http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3f59n6bn Online items available Guide to the David Starr Jordan Papers SC0058 Daniel Hartwig & Jenny Johnson Department of Special Collections and University Archives 2000 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the David Starr Jordan SC00581325 1 Papers SC0058 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: David Starr Jordan papers Creator: Jordan, David Starr Identifier/Call Number: SC0058 Identifier/Call Number: 1325 Physical Description: 250.5 Linear Feet Date (inclusive): 1861-1964 Provenance David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, and Orrin Leslie Elliott, first registrar, used adjacent offices and later shared a common secretary in George A. Clark during the early years of the institution. Under this arrangement their correspondence files were intermixed, and although three separate categories were maintained--President's Office, General Letters, and University Letters--these distinctions were so vague as to prove meaningless. Thus, many hundreds of the letters of the letters in the combined files were requests for catalogs or information about the institution by potential students. All of the incoming letters and loose carbons and drafts of outgoing letters were copied into letterpress books. It is assumed that these papers, official and unofficial, remained in the custody of the University. When Dr. Jordan retired in 1913, a new file was created for his correspondence as chancellor, and later, chancellor emeritus. The manner of arranging this correspondence is unknown. In 1919, Dr. Jordan gave the Stanford Library a large amount of manuscript material of which the exact nature has not been determined. Included in this gift were the Papers of the Fur Seal Commission maintained by Dr. Jordan's and the Commission's secretary, George A. Clark. In that same year, Dr. Jordan gave the Hoover Collection (now the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace) his award-winning Plan of Education for Peace. Further gifts to the Hoover Collection followed in 1925-26, 1926-27, and 1928-29. Dr. Jordan died in 1931, and in 1933-34, his widow gave the Stanford Main Library manuscripts, journals, poems, and notebooks. In that same year, Mrs. Jordan gave Cornell, Dr. Jordan's alma mater, books and student mementos, and other materials pertaining to Jordan's student days. In September 1934, the University registrar reported that he had employed an assistant to file the Jordan papers. In reporting to the registrar, the assistant noted that she found so much overlapping that it is impossible to make a clear segregation. I find that Mrs. Jordan was arranging the materials in many miscellaneous packages which must all be arranged by subject. It would be difficult to arrange materials chronologically because dates are lacking... so the alphabetical arrangement is necessary. In addition to arranging the files, the assistant segregated several thousand letters of interest to Dr. Elliott, who at this time was writing a history of the University. In 1941, the Hoover Library moved into a new multi-story building and assumed the custody of all the Jordan papers except the official files stored in the President's vault. In 1943-44, Mrs. Jordan sent 36 files and three cartons of correspondence, a diary, and other papers to Hoover, making a grand total of 107 boxes. In October, 1945, all the cartons except 24 concerned with peace were returned to the Main Library. At some unknown date, manuscript record books and some correspondence on fishes was turned over to the Division of Systematic Biology. These have subsequently been delivered to the Archives for inclusion in the Jordan files. In 1965, the Stanford Board of Trustees established the Stanford University Archives, which absorbed the Stanford Collection, a memorabilia collection long maintained by the Library. At that time, the Stanford Collection contained 84 boxes of Jordan Papers arranged by subject. Most of these papers dated after Dr. Jordan's retirement as President, or were his personal correspondence. Less than a year after its establishment, the Archives received the Jordan files from the President's Office vault, of which three cartons were hopelessly damaged by mildew. A careful search of accessible campus storage areas brought additional Jordan letters, including those segregated for Dr. Elliott. After the microfilm edition of the Jordan Papers was approved by the NHPRC, 59 volumes of Dr. Jordan's letter books (chronological files) were turned over to the Archives by the Registrar's Office. Scope and Content Note The Jordan Papers span 1861-1951, although the bulk of the collection dates between 1891 and 1929. Very few items pre-date Jordan's connection with Stanford University and there is very little material after the severe stroke he suffered in the summer of 1929. The papers of Jessie Knight Jordan [Series I-F], cover the two