What is the center of the universe for researching the history of the American college fraternity movement? I’m of the opinion that it is at the Student Life and Culture Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is one of my favorite places to do research, despite the $1 an hour parking meter (two-hour limit) and the $20 ticket for an expired meter. Whenever I visit I have to remember to bring a lot of change and get out to the meter every two hours to feed it.
The Journals Room
Fraternity and sorority archivists and historians are meeting today at a conference sponsored by the Student Life and Culture Archival Program. Ellen Swain, Archivist for Student Life and Culture, and Noraleen Young, Kappa Alpha Theta’s staff archivist, do a terrific job planning the sessions. Being among the other fraternity history enthusiasts is always fun. We will share ideas and learn best practices. We’ll talk, we’ll listen, we’ll ask questions, and we’ll add things to our ‘to do’ lists.
The Student Life and Culture Archival Program was founded in 1989. It has several collections within it. The first major collection donated by Stewart Howe provided the seeds for the collections which followed it. Howe, a Kappa Sigma and 1928 Illinois alumnus, created the Stewart S. Howe Alumni Service. He provided management, public relations and fundraising assistance to Greek-letter organizations and higher educational institutions in a day and age when the ease of internet research could not have been imagined in any way, shape or form. His collection of books, newsletters, fraternity magazines, clippings, photos and correspondence dated from 1810. When he died in 1973, his collection of materials pertaining to student life was given to the University of Illinois. A Stewart S. Howe Archival Program Endowment was established and the National Endowment for the Humanities provided matching funds.
It was a fun surprise to see one of the charter members of the Southern Illinois Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club on a poster.
There is a wide array of materials which have been given by many organizations and individuals. The SLCAP’s Collections include those of Stewart S. Howe, William Levere, Clyde S. Johnson, Leland Publishers, and Wilson B. Heller among others. There are oral histories of Illinois alumni.. Individual chapter histories for some of the chapters at Illinois have been written with support from the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing. Visit the web-site at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/archives/slc/collections/collectionsguide/ for more information about the SLCAP.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
