8 The Keeper of University History
If the history of Indiana University is ever written, much of it must needs be culled from the catalogues, papers, commencement and other programs which have been preserved by individuals as well as by the University. The mind of man runneth not back to the earliest days, and some of the University records were destroyed in the fires of 1854 and 1883. Extant records, moreover, give us only official acts, and it is to periodicals of the times and to programs of activities
that we must turn for a picture of college life in those far-off days, seemingly so very, very unlike the present.
—Ivy L. Chamness, Indiana University in Earlier Days: I. As Reflected in Commencement and Exhibition Programs
The first person to hold the position of editor of publications at Indiana University, Ivy Leone Chamness (1881–1975), is little remembered today. Her career began before the First World War and concluded after the Second, from 1914 to 1952. She made signal contributions to the writing, editing, and production of nearly all IU official communications, chief among them the periodic catalogs, bulletins, and registers. In addition, Chamness became the sole editor of the Indiana University Alumni Quarterly soon after it was begun in 1914. She made a special effort to nurture the understanding of the institution by making the Alumni Quarterly the journal of record for IU’s history. She worked closely with the two preeminent architects of the modern university, William Lowe Bryan (president 1902–37) and Herman B Wells (president 1937–62), to shape its textual image to students, faculty, and staff as well as to attract and foster loyalty among its alumni and friends. When she was called on to assist elderly faculty historians as a developmental editor for long-delayed projects, she did not hesitate to lend her talents and skills. Yet she is barely remembered, remaining in the background as a hidden figure whose editorial and communicative work for the university did much to advance its fortunes during the first half of the twentieth century. In her role as the keeper of campus history, Chamness’s efforts to edit, publish, and make known the history and culture of Indiana University are well worth noting.
8.1 From Student to Employee
Chamness was born on December 3, 1881, in Hagerstown, Indiana, near Richmond, the county seat of Wayne County. She graduated from Hagerstown High School in 1900 after suffering a bout of malaria two years before. She and her sister, Gracie May, enrolled at IU in 1902, during the first year of the administration of President William Lowe Bryan, and joined a student body of 750. Ivy graduated in 1906, majoring in English, and read the class poem at Senior Day. In the summer she wrote to the IU registrar, John W. Cravens, for help finding a job teaching English. With no teaching experience, in the fall of 1906, she landed a position at the Carlisle School in Sullivan County near Terre Haute. She contracted a serious case of diphtheria in the winter. During the next few years, Chamness was employed as an English teacher at a couple of schools in her home county, and in 1911, she got a job in Indianapolis at the Bobbs-Merrill Publishing Company, working in the law books division as a junior editor. The next year, she was on a streetcar that wrecked and injured twenty-one people, but she escaped with only bruised arms. After three years at Bobbs-Merrill, she was hired by IU as assistant editor of publications. She was not quite thirty-three years old, becoming the first full-time appointee in this work.
1
When Chamness started work at IU in 1914, there was no title of editor of publications
; the responsibilities had been folded into the duties of John Cravens, university registrar and secretary to the board of trustees, since the turn of the century.2 He was a trusted member of the small administrative staff and known to nearly all in the university community. In fact, Chamness had written to him several times for job advice after graduation. Cravens was appointed to the additional post of secretary to the university in 1915, soon after Chamness’s arrival on staff.
8.2 Early Years at the Alumni Quarterly
Chamness witnessed the infancy of the Indiana University Alumni Quarterly, born in 1914. The Alumni Association of Graduates and Former Students of Indiana University, as it was known formally, had tried various ways to communicate with the alumni in the past, and the quarterly was designed to be an expanded channel, with articles of current interest, news of the university, book reviews and literary notes, and class notes arranged by graduation year. The reform of the association also included a full-time executive secretary to oversee strategic plans as well as day-to-day operations.
The Alumni Quarterly’s initial editor was Samuel Bannister Harding, a history professor. A prolific author, he had edited the historical sketch Indiana University, 1820–1904 ten years before.3 The first issue started with an examination of the institutional beginnings of IU, with an article on The Seminary Period
by the late David D. Banta. With the printing of all of Banta’s Foundation Day addresses for the first time—six in all—in the first six issues of the Alumni Quarterly, his historical viewpoint was given fresh life to a new generation, and its publication in an organ of the university gave it an official imprimatur.
In the fourth issue, published in October 1914, Chamness contributed a book review of Readings in Indiana History, edited by a committee of the Indiana State Teachers Association and published by IU’s new Extension Division. By that time, she was working at IU as assistant editor of publications (her book review was submitted months earlier).
In 1915, Chamness jumped in to help the fledging Alumni Quarterly with volume 2 and began to edit the section Alumni Notes by Classes.
The head note for that section contained a recurring plea: It is urgently requested that each class proceed forthwith to the choice of a permanent class secretary who will undertake news of his class, and transmit it to the Editor.
Taking her own advice, Chamness began serving as the class of 1906 secretary.4
For the July 1915 issue, history professor James A. Woodburn continued the historical narrative begun by Banta. He published a total of eight articles over the next two years, dealing with the university’s development during the period 1840 to 1860. Thus, by the end of the Alumni Quarterly’s first four years, a total of fourteen historical articles were published, starting a lasting trend.5
Beginning with volume 3 in 1916, Chamness appeared on the masthead as assistant editor, alongside the alumni secretary, R. V. Sollitt, as managing editor, and Professor Samuel B. Harding as advisory editor. Chamness was lauded by Sollitt for her fine cooperation…in getting out the Quarterly,
with vigilance and zeal in securing news items of the alumni,
which had made her department one of the most important.6 In addition to her part-time work on the Alumni Quarterly, Chamness had been given more responsibility in her main job of editing official IU publications. Because of her proficiency, in 1917, she was made editor of publications for the university. But the recognition of her increasing competency was marred by the behavior of her administrative superiors at the alumni association.
In July 1918, Sollitt took a leave of absence in New York City, and Chamness took on his duties. He was still listed as managing editor, and she assumed that they would communicate regularly while he was away, but he failed to write a single letter. So, she was responsible for the entire operation: procuring and editing of all signed articles, the writing of all unsigned articles, and the proofreading.
7 After putting up with the silent treatment for nine months, she wrote to the alumni council about the situation, requesting a change in the statement of editorship
to insert her name as editor-in-chief
while Sollitt was away.8 Adding insult to injury, two months later and yet to receive a reply to her request, a different acting editor was named. She complained to President Bryan about her arduous and gratuitous service
on the quarterly being repudiated in a sense, that is by the appointment over my head of someone without any experience in the work.
