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General Administration Collection Post-1820
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center [Contact Us]3401 Market Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The General Administration Collection Post-1820 documents the institutional and education activities of the University of Pennsylvania from its founding in 1820 to roughly 1900 with some later material included. The Collection was created primarily from records of the Provost, Secretary, and Deans of the Universitiy of Pennsylvania.
The collection is primarily composed of correspondence and reports of various University officers. Since the collection was drawn in large part from the Office of the Secretary records, it contains much of the supporting documentation relating to the University's Board of Trustees and related committees documenting decisions and studies conducted. The correspondence of the deans of the college and medical school covers similar subject matters as well as matters relating to students. A sizeable portion of the School of Medicine files for the period prior 1860 include applications for admission or financial aid for potential students. Some student correspondence and petitions are present. Documentation, such as contracts and bills and invoices, for University expenses and building projects and repairs also is present.
The majority of the post-1900 files are records of the Office of the Secretary and its function as the liason between the Trustees and administration of the University as well as public record keeping such as preparing diplomas, course catalogs and filing reports of governmental agencies.
For later records, researchers should look at the University ARchives holdings for specific offices and schools of the University. These individual record group collections generally begin around 1890 to 1900.
The General Administration Collection (also known as Archives General Collection) Post-1820 is organized into one general series which is arranged by date. The contents of every series are arranged alphebetically by topic.
The General Administration Collection (also known as Archives General Collection) of the University Archives is drawn primarily from the records of Offices of the Secretary, Provost, and Treasurer as well as those of the deans of the college and medical school. The majority of the records were held by the Secretary and Treasurer of the University and turned over the University Archives when it was created in 1945. The University Library also had a number of early manuscript records in its collections which were turned over to the Archives in the 1950s and 1960s and to this were added the historical collection of the Dean of the School of Medicine in the 1950s.
Organization
- University of Pennsylvania. Office of the Secretary
- University of Pennsylvania. School of Medicine
- University of Pennsylvania. Office of the Treasurer
- University of Pennsylvania. School of Arts and Sciences
- University of Pennsylvania. Office of the Provost
- University of Pennsylvania. College of Arts and Sciences
- University of Pennsylvania. Trustees
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
- Finding Aid Author
- J.M. Duffin
- Finding Aid Date
- January 2013
- Access Restrictions
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Access to collections is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.