At Wabash, we often speak of standing on the shoulders of giants. Nowhere is this more evident in my personal story than in the basement of the Lilly Library, behind the bronze doors that once stood at the library’s main entrance, now the doors that stand as the entry to the Thomas Ramsay Jr. Archival Center. The seven archivists, on whose shoulders I stand, together form the foundation of the archives at Wabash College. Edmund O. Hovey, Nora Hopkins, Gladys Otto, Bob Harvey, Don Thompson, Johanna Herring, and Beth Swift have contributed in so many ways to ensure that the history of this institution has been preserved and made available for generations. Since graduating from Wabash in 2011 and returning as archivist, I have had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with these giants through their collections and work.
The story of the archives at Wabash College starts at our founding. Edmund O. Hovey, while not an official archivist, understood the importance of preserving and collecting our shared history from the earliest days. His interest in natural history would see him amass one of the most comprehensive collections of artifacts and specimens on that subject. While the museum no longer exists, it was because of this museum that the archives got its founding with the creation of the History Room in Yandes Library. Before this, the historical documents of the College were housed in College Library, which was in many different places, until moving to Yandes Library in 1890. Years later, with the addition of the Hovey Letters and the Hovey Scrapbook, his collections formed the backbone of what would become the college archives.
While Hovey laid the initial foundations for the archives, Nora L. Hopkins, wife of President Louis Hopkins, was the first individual officially hired to organize and preserve the archival collections of the College. She was hired in 1941 to manage the collections of the History Room. Her organizational work built the foundation for which the archives exist today. I often run across her notes and work when digging into some of our earliest collections. I first met Nora Hopkins in her many letters to some of the first Japanese students at Wabash in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The letters from former students have a sense of the appreciation and affection toward Hopkins. Because of this correspondence, we have been able to tell their stories and learn more about what life was like for Japanese students.
Following Hopkins’ tenure, which ended in 1943, Gladys Otto oversaw the archives from 1945 to 1971. She was instrumental in moving the collections from Yandes to the Lilly Library in 1959 and cataloging the collection to ensure it was more accessible to researchers. At that time, the archives was located on the third floor of the library, where the third-floor seminar room now stands.
In 1971 the archives became an official department, with Robert S. Harvey [W’28] being hired as the first archivist. Harvey had a long and distinguished career at Wabash as a student and faculty member. Many alumni and students still read his work in These Fleeting Years: Wabash College 1832–1982. Harvey and Don Thompson established the operational functions of the archives that would allow it to grow and thrive. Thompson donated the National Horse Thief Detective Association Collection to the College, one of the archives’ most used and cited collections. Now digitized, it can be accessed on the archives’ website.
Johanna Herring became archivist in 1985. During her tenure, the archives became the Robert T. Ramsay Jr. Archival Center and was moved to the current location in the basement. Herring shepherded the collections into the 21st century and instituted many of the current policies and procedures.
She served as archivist until 2003, and upon her retirement, Beth Swift was elevated to the role of archivist. It was under Swift’s direction that the collections of the archives expanded. She worked diligently to share the stories from the Ramsay Archives and to allow those stories to travel worldwide as the archives expanded through digital collections, blog postings, and social media. Swift became the College’s first full-time archivist. For 21 years, she brought the stories of the archives into the hearts and minds of those who love and have an interest in Wabash College.
As I have begun my journey as archivist, I have had the privilege to get to know all those who come before me, and am honored to stand on their shoulders and serve my alma mater. There are so many more stories to be told, collections to be explored, and voices to be heard. I am excited to get to work !
For more information about the history of the archives, Wabash College, or any of our collections, please contact Nolan Eller ’11 at ellern@wabash.edu and follow him on Instagram @wallysattic for weekly updates on the College’s history