A selected list of highlights from digitized University of Chicago history collections. A full list can be found under the "By Topic" tab in the Finding Aids Database.
Campus Publications The University of Chicago Campus Publications digital collection provides access to serial and occasional publications documenting the history of the University of Chicago and the work of its faculty, students, and alumni.
Mary Bowen Brainerd Papers Mary Bowen Brainerd received her Ph.D from the University of Chicago in 1897 from the Graduate School of Arts and Literature. Her dissertation is titled “The Influence of Petrarch on the Elizabethan Sonnet.” While at Chicago, Brainerd lived in Foster Hall.
Demia Butler Papers Diary written during Butler's first year as a student at the University of Chicago, 1892-1893.
Zella Allen Dixson Papers. Zella Allen Dixson (1858-1924), librarian, served as de facto head of the University of Chicago Library from 1891 until 1910. The papers consist of loose leaves from a scrapbook compiled by Mrs. Dixson from 1876 to 1910.
Helen L. Drew Correspondence. Consists of thirty-seven letters which Miss Drew received from a group of her friends, mainly graduate students with whom she had studied in the English Department at the University, during and shortly after World War I.
Shirley Farr Papers. Letter from Daisy E. Wood to the residents of Beecher Hall at the University of Chicago (1904); copy of The College Girls' Record, annotated by Farr; and photographs.
Charles Richmond Henderson Papers. Correspondence, lectures notes, student term papers, and research materials relating to prisons in Europe and Mexico, including International Prison Commission Congress (1910) and prison reform.
Cornelius J. Hoebeke Papers. Letters (1893-1895) written by Cornelius Hoebeke to his cousin Cornelia Hoebeke while he was a student at the University of Chicago.
John Ulric Nef, Sr., Papers. Nef (1862-1915) chemist, who helped establish and develop the Chemistry Department at the University of Chicago.
University of Chicago Board of Trustees. Minutes of the regular meetings of the full Board of Trustees document the founding and development of the University, including the selection of the first president and adoption of statutes and by-laws. Also included are reports of standing and special committees, reports of gifts, grants, fellowships, and bequests, and designs for the University coat of arms and seal.
University of Chicago. Founders' Correspondence. Typewritten transcripts of correspondence between John D. Rockefeller, founding donor of the University of Chicago, and others involved in the establishment of the University. Correspondents include William Rainey Harper, Thomas W. Goodspeed, Frederick T. Gates, and others.
University of Chicago Office of the President, Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. This collection contains records of the University of Chicago Office of the President, covering the administrations of the first three presidents of the University: William Rainey Harper (1891-1906), Harry Pratt Judson (1906-1923), and Ernest DeWitt Burton (1923-1925). Included are administrative records such as correspondence, memoranda, and reports.
University of Chicago Office of the Registrar World War I Service Records. The World War I Service Records consist of 3X5 cards recording war service of University of Chicago students, including dates of enlistment and discharge, ranks and assignments, and war service credit given by the University, 1917-1919.
Madeline Wallin Papers. One of the first female graduate students at the University of Chicago. A student of political science, she received her Ph.M. in 1893. Contains personal correspondence, graduate school papers, articles, and photographs. Includes accounts of student life at the new University of Chicago and material relating to the University of Chicago Settlement League.