Department of History Records
Scope and Contents
The Department of History records contain correspondence, reading lists, lecture and student notes from classes, publications and other material documenting the history of the department.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1896 - 2017
Creator
- Smith College. Department of History (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for use with following restrictions on access:
"Office Files," files of records created for the use of the administrative unit that created them, are closed to research for a period of 10 years following their creation.
Academic department meeting minutes are closed for a period of 25 years following their creation.
Conditions Governing Use
Smith College retains copyright of materials created as part of its business operations; however, copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For instances which may regard materials in the collection not created by Smith College, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Biographical / Historical
Various lecturers taught history courses from the founding of Smith College in 1875 until 1894 when a Department of History was more formally established with Prof. Charles Downer Hazen as the resident head. Prof. Hazen remained in this position until 1914 when Prof. John Spencer Bassett became head of the department. Prof. Bassett was responsible for the establishment of the department's publication Smith College Studies in History, 1915-2003. By 1919-1920 the teaching staff included five full professors, two associate professors, two assistant professors and three instructors plus two readers.
Extent
16.726 linear feet (48 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The records contain some historical documents on the teaching of history at Smith College, general records of the History Department and reading lists and course lists for the department. There are documents related to the Mendenhall Prize in History and on the symposium "Faces of Tradition" in honor of Klemens von Klemperer held April 2-4, 1987.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
As a preservation measure, researchers must use digital copies of audiovisual materials in this collection. Please consult with Special Collections staff or email specialcollections@smith.edu to request the creation of and access to digital copies.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The majority of the collection was transferred from the Department of History. The source of some items is unknown.
Appraisal
3 boxes (3.249 linear feet) of faculty personnel records (1961-2009) were destroyed in compliance with the Smith College Records Management Policy in 2023.
Processing Information
Processed by Melvin Carlson, Jr.
Processing Information
Please note that prior to 2018, folder inventories were not always updated when new material was added to the collection. As a result, folder inventories may not be complete and folder numbers may be incorrect.
Subject
- Smith College. Department of History (Organization)
Source
- Smith College. Department of History (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Title
- Finding aid to the Department of History records
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Author
- Melvin Carlson, Jr.; Ellice Yasner Amanna
- Date
- 2006; 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2018-11-19: Containers added and finding aid updated as part of College Archives survey
- 2020-02-25: Containers, barcodes added and finding aid updated to current standards
- 2022-03-04: Added Accession 2022-A-0008
Repository Details
Part of the Smith College Archives Repository