9 Her complaint did bring some extra compensation but no acknowledgment of the legitimacy of her criticism.
Sollitt’s leave turned into a separation, and in 1919, the alumni council selected a new secretary—Humphrey Mahan Barbour—who became the Quarterly’s managing editor, and Chamness was promoted to associate editor. The council also directed Barbour to send Chamness a letter of deep appreciation for her great and generous services in acting as the sole editor of the Quarterly in the absence of Mr. Sollitt.
10 That was a measure of affirmation of her grievance.
When Sarah Parke Morrison, the first female student and graduate of Indiana University, died in Indianapolis in July 1919, Chamness republished Morrison’s reminiscences from the Indianapolis Star in the Alumni Quarterly. Under the title Some Sidelights of Fifty Years Ago,
Morrison recounted the reasoning that brought her to the university in 1867, noting the fact that her brother Robert entered twenty years before, though I was two years his senior.
Her father, an IU trustee, supported her education, first at home and then at Mount Holyoke, a female seminary at the time, and Vassar College, and finally at IU, graduating in 1869. But my school days were about over,
Morrison wrote. I could only rejoice at the opening prospect for young women as already exemplified,
concluding with a dose of sarcasm, and sit at home.
11
8.3 IU Centennial
Indiana University celebrated its centennial birthday on January 20, 1920. IU counted around 7,000 alumni, along with 17,000 former students. Yet, despite a recent membership drive, the alumni association possessed about 2,000 members.
Chamness became even busier with editing and publishing items surrounding the commemoration. When alumni secretary Barbour left in June 1920, she was appointed acting editor of the Alumni Quarterly. The following year, the alumni council belatedly acknowledged her value and steady presence within the parade of short-term managing editors—all men, not coincidentally—and promoted her to the position of editor. Simple, unadorned editor
—of which she had been doing the work for half a decade already. Miss Chamness has been actively engaged with the editorial work of the Quarterly for a number of years and it is fitting and proper that she should be given the position as editor of the Quarterly because of her long and efficient services in connection with it.
12 Moreover, the new alumni secretary said, Too much cannot be said of the services of Miss Chamness in connection with the Alumni Quarterly. For years she has worked on the Quarterly under the title of Associate Editor when in fact, for all information I can ascertain, she has practically edited the magazine. The Alumni Council owes Miss Chamness a vote of thanks for her efficient services.
13 Her delayed appreciation fit a common historical pattern of under-recognition and segregated employment endured by women.
Chamness reported on the voluminous activities of the Centennial Commencement in the July 1920 issue of the Alumni Quarterly. The festivities lasted for nearly a week, from the baccalaureate address on May 30 to the ninety-first annual commencement on June 4. The week was crowded full of interesting events
in which a record number of alumni attended. The campus was lovely, as always, and the weather on most days favorable,
and everyone was happy to be here,
she wrote.14
The production of Indiana University, 1820–1920: Centennial Memorial Volume fell into the capable hands of Chamness (then editor of university publications). Part one reprinted the six articles by Banta on the history of the university from the Alumni Quarterly. Part two comprised thirteen addresses presented at the Centennial Educational Conference in early May, on topics ranging from science to spirituality, all relating to education. The final part reprinted Chamness’s report on the Centennial Commencement, originally published in the Alumni Quarterly.15 Widely distributed, the book became a lasting memento of the occasion. It revealed the ceremonial use of IU history as a background to current views and contentions of possible futures connected to university life, addressed by a parade of establishment figures. Only in the last section did the commentary turn to more quotidian activities on the local scene.
As the university continued to grow under the Bryan administration, Chamness kept pace with the demands of her position as chief editor of the bulletins, catalogs, and other university publications.
8.4 Mother of College Presidents
Less than a year after the IU centennial celebration, Chamness wrote a short article titled Indiana University—Mother of College Presidents
for the journal Educational Issues. Her graduates,
she wrote, have been called to the presidencies of universities, colleges and normal schools from Maine to California, from Minnesota to Florida.
16 There might be larger universities who have produced more, but, she added, considering the size and age of the institution, the University has an unusually large proportion of men at the head of institutions of higher learning.
The article included a list of twenty-five college and university presidencies held by IU alumni, including state and private universities, normal schools, and denominational colleges.
To explain this trend, Chamness cited a policy credited to David Starr Jordan, IU president from 1885 to 1891. He encouraged promising undergraduate alumni to obtain graduate training, either in the east or Europe, before returning to Bloomington to qualify as members of the faculty. When Jordan left to become the inaugural president of Stanford, he took six faculty members with him, some future presidents among them. Concluding on a bittersweet note, Chamness wrote, Since that time increasing numbers of faculty members and alumni have left the University and the state to become educational leaders in other fields. Their fellow alumni rejoice in their progress and advancement in the educational world, but feel regret that the University and the state of Indiana must be deprived of their leadership.
17
The next year, Chamness republished her article in the Alumni Quarterly, adding a few more names to the list of presidents.18 Over time, she would continue to add names, and her assessment that the institution was the mother of college presidents
became embedded in IU’s historical identity.19
As a follow-up to the IU centennial, Registrar John Cravens noted the 1922 centennial of the university’s first building—the Seminary Building—and published a series of three articles in the Alumni Quarterly detailing the architectural history of Indiana University. He was careful to document sources to the written record, but much information depended on the oral tradition as well as his personal experience reaching back to the 1890s.20
Five years later, in 1927, Cravens published the results of his study of the IU trustees, which totaled 148 individuals, updating an earlier list found in Wylie’s 1890 historical catalog. He noted the silver anniversary of the administration of President Bryan, who had served longer than any other president. In addition to outlining the trustee board’s evolving structure, he listed some of the accomplishments and official positions of individual trustees, including service in state and national governments.21 Both of Cravens’s publications were timely contributions to conversations about the past among the IU community as well as valuable additions to the permanent historiography.
In 1928, Chamness completed a master’s degree in journalism. Drawing on her daily work, she conducted a thesis titled A Study of Editorial Matters in the Catalogs of the Members of the National Association of State Universities.
