Forum Society Records 1906-1919
- US US-IaGG MS/MS 01.148
- Collection
1 bound volume of secretary's records detailing the society's proceedings
Forum Society Records 1906-1919
1 bound volume of secretary's records detailing the society's proceedings
The James Norman Hall papers at Grinnell College span the years 1906-54. About half the collection is correspondence, clippings, photographs, and notebooks, the other half is manuscripts of his writings, including his autobiography, novels, short stories, essays, and poems, published and unpublished. The 665 letters and post cards are arranged chronologically. A small portion are from Hall's four years in Boston before World War I, nearly half are from World War I and post war years, and the rest from the last 25 years of his life. Much of the correspondence is with his family and two Boston friends, George Courtright Greener (1911-53), Director of the North Bennet Street Industrial School, and Roy Cushman (1914-50), Probation Officer in Juvenile Court. Other correspondence includes letters and cards from Hall to his former Grinnell professors, Charles Payne (1916-44) and George L. Pierce (1911-50), from his college roommate, Chester C. Davis (1910-19), newspaperman, head of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in the 1930's and president of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, and a few letters from Ellery Sedgwick, editor of Atlantic Monthly. The Atlantic Monthly-Hall-Nordhoff correspondence is on 14 rolls of microfilm, and the Sedgwick-Hall correspondence is on one roll in the Archives. A few letters are exchanges between friends with comments about Hall. Some letters are typed, some are carbons, most are handwritten. A typed version of selected war letters is included. The Archives does not have Robert Dean Frisbie's letters on which Hall's story "Frisbie of Danger Island" is based, nor correspondence with Nordhoff.
Most of the newspaper clippings are reports of Hall's war experiences and reviews of his books, a few are about Hall, Tahiti, and the South Seas. Most photographs are from World War I and his Iceland trip, a few are of his family in Tahiti.
Twenty-eight small handwritten notebooks, some of which record Hall's travels and outlines of stories and poems, a diary of the 1909 Grinnell College Glee Club tour to the west coast, and Hall's Grandfather Young's small Civil War diary (1864) are also in the collection. Two rolls of microfilm in the Archives contain war letters, pages of notebooks and other items selected from the Grinnell collection by Paul Briand Jr., who wrote a biography of Hall.
Over half of the collection consists of typescripts, some with revisions or several versions of sections, of nine of the twelve books Nordhoff and Hall co-authored (manuscripts of the first three, published before 1930, are not in the collection), of parts or all of seven of the seventeen books Hall published alone, of scripts of two of Hall's plays, of typescripts or holograph versions of 19 of the more than 80 published magazine pieces, and of about sixty unpublished poems, stories, and essays, most undated. The Archives owns 28 books Hall wrote by himself or coauthored with Nordhoff, including foreign language editions of some titles.
The Hall papers at Grinnell College are a valuable resource for anyone studying his career as a writer, his travels, experiences, ideas, and the sources of some of his stories. Hall's war correspondence is particularly enlightening for the World War I scholar interested in the human aspect of the war.
Hall, James Norman
Leonard F. Parker. Notes for his book, History of Poweshiek County
The collection contains “historical manuscripts, notes and correspondence of Professor L.F. Parker in regard to material for his History of Poweshiek County. Most materials are handwritten, although a few of Parker’s manuscripts are typed.
Parker, Leonard F.
Grinnell – Chapin Genealogical Material
The collection consists of genealogical charts 1480 - 1919. Correspondence circa. 1898-1908. 32 portraits, some unidentified, copies of cemetery inscriptions, Family Association publications for the Chapin (4 books, 1862, 1908, 1908, 1927) and Alden (1 book, 1916) families, sixty Chapin family deeds and documents from Massachusetts 1674-1851, and a 114-page handwritten notebook by E. F. G. of Stockbridge, 1848, family history of Chapin ancestors Dudley, Woodbridge, Jones, and Eliot.
The papers have detailed information about a few branches of the family, little or no information on other branches. The researcher might consult U.S. Library of Congress, Genealogies in the Library of Congress to identify more complete sources.
Genealogical charts in this collection trace part of the Grinnell family from Pierre Grenelle, born about 1480 in France. A descendant, Matthew, born 1602, became a Protestant and moved to Newport, R.I., in 1630, beginning the American line of the family. Matthew’s son married a granddaughter of John and Priscilla Alden. Other charts trace various branches of the Chapin family from about 1576 to Mary Grinnell’s birth about 1857.
Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell
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.
Oelke, William C.
The collection includes writings of Herron from the 1890s, correspondence from and to college officials regarding Herron and his work at the college, published articles and unpublished papers about Herron, and extensive set of clippings regarding Herron, his philosophy and teaching, and his relationship with Carrie Rand.
Herron, George D.
Margaret Matlack Kiesel Papers
The collection is arranged in three series: Personal papers; Published work, course outlines, lectures; and Unpublished manuscripts and research notes. It reflects Margaret’s work as a writer, but except for her writing on women, does not reflect her active role in such women’s organizations as NOW and the League of Women Voters nor her work with activist’s groups such as Grinnell Peace Links.
Personal papers contains correspondence with family members, close friends, and letters that relate to her writing. There are many tributes written to her family on her death. Of significance is a poem, “The misbehaving feet,” written by James Norman Hall that Margaret had found in her mother’s papers. It is an unpublished poem written in 1936 for Margaret’s father. Also included is correspondence between Margaret and an editor at The Atlantic Monthly about possible publication of the poem.
Published work contains the research materials, notes, related correspondence, and drafts of her published articles. Although she wrote on a variety of issues, the most significant items are those relating to Grinnell College and published in The Grinnell Magazine, The Annals of Iowa, and Iowa Woman. She wrote fine articles about Herrick Chapel and Mears Cottage and a series of articles about Hallie Flanagan. Her work on Ruth Suckow was quite extensive and led to her participation in the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association; papers from that group are included in this collection.
Unpublished manuscripts includes stories and articles from early in her career and the drafts and research materials from her book on Grinnell women on which she was working when she died. Her extensive writing, her interest in Grinnell, and her strong feminist leanings may have made this last work the pinnacle of her career.
Kiesel, Margaret Matlack (Class of 1930)
Ellis Society Records 1914-1916
One bound volume of the Ellis Society Alumni proceedings.
Iowa College Christian Association
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.
Macy, Jesse
Dunham/Grinnell Photograph Collection
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.
Elizabeth Earle Magoun Club Records
Consists of treasurer's reports, minutes, clippings, and correspondence of the Elizabeth Earle Magoun Club.
Elizabeth Earle Magoun Club
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.
Wall, Joseph Frazier
Harry Waldo Norris Papers 1920-1931
These papers are notes, reminiscences, and correspondence of Norris regarding science clubs, science teachers, and presidents of Grinnell College.
Norris, Harry Waldo