years of Jordan's illness, her reminiscences and the memoires of his old friends. Guide to the David Starr Jordan SC00581325 2 Papers SC0058 The collection consists primarily of Jordan's voluminous correspondence (62.25 linear ft.) relating to professional and university matters, but also contains other types of material such as writings (published and unpublished), clippings, journals and diaries, scrapbooks, financial papers, biographical and genealogical information, and photographs. The major subjects are those which deeply involved David Starr Jordan during his lifetime. In his autobiography, The Days of a Man, he described himself as A Naturalist, Teacher, and Minor Prophet of Democracy. Jordan was a naturalist-first a botanist and secondly and of greater significance an ichthyologist. In the latter field, his works are still considered authoritative. In this role he was also interested in conservation, zoological nomenclature and the protection of fur seals, which endeavor was extremely important and highly documented. All his life he was a teacher. Even when he was a university president at Indiana and Stanford he personally taught courses. His career as a public lecturer, beginning in 1871, was an educational endeavor-to teach natural history, moral goals and standards, the progress of education and peace and international arbitration. As an educator Jordan brought the separation of education from religion and the system of elective courses learned at Cornell to the new western universities. In the field of science he emphasized the importance of field and laboratory work rather than mere reliance on textbooks. He developed the idea of a junior college and was responsible for developing Stanford University into an intellectually competitive university rather than the technical training school envisioned by the founders. Social Darwinism was the major cause of Jordan's devotion to peace and his interests in eugenics, temperance, non-smoking and genealogy. Anything that, to his mind, threatened to weaken or destroy man's natural abilities and health, Jordan fought against. According to Jordan, was affected the degeneration of the race by destroying the most promising men and leaving the least desirable at home to reproduce and create the future generations. He was limited by his puritan heritage and his belief in the superiority of a biological, intellectual elite. The David Starr Jordan Papers in the Hoover Institution Archives contain the majority of Jordan's papers relating to politics and pacifism. A guide to that collection is available in the reading room of the Department of Special Collections. Biographical Sketch David Starr Jordan was born at Gainesville, New York, on January 19, 1851. His father was a farmer of comfortable circumstances who cared a great deal more for poets than for the current agricultural literature. Young Jordan developed a marked distate for the routine labors of the farm, preferring to collect butterflies and flowers to hauling hay. Jordan's schooling provided more freedom than was common for boys of his generation and offered him the opportunity to catalogue the plants of his native country in addition to learning French, Latin, history, and poetry. In March, 1869, Jordan won a competitive examination for a scholarship from Wyoming County and entered Cornell University to join the first freshman class (which had begun work in the fall of 1868). His progress was such that he was appointed an instructor in botany in his junior year. Upon presentation of his thesis Wild Flowers of Wyoming County, Jordan received the M.S. degree from Cornell in 1872. Thus, in less than four years, Jordan received the master's degree upon completion of an undergraduate course. After graduation, Jordan became professor of natural history at Lombard University, Galesburg, Illinois, 1872-73, spent the summer of 1873 at Penikese Island with naturalist Louis Agassiz, served as principal of the Collegiate Institute in Appleton, Wisconsin, 1873-74, and was a teacher at the Indianapolis High School in 1874-75. In March, 1875, Jordan married Susan Bowen. Mrs. Jordan died in 1885, and in 1887, Jordan married Jessie Louise Knight. Jessie Knight Jordan played an important role in Jordan's life, especially during his last years when illnes incapacitated him. Since she conducted his business for him and carried on with some of his causes after he died, the papers of Mrs. Jordan are included in this collection. In 1875, Jordan received his M.D. from Indiana Medical College and that same year, became professor of biology at Butler University. According to Jordan, the medical degree was obtained with no intention of going into medical practice, but with a view toward better teaching of Biology. In 1878, he received his Ph.D. from Butler. In 1879, Dr. Jordan moved to Indiana University as professor of natural history, and in January, 1885, he became president of Indiana University.