Colby College Archives
The Alfred King Chapman Room serves as the depository for the Colby College Archives. The historical records of the College from 1813 to the present are kept here.
Overview
The College Archives contains records, monographs, and images in all formats documenting the history of Colby from its 1813 charter through the present.
The College Archives is organized into three primary collections:
- College Archives (CA)
- Collecting Colby (CC)
- Colby Archives Manuscript Collections (CAMS)
A note on historical materials and research:
The nature of Special Collections & Archives’ materials is such that some items may represent positions, norms, and values that are no longer (or never were) consistent with the positions, norms, and values of the Colby Libraries or of the College as a whole. Similarly, content within the larger, circulating collecting may be deemed offensive by some of our visitors; however, to remove or redact this information from the current historical record would be counter to library and archival best practices. Therefore, potentially offensive materials will remain in the Libraries’ collections, at the Libraries’ discretion, as historical documentation and as reminders that we must be vigilant in our efforts to be both inclusive and transparent.
The College Archives collection is arranged into the following series based on the organizational structure of the College; the included subseries are not comprehensive of the entire archives, which can be searched and browsed through ArchivesSpace.
- Founding and governance documents
- Board of Trustees
- Board of Overseers
- Office of the President
- Jeremiah Chaplin, 1822-1833
- Rufus Babcock, 1833-1836 [no materials in series]
- Robert Everett Pattison, 1836-1839 [no materials in series]
- Eliphaz Fay, 1841-1843 [no materials in series]
- David Newton Sheldon, 1843-1853 [no materials in series]
- Robert Everett Pattison, 1854-1857 [no materials in series]
- James Tift Champlin, 1857-1873 [no materials in series]
- Henry Ephraim Robins, 1873-1882 [no materials in series]
- George Dana Boardman Pepper, 1882-1889
- Albion Woodbury Small, 1889-1892
- Beniah Longley Whitman, 1892-1895 [no materials in series]
- Nathaniel Butler, Jr., 1896-1901
- Charles Lincoln White, 1901-1908
- Arthur J. Roberts, 1908-1927
- Franklin W. Johnson, 1929-1942
- J. Seelye Bixler, 1942-1960
- Robert E.L. Strider, 1960-1979
- William R. Cotter, 1979-2000
- William Drea Adams, 2000-2014
- David A. Greene, 2014-current
- Programs and initiatives
- Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) Consortium
- Publications
- Office of the Dean of the College
- Dean of Students Office
- Student conduct
- Housing Operations
- Student engagement
- Student government
- Civic and community engagement
- Multicultural Programs
- Office of Religious and Spiritual Life
- Office of Student Activities
- Department of Safety and Security
- Fraternities and sororities
- Student publications
- Individual class years
- Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculty
- Office of the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs
- Office of the Associate Provost and Dean of Faculty
- Office of the Associate Provost for Faculty Development
- Colby Libraries
- Office of the Associate Provost for Academic Programs
- Center for the Arts and Humanities
- Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs
- Oak Human Rights Institute
- Director of Institutional Research and Assessment
- Colby Writing Department
- Office of Off-Campus Study (prior to Fall 2021)
- Colby Community Symphony Orchestra
- Lecture series
- Academic prizes
- Office of the VP of Administration and Chief of Staff
- Office of Human Resources
- Office of Finance and Controller
- Office of the Associate VP and Chief Investment Officer
- Office of the Treasurer
- Office of Financial Investments
- Student financial services
- Information Office
- Dining Services
- Department of Health and Physical Education. Health Services
[series does not contain any materials]
The Collecting Colby collection is arranged thematically and contains materials about life at Colby that were not created by or transferred from institutional departments; the included series are not comprehensive of the entire archives, which can be searched and browsed through ArchivesSpace.
The Colby Archives Manuscripts collection (CAMS) consists of personal papers and collections from Colby-related people and organizations; these collections can be searched and browsed through ArchivesSpace.
Student Research in the Archives
- Colby in Wartime, by Ben Grimmig ’12
- Colby Missionaries in East Asia 1822-1949, by Stephanie Ruys de Perez ’13
- Prejudicial Preferences – The Discriminatory Selection Practices of Colby’s Greek Letter Societies, by Katie Daigle, ’15
- Online Narrative to Prejudicial Practices, by Katie Daigle, ’15
- Overview of Colby Fraternities and Sororities, by Katie Daigle, ’15
- Colby Students in World War II, by Makhieba Simon, ’18
Additional Resources
- College Archives Image Collection
- Colby Eight sheet music collection
- Digitized faculty meeting minutes, 1880-1954
- Digitized Colby publications
- Class Reunion Yearbooks
- Audio/Visual recordings
- Books on Colby’s history
- Task Force Report on Status of Women and Issues of Gender
- The Boardman Missionary Society Materials