduates Harry Delmar Robinson ('18) and Dorothy Anne Robinson ('45). The Collection is arranged into eight series: Academic Papers, Correspondence, Ephemera, Financial Papers, Photograph Albums, Miscellaneous, Oversized, Photographs, and Artifact.

The collection includes essays written by Alexander Sharp while he was a student at Dickinson College. Also included are grammar school essays written by Alexander and his sister Mary.

Spencer Bauman Smith (1911-1984) graduated from Dickinson College in 1934. He then attended the Princeton Theological Seminary and served as pastor of the Camp Hill (PA) Presbyterian Church for 34 years. This collection contains correspondence and memorabilia from his college days.

In the nineteenth century, the activities pertaining to admissions and student affairs were performed by the President of the College, with some assistance from the other faculty members. Inquiries concerning admissions were generally made directly to the President of the College. Members of the faculty (including the President) supervised students both inside and outside the classroom. Besides taking attendance, delivering lectures, and grading students, faculty members also monitored students’ behavior and managed the financial accounts of underage students. Communications with parents and other day to day affairs were handled directly by faculty members. This state of affairs lasted until the early twentieth century, when the College began establishing separate offices to handle the necessary paperwork for running an institution of higher learning with an ever increasing enrollment. For ease of access, the following Student Affairs/Registrar papers, representing the period prior to the modern college office system, have been assembled into one record group.

The Student Affairs/Registrar 1783-1914 Record Group is organized into seven series:

Series 1 - General Student Affairs
Series 2 - Matriculation/Registrar
Series 3 - Attendance and Deportment
Series 4 - Grades
Series 5 - Student-Patron Accounts
Series 6 - Individual Students
Series 7 - Admissions

These records document the activity and structure of Dickinson's student government.

This collection documents several members of the Dum family of Carlisle, PA, particularly Annie Spotts Dum, Blanche L. Dum (Class of 1910), George B. Dum, Miriam Dum Frey (Class of 1913), and Ray Spotts Dum (Class of 1908).  The collection is composed primarily of family correspondence from the 1880s through the 1930s. It also includes family memorabilia, such as event programs, school documents, and some documents regarding family history. 

Ruth Agnes Trout graduated from Dickinson College with the class of 1936. In 1983, she and her sister, Helen Elizabeth Trout, established the Trout Gallery at the college in honor of their parents, Brook and Mary Agnes Cook Trout. This collection of papers documents Trout's relationship with the college, primarily as an alumna. It contains correspondence with college officials and financial documents that particularly emphasize her support of the Trout Gallery. This collection also includes a record of her family's history back to approximately the Civil War. Family-related materials include correspondence, genealogical materials, photographs, legal and financial documents, and memorabilia from important life events. Surnames represented in the collection include Brindle, Cook, Dale(s), McCall, Ritter, Stringer, and Trout.

Thomas W. Troxell (1874-1947) graduated from Dickinson College in 1898. He taught at schools in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia before finishing his career as principal at Gaithersburg High School in Maryland. This small collection contains materials related to Troxell’s time at Dickinson, specifically several student notebooks, and his career as a teacher.

Eleanor T. Waugh Hanley (19??-1940) was the daughter of Karl Tinsley Waugh, who served as president of Dickinson College from 1932 to 1933. Hanley enrolled in the Dickinson class of 1935 and participated in numerous campus activities, although she did not graduate from Dickinson. Hanley died from pneumonia on October 4, 1940 while recovering from burns received in a house fire. These papers contain materials such as notes, essays, and exams from her college and secondary school days.

Karl Tinsley Waugh ws born in 1879 in Cawnpore, India. His family moved back to the U.S. when he was a teenager, and he later received degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and Harvard. He served in teaching and administrative positions at numerous colleges and universities, and he served as president of Dickinson College for just one year - from 1932 to 1933. This collection includes papers of Karl and his wife Emily, as well as their children Charles and Eleanor. There is also some material reflecting the time that Karl's parents served as missionaries in India, including numerous photos. Much of the collection includes family correspondence, financial records, school notes and essays, and photographs.

Emma Catherine Wentzel graduated from Dickinson College in 1934. This collection contains correspondence received during her high school and college years.

The Willoughby collection is divided into three series and housed in four document boxes. It is comprised mostly of drafts of literary works, contained in the Literary Productions series, as well as correspondence, mostly relating to his librarian work, and miscellaneous other materials. The materials date from 1928 to 1965, with the majority of materials dating from the 1940s and 1950s.

Barbara Stevens Wishmeyer served as Dean of Women at Dickinson College from 1959-1967. She created this scrapbook that documents the lives of the first-year female students living in Metzger Hall during the 1962-1963 academic year.  That was the last year that Metzger Hall served as housing for Dickinson students, as it was razed at the conclusion of the Spring 1963 semester.  The scrapbook contains primarily photographs, as well as some newspaper clippings and event programs.  In addition to capturing everyday life, this scrapbook also records orientation, sorority rush, the annual Military Ball, and farewell events marking the closing of Metzger Hall.

This collection consists of nine scrapbooks relating to John Perry Wood (1879-1959), Dickinson College class of 1901 and Yale University School of Law class of 1902, and his family. Most of the scrapbooks deal with aspects of family life: correspondence between family members, and memorials to those who had passed away. This collection also contains the diary of Martha Wood from the year 1880 and an album of unlabeled photographs from the late 19th century to approximately 1950 containing only the names of Ernest C. Jones and Charlotte Traweek.

The collection includes correspondence, speeches, essays, notebooks, bills, printed materials, and notes on debates and other such topics as the Light Street Institute and the Washington Temperance Society. The collection spans three main time periods in Zug's life: his enrollment at Dickinson College from 1836 until 1839, his formation of and participation in the Light Street Institute from 1839 until 1840, and his involvement in the Washington Temperance Society from 1840 to 1842. Other time periods are included, but not as extensively. The collection contains no large gaps in documentation. One item of interest is a manuscript entitled "An Old Bachellor's[sic] Mountain Musings." The opening line of the piece, which is not dated, states that the author, presumably Zug, is forty-seven years old. However, this is not possible, as Zug died on September 5, 1843, at the age of twenty-five.