Collections

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.

The Indiana University Trustees serve as the governing board of the university. Created in 1820, the current Board meets six times per year. Among the Board's powers are their capacity to possess all the real and personal property of the university; to expend the income of the university; and to all bylaws necessary to carry these powers into effect. The minutes in this collection include official acts, resolutions, policies, agreements, and other business pertaining to the governance of Indiana University between 1838-1859 and 1883-2017.

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.

Immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century founded organizations that served as social centers, maintained cultural identity, and promoted the ideals and the interests of the immigrants and their American-born descendants. The American Turners is an example of such an organization. Established by German immigrants in 1850, the American Turners advocated a liberal political philosophy and fought to protect both the political rights and the German heritage of the immigrants. The Turners encouraged the practice of exercise and physical fitness, and they convinced school boards in many cities to make physical education a part of the educational curriculum. The American Turner records include annual reports, minutes and correspondence relating to the national officers, correspondence with local societies, national convention minutes and materials, financial and membership records, national committee records, records and materials from national sporting events sponsored by the American Turners, records of the Turner Pioneers and the Women's Auxiliary, Turner publications, and materials from the German Turner movement and other organizations related to the American Turners.

The Indiana University Alumni Association was founded in 1854 as an organization through which graduates could contribute to the pursuit of university interests. Members of the Association held semi-annual meetings, first as the Alumni Association and later in separate branches, including the Alumni Council, established in 1913 (later called the Executive Council). This collection consists primarily of the minutes of the IU Alumni Association, Alumni Council, Executive Council, and Board of Managers meetings spanning 1854-2011.

The Athenaeum Turner organization was founded in 1851 as the Indianapolis Turngemeinde. This athletic and social organization was patterned on German clubs that had supported the 1848 revolutions that attempted to form Liberal republics in several European kingdoms. The men who established the Indianapolis Turngemeinde and the competing Indianapolis Socialistischer Turnverein (merged in 1852 to form the Indianapolis Socialistischer Turnegemiende) tried to create a community focus for the rapidly expanding immigrant population. The activist political backgrounds of many German immigrants led to a strong emphasis on the Turner idea of developing both a strong mind and strong body in order to better serve society. After the American Civil War, for which many Turners volunteered due to anti-slavery beliefs and a desire to demonstrate loyalty to their adopted nation, the reorganized and renamed Indianapolis Socialer Turnverein became the primary focus for German business and culture in the city. Certainly the German House (das Deutsches Haus), built between 1894 and 1898, was designed to serve as more than just a center for physical training since it contained a restaurant, theaters, and a number of meeting rooms. From the 1890s, the leaders of the Turner organization were also directors or important officers in dozens of prominent businesses and cultural organizations. This led to some overlap in the interaction between public, private, and political affairs in the German community of Indianapolis - and this is reflected in the collection. The outbreak of World War I and the anti-German sentiment which followed led to a renaming of the building (as the Athenaeum) and contributed to a decline in the importance of the Turnverein. The organization, now known as the Athenaeum Turners, experienced a revival during the 1950s and remained active into the 1960s, though its activities gradually became more social and less athletic. By the 1970s American acculturation and suburbanization resulted in a rapid decline in membership and financial stability and the near collapse of the Turner society. It currently exists solely as a German cultural organization. The records consist of constitutions and by-laws, board and committee minutes, correspondence, officer and committee reports, financial records, membership lists, event advertisements, brochures, newsletters and photographs.

Lynton K. Caldwell was an assistant professor of government at Indiana University South Bend from 1939-1944 and returned to Indiana University Bloomington in 1965, where he taught political science as well as public and environmental affairs until his retirement in 1984 as the Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Professor Emeritus of Public and Environmental Affairs. Caldwell was a recognized authority on environmental policy. His papers include a large amount of published works, but also contain correspondence and material related to conferences and professional organizations.

Nicolas Spulber was a Distinguished Professor of Economics at Indiana University. Born in Romania in 1915, he immigrated to the United States in 1948 and began teaching at IU in 1954. His research interests focused primarily on the Soviet and post-Soviet economy and the functions of states in economic frameworks including centrally planned, developing, and market economies. Spulber continued researching and writing until his death in 2004. The collection consists of his research materials, reports, conference presentations, correspondence, and manuscripts and reviews of his published works.

Collection consists of the papers of George List (1911-2008), Professor of Folklore, Director of the Inter-American Program in Ethnomusicology (1966-1976), and Director of the Archives of Traditional Music (1954-1976) at Indiana University. His primary research interests included folk music, the traditional music of the Hopi tribes of Northern Arizona, and the music of indigenous tribes in the Caribbean regions of Colombia and the Andes and Amazon regions of Ecuador. This collection includes personal and professional correspondence, publications, research, subject files, audiovisual content, and many of his musical compositions.