22 The existing literature was scant—only three publications—and her approach was strictly empirical.
Based on responses from forty-nine institutions and their catalogs, she compared typography and form, information and its arrangement, and miscellaneous matters. In the last section, Chamness discussed editorship, suggesting, Editors are usually a modest lot; they almost have to be. They become quite accustomed to doing hard work to which no name or someone else’s name is attached. Editors of college catalogs seem to be no exception. Many of these publications give the reader no hint as to who is responsible, and, indeed, if something goes wrong ’twixt manuscript and printing press, the editor may well be content with his anonymity.
23
Her study revealed a wide array of answers to the question Who is responsible for editing your catalog?
ranging from administrative staff to members of a committee. About 60 percent of the institutions surveyed had an advisory committee. She noted that the best practice would call for an advisory committee to discuss and determine matters of policy, which the editor could carry out.
24
She completed her 150-page thesis with a one-paragraph conclusion suggesting ways to improve the college catalog, focusing on the important role of editor. If the work falls to a committee, uniformity in details will be well nigh impossible. There are many, many minutiae which must be watched, and patience, endurance, and eternal vigilance are prerequisite to the work of editing a college catalog.
25
8.5 In Earlier Days
In 1929, Chamness launched an article series under her byline in the Alumni Quarterly with the general title Indiana University in Earlier Days.
It surveyed the historical documents that Professor Emeritus Woodburn had recently given to the university, consisting of old catalogs and programs, and issues of the Indiana Student. Some of the material was collected by his father, James W. Woodburn, who graduated in 1842 and served as a faculty member before his early death. Other documents were from his own collection, dating back to his student days in the 1870s, augmented by another collection from Professor Frank Andrews. Revealing her penchant for writing and her understanding of the importance of documentary sources, Chamness introduced the series by saying official publications are important, but extant records, moreover, give us only official acts, and it is to periodicals of the times and to programs of
26activities
that we must turn for a picture of college life in those far-off days, seemingly so very, very unlike the present.
IU’s institutional archives, such as student records and board of trustees’ minutes, were woefully incomplete due to campus fires in 1854 and 1883 that obliterated the bulk of them. Theophilus Wylie’s painstaking work for the 1890 historical catalog, Indiana University, Its History from 1820, When Founded, to 1890, partially remedied the damage by compiling lists of students, faculty, and trustees, but records of the early history of student life were gone. Chamness attempted to reconstruct this lost history using the collections of historical materials recently donated to the university. What emerged were fascinating glimpses into nineteenth-century collegiate life in Bloomington.
Chamness described the students of the 1840s to the 1890s by using past commencement programs.27 Each graduating student had to deliver a public speech—a commencement oration—at the graduation ceremonies. The subjects were varied. Chamness characterized early graduates as being abstract, ambitious, broad, and inquisitive, reminding readers that those students carried the same traits as students of today. Student solidarity and the practice of protesting perceived injustice remained similar, Chamness suggested, even in those days, for we read that sixty-three fellow-students proposed to go with a student who, it was claimed, was dismissed without investigation.
28 Even past student newspapers, which looked significantly different from the contemporary Indiana Daily Student, showcased the similarities between present and past collegiate life.29 While the Indiana Student advertised activity tickets
for music concerts and the Union Series, one of the past newspapers, The Student, advertised opportunities to attend lectures, an occasion that provided students with entertainment and the chance to hear renowned speakers.30 Even with the passage of many years, continuities can be observed in collegiate life.
Despite such similarities, however, Chamness acknowledged that college life had evolved over time and did not mirror the present exactly. The old Indiana Student newspaper had a literary cast, with literature, reviews, and letters exchanged among the IU community. In contrast, the contemporary Indiana Daily Student emphasized news, sports, and entertainment.31 Chamness reprinted the 1878 university rules for students. She noted that present-day departments in the university did not have equivalents of two of the original departments: civil engineering and mental, moral, and political philosophy.32
The seventh and last article in the Indiana University in Earlier Days
series appeared in 1934.33 Chamness produced one hundred pages of material, including programs from commencements, literary societies, and other events; official catalogs; and student newspaper publications from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Chamness divided the information up into three categories—programs (one article), Indiana Student (three articles), official publications (two articles)—plus one miscellaneous article. It truly was a grab bag, but it did contain valuable archival information for future historians. It generated interest among the alumni and, in some cases, stimulated responses that were subsequently published, adding more texture and context to the documents.34 Her respect for the documentary record extended to the past, as evidenced by her thorough discussion of historical documents pertaining to the university’s past that had survived to the 1920s.
8.6 Woodburn and History of Indiana University
By 1933, Chamness had become actively involved in Woodburn’s history of Indiana University project. President Bryan asked her to work with Professors Henry H. Carter and Albert L. Kohlmeier to prepare an article on the history of the curriculum post-1904 for the history volume. She also volunteered to prepare an index to the section News of the University
published in the Alumni Quarterly to aid Woodburn’s research.35 Nearly twenty years before, she had worked with Woodburn when he published several articles in the Alumni Quarterly. Now, he was in his late seventies, living in retirement in Michigan.
The history project dated to June 1929. Five years after Woodburn retired from the faculty and moved to his wife’s hometown of Ann Arbor, President Bryan wrote him a letter, beseeching him to write some chapters in the History of Indiana University during the period that you have known it.
Bryan and Woodburn had known each other since childhood in Bloomington, and both entered IU as students in the 1870s. Your reminiscences of the faculty and of the whole situation will be very valuable,
Bryan wrote, adding, You could continue your chapters as long as you feel disposed, but I hope that you will not stop until you have wound up with the chapter on your later years at the University.
The president appealed to Woodburn’s personal and family links to IU history: You are yourself the link which connects the earliest years of the University by your knowledge of some of the men at that time with the present. It seems to me so wholly desirable from every point of view that you should do this, that I can not bear you not to do it.
36
Woodburn responded affirmatively to this urgent plea, but the historical project was slow to gain traction, exacerbated by his difficulty in returning to Bloomington for archival research. The correspondence between Woodburn and Bryan quickened again in 1934, with another exchange of letters. Bryan ruefully promised to send a chapter that could not appear in the book, illustrating the point that much of the most interesting history cannot be written until everybody is dead who had anything to do with it or who cares anything about it.
To aid the project, Bryan wrote to the faculty, present and past, asking for biographical details, and announced that Woodburn was editor-in-chief for the history project. Noting that a meeting of the board of trustees was coming up, he asked Woodburn to prepare an outline of the book project for their information.37
In 1935, Woodburn obliged by sketching an outline, noting that the History has been carried to about 1887,
the end point of Wylie’s 1890 historical catalog. The proposed work would have several authors, mostly faculty and staff, writing about various schools, the athletic program, student life, the library, buildings and grounds, and the trustees. The sketch had sixteen items, with eighteen authors contributing.
