Correspondence, 1996-1997

The Augustana Historical Society records, 1918-2016 and undated, has been organized into nine series: Administration, Meeting minutes, Correspondence, Financial records, Publications, Historical research and writings, Special Events, Photographs, and Miscellany.

Series I. Administration 1918-2020 and undated is organized into five sub-series: General, 1930-2003, Membership, 1932-2012 and undated, Museum, 1918-1992 and undated, Committees, 1934-1983 and undated, and Officer papers, 1934-1986. The General subseries contains information about the early formation of the group, versions of the AHS constitution, and board member lists. The Membership subseries contains general membership information as well as membership lists. The Museum sub-series contains general information about the museum and records related to the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and a donation to the Bishop Hill community in 2001. The Committees subseries contains papers created by several AHS committee,s including the Museum Committee, Curatorial Committee, Historical Committee, and Old Main Committee. This is not a comprehensive collection of committee records, but rather a grouping of committee information that was separated out by AHS officers or members. Many other committee reports are contained within the Meeting Minutes series. The final subseries is the Officer papers. These are papers that were donated by AHS officers that have been kept together due to the volume of annotations and additional materials they contain.

Series II. Meeting minutes, 1930-2020, is arranged chronologically. In addition to the actual minutes, this series contains agendas, officer reports, committee reports, and other materials related to the monthly meetings held by the Augustana Historical Society.

Series III. Correspondence, 1930-2023 and undated, contains letters received by officers of the AHS and carbon copies of outgoing mail. This is not a comprehensive collection of the group's correspondence; where appropriate, correspondence has been housed with related materials. Most notably, the publications series contains correspondence relating to publications.

Series IV. Financial records, 1930-2020, contains records created by the treasurer, including bank books, receipts, account statements, cancelled checks, treasurer's reports, some correspondence, receipt books, and cash books. The materials are arranged chronologically with the unbound materials at the beginning of the series, and the bound materials (receipt books and cash books) at the end. Also included is information relating to AHS's designation as a 501(c)(3) organization.

Series V. Publications, 1931-2019 and undated, has been arranged into five subseries: Manuscripts information, 1931-1998, Occasional papers, 1975-1977, Papers to be considered, 1979-1999, Newsletters, 1980-2016 and undated, and Other publications, 1935-2010. The Manuscripts information subseries contains materials relating to the publication of the Augustana Historical Society monographs. The information found in this sub-series is organized by publication number, which is generally chronologically ordered. Not all of the publications are represented in the collection, and information relating to specific publications varies. Materials found in this subseries includes reviews, publicity materials, drafts, proofs, notes, printing information, and correspondence between authors and editors. The Occasional papers subseries includes two shorter papers that were published by the society. The papers are listed as Occasional paper no. 12 and Occasional paper no. 13, but it is unknown how many of these articles were published. The Papers to be considered subseries includes several proposals for publications that most likely were never published. The Newsletter subseries contains final versions of the AHS Newsletter as well as drafts, notes, and proofs of some issues. Special Collections continues to add newsletters to this subseries as they are received. Other publications contains other items published by the AHS, including brochures and booklets. Some of the items might be comparable to the "occasional papers" but are not marked as such. Publication projects includes notes, research, and papers regarding the digitization and sell of publications.

Series VI. Historical research and writings, 1965-2005 and undated, contains a variety of notes and articles on various historical topics. When known, the purpose of the material has been listed as part of the folder name. In some cases, files were compiled for an article or presentation. Included in this subseries are several articles written by Conrad Bergendoff that were originally published in the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly. The materials in this series have been arranged chronologically, with undated papers at the end of the subseries, organized alphabetically by title.

Series VII. Special events, 1941-2013, contains papers relating to events hosted by the Augustana Historical Society, such as historical marker ceremonies, AHS annual dinners, and other events.

Series VIII. Photographs, 1950s-1990 and undated, contains photographs of AHS members from the late 1950s, members at a meeting in 1990, and a proof sheet of images of a man standing in front of the bell tower on the Augustana campus. There are other photographs in other series of this collection, most notably in "Augustana: A Historical Chronicle" (see box 1).

Series IX. Miscellany, 1931-2015 and undated, contains newspaper clippings, newsletters from other organizations, AHS stationery samples, AHS note cards, AHS logos, and other items.