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This collection includes newspaper clippings, pamphlets, photographs, memoirs, and other material related to the history of the community of Grinnell, Iowa.

For Faculty Meeting Minutes, see RG-F Series 1.

Eight photograph reproductions of images from the liberation of Belsen, Gotha, Nordhausen, and Buchenwald concentration camps. The photographs are graphic in nature. One photograph is of a F.F.I. (French Forces of the Interior) combatant crouched behind a car with a handgun.

Materials are related to Cowles Hall, owned by Henry R. Mol, class of 1950.

Consists of minutes of the Executive Committee of the Trustees, the Board of Trustees, the Finance Committee, and materials on the Fund for Excellence.

The cyclone of June 1882 destroyed the minutes of meetings of the Trustees of Iowa College. S. L. Herrick, Secretary of the Board, copied his records of meetings prior to that date.

For Faculty Meeting Minutes, see RG-F Series 1.

Historical Note: The office has had various names:

Public Relations Office 1962-1967 and 1985-2001;

College Relations Office 1970-85;

Information Services ?-1962 and 1967-1970;

Office of Communication and Events 2001-2005

Office of College and Alumni Relations 2005-

Office of Development and Alumni Relations 2015 (?)-

History & Background of the Office:
Perhaps the first donation to Grinnell College was in 1846 when J.J. Hill, one of the Iowa Band, made the gift of a silver dollar to challenge his colleagues to endow the College. Since that time, the College has been almost continually involved with fund-raising campaigns. In 1897 a Semi-Centennial Fund was established for enlarging the campus and for adding to the endowment. Four groups were targeted: alumni, trustees, faculty; citizens of Grinnell; Congregationalists of Iowa; and friends of education everywhere. Solicitations were sent out from the Semi-Centennial Committee.
In 1913 the Grinnell College Foundation was established to work with the Trustees of the College to manage and sell real estate, principally farm lands, given to the college under annuity plans. The Foundation financed men's and women's dormitories built in the second decade of the twentieth century. The College also had a number of endowment campaigns after the turn of the century. During the first half of the century, the College Treasurer and Business Officers were involved with development efforts, especially Louis V. Phelps (1915-49) and Charles Kaufman (1948-66). The fund-raising activities of the College were run by the administration, especially the President, and the Trustees for many years. In the late 1950s President Bowen hired the fund-raising counselling firm of Marts & Lundy to study the feasibility of raising substantial funds to meet the ongoing needs of the College. Then early in the 1960s, with the assistance of a matching grant from the Ford Foundation, the College hired its first, senior, fund-raising officer, John McFarland. From that time until 2005, development activities have been run from the Development Office. In 2005, the Development Office, the Alumni Office, and the Office of
Communications and Events were combined under one Vice-President for College and Alumni Relations.

Development Officers:
1963-65 John R. McFarland, Jr. Vice President for Development 1966-66 Russell W. Fridely Vice President for Planning and Development 1966-71 James O. Avison Director of Development 1971-73 James O. Avison Vice President for Resources Planning 1973-76 James O. Avison Vice President for Institutional Development 1976-80 David L. Murphy Vice President for Development 1980-82 Richard T. Jenkins Vice President for Development 1982-92 Thomas K. Marshall Vice President for Development 1992-93 Michael S. Bever Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations 1994-96 E. Kevin Cornell Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations 1996-2001 Angela Voos Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations 2001 - 2005 Todd A. Reding Vice President for Alumnit Relations and Development, 2005 - 2010 Mickey Munley, Vice President for College and Alumni Relations

The materials that make up this collection were created and collected by Evan Ramstad

The collection contains an oral interview with Florence Kerr; photographs, personal correspondence (notably with President and Mrs. Roosevelt), and other items unrelated to her business life; correspondence and other materials relating to her defense activities in 1941; and materials from two productions of the Federal Theater Project.

The bulk of the collection contains correspondence, memos, and reports from her tenure with the Work Projects Administration and includes numerous WPA publications.  There are two photograph albums and ten scrapbooks of newspaper clippings regarding her WPA activities.

Also included is correspondence of her husband, Robert Y. Kerr.

This collection consists of seven handwritten letters from Sen Katayama to L.F. Parker (one with its original envelope), written from 1895-1898, the manuscript copy of Katayama's Master's thesis, and one photocopy of the thesis. Additionally, the collection includes two small notes believed to be from L.F. Parker.