Preface to the Original Edition
As a historian, I think that I should begin with a brief
statement about the sources that are available to a member
of the University community who undertakes a study of
one of its departments. Such an enterprise would have
been impossible before the University Archives became
a truly going-concern in the late 1960s, thanks to Ruth
Helmuth and her staff. Not only have I used the printed
records of Western Reserve University in its Hudson days
and afterwards, which include Presidential Reports, catalogues
and rosters, but also important correspondence and other
documents in manuscript form. Some of the most revealing
revelations come from the papers of presidents Charles
Franklin Thwing (1890-1921), Robert Ernest Vinson (1923-1933)
and Winfred George Leutner (1934-1949); from those of
the Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, Webster G. Simon; of the Deans of the Graduate
School, Carl Wittke and marginally, Lester Crocker and
Frank Hurley; and of Secretary-Treasurer Sidney Wilson.
True, there are disappointments because it is clear that
before the arrival of some of these collections at the
Archives, a housecleaning job had been done. This is understandable
in the days before any systematic care was given to such
papers, and the aim of the sifters was, partly at least,
to protect the privacy of faculty members. I should add
that the major files on individuals who are still on the
faculty and those Emeriti who are still alive are not
deposited at the Archives, although there is scattered
information about them.
In addition to the official collections, the Archives
possess papers of some faculty members bequeathed or otherwise
given. Thus there are collections, of varying size and
importance, of papers of Professors Barnes, Binkley, Stewart,
Wish, and Wittke. The Western Reserve Historical Society
has a charming autobiographical account begun by Professor
Henry Eldridge Bourne which deals with his and his older
brother's youth, education and early professional lives.
This essay, unfortunately, ends just before Henry came
to the College for Women in 1892.
It will be apparent that I am also relying on my own
knowledge and memories which go back directly to 1941.
As students of history you must be alert to detect my
prejudices and to discount some of what I may say. Unfortunately
there are only John Hall Stewart and C.H. Cramer left
to correct me about this middle period in the history
of the department. The dead cannot, I believe, reply.
Whatever I say about them does not arise out of malice,
and I think it would be a pity for me to ignore some of
their idiosyncrasies.
Marion C. Siney
April 1980
Preface to the Centennial Edition
The impetus for this new edition is the commemoration
of the hundredth anniversary of the History Department,
1888-1988. I am grateful first of all to Professor Marion
Siney for generously allowing me carte-blanche to make
substantial changes in the earlier parts of her text and
to revise completely the section dealing with the period
since 1967, the year of the Federation of Western Reserve
University with Case Institute of Technology to form Case
Western Reserve university. I thank also my colleagues
and friends Jack Roth, Carl Ubbelohde, David Van Tassel,
and Michael Grossberg, for their advice and encouragement;
graduate student assistants Shirley Tam and Mark Weaver
and departmental secretary Julie Andrijeski for providing
or verifying data incorporated in the Appendices; and
our Department Assistant, Judy Reynolds, for her expert
formatting of the text. Most of all I am grateful to the
community of students and teachers, past and future, who
grace and enliven our discipline, our calling and our
University.
Michael Altschul
October 1988
Preface to the Third Edition
When this volume was originally published, Marion Siney
gave it the title Ups and Downs: The History Department,
Western Reserve University - Case Western Reserve University.
In the decade since the appearance of the Centennial Edition
the Department's personnel and programs have experienced
rapid change and development. We felt it appropriate to
issue an updated and, with Marion Siney's gracious assent,
retitled edition to record these changes. We thank Judy
Reynolds for her loyal assistance, Stuart Kollar for supervising
the printing, and the Gund Foundation for underwriting
the costs of this new edition.
The appearance of this new edition also marks the occasion
of the retirement of Professor David D. Van Tassel. His
leadership of the Department and his many contributions
to it, to the community, and to the historical profession
have immeasurably benefited us all, and we gratefully
dedicate this new edition to him.
Michael Altschul
Alan Rocke
April 1998
Introduction to the Original Edition
On the evening of April 17, 1980, the Department of
History at Case Western Reserve University hosted its
traditional Phi Alpha Theta banquet in the Napoleon Room
of the Western Reserve Historical Society. On that occasion,
Dr. Marion C. Siney, Hiram C. Haydn Professor, delivered
the third annual Harvey Wish Memorial lecture. This publication
is an extended version of that lecture.
Professor Siney's investigation of and reporting on
the development of the Department of History originated
at the invitation of the then Chairman of the Department,
David Van Tassel. At the University of Texas, where he
had taught before coming to Case Western Reserve, Van
Tassel had seen a master's thesis on the history of that
department become a frequently consulted reference work.
He correctly predicted that a history of the CWRU Department
would prove interesting and useful.
Professor Siney has thoroughly searched the historic
records and has solicited and exploited personal accounts
from many former students and faculty members. This publication-the
result of her work-is a fine commingling of researched
history and personal perceptions by others, as well as
Professor Siney's own views of the activities of a department
with which she has long been associated. All of us who
have shared that association, as students, or as faculty
members, or as friends, will have reason to be pleased
with her account of how we got to be the way we are.
Carl Ubbelohde
Henry Eldridge Bourne Professor
and Chairman Department of History
April 1980
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