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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.

This collection is organized into four series: Biographical, Correspondence, Military, and Photographs.

Series 1: Biographical (1924-1981)

The Biographical series includes personal items including Ley’s birth certificate, framed high school basketball letter, and Catechism bible, as well as a handwritten copy of a poem composed by his mother for his funeral service. The series also includes an extensive scrapbook including photos, personal and educational documents, and newspaper clippings from early childhood until after his death.

Series 2: Correspondence (1939-1946)

The Correspondence series consists of three sub-series: letters written by Jimmy Ley, letters written to Ley and returned to his parents, and letters written to his parents after his disappearance. Ley’s letters are almost exclusively addressed to his parents and date from between just before he first attended Grinnell College in the fall of 1939 until his disappearance in February 1944. Ley’s letters are organized chronologically and divided into folders by location, mostly military camps where Ley was stationed. Mostly written by the families of other missing men in Ley’s flight crew, the letters to Jimmy’s parents after his death date from between November 1944 and August 1945 and are arranged alphabetically by sender’s last name.

Series 3: Military (unkown-1948)

The Military series consists of Ley’s official certificates and awards, bomb squadron yearbook, air force patch, and framed medals (Distinguished Flying Cross, 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, and Purple Heart).

Series 4: Photographs (unknown-1945)

The Photographs series includes fifteen unframed photographs, a portrait in a display folder, a framed photo collage documenting the medals Ley earned, a large framed portrait displayed at Ley’s funeral, and a large framed artistic collage of Ley’s plane and flight crew.

In preparing his book, Pilgrims of Iowa, published in 1911, Truman Douglass compiled extensive biographical information about Congregational ministers in Iowa up to 1900. He had hoped to publish this material in additional volumes to his book, but left only a typed manuscript.  The preface in volume I suggests further sources for information about some of the ministers.

Studio photographs of 19 members of Grinnell College class of 1894 including Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, the namesake of the town founder, and one photograph of Alice Dunham Hannay, class of 1893. Also included are short reminiscences written by Marian Dunham regarding Josiah B. Grinnell, Arthur C. Lyon, Dr. Pearl Somers, and Garrett P. Wyckoff, members of the class of 1894. Photographs are identified as: Benjamin F. Arnold, Charles E. Arnold, Geneva A. Bigelow, Harry L. Brown, John Peet Clyde, William R. Gelston, Josiah B. Grinnell, Charles W. Hackler, Joseph H. Hathaway, George E. Hilsinger, Arthur C. Lyon, Margaret A. Pepoon, William R. Raymond, Paul W. Richards, Pearl E. Somers, Ernest Walker, Garrett P. Wyckoff, Joseph Whyte.

The club was founded in 1904, partly at the instigation of Professor Edward Steiner, for the purpose of ‘literary and social improvement”. Active membership is about 25 men from the college faculty and from the town businesses and professions. The club meets fortnightly with a member reading a paper which he has written on a topic of his choosing and with discussion following.

The collection consists of photocopies of letters and business papers of Horace Alanson Wolcott. Wolcott lived briefly in Grinnell about 1856 then moved to Boulder probably in the early or mid 1860s, and corresponded with people in Grinnell. Papers selected for photocopying are those relating to his Grinnell connections.  Correspondents include: Marshall Bliss of Bliss Crosby Mill, Grinnell; S. H. Bliss; Julia Grinnell; Lucy Bixby (mother of Louisa Wolcott); Samuel Cooper; S. Bixby

Mary Ellen Appleby Sarbaugh, ’42, donated a collection of personal papers, including family memoirs and reminiscences, to the Archives in 1995.  The papers were most likely written between 1985-95.

The collection contains correspondence between Macy and several people from the 1870s to 1919, including a letter from Woodrow Wilson thanking Macy for a gift and for his congratulations on the 1910 New Jersey gubernatorial election. There are a number of miscellaneous family documents, Macy’s diary from 1864-65 in Savannah, Georgia, and sixty letters of tribute at the time of Macy’s death.

Consists of treasurer's reports, minutes, clippings, and correspondence of the Elizabeth Earle Magoun Club.

Professor Kleinschmidt amassed countless photocopies, copies of microfilm and Sanborn maps, copies of newspaper articles, correspondence, and black and white photographs of local buildings (residences, commercial, college).  In the 1990s, Professor Kleinschmidt expressed his interest in having his collection deposited with the Grinnell College Archives.  Members of the Grinnell Historic Preservation Commission (Lisa Adkins, Don Irving, Cheryl Neubert), conducted interviews with him to access much of his accumulated knowledge about this history of the town, the occupants and the buildings.

Consists of holograph, typescript, and proofs of Joseph Wall's biography, Andrew Carnegie (1970), holograph and typescript of Henry Watterson: Reconstructed Rebel (1956), and of the page proof of Interpreting Twentieth-Century America (1973).  A small part of the collection includes some correspondence connected with Andrew Carnegie. Also included is a typescript of the Grinnell College Faculty Handbook (1969) and talks and memos concerning the Abler-Woodworth controversy of 1974.