In keeping with Woodburn’s conception of history as a container of the past, authoritatively authored, he suggested including Judge Banta’s historical articles as well as his own—seen as a continuation of a singular historical record. Woodburn set himself the task of covering the period from 1856 (the termination point of his earlier work) up to the turn of the twentieth century and the start of the Bryan administration soon afterward.
In addition to Banta and Woodburn, the outline included sections on: trustees and the physical plant (John Cravens), curriculum (Henry Carter and Albert Kohlmeier), medical school (Burton Myers), law school (unspecified), music (Winfred Merrill and John Stempel), journalism and the Indiana Student (Joseph Piercy and Walter French), presidents and faculty (Mrs. John Cravens), university publications (Ivy Chamness), athletics (Charles Sembower and John Sembower), school of education (Lester Smith), fraternities (Karl Fischer), the library (William Alexander and Estella Wolf), and reminiscences (William L. Bryan). As Woodburn put more time in the project, he came to agree with President Bryan about its priority, admitting in 1935: I have let this thing drag on without doing much at it, but now I recognize, with you, that it should be pushed forward to completion within the year, if possible.
38
Editor Chamness, still busy with endless rounds of editing of IU catalogs and bulletins, wrote a note to a faculty wife about some alumni association business in 1935: I began my work on the Quarterly twenty-one years ago next fall with Volume I, No. 4. Surely my long service and my financial support, probably longer than that of any on the Council, deserve some consideration when a matter of this kind comes up. One year I did all the work and ran another name as editor, said editor never contributing one word.
39 She had moved on from the injustice, but she never forgot.
Woodburn did not meet his self-imposed deadline, but in June 1936, he convened a meeting of project authors in the Woodburn Room of the Indiana Memorial Union building. The goal was to have completed manuscripts on September 1, 1936. All of the authors reported that their work was completed or in hand to meet the deadline except for one. Fernandus Payne, dean of the graduate school, suggested that Woodburn, as editor, should be authorized to cut or change any of the reports, which received support.40 Despite the hopeful rhetoric, Woodburn’s project continued to flounder.
8.7 From Alumni Quarterly to Indiana Alumni Magazine
Having resided at 807 E. Tenth Street since 1933, Chamness lived with her widowed mother. In January 1937, her mother died at age seventy-nine, making Chamness the sole survivor of her immediate family.41 Other changes were in store. On March 15, President Bryan, now seventy-six years old and in office for thirty-five years, announced his retirement. Taking the IU trustees by surprise, it set off an extended transition period. In June, the trustees appointed dean of the business school Herman Wells as acting president. The dean was young—he had just turned thirty-five—but his character combined shrewd financial judgment with deep empathy for everyone. The presidential search ended nine months later, when the trustees elevated Wells to become the eleventh president of Indiana University on March 22, 1938.42
In May, a new alumni magazine was proposed, touted as a way to get more members. The alumni council sent a query card to 17,200 alumni, but only 759 cards were returned. Over 600 approved of the idea, while 71 disapproved. The recently appointed director of the IU News Bureau, E. Ross Bartley, stated that the proposed monthly sounded like a very excellent idea, that as good as the Quarterly has been, it does not quite fit in with the new spirit that Indiana has or compare to other schools.
Chamness, not reacting to the casual slight, stated simply that she could do the book reviews, class notes, copy editing, and proofreading.
43
So, after one hundred issues and a quarter century, the Indiana University Alumni Quarterly ceased publication with its October 1938 issue. Chamness had been identified with the publication since almost the very beginning, keeping the communication channels between the university and its alumni flourishing. For twenty-five years, it served as the journal of record for university history, filling the thirty-six-year gap between IU history books from 1904 to 1940.44
8.8 Publication of the History of Indiana University
Meanwhile, Chamness stepped up her work on Woodburn’s history project, as the new Wells administration made it among their priorities. She requested more help in 1938 because of the increased workload. During one of Woodburn’s periodic visits, Chamness stated to Wells, I have spent most of my time for two weeks in going over in a rather tentative way the copy which Dr. Woodburn prepared for his history.
45
In the interest of not delaying the volume further, it was decided to save the draft sections authored by others and to concentrate on finishing Woodburn’s narrative. As the book took its final shape, it became a hybrid. The first six chapters were authored by David Banta, recycled from the early issues of the Alumni Quarterly. The next eight chapters were by Woodburn, again republished from the early quarterly. The final eight chapters were new material by Woodburn, covering the period from 1850 to 1902, the start of the Bryan administration. Those chapters were a blend of historical analysis and personal observation; Woodburn’s memory encompassed the last quarter of the nineteenth century. He also used primary sources and personal correspondence to round out the narrative, sometimes quoting letters at length. It was a brave performance, given Woodburn’s age and declining ability.
For her part, Chamness relished the intellectual and compositional challenge. In a note to Woodburn, she declared, The work on this book I regard as the most interesting task I have had or hope to have,
and added, I have put forth my supreme effort.
46 Although Chamness was not acknowledged as the book’s editor on the title page, her extensive rewriting and editorial work was evident, and Woodburn expressed heartfelt gratitude in the preface.47
In 1940, the book was unveiled during a gala occasion—the Woodburn Testimonial Dinner—held in Alumni Hall on November 30, Woodburn’s eighty-fourth birthday. President Wells, who had lived at the Woodburn House for eight years and had warm relations with the emeritus professor, wanted to thank Woodburn publicly for his lifetime of service to the institution, culminating in the publication of the History of Indiana University, his last book.48 Over 300 people attended, and former students and colleagues wrote letters of appreciation for the public presentation.
In his address at the Woodburn Testimonial Dinner, Woodburn recalled his efforts to have David Banta’s speeches on the early history of IU published in the first issues of the Alumni Quarterly and modestly took credit for their preservation in print. As the real historian of the University in its beginnings,
stated Woodburn, Judge Banta had an historical sense and an historical scent. He knew evidence. He went to the sources, and he wrote in such a style as to make the facts as interesting as fiction.
If Banta’s work was the starting point, at the other end of the enterprise came Miss Chamness, who refuses to speak for herself, a most valuable editor, a fair and generous critic.
Woodburn only hinted at her enormous contributions to the book: She has verified my statements or eliminated them. She has worked with pencil and eraser and has done some of the best work with the eraser. I wish again to acknowledge my obligations to her, which I have done quite imperfectly in the preface.
