The Treasurer's Collection

This collection is part of the Treasurer's Collection of Dickinson College, a series of thirty-six boxes. The collection is not just the records of the Treasurers Office, but also reflects the title of the Financial Vice-President, a position developed for George Shuman Jr., a very influential man on campus from the mid-1940's until the mid-1970's. The Treasurer had been traditionally a very powerful and influential position at Dickinson, and for obvious reasons, since he is the person who controls the College finances. At the Board of Trustees' annual meeting on June 10, 1955, the trustees created the position of the Financial Vice President. The job consisted of the duties of supervising the financial activities of the College, including development of potential resources, and preparation and administration of the Budget and such other duties that are commonly conducted by the Treasurer, under the direction of the President of the College. The position also carried with it a place on the Dickinson College Board of Trustees. As is noted in the minutes of the Board from June 10, 1955, the position was created because "such a title is in use in numerous other institutions, including colleges of comparable size, as well as larger colleges and universities."

In addition to this reasoning, the title seems to have been created to make better use of Shuman's resources and influence. During his years of service, Shuman worked his way up the administrative hierarchy and became a very influential administrator. He was graduated from Dickinson College in 1937, and was employed by the College in 1937 as Executive Assistant to the President. In 1941, he was named Assistant Treasurer and Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings. Then in 1948, he was named Treasurer of the College, and still remained Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings. When he was named Financial Vice-President in 1955, he was at the same time relieved of his duties as Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings, retained his title as Treasurer of the College, and was named Director of the College's Ten Year Development Plan. Finally from 1973 until his retirement in 1976, he served as Vice-President of the College. Being a man to express his influence, it is noted in the personal papers of Boyd Lee Spahr, a collection also contained in the archives, that Shuman was often reprimanded for taking actions that were otherwise not authorized for him to take.

As stated earlier, the Treasurers' Collection is contained in thirty six boxes, all prearