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Pacific University President Thomas McClelland Records

 Collection
Identifier: RG-3-104

Scope and Contents

This collection is primarily composed of incoming correspondence that President McClelland received during his time at Pacific University. The most common topic within the letters is fundraising, followed by requests for course catalogs and inquiries about affairs at Pacific University. Enclosed in one letter, there is a set of reports by an undercover police agent who observed illegal liquor sales at a drug store in Forest Grove. There are also several manuscripts of writings by McClelland related to Pacific University, commencement programs, and other materials.

Dates

  • Creation: 1892-1914

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Pacific University owns the copyright to some, but not all, of the materials housed in its archives. Copyright for materials authored or otherwise produced as official business of Pacific University is retained by Pacific University and requires its permission for publication. Copyright status for other collection materials varies. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical Note

Thomas McClelland was Pacific University's fourth president, serving from 1892-1900. Born in 1849 in County Derry, Ireland, he immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of three. He earned an A.B. at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1875, and then attended Union Theological Seminary in New York and Andover Theological Seminary in Massachussetts. He then taught philosophy for 11 years at Tabor College in Iowa.

When McClelland became Pacific University's president in 1892, he stepped into a tense political atmosphere. The previous president, Jacob Ellis, had resigned over the issue of sectarian control of the university. Ellis, along with one half of the Board of Trustees, favored bringing Pacific under the formal control of the Congregationalist denomination. The other half of the Board of Trustees wanted Pacific to remain non-denominational. McClelland's task was to heal the fractures between the two parties. He fashioned a compromise, amending the charter to give a two-thirds majority of the Board to the Congregationalists, without putting the school under the denomination's direct control. This solution allowed Pacific to retain a special relationship with the Congregationalist Church, while staying a non-sectarian school.

Student life at Pacific evolved considerably during McClelland's presidency. The football team played its first game in 1893. Men's baseball, basketball and track also began early in the decade; women's basketball and track began in 1899. Extracurricular clubs centered on debate, music, drama, archery and the YMCA/YWCA flourished. The Index, the student newspaper, was established in 1893r; The Heart of Oak, the student yearbook, was first issued a year later. McClelland raised funds to construct Marsh Memorial Hall, which became the center of campus administration. He also helped to recruit two influential faculty members, Henry Liberty Bates and Mary Frances Farnham, and oversaw Pacific's 50th anniversary celebrations. Student enrollment in the university doubled during his term.

The constant need to raise money for the university took its toll on McClelland however. He often travelled for months at a time to locations across the United States, looking for sources of funding. When he resigned in 1900, he explained, "I had begun to feel the strain of the constant canvass for money at such a great distance from home and I was keenly sensible to the dact that under the circumstances I could not do for the institution all that, in my judgment, a president should do for a college," (Letter to Myron Eells, 10 Jan 1901). On leaving Pacific, he took a new position as the president of Knox College in Illinois, where he remained for 17 years. He continued to advocate for Pacific University even after leaving. As a member of the board of directors of the Carnegie Foundation, he very likely had a hand in securing its funds for a new dormitory and a library at Pacific University, which were built in 1907 and 1912.

Most of the biographical information above has been adapted from Splendid Audacity: The Story of Pacific University (Gary Miranda and Rick Read, 2000).

Extent

0.5 Cubic Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Summary

Thomas McClelland was Pacific University's fourth president, serving from 1892-1900. This collection is primarily composed of correspondence that President McClelland received and wrote during his time at Pacific University.

Accruals

No accruals are expected.

Subject

Title
Guide to the Pacific University President Thomas McClelland Records
Status
Completed
Author
Eva Guggemos
Date
2012
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.
Sponsor
Sponsored by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission

Repository Details

Part of the Pacific University Archives Repository

Contact:
2043 College Way
Forest Grove OR 97116 United States