RG 30. Personal Papers

Scope and Contents The papers of John W. Kurtz consist of materials for the publication John Frederic Oberlin, including research materials (photocopies), manuscript with editorial comments (photocopy), manuscripts for the first revision, and the manuscript (photocopy) used to print the book. A copy of the book John Frederic Oberlin and Johann Fredrich Oberlin Sein Leben and Wirken, 1940-1826 (Metzinger/Wuntt,...

Scope and Contents The papers of Helen Domonkos span the years 1885-1970. The bulk of the documents detail the early activities of The Delphine Hanna Foundation from its inception in 1957 through 1959. Entries written in a log book labeled Hanna Foundation Records together with several meeting minutes and correspondence with contributors all reveal much about the establishment of the memorial, about the planning involved in formulating the Foundation's mission and purpose, and...

Scope and Contents The Walter Leland Hopkins papers document his service with the United States Army Ambulance Service during World War I. This period of service from 1917 to 1919 is the only period documented in the records. Little is known about his life prior to or after joining the ambulance service. Hopkins served with the Princeton University Ambulance Section, 523. The papers consist of correspondence, photographs and ephemera collected by Hopkins.The richest source material is found in the...

Scope and Contents The papers of Wolfgang Stechow and his wife Ursula Hoff Stechow primarily document facets of Wolfgang Stechow’s greatest academic interest—the history of art. His non-textual research and teaching materials, correspondence, and academic papers all serve to enlighten the scholar of Stechow's teaching methods, professional esteem by colleagues, and scholastic topics.These research and teaching materials, which make up the bulk of the Stechow papers, include photographs, study prints,...

Scope and Contents The E. Michael Hoffman Papers consist primarily of correspondence and photographs taken by Hoffman while he was in Japan and Manchuria with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) from 1918 to 1920. Hoffman served in Yokohama, Japan, from November 1918 until February 1919, and then in Harbin, Manchuria until March 1920.The heart of the papers, from 1918 to 1926, consists of about eighty letters written by Hoffman generally from Harbin and mainly to his family as well as...

Scope and Contents The papers of Jessie Trefethen document her twenty-one years of teaching practical art at Oberlin College, her career as a water artist, her views on the teaching of art at Oberlin College, and her personal history in the last few years before her death in 1978. Except from one letter from Trefethen to her mother, there is essentially no information about her family, or her life before coming to Oberlin.The collection is organized into four record series: I. Biographical Files;...

Scope and Contents This collection centers the letters (13) sent by Edward Plumb to his wife, Isabel Mills Plumb, September 1861 to July 1862, while a member of the 8th Regiment of the Iowa Volunteers. Also among the papers are twelve letters, 1854 to 1910, mainly by or regarding Mrs. Edward Plumb, and printed matter mainly about Isabel Mills Plumb and Edward’s brother Ralph Plumb of Oberlin, who participated in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue of September 1858. A photograph of Ralph...

Scope and Contents Ruth Easton’s personal financial records dating from 1952 until after her death in 1957 make up the greater part of this collection. Her guardian and later executor of her estate, Robert Barr, Assistant Secretary of the College, presumably kept most of these materials. Evidence of a five hundred dollar gift to Oberlin College from her estate for the Ruth Easton Scholarship Fund exists in the form of an acknowledgement slip dated April 19, 1958.The collection is divided into three...

Scope and Contents The first subgroup in this record group consists of four series, which document President Robert K. Carr’s pre-presidential and post-presidential years, particularly through his extensive correspondence. Materials (i.e., lecture notes, writings) relating to his professional work concerning civil liberties and his career as an academician are contained in this collection. Carr’s service on President Harry Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights is documented in Series 2. Professional Teaching and...

Scope and Contents The William A. Westervelt Papers reflect his coursework at Oberlin College and Theological Seminary in the 1830s and 1840s, and his career as a minister and itinerant preacher in Ohio from the 1840s through the 1870s. Westervelt’s student notes from lectures at Oberlin are of interest for their light on the content of early courses by professors Charles Grandison Finney, Amasa Walker, James Dascomb, and others.The bulk of the papers comprise notes for sermons and orations. Sermon...