49 Chamness, who had worked with Woodburn for nearly a quarter century, was gratified by the public praise of her editorial skills. She would soon be involved in the second volume of History of Indiana University, assisting another retired faculty member with the challenge of writing about President Bryan’s administration.
8.9 Myers and History of Indiana University
No sooner was the Woodburn manuscript put to bed than Chamness turned her attention to another book project: the history of the Bryan administration. Supervised by retired professor of anatomy and medical school dean Burton Myers, the second volume of History of Indiana University would cover the long administration of President Bryan from 1902 to 1937. A trusted member of President Bryan’s inner circle, Myers retired in July 1940, at age seventy, and he confidently took up the mantle of amateur historian. Bryan and Myers had helped shape the early IU School of Medicine and maintained a respectful friendship for decades.
Myers had been working on a manuscript dealing with the history of medical education off and on for several years before retirement. Within the year following retirement, he was working on the history of the Bryan administration. In April 1941, Myers and Wells had an exchange about the project. Wells asked, For pay or labor for love?
Myers replied, stating his book project on medical education was a labor of love, but the history project would be different:
For this other job I think a pay basis would be fair, tho’ the
labor of loveelement would not be entirely lacking. It has not been lacking during my years of connection with Indiana University. I have been happy to try to give service worth twice as much as I was paid, which makes it a sort of 50-50 proposition.…What the pay basis should be—I will be quite willing to leave to your judgement, and you may reserve judgment, as long as you wish to assure yourself the effort is not a flop.50
In the same exchange, Myers revealed a patronizing ambivalence about his coworker: Miss Chamness as Associate Editor is all right. I have been irritated by her at times, but we have gotten along reasonably well. I realize that she has an experience and judgment that can be very helpful.
51
Wells took this information in and added it to his elephantine memory. For her part, Chamness approached the collaboration as a professional task. Myers, a longtime administrator used to deference from subordinates, had trouble relating to Chamness as a fellow professional—one who possessed not only editorial dexterity but also a knack for history.
As negotiations on the history project continued, Wells discussed the question of an honorarium for Myers with the board of trustees. They left it to the discretion of their executive committee.52 In July, Wells wrote to Myers after reading a sample: This first chapter is commendable in every way. In fact, I am enthusiastic about it.
53 In April 1942, the trustees authorized an advanced payment to Myers of $1,300.54 Realizing his commitment to the IU history volume, Myers jettisoned another project—the history of medical education in Indiana—and gifted the incomplete manuscript to the university in June 1942. The board of trustees authorized President Wells to offer thanks to Myers as well as to investigate publication possibilities.55
As the second volume of the History of Indiana University was taking shape, the question arose of what to do with the bits of manuscript that were planned for the first volume but never made it in for one reason or another. As it turned out, many of them were included, which made the editing task that much harder.
8.10 Trustees Volume
The Wells administration inherited an additional history project from the Bryan administration, one focused on the IU trustees. Building on earlier lists compiled by Wylie (1890) and Cravens (1927), in 1939, President Wells asked the university librarian, William Alexander, to continue to accumulate biographical materials on the trustees, including photographs or portraits, with an eye toward eventual publication. Alexander made progress in updating the trustee list to 1940 as well as organizing material for the biographical sketches, but the sketches remained unwritten at his death in July 1943.56
Several months later, Wells turned to Myers to take on the uncompleted task in addition to the historical research on the Bryan administration. The trustees received an oral report from Myers on his work in December 1943, during which he pointed out some discrepancies in the various IU histories that had been previously published.57 For the trustees volume, since the research was well advanced, the trustee board authorized Myers in January 1944 to proceed with the preparation of a book that would contain biographies of each trustee, along with an introduction written by Ora Wildermuth, the board president. Questions of form, size, and date of publication were postponed
to a future date.58 So now, in wartime, Myers and Chamness had their hands full of research, writing, and editing as they worked on two important IU history books.
Although the observance of Indiana University’s 125th anniversary in 1945 was canceled because of wartime conditions, Chamness managed to produce a four-page timeline of university history for the May 1945 issue of the Indiana Alumni Magazine.59 That month, the war in Europe had concluded with Germany’s surrender, followed in August by Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific theater, marking the end of the Second World War.
8.11 Postwar Changes
In the fall of 1945, Chamness would face significant changes in the university’s publication profile. Already the Wells administration had modernized the alumni association and its communication channels and created the IU News Bureau to manage the university’s public profile. In the postwar years, expansion—of student enrollment, academic programs, and facilities—was a constant preoccupation.
As university publications editor, Chamness was still managing the official bulletins and various research publications under the university’s imprimatur. She also had to handle two large and unwieldy history manuscripts written by Myers. First, she would take on another round of editing for the trustees volume, which would take her into 1946. And then she would spend another year wrangling the history book into acceptable form.
Although Myers relied on Chamness’s editing skills to render his drafts into presentable form, he was a dogged researcher and placed a high value on getting accurate facts. When Myers took over the trustees’ project after librarian Alexander’s death, a thorough review of the data that had been gathered revealed significant gaps in some of the biographical materials. Even the list of the trustees had to be reconciled with surviving documentation of those who were elected and served as members of the board. Both Wylie and Cravens counted election as a trustee as the basic criterion. Myers added the criteria of presentation of a certificate of election and the taking of an oath of office, which eliminated 22 individuals, leaving a total of 145 members of the board from 1820 to 1950.60
The trustees volume was organized chronologically, divided by changes in the organization of the trustee board, seven sections in all, and then included four sections on the university officers (presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, treasurers). Each board section contained a summary narrative followed by short biographical sketches of the trustees who served during the period. Some of the sketches of early trustees are missing vital information, such as birth or death dates, but most have portraits or photographs to illustrate. An appendix, Political Affiliations of Trustees of Indiana University, 1885–1945,
gives information, at five-year intervals, of the party, either Republican or Democratic, of the members of the board. Remarkably, the eight-member board was usually split evenly between the parties, with only two periods of five Republicans and three Democratic members.61
In September 1946, with the editing of the trustees volume completed, Chamness moved her focus to the history of the Bryan administration plus the unit manuscripts left over from the earlier Woodburn project. Myers’s gargantuan history manuscript was not only unwieldy but also presented problems in continuity and tone. The narrative of the Bryan administration was wooden and plodding, more chronicle than story. The add-ons from the earlier project had various dates of coverage. Some, like the development of the curriculum or the IU library, covered 1824–1937. Others, such as the Indiana Daily Student (1867–1937) or the Extension Division (1891–1937), covered starting dates through 1937. Still others, such as athletics and the university bookstore, were integrated into the Bryan administration narrative despite significant coverage devoted to prior years.
In September 1947, the board of trustees received word that Myers had completed drafting the trustees book as well as the second volume of the History of Indiana University. Cost estimates, based on one thousand copies, were $5,000 for the former and $9,000 to $12,000 for the latter—considerable sums, especially when previous university histories had had low sales. President Emeritus Bryan, now nearing eighty-seven, urged publication, perhaps not surprisingly. The trustees’ minutes stated dryly: The style does not make it easily read but from an historical standpoint, Dr. Bryan feels it is invaluable.
Also noted was that both manuscripts will require considerable editing before publication.
The trustees authorized the editing of the two books, with printing details to be worked out later.62
Chamness was faced with one more round of editing in addition to her increased postwar workload of official publications. The trustees book was strictly chronological, and the biographical sketches adhered to a standard template, so the arrangement of content was straightforward. The history volume was anything but. It had two distinct but related goals: a narrative description of the Bryan administration (1902–37) and a topical survey of institutional units dating as far back as the 1820s. The first narrative was drafted by a medical scientist who was more concerned with factual accuracy than literary style; the second had multiple authors of varying abilities and had been drafted a decade or more earlier. She noted for the file: This manuscript does not seem to me logically arranged.
63
To solve this compositional problem, Chamness divided the volume up into two unequal parts: about two-thirds dealt with the history from 1902 to 1937, and the remaining third was arranged by topic. The result was a combination of administrative chronicle and institutional encyclopedia. In the topical part, individual authors are sometimes identified: Velorus Martz on the School of Education, William Alexander on the university libraries, Joseph Piercy on the Indiana Daily Student, Fernandus Payne on the graduate school, Cedric Cummins on the Extension Division, and Ivy Chamness on publications. Chamness and Myers did not discuss the leftovers from the Woodburn volume, apparently.64
Chamness, the good editor she was, tried mightily to make Myers’s prose more readable and engaging, with some success. The beginning of Myers’s narrative, chapters 1 and 2 in the published book—What Was Indiana University Like in 1902?
and What of the Man, William Lowe Bryan
—were singled out in draft: The first 23 pp. could be greatly and profitably condensed.
65 Perhaps Chamness disliked the heroic encomium. Although she respected Bryan, understatement was the institution’s default style—and her own as well.
8.12 Publication
In early 1950, the trustees book was finally finished. The trustee board authorized publication, with a print run of 1,000 copies at a cost near $5,000, close to the previous estimate.66 Unbeknownst to Chamness, there was an administrative reorganization underway that would affect the structure of her position as editor of publications. At sixty-eight, she was still vigorous, but retirement would soon be upon her. The Wells administration was aggressively trying to market the university more effectively and determined that an innovative approach to communications was called for, including increased capacity for in-house printing. One possible new hire had surfaced: Robert L. Mossholder, the director of general printing and information at the University of Omaha, who had been outstanding in getting life and appeal into the publications
as reported in the trustees’ confidential discussion. In March, Mossholder accepted the position of director of publications, to start in July.67
Editor of Publications Chamness, who was not consulted during the hiring process, wrote a letter to the board of trustees in May 1950, complaining about Mossholder’s position title, which implied that he had overall charge of all publications. Her understanding was that he was hired to write promotional materials only, and she would retain control of regular catalog and school bulletins, as well as research publications. The board considered her complaint but ultimately dismissed her concerns. The trustees simply affirmed the appropriateness of Mossholder’s title and saw no serious conflict
between his title and hers.68
Trustees and Officers of Indiana University, 1820–1950 came out the first week of February 1951 and went on sale at the IU bookstore.69 Myers, who had been ill since the fall, died on the last day of February, aged eighty. The dean emeritus had labored for a decade to document the history of IU in two books but only saw one in print. The trustees volume was a foundation stone in IU history and became a ready reference to both current and past institutional leadership.
In June 1952, the second volume of History of Indiana University hit the IU Bookstore.70 With over 800 pages of text and lavishly illustrated with photographs, the bulk of the book dealt with the Bryan years, but it also went back to earlier times to pick up the story of curriculum, athletics, publications, educational extension, and other topics when they started, in keeping with Woodburn’s earlier project to survey developments at IU since its founding. Bound in mahogany brown pebble-grained cloth, the large volume contained the title and the author’s name embossed in gold on the cover. Campus maps comprised the endpapers; the front depicted 1902, the back 1937. The title page was elaborate—History of Indiana University. Volume II: 1902–1937, The Bryan Administration—followed by Burton Dorr Myers, MD, as author. Below that, listed as editors were Ivy L. Chamness and, again, Burton D. Myers. Like the title page of the Trustees and Officers volume, it is not clear why Myers’s name merited a double listing as editor as well as author.
President Bryan, in his ninety-second year, contributed the foreword. He extolled the virtues of recently deceased Myers and reflected on their long association and friendship. In addition, he singled out the contributions of Chamness: Among those who have given generous aid to Dr. Myers in his work one has been pre-eminent. This history of Indiana University, like that of Dr. Woodburn, is under great obligation to the expert Editor of University Publications, Miss Ivy Leone Chamness.
71 Myers contributed a brief introduction, explaining the sources and the process of putting the book together. He acknowledged the help of President Emeritus Bryan, who read each chapter as it was written, offering suggestions but cautioned, But you have to verify it.
Bryan, to avoid any appearance of interference, waited until the book was published before reading the entire text. An unsigned one-page Earlier Histories of Indiana University
recapped the existing historiography with brief descriptions of books of Wylie (1890), Harding (1904), and Woodburn (1940). The paragraph on the last work began: The James A. Woodburn History of Indiana University, 1820–1902, edited by Ivy L. Chamness, was planned as a series of volumes to be completed down through the years.…Certain special chapters, those on athletics, the curriculum, the School of Law, and others were not completed in time for inclusion in Volume I, and are therefore included in this present volume.
72 This passage was a belated public acknowledgment of Chamness’s key role as well as a succinct explanation for the hybrid nature of the second volume.
