Records of President Ralph Noble Tirey - Page 2

Description:	active in the college, but as the years went by, he became less and less a part of the campus until he died in 1964.Scope and Contents: The Ralph Noble Tirey Collection was given to the University Archives by the Office of thePresident and Tireys daughter, with no restrictions. The collection covers the years 1929‐1963 with most of thematerial covering the years of Tireys presidency 1934‐1953. The material that was donated can only be considereda part of a collection because there is only three and a half feet of material from a man who was president fornineteen years. Therefore a great deal of material has been lost. Because of this, what has remained provides onlya glimpse into the Tirey presidency and nothing more than that. An example of this lack of documentationconcerns the World War II period and the V‐12 program that was set up on campus. There is only a handful ofpapers concerning this program which seems odd when one realizes that it was this program that kept the collegegoing during the war. However, it is also quite ironic that the best documented period is that of the war. Also, onenotices that the least documented period is that of the post‐war time period. This would date from 1946‐1953 andTireys retirement. The collection consists of correspondence, which constitutes a large portion of the collection,reports, programs, constitutions, an autobiography, a biography, and other such items. Almost all of the material,as stated above, revolve around Tireys presidency and even then during the years of the Second World War.Arrangement: Biographical: Mainly deals with Tireys autobiography The Golden Globe, and Luther S. Fergusonsbiography Ralph N. Tirey, A Great Teacher, A Great American The other materials are either brief outlinesof Tireys life, for example the card he filled out for Whos Who, or any information that might shed somelight on Tirey and his views. Publishers: Most of the material in this series revolve around the Johnson Publishing Company. Thememorandum of agreement and royalty statements involve the Johnson Publishing Company. Personal: This deals with Tireys personal life outside of the biographical series. The information is of nogreat significance with the largest file pertaining to recommendations given by Tirey. Social Organizations: This series contains correspondence with organizations that Tirey belonged to. Mostof the material dates to the pre‐World War II time of his presidency. There is no one organization thatstands out in this series. Speeches/Lectures: This deals with speeches given by Tirey during his presidency. The only exceptionbeing his inaugural address in 1929 as president of the State Teachers Association. This series covers mostof Tireys presidency at Indiana State Teachers College, yet this period is covered sparsely. Writings: This deals not so much with publications or articles, but with greetings, especially Christmasgreetings. What makes this series important in understanding trying to understand Tirey is that it containsthe most amount of material from the retirement period. Therefore one can follow Tireys state of mindduring the last years of his life. Congratulations/Inductions: This series basically covers two events: the inauguration of Tirey is presidentof Indiana State Teachers College, and his receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws from Indiana Universityin 1945. Ralph N. Tirey Concert/Dinner: This covers the time of 1953 and Tireys retirement. It was decided by thecollege to have a retirement concert and later a dinner in honor of Tirey. Therefore this series covers bothevents this is done in that it is correspondence concerning whether the invited guest will show for theconcert and later the dinner. Compliments/Commendation/Complaints: This series covers the entire Tirey regime. The largest amountof the information, as one can easily see from the inventory, is the compliments. However, this seriesdoes not pertain to Tirey, but instead to the college and whether the visitor like the campus andaccompanying tour or not. General Correspondence: This series by far is the largest in the whole collection. This is due to the fact thatthe correspondence was not separated between that pertaining to only Tirey, and that which might haveincluded the college. The reason for this is that it is impossible to sometimes differentiate between thetwo, and a continuity would have probably been broken up. Thus one could not really understand acertain letter if it referred to a previous one. Thus the correspondence was put together in one series.Another thing about this series concerns certain people whose material was separated from the general
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/53729
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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