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The Indiana University School of Medicine emerged from a number of private, proprietary medical schools that existed in Indianapolis in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The most important of these private medical schools were the Medical College of Indiana and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, both of which operated in Indianapolis. In the first decade of the twentieth century efforts began to try to merge these private schools under the state universities then in Indiana, Purdue University and Indiana University. The merger of several medical schools under Purdue University was short-lived. In 1903 Indiana University established first year (classroom) medical studies at Bloomington, and in 1907 merged with the Medical College of Indiana and the remnant of the Purdue medical school to establish clinical instruction in Indianapolis. In subsequent years the School of Medicine was housed in Indianapolis on a large campus with several hospitals, clinical, and research facilities. First year medical studies were moved to Indianapolis by the 1950s.

The Wylie family represented in this collection are all family members or descendents of Indiana University's first president, Andrew Wylie. Many of the earliest family members were closely associated with the university themselves. The collection includes correspondence, financial records, newspaper clippings, obituaries, academic records, journals, scrapbooks, drawings, and poetry. In addition to family affairs, the collection includes information about Indiana University and Bloomington, Indiana, including land deeds and a 19th century account book from Bloomington's McCalla store.

The Indiana University Folklore Archives was established in 1956 by Richard M. Dorson of the Indiana University Folklore Institute and grew to comprise 40,000 field collections gathered in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, before closing in 1990. This collection contains the Folklore Archives' administrative files, special collections of prominent folklorists' research materials, reprints of journal articles, bibliographies, a collection of folksongs, and subject files and index cards on topics that include beliefs, customs, games, jokes, and legends.

Indiana family headed by Joseph Kirkman, who served as sheriff of Gibson County for several years. Collection includes correspondence, indentures, receipts, land deeds, and newspaper clippings of Joseph Kirkman, daughter Irene Kirkman Coolidge, and granddaughter Mary Coolidge Kingston. Also included is a series titled Unknown authors, consisting of items of unknown origins but that were deposited with the collection.

Before becoming president of Indiana University, Herman B Wells served as an assistant cashier at the National Bank of Lebanon before going on to work for the Indiana Bankers Association, the Indiana Commission for Financial Institutions, and the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions. He was named dean of the Indiana University School of Business administration in 1935 by IU President William Lowe Bryan. In 1937 he was named acting president of the university and president the following year, a position he held until 1962. Upon his retirement, IU created the position of University Chancellor, which Dr. Wells held until his death in 2000. This collection consists of Wells' personal papers and includes papers pertaining to his family and personal finances, his activities in the banking profession, his work in Germany for the United States government after World War II, and to his research and teaching and professional activities as a member of the faculty of Indiana University.

Theophilus A. Wylie was the cousin of Indiana University's first president Andrew Wylie and spent most of his adult life at IU, beginning in 1836,serving as its librarian, professor, vice president, and at one point, its interim president. Collection consists of Wylie's correspondence, diaries, sermons, drawings, and writings.

Indiana family headed by Robert Owen, who purchased Harmony from the Rappites in Posey County, Indiana, with the intention of establishing a utopian society, New Harmony. Owen's three sons were major players in the introduction of geology, biology, and psychology in Indiana and the United States. Collection includes correspondence, speeches, and publications of Robert Owen and his descendants. Most prominently featured in the collection are Owen's sons David Dale, Richard, and Robert Dale. Some materials are photocopies of manuscripts held by other repositories.

One of the two chief literary societies on campus, the Athenian Society was founded at Indiana University in 1830. Literary societies gave students practice in speaking and writing through regular orations, essays, and debates, as well as filling a social role. Collection consists of minutes, correspondence, publications, addresses, and announcements. The Publication series includes copies of the Athenian, a monthly periodical of writings submitted by members of the Athenian Society that were of "a high literary character," including what the editors considered "chaste and elevated literature." These span December 1845 through November 1846. Most prominent in the collection are the minutes from the weekly meeting of the Society.

