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Class and class reunion photos, academic papers and grades, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and correspondance, commencement, scrapbooks

Contains records, finance material, and publications from throughout the history of Grinnell's United Church of Christ-Congregational, roughly 1850-2000s.

(Information gleaned from the UCC's Centennial Booklet, published in 1955, and Memories, Legacies Challenges: 150 Years in the Life of Grinnell's United Church of Christ-Congregational):

In 1854, almost immediately upon their arrival, J.B. Grinnell and the other settlers in the area began worship services. Though they were held as Congregational events, settlers of any faith or creed were welcome at these meetings. One year later, the First Congregational Church of Grinnell was founded. The first permanent church building was constructed in 1860, and the years that followed saw the congregation growing steadily in size. In 1877, the cornerstone for what is now known as the Old Stone Church was laid, and over the next 74 years it would expand to hold 1,000 and host events as prominent as the General Association meeting of the Congregational Christian Church. In 1953, the new church was dedicated, and the UCC has been flourishing there since.

The growth of the church and the town are closely intertwined. The founding members of the church, listed below, were instrumental in developing the town's abolitionist spirit, helping the needy of the town, and bringing Iowa College from Davenport to Grinnell. The character and leadership of the church helped ensure the college's early success, and when the tornado of 1882 struck, the church proved vital to the recovery effort. In the history of the town of Grinnell, it would be difficult to argue that any institution has played a larger role than the Congregational Church.

The charter members of the First Congregational Church of Grinnell:
Rev. J.B. Grinnell, Mrs. Julia A. Grinnell, William R. Ford, Mrs. Lydia W. Ford, Thomas Holyoke, M.D., Mrs. Marc C. Holyoke, Gideon Gardner, Mrs. Naomi Gardner, Anor Scott, Mrs. Harriet B. Scott, Emory S. Bartlett, Sumner Bixby, Mrs. Sarah H. Bixby, Miss Lucy Bixby, Abraham Whitcomb, Mrs. Mary Whitcomb, Levi H. Marsh, Mrs. Charlotte Patterson.

This collection is nearly entirely made up of correspondence. Some letters include small clippings, pamphlets, or drawings.

Consists of manuscripts of talks, articles, correspondence, photographs, and slides.  Most relate to chemistry and chemists at Grinnell College in the early and mid-twentieth century.

P.E. Somers, M.D., was a physician working in Poweshiek county from at least 1903 until 1927. He was a member of the Poweshiek County Medical Society, and served as its secretary and treasurer. These volumes contain lists of those he treated.

The collection contains versions of The Ladies' Education Society's constitution and articles of incorporation, membership, minutes, reports, and accounting from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Consists of lantern slides of late 19th and early 20th century chemical aparatus and four notebooks of chemical notes.  Professor William C. Oelke suggests that Hendrixson had equipment to copy pictures from books and may have photographed the portraits and laboratory apparatus from published material to use in his class teaching.

Books of poetry and short essays by Bruce Whiteman published between 1980 and 1995. Whiteman was an English department lecturer at Grinnell College.

2 hand-written volumes of secretary's minutes.

8 bound volumes containing minutes of the Lewis Society's proceedings, 1 bound volume of treasurer's records, and 1 volume containing six issues of the Argo, a publication released by the society during a three-month period in 1892.

One bound volume detailing the proceedings of the Ionian society.

Mary Gae Wyly graduated from Grinnell College in 1962 and served as a librarian from 1968 to 1976.  This collection contains documents from her desk files, including one on the hiring of blacks and women, and a survey of women on campus for the improvement of Grinnell.

Correspondence from William Grenzebach's time at Grinnell. May be read ONLY with permission from William Grenzebach. Researcher must contact him and explain purpose for examining the correspondence. Duration of restriction: Grenzebach's lifetime.