James Caldwell McCullough Papers

Collection — Container: 5 boxes

Identifier: RG 30-053

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers of James Caldwell McCullough document his greatest interests–photography and chemistry. His personal and professional correspondence and laboratory manuals make up the bulk of his collection. McCullough's letters document his professionalism through his dealings with other corporations and with the college itself. He never received a doctorate in his field, but he managed to convince the college that his years of service and experience surmounted his limited schooling. McCullough's correspondence with Harry N. Holmes and Frank Fanning Jewett detail this process. Thus, he became a full professor. However, aside from testimonies from former students, McCullough's laboratory manuals are our only guide to his effectiveness as an instructor.

Also of interest are McCullough's records of the Location, Plans and Construction of College Buildings Committee. These files exemplify the planning documentation used in the program phase of design conception during the 1930s and 40s. As a secretary of the committee, he collected architectural renderings of buildings to be build or renovated including several drawings by Cass Gilbert. Unfortunately, his records do not document why the committee failed to implement any of its proposals.

In addition, McCullough was a prolific amateur photographer. Half of his over 450 slides illustrate the built environment of the Oberlin College campus. The other half illustrate his fascination with natural phenomena, such as forests, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. Of other interest is the photographic album in which McCullough reverently kept photographs of his academic classes through most of his teaching years. McCullough's collection is full of his personal and professional life at Oberlin.

However, this collection fails to adequately document McCullough's activities from his adolescence through his undergraduate years.

The collection is divided into the following series: 1. Biographical File; 2. Correspondence; 3. Writings; 4. Architectural Work; and 5. Photographic Materials.

Dates

Creation: 1906-1949, undated
Other: Date acquired: 04/28/1971

Creator

McCullough, James Caldwell (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

One folder restricted; see inventory. Glass photographic materials require special handling.

Biographical Sketch

James Caldwell McCullough taught chemistry at Oberlin for four decades. He was active in college and community affairs, and on his own initiative, cultured his interests in metallurgy and photography. McCullough was born in Mansfield, Ohio on 15 August 1884 to Dr. (MD) Adam Hales (1850-1918) and Alice Carey Caldwell McCullough (1854-1924). He had one brother, Francis Arthur (1886-1931). Unfortunately, little is known about his youth and teen years.

McCullough received his BS and MS from the Case School of Applied Science (now part of Case Western Reserve University) in 1906 and 1910, respectively. After completing his bachelor degree, McCullough worked as a chemist for the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, until he accepted the position of Instructor of Chemistry at Oberlin College in 1907.

At Oberlin, among fellow colleagues William H. Chapin (1872-1962) and Harry Nicholls Holmes (1879-1958), McCullough taught theory of industrial chemistry, inorganic preparations, food chemistry, and photography. He was an assistant to Professor Frank Fanning Jewett (1844-1926). However, physical chemistry eventually became his major responsibility. In McCullough's Memorial Minute (Oberlin Alumni Magazine, January 1965), Luke Eby Steiner (1900-1980, OC '24 and chairman of the chemistry department) praised McCullough's laboratory experiments and his talent for instrumentation. Apparently, McCullough was so adept in the use of scientific apparatuses that colleagues and research students would seek his assistance in designing and assembling apparatuses or in diagnosing difficulties with instruments.

vIn 1911, McCullough was promoted to associate and, in 1926, after taking summer graduate courses in chemistry and radioactivity at the University of Chicago (1913-14), he was promoted to full professor over the opposition of Holmes. He took sabbatical leaves in 1946-47, to pursue graduate studies in chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley, and in 1935-36, he toured more than thirty colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, to attend classes and study methods.

Extent

3.90 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

The Oberlin College Archives received the papers of James Caldwell McCullough from Katharine McCullough Grant, his daughter, on 28 April 1971.

Accruals and Additions

Accession No: 135

Related Materials

See the papers of William H. Chapin (RG 30/286) for copies of Chapin's chemistry texts and lab manuals removed from McCullough's collection. Also see Chapin's collection for examples of chemistry teaching methods in the early twentieth century.