Ambrose Caliver collection, 1912-1938.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Ambrose Caliver collection, 1912-1938.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/231347377

The first three series contain administrative records relating to Fisk University, including communication records of student status with their parents, opportunities for students, institutional support, and transcripts. The Requests series contains records regarding locating Roland Hayes, pioneer African American composer and tenor who attended Fisk from 1905 to 1908, and the Jubilee Singers. Though dismissed after three years, Hayes accepted an invitation from president George A. Gates in 1911 to lead the Jubilee Singers on a tour of Boston, where he subsequently remained and launched his professional solo career. The records contained in the Caliver series contain examples and references from the Great Depression, Harlem Renaissance, New Deal, and the progressive era found throughout the twenty-four subseries. Correspondence, General holds letters that do not fall under any of the subsequent subseries. The Admissions subseries documents Caliver's interaction with accepted and potential students, and scholarship opportunities. The Alumni subseries contains records that document graduates in their professional and civic advances. Contained within the Committees subseries are documents of deliberations, lists, and proceedings ranging from admissions to social and recreation. The Employment Inquiries subseries holds letters of interests for custodian and teaching positions, whereas the Faculty & Staff subseries provides information about the development of the dean's office, and Alaine Locke's contributions to the instructional program at Fisk. Locke, an advocate of the "New Negro" philosophy, was a visiting professor in 1925. There is also information on Z. Alexander Looby, prominent Nashville and post-World War II civil rights attorney, who served as assistant professor of economics from 1926 to 1928; and Horace Mann Bond, educator, sociologist, scholar, and author, who served from 1928 to 1939 in various capacities, including research assistant to Charles S. Johnson, director of the men's dormitory, and chair of the department of education. The Graduate Work subseries and the Honorary Degrees subseries both hold limited correspondence pertaining to students enrolled and honorees. The Institutional Accreditation subseries contains documents of interaction with accrediting agencies of high schools where Fisk students attended, and organizations with interest in colleges and universities, such as the Association of American Universities. The Institutional Requests subseries holds correspondence documenting Caliver's invitation to participate in professional activities at institutions ranging from the Alexander Hamilton Institute to the West Virginia Department of Education. Correspondence between Caliver and Howard University, Meharry Medical College, and Northwestern University Medical School is contained within the Medical Colleges subseries. The Professional Associations subseries consists primarily of correspondence, but also includes announcements, bulletins, and programs of such organizations as the American Association of Adult Education, Association for the Study of Negro Life & History, East Tennessee Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, and the National Education Association. The Publicity Dept. subseries contains records of Fisk's publicity office and of Caliver's application of marketing and promotion tactics. A 1935 promotional announcement of Illinois Congressman Arthur W. Mitchell at the Ryman Auditorium links the collection to the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, as it is billed under the auspices of the New Deal Progressive League. The majority of the correspondence is with W. E. B. Du Bois, 1888 Fisk alumnus and editor of the Crisis, and Charles S. Johnson as the editor of the National Urban League's Opportunity, before he began his tenure at Fisk in 1928. There are also official records of Fisk's subscriptions to Crisis and Opportunity; documentation of Du Bois public forums and lectures at the Fisk Memorial Chapel in 1928; and correspondence with Countee Cullen, poet, novelist, anthologist, and playwright, and Johnson's assistant editor at the Opportunity. The Registrar's Office subseries holds records that range from attendance notices, course offerings, statistics, and transcript requests to lists of students who were World War I veterans. Limited within the Reports, University Related subseries are descriptive analyses of those from housekeepers to the registrar. The Student Life subseries holds documents pertaining to extra-curricular activities including athletic team lists and schedules, class officers, clubs, fraternities and sororities, and musical ensembles from the glee club to singing sextets. Student Council procedure forms and participation records from the Tennessee Colored State Fair also are contained. The Student Orientation subseries includes correspondence, guidelines, lectures, manuals, and questionnaires and also documents Caliver's consultation with educational professionals and leaders in the field, and his role as an emerging authority on education. There are substantial orders and requests for his Freshmen Orientation: An Outline and Syllabus for a Course in College Problems and Life Adjustments. The Students/Parents and Students/Parents, Prospective subseries both provide evidence of Caliver's work with student intervention and retention, and of parental involvement. Correspondence with parents provides information associated with a professional class and related social institutions. There are letters with C.J. Bass; W. E. A. Forde; J. M. Frazier; and Mary McLeod Bethune. The remaining subseries include Telegrams, including funding appeals to Harvard University, personal transcript concerns, and professional requests; Textbook Orders from Henry Holt & Company, the Ronald Press Company Publishers, and the University Society of Educational Publishers for faculty members; letters (1932, 1934, and 1937) when Caliver served as specialist on Negro education, United States Dept. of Interior, after his tenure at Fisk; a miscellaneous Collection, including bulletins, pamphlets, an undated photograph of Caliver, programs, and non-university-related reports; a second Miscellaneous collection, containing correspondence and application records from the State of Tennessee Dept. of Education; and an unidentified folder of records that do not fit within any of the previous series or subseries.

4.5 linear ft. (9 boxes)

John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library. Special Collections & Archives

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7093748

Related Entities

There are 42 Entities related to this resource.

Bethune, Mary McLeod, 1875-1955

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t839kh (person)

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (born Mary Jane McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council for Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal Aframerican Women's Journal, and resided as president or leader for myriad African American women's organizations including the National Association for Colored Women and the National Youth Administration'...

Jubilee Singers (Fisk University)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vz18m0 (corporateBody)

The Fisk Jubilee Singers originated with nine students, Isaac Dickerson, Maggie Porter, Minnie Tate, Jennie Jackson, Benjamin Holmes, Thomas Rutling, Eliza Walker, Green Evans, and Ella Sheppard, who set out on a concert tour of the North on 6 Oct. 1871 to save the financially ailing Fisk University; idea to form the group was conceived by George L. White, Fisk University's white treasurer; because the University disapproved of the idea, White had to borrow money for the tour; White gave the gro...

Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, Tenn.).

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fz83g2 (corporateBody)

Ryman Auditorium (originally Union Gospel Tabernacle and renamed Grand Ole Opry House for a period) is a historic 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in the downtown core of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark, National Historic Landmark, and the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, it is one of the most influential and revered concert halls in the world[citation needed]. It is best known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry...

Howard University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60d5nq4 (corporateBody)

Howard University is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. Tracing its history to 1867, from its outset Howard has been nonsectarian and open to people of all sexes and races. The institution was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, a Civil War hero who was both the founder of the university and, at the time, commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. The U.S. Congress chartered Howard on March 2, 1867 and much of its early funding came from endow...

Harvard University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n9x97 (person)

Harvard College was founded by a vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts on October 28, 1636 that allocated “400£ towards a schoale or colledge.” Subsequent legislative acts established the Board of Overseers, but it was the Charter of 1650 that created the Harvard Corporation as the College's primary governing board and defined its composition and authority. The College Charter became a contentious target for College officials, the Massachusetts Governor and General C...

Hayes, Roland W., 1887-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xj0gst (person)

Roland Hayes (June 3, 1887 – January 1, 1977) was an American lyric tenor and composer. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills demonstrated with songs in French, German and Italian. Earlier African-American concert artists were not recorded because in their day recording companies were only interested in a vaudeville type of singer. Hayes was one of the first to break this barrier and in 1939 he recorded with Columbia. Earlier both Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson had recorded from t...

Fisk University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6998xcv (corporateBody)

Established as Fisk Free Colored School in Nashville, Tenn., in Dec. 1865 by John Ogden, Rev. Erastus Milo Caravath, and Rev. Edward P. Smith; named in honor of Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau for Tennessee and Kentucky, who provided the new institution with facilities and contributed over $30,000 to the school; opened on 9 Jan. 1866 with almost two hundred students of all ages; incorporated as Fisk University on 22 Aug. 1867 after its curriculum shifted to ...

Cullen, Countee, 1903-1946

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s1833x (person)

African-American poet, anthologist, translator, playwright and an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Cullen was graduated from De Witt Clinton High School in New York City and from New York University in 1925. While attending NYU he held a part-time job as a doorman at the Grolier Club, a New York City bibliophile society. He took post-graduate work at Harvard University and received an M.A. From the description of TLS : Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Frederick B. Coykendall, ...

Gates, George Augustus, 1851-1912

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x36g43 (person)

Congregation minister and college president; president of Fisk University, 1909-1912. From the description of George Augustus Gates records, 1909-1912. (Fisk University). WorldCat record id: 70970118 ...

Forde, W. E. A., -1939

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm47nx (person)

National education association of the United States

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nk78cg (corporateBody)

Fisk University. Office of the Registrar

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66j13d6 (corporateBody)

Looby, Zephaniah Alexander, 1899-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x3921x (person)

Zephaniah Alexander Looby, lawyer and educator at Fisk University, Tennessee A & I College, and meharry Medical College. He organized the Kent College of Law to train African American men and women for the law profession. He was elected to the Nashville, Tenn., City Countil (1951-1971). Looby's home was bombed in 1960 because of his defense of Nashville students who staged a sit-in at lunch counters....

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gk06z2 (person)

W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Educated at Fisk University, he did graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate. Du Bois became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Due to his contributions in the African-American community he was seen as a member of a Black elite that supported some aspects ...

Graham, James L. (James Larmour), 1888-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v725g3 (person)

Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Medical School

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gf59dn (corporateBody)

The Northwestern University Medical School began as the medical department of Lind University (later Lake Forest University) in 1859, located at Randolph and Market Streets in Chicago. In 1864, the medical department became an independent school, the Chicago Medical College, housed in a building at 22nd and State Streets. The founder of the College, Nathan Smith Davis, was an innovator in medical education who wanted to establish a three-year program that went beyond the traditional...

New Deal Progressive League (Nashville, Tenn.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bw5kg3 (corporateBody)

Bass, C. J.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj0j0d (person)

Caliver, Ambrose, 1894-1962

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bg3b92 (person)

African American educator and administrator at Fisk University, and civil servant at the U.S. Office of Education. From the description of Papers, 1915-1959. (Moorland-Spingarn Resource Center). WorldCat record id: 70941368 African American educator and administrator at Fisk University; civil servant at the U.S. Office of Education. From the description of Ambrose Caliver collection, 1912-1938. (Fisk University). WorldCat record id: 231347377 ...

Shaw, Augustus F. (Augustus Farnham), 1866-1939

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x085wz (person)

Professor of physics and dean and chair of a Committee on Administration, Fisk University. From the description of Augustus Shaw records, 1925-1926. (Fisk University). WorldCat record id: 70972602 ...

Ortman, Elmer John, 1878-1969

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tb34dw (person)

University Society of Educational Publishers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b0780w (corporateBody)

Tennessee. Dept. of Education.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z6946 (corporateBody)

Ronald Press Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h9nnz (corporateBody)

West Virginia. State Dept. of Education.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68h6pts (corporateBody)

Association of American Universities

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z64ssx (corporateBody)

The Association of American Universities was founded in 1900 by the fourteen American universities that then offered the Ph. D. degree. The purpose of the association was to attempt to standardize higher education. At various stages in its history the AAU has concentrated on accrediting universities, sponsoring research, and representing the interests of research universities to the federal government. From the description of Association of American Universities records, 1900-1982. (...

Meharry Medical College. Library

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mw6qvj (corporateBody)

Meharry Medical College opened its doors on Oct. 13, 1876 as the Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, later Walden University, with the purpose of producing "intelligent physicians among the Colored people"; named for benefactors, Samuel Meharry and his four brothers, Hugh, Alexander, David, and Jessie Meharry, who together donated $20,000 in 1875; the school became a separate institution in 1915. From the description of Board of Trustees records, 1974-1993. (Meha...

Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b1316 (corporateBody)

Fisk Memorial Chapel (Fisk University)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62027gc (corporateBody)

Alexander Hamilton Institute (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m103ft (corporateBody)

Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6930wjk (person)

Sociologist, race relations expert, author, lecturer, teacher, and college administration; first African American president of Fisk University (1946-1956). From the description of Charles Spurgeon Johnson records, 1858-1956. (Fisk University). WorldCat record id: 70970119 First black president of Fisk University, elected Oct. 1946, inaugurated Nov. 1947; served until 1956; Head of Dept. of Social Science, Fisk University, 1928-1947; sociologist, race relations expert, author...

United States., Department of the Intérior

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68d3k69 (corporateBody)

The Alaska Public Works Program was authorized during the 81st Congress through the Alaska Public Works Act, Public Law 264. The Act authorized the General Services Administration to construct public works in Alaska, at a total cost of $70 million, then to sell them to the Territory of Alaska or other public bodies in Alaska at a purchase price that would recover approximately 50% of the total estimated cost. The authority, set to expire June 30, 1955, was extended to June 30, 1959. The program ...

East Tennessee Association of Teachers in Colored Schools

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f6vt7 (corporateBody)

Fisk University. Dept. of Publicity.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xb0f2x (corporateBody)

American association for adult education

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cg4g7h (corporateBody)

The American Association for Adult Education (A.A.A.E.) was founded in 1926 as an organization to promote continuing education and education for adults. The Association was absorbed by the Adult Education Association of the U.S.A. (A.E.A.) in 1951. From the description of American Association for Adult Education records, 1939-1940. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 144652178 From the guide to the American Association for Adult Education records, 1939-1940, (The New York Public ...

National urban league

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n33p05 (corporateBody)

The National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, later the National Urban League, resulted from the 1910 merger of three welfare organizations in New York, N.Y.: the Committee for Improving Industrial Conditions among Negroes in New York, the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, and the National League for Protection of Colored Women. From the description of Records of the National Urban League, 1910-1986 (bulk 1930-1979). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71130941 ...

Tennessee Colored State Fair

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66192zt (corporateBody)

Mitchell, Arthur Wergs, 1883-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sj3gvm (person)

Arthur Wergs Mitchell (December 22, 1883 – May 9, 1968) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois. For his entire congressional career from 1935 to 1943, he was the only African American in Congress. Mitchell was the first African American to be elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat. Mitchell was born to Taylor Mitchell & Emma (Patterson) in Lafayette, Alabama. He left home at 14 to go to the Tuskegee Institute. He worked on a farm and as an office boy to Booker T. Washington whil...

Henry Holt and Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b31m2p (corporateBody)

Henry Holt was born on January 3, 1840 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was educated at General Prosser’s school in New Haven before attending Yale University. Although he graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1864, Holt was fascinated by literature and decided to enter the publishing world. He started his first company, Leypoldt and Holt in 1866. In 1873 Leypoldt retired and the firm became Henry Holt and Co. His most popular series was the Leisure Hour series, launched in 1872. Later i...

Bond, Horace Mann, 1904-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63f4v8p (person)

Educator, sociologist, scholar, and author. From the description of Horace Mann Bond papers, 1830-1979 (bulk 1926-1972). (University of Massachusetts Amherst). WorldCat record id: 48383227 Horace Mann Bond (1904-1972), African American educator, sociologist, and author. Bond married Julia Agnes Washington (1908-2007), author and librarian, in 1930. The Bonds had three children: Marguerite Jane (1938-), Horace Julian (1940-), and James George (1944-). From the des...

Locke, Alain, 1885-1954

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g3njt (person)

Alain LeRoy Locke was an African-American professor of philosophy at Howard University. From the description of Alain LeRoy Locke photograph, and funeral orations brochure, 1952-1954. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 48822627 African American teacher, philosopher, author, and critic. From the description of Papers, 1841-1983 (bulk 1898-1954). (Moorland-Spingarn Resource Center). WorldCat record id: 70939715 ...

Frazier, J. M.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f20v37 (person)