8.13 Retirement and Beyond
In summer 1952, Chamness retired. Her IU career spanned thirty-eight years, bookended by the world wars, and encompassing the two decades between. When she started, the university was a small, intimate institution, with about 1,500 students enrolled. At her retirement, the student body in Bloomington had mushroomed to 10,000, and there were several extension centers around the state. Many professional schools were developed, initiated by the Bryan administration, and nourished by the Wells administration. The alumni association had grown and professionalized, helped along by Chamness’s superb efforts with the Alumni Quarterly. She had managed all the university’s official publications for decades, developing a reputation for accuracy, dignity, and understatement that became an IU hallmark. Chamness was a fanatic about accuracy. She had a standing bet with her readers to pay for any errors discovered; no one ever collected.
Soon after her retirement, the office of university publications was reconfigured under Director of Publications Robert Mossholder, starting a new chapter in the presentation of IU’s written word. Her title, editor of publications, disappeared. Her books continued onward, however. The most recent, the second volume of History of Indiana University, appeared in June 1952. By the middle of 1953, almost 800 complimentary copies of the initial press run of 1,000 had been distributed, leaving 77 sold and 114 copies on hand.73 Many IU offices had copies of the History of Indiana University, volumes I and II, and the Trustees and Officers volume. These publications became part of the permanent record of the institution, an interpretation of the events, the people, and the times of the university’s life.
Chamness was always ready to lend a hand. In the mid-1950s, campus construction was booming, leading to the creation of an ad hoc committee on names to assist the president and the trustees in finding appropriate names for new buildings. In 1954, President Wells started consulting with Chamness informally, as well as other trusted advisers, including university archivist Mary Craig. When the Names Committee was formalized in 1957, Chamness was a member.74 Around that time, Chamness found herself editing yet another book authored by Burton Myers, on the history of medical education in Indiana. Even though Myers had passed away in 1951, the university retained possession of his manuscript. Former editor Chamness was persuaded to lift her pen once again to edit the modest manuscript, and the book was published in 1956.75
Still living in her house across Tenth Street from the Men’s Residence Center, the eighty-five-year-old Chamness received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1966. The citation read:
Ivy Leone Chamness was a pioneer in the development of an outstanding publications system at Indiana University, and an unquestioned authority on the history of the institution. As a kind, understanding mentor, she guided students in the meaning of both printed and spoken words of the English language; always with discriminating judgement [sic], a disciplined intellect, and unswerving determination. A wise counselor possessing many skills, she was blessed with a bright spirit that endeared her to everyone she worked with; devoting her time and energy to the university long beyond retirement.76
She had graduated sixty before and spent nearly all her life serving her alma mater.
On May 29, 1975, a brief note in the Palladium-Item of Richmond, Indiana, stated, Ivy Leone Chamness, History Authority, Dies.
She died in Bloomington at ninety-three years old. The article called her a recognized authority on the history of Indiana University.
As editor of publications, Chamness channeled her writerly ambitions into getting the word out about Indiana University. She backed into a concern for history at the start of her work for the Indiana University Alumni Quarterly. Demographically, Ivy Chamness was an outlier of persons who wrote extensively about the history of Indiana University. Major published works appeared in 1890 (Wylie), 1904 (Harding), 1921 (Chamness), 1940 (Woodburn), 1952 (Myers), and 1970–77 (Clark), all authored by white persons, the dominant majority in the state and at the university. All were male emeritus faculty members except for Chamness, who was a pioneering female staff member. She made inroads to this male club through her competency, determination, and persistence. She held her own as a writer in this group and kept her focus on the human element, using her unparalleled understanding of alumni experience to craft relatable narratives. Intrinsically modest, she eschewed the limelight, preferring to work behind the scenes, often anonymously, to present accurate information about the university through its official publications. Chamness realized early on that institutional history was a vital part of the university’s image and identity. She spent decades as one of its chief promoters and preservers, so much so that she deserves to be known as the keeper of university history.
Burton Dorr Myers, History of Indiana University: Volume II, 1902–1937, The Bryan Administration, ed. Burton D. Myers and Ivy L. Chamness (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1952), 170.↩︎
Cravens served as registrar from 1895 to 1936, secretary to the board of trustees from 1898 to 1936, and secretary to the university from 1915 to 1936.↩︎
Indiana University, 1820–1904 (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1904).↩︎
“Alumni Notes by Classes,” ed. Ivy Leone Chamness, Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 2, no. 2 (April 1915): 207.↩︎
History of Indiana University: Volume I, 1820–1902 (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1940), v.↩︎
“Work of the Alumni Council,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 3, no. 3 (July 1916): 401.↩︎
“Letter to William Lowe Bryan” (Indiana University Archives, May 11, 1920). IUA/C286/B54.↩︎
“Letter to Alumni Council” (Indiana University Archives, March 22, 1919). IUA/C286/B54.↩︎
“Letter to William Lowe Bryan” (Indiana University Archives, June 18, 1919). IUA/C286/B54.↩︎
“Alumni Council Meetings,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 6, no. 3 (July 1919): 394.↩︎
“Some Sidelights of Fifty Years Ago,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 6, no. 3 (July 1919): 530.↩︎
The decision was made June 6 to take effect on September 1. “Ivy Chamness to Edit Quarterly,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 8 (1921): 331–32.↩︎
“The Centennial Commencement,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 7 (1920): 370.↩︎
Indiana University, 1820–1920: Centennial Memorial Volume (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1921).↩︎
“Indiana University—Mother of College Presidents,” Educational Issues 2, no. 8 (1921): 28–29.↩︎
“Indiana University—Mother of College Presidents,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 9 (1922): 46–49.↩︎
For example, (“More College Presidents,” IU Alumni Quarterly 10 (1923): 334); (“Another College President,” IU Alumni Quarterly 10 (1923): 512); (“Another College President,” IU Alumni Quarterly 25 (1938): 59). See also James H. Capshew, “Indiana University as the ‘Mother of College Presidents’: Herman B Wells as Inheritor, Exemplar, and Agent” (Bloomington: IU Institute for Advanced Study, 2011), https://hdl.handle.net/2022/14123.↩︎
“Buildings on the Old and New Campuses of Indiana University: II: Six of the Buildings on the Old Campus,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 9, no. 2 (1922): 156–64; “Buildings on the Old and New Campuses of Indiana University: I. The Old Seminary Building,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 9, no. 1 (1922): 1–11; “Buildings on the Old and New Campuses of Indiana University: III. Buildings on the New Campus and Elsewhere in Monroe County,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 9, no. 3 (1922): 303–20.↩︎
“The Trustees of Indiana University,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 14 (1927): 465–83.↩︎