Chase C. Mooney was a professor of history at Indiana University. After receiving his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1939, Chase Curran Mooney began his teaching career at Brenau College in 1939. In 1946 he joined the history faculty at Indiana University, where he remained until his death in 1973. As a distinguished member of the faculty, Mooney participated in numerous history department committees and successfully worked to bring the Journal of American History to IU in 1963. With research interests focusing upon African Americans, the U.S. Civil War, and the history of the American South, he produced numerous book reviews, articles, and two major monographs, Slavery in Tennessee in 1957 and William H. Crawford, 1772-1834 which was released posthumously in 1974. Mooney's papers contain student files, correspondence, research and manuscripts relating to his publications, including Slavery in Tennessee and William H. Crawford, teaching files, files relating to committees at Indiana University, and subject files all relating primarily to his work as a professor and to his research interests.

This collection consists of the family papers of Indiana University professor Cecilia Hennel Hendricks spanning the period from 1839 through 1970. Included are papers relating to the academic careers of Cecilia, Associate Professor of English, and her sister Cora, Professor of Mathematics at Indiana University, as well as manuscripts and writings by both women. Also found in the collection are papers and correspondence of family members: father Joseph B. Hennel, mother Anna M. Thuman Hennel, Cecilia's husband John Hendricks, and sister Edith Hennel Ellis.

Frank Curry Mathers was a Chemistry Professor at Indiana University from 1907 until his retirement in 1950. This collection consists of materials associated with both the Mathers family and Frank C. Mathers' career as a Professor of Chemistry at I.U. The collection consists of Mathers' work correspondence, notes, journals, chemistry equations and formulas. The collection also contains Mathers family correspondence, photos, skin cancer research, and various family legal documents.

Collection contains various scrapbooks, publications, yearbooks, reports, and a small amount of correspondence relating to Bloomington, Indiana, and Monroe County.

Joseph Bradford began acquiring land in Martinsville, Indiana, in the mid-1800s. The Bradford Sand Mining Company was founded by Joseph's son, Perry Bradford, in 1877 in Morgan County, Indiana. The family business was passed on to Albert and John Bradford in the early 1900s. It remained in the family until 1938 when John Bradford deeded 900 acres of the Bradford property to Indiana University. This property is currently known as the Bradford Woods. The Bradford family papers span 1831-1941 and consist of various financial and business records related to their property, as well as documentation of family history and family correspondence. The correspondence primarily dates from 1898 and consists largely of letters written to the Bradfords by Eliza (Bradford) and husband Dr. Grant Monical from Camp George in Georgia and later Cuba where Grant was a Captain in the Spanish-American War.

Lockridge mss. III, circa 1837-2000, consists of the correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, photos, papers, and audio tapes pertaining to the life and work of author Ross Lockridge, Jr., 1914-1948, and the Lockridge family.

The Great Lakes-Ohio Valley Ethnohistory Collection, 1953-1966, is a unique assemblage of primary and secondary resources pertaining to the Native American occupancy of the region. These items were assembled to support the Great Lakes-Ohio Valley Ethnohistory Project. This U.S. Department of Justice funded research activity was responsible for the preparation of in-depth reports concerning American Indian land use and tenure. These reports were intended to be used in the government's defense against cases involving alleged treaty inequities and which were brought before the Indian Claims Commission, a body and a process authorized by federal legislation signed into law on August 13, 1946.

The Oakleaf mss., 1844-1939, are the letters and papers of Joseph Benjamin Oakleaf, 1858-1930, lawyer of Moline, Illinois, the bulk of which relates to Lincolniana.

The families represented in this collection are all family members or descendants of Theophilus Adam Wylie of Indiana University. Many of the earliest family members were closely associated with the university themselves. The collection includes legal documents, essays and biographical writings, financial records, business records, newspaper clippings, wedding invitations, academic records, journals, programs and drawings. The collection has been collated together from ephemera discovered amongst correspondence, books from the Theophilus Adam Wylie Library and papers held by Morton Bradley Jr.

The Niles mss., 1765-1916, are the law office papers and family correspondence of John Barron Niles, 1808-1879, lawyer of LaPorte, Indiana.

The Wylie family members represented in this collection are all family or in-laws of Andrew Wylie, Jr., eldest son of Indiana University's first president, Andrew Wylie. The collection consists of correspondence written by Andrew Wylie Jr., his father, his wife, his siblings, aunts and uncles. Also included are letters written by Wylie's father-in-law, Daniel Bryan, other members of the Bryan family, and a few from other individuals.