Holdings:
* UM-System
* Columbia
Call Number:
(UW:1/1/2)
Box 1-002549
Box 2-002550
Box 3-002560
Box 4-002569
Box 5-002597
Box 6-002608
Box 7-002649
Box 8-002674
Box 9-002731
Box 10-002742
Box 11-002753
Box 12-002765
Box 13-002788
Box 14-002844
Box 15-002878
Box 16-002906
Box 17-002935
Box 18-002953
Box 19-002955
Box 20-002956
Box 21-002968
Box 22-002976
Box 23-002991
Box 24-002994
Box 25-003013
Box 26-003017
Box 27-Ellis
Box 28-Ellis
OSF 1-MC
OSF 2-MC
OSF 3-MC
Record Sub-Group: 4
Records Title: UM-System; Board of Curators; Executive Board Files
Dates: 1863-1920, bulk 1890-1920
Volume: 27 and 1/3 cubic feet, 34.17 linear feet
Scope and Content Note
(A83-93, A85-6)
This Record Sub-Group contains the working files of the University of Missouri Board of Curators' Executive Board. These files document the evolving University Administration. Included are reports, general correspondence, applications, recommendations, appointments, legislation effecting the University, circulars, and communications with other institutions.
Other subjects include UMR (University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla), Parker Memorial Hospital Monthly Reports, College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, sale of College Lands, claim against the United States for Civil War troop damages to University buildings, development of departments and schools, boarding clubs and dormitories, and water supply analysis and sanitary facilities.
Additionally, there are records relating to Work and Research of University Faculty, development of student organizations and publications, campus expansion and landscaping, bids for goods and services; construction of buildings and remodeling, Heat and Light Station (power plant) reports, Young Man's Christian Association and Young Woman's Christian Association, Collateral Inheritance Tax and other funding for higher education, and disbursement of appropriations.
Historical Note:
The University of Missouri Board of Curators' Executive Board has its origins in the Missouri State Assembly's 1843 revision of the Geyer Act, which had created the University of Missouri four years earlier. This revision called for as many as eight of the Board of Curators' fifteen members to be chosen from citizens of Boone County, where the University's original Columbia campus is located. Eight members were the minimum needed for a quorum at the Board's semi-annual, full meetings, and a minimum of only five members were required to conduct business at any special Board meetings. In this manner, the State Assembly made it possible for the University of Missouri's more pressing needs to be attended to by Board members who did not have to travel long distances on the era's deplorable roads.
By the 1850s, it had become common to allow much of the Board of Curators' general business to be conducted by this smaller, resident group. It was not until 1869, though, that the Executive Committee (later the Executive Board) was officially appointed and made a regular adjunct of the full University of Missouri Board of Curators. In 1889 the rules governing the Executive Board were altered so as to allow any Curator to become a member, regardless of his place of residence. This revamped Executive Board met once a month and was responsible for the everyday business and administrative matters which the locally drawn executive group had previously attended to.
Series Descriptions:
This Sub-Group is divided into six series. Arrangement within individual record series is chronological.
Series One contains records relating to the Board of Curator's sometimes divisive decisions made in the turbulent period between 1863 and 1879.
Series Two holds the files generated from 1881 through 1888, an era of significant expansion and growth for the University.
Series Three contains the Executive Board records from the period from 1889 to 1897, including documents pertaining to the tragic destruction of UMC's original Academic Hall and the Board of Curators' successful efforts to rebuild the University.
Series Four contains records from the years 1897 through 1905, when both organized sports and scholarly research grew in importance at MU.
Series Five contains records chronicling the Executive Board's decisions and actions in the final years of peace preceding the start of World War I.
Series Six holds records relating to the University of Missouri during the period of World War I. Subjects addressed by these records include the demands that war placed on the University's Administration, Faculty, and Students.
Series Outline:
- Series One - Crisis Years: 1863-1880
- Series Two - Growth and Change: 1880-1888
- Series Three - Destruction and Rebirth: 1889-1897
- Series Four - Turn of the Century Expansion (Part One): 1897-1906
- Series Five - Turn of the Century Expansion (Part Two): 1906-1913
- Series Six - WW I and the Post-War Years: 1914-1920