“A Study of Editorial Matters in the Catalogs of the Members of the National Association of State Universities” (Indiana University, 1928). Master’s thesis, Indiana University.↩︎
“Indiana University in Earlier Days: I. As Reflected in Commencement and Exhibition Programs,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 16, no. 1 (1929): 33.↩︎
“Indiana University in Earlier Days: II. As Reflected in Early Issues of the Indiana Student,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 16, no. 2 (1929): 218.↩︎
Ivy Leone Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days: IV. As Reflected in Issues of the Indiana Student in the Nineties,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 18, no. 2 (1931): 170.↩︎
Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days,” 1929, 202.↩︎
Ivy Leone Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days: VII. As Reflected in Official Publications,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 21, no. 2 (1934): 42.↩︎
Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days,” 1929; Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days,” 1929; Ivy Leone Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days: III. As Reflected in the Issues of the Indiana Student in the Nineties,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 17, no. 1 (1930): 22–38; Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days,” 1931; Ivy Leone Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days: V. As Reflected in Historical Material Recently Given to the Institution,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 18, no. 1 (1931): 16–29; Ivy Leone Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days: VI. As Reflected in Official Publications,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 20, no. 2 (1933): 159–68; Chamness, “Indiana University in Earlier Days,” 1934.↩︎
For instance, Clarence L. Goodwin, “The Indiana Student and Student Life in the Early Eighties,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 17, no. 1 (1930): 146–58.↩︎
Indiana University Archives, “Finding Aid, Collection 286, Box 54” (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, n.d.). IUA/C286/B54.↩︎
“Letter to James A. Woodburn” (Indiana University Archives, June 17, 1929). IUA/C83/B3/F Publications, Galleys, & Transcripts.↩︎
“Letter to James A. Woodburn” (Indiana University Archives, November 17, 1934). IUA/C83/B3/F Publications, Galleys, & Transcripts.↩︎
“Letter to William Lowe Bryan” (Indiana University Archives, February 28, 1935). IUA/C83/B3/F Publications, Galleys, & Transcripts.↩︎
“Letter to Mrs. C. J. Sembower” (Indiana University Archives, June 3, 1935). IUA/C84/B1/F Edited Manuscripts-Alumni Quarterly.↩︎
“Meeting in Woodburn Room, June 4, 1936,” June 4, 1936. Folder: Publications, Galleys & Transcripts, IUA/C83/B3/F, Indiana University Archives.↩︎
“Alumni Notes by Classes: 1906,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 24, no. 1 (1937): 74:
Mrs. Marvin E. Chamness, mother of Ivy L. Chamness, died at her home in Bloomington January 11 following an hour’s illness.
↩︎See James H. Capshew, Herman B Wells: The Promise of the American University (Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; Indiana Historical Society Press, 2012), Chapter 5.↩︎
“Commencement, 1938,” Indiana University Alumni Quarterly 25, no. 3 (1938): 298–337, p. 309. Chamness’s classmate
Mrs. Mary Hamilton Beck, ’06, of Evanston, Ill. moved that a vote of appreciation be given to Miss Chamness for having given us a fine publication in the Quarterly. Walter Crim seconded the motion and it was passed,
p. 316.↩︎Harding, Indiana University, 1820–1904 and Woodburn, History of Indiana University.↩︎
“Letter to Herman B Wells” (Indiana University Archives, 1938). IUA/C213/B118.↩︎
“Letter to James A. Woodburn” (Indiana University Archives, November 30, 1940). IUA/C83/B4/F Testimonial Banquet/Correspondence.↩︎
Woodburn, History of Indiana University, p. v. A dozen years later, Chamness received retrospective acknowledgment as the editor of Woodburn’s History of Indiana University, in the succeeding volume. Myers, History of Indiana University, 1952, p. xiv.↩︎
Less than year afterward, in September 1941, Woodburn gave the Woodburn House to IU. Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 25 September 1941–27 September 1941” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, September 27, 1941), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1941-09-25.↩︎
James A. Woodburn, “Presentation of the History of Indiana University, Volume I at the Woodburn Testimonial Dinner” (Indiana University Archives, n.d.). IUA/C83/B4/F Woodburn, James.↩︎
“Letter to Herman B Wells” (Indiana University Archives, April 1, 1941). IUA/C213/B404/F Myers, Dean B. D.↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 30 May 1941–02 June 1941” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, May 31, 1941), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1941-05-30.↩︎
“Letter to Burton D. Myers” (Indiana University Archives, July 18, 1941). IUA/C213/B404.↩︎
Ward G. Riddle, “Letter to Burton D. Myers” (Indiana University Archives, April 21, 1942). IUA/C213/B404.↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 22 June 1942–23 June 1942” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, June 23, 1942), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1942-06-22.↩︎
Burton Dorr Myers, Trustees and Officers of Indiana University 1820–1950, ed. Ivy L. Chamness and Burton D. Myers (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1951).↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 19 December 1943” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, December 19, 1943), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1943-12-19.↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 28 January 1944–30 January 1944” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, January 28, 1944), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1944-01-28.↩︎
Ivy L. Chamness, “The First 125 Years,” Indiana Alumni Magazine 7, no. 9 (1945): 11–14.↩︎
Myers, Trustees and Officers of Indiana University 1820–1950, 1951, v–vi.↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 22 September 1947” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, September 22, 1947), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1947-09-22.↩︎
“IUA/C84/B1/f Edited Manuscripts-Myers” (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Archives, n.d.).↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 17 February 1950” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, February 17, 1950), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1950-02-17.↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 19 January 1950” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, January 19, 1950), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1950-01-19; Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 17 March 1950” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, March 17, 1950), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1950-03-17.↩︎
Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 19 May 1950” (Bloomington: Indiana University Archives & Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, May 19, 1950), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1950-05-19.↩︎
Myers, Trustees and Officers of Indiana University 1820–1950, 1951. For date of release, see
Seymour Man Was Trustee of I.U.,
The Tribune (Seymour, Indiana), February 3, 1951.↩︎Indiana University Board of Trustees, “Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 12 June 1953” (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Archives; Indiana University Libraries Digital Collections Services, June 12, 1953), https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/archives/iubot/1953-06-12.↩︎
“IUA/C239/B3 All-University Committee on Names” (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Archives, n.d.).↩︎
Burton Dorr Myers, The History of Medical Education in Indiana (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1956).↩︎
“About Ivy L. Chamness,” n.d., https://honorsandawards.iu.edu/awards/honoree/2297.html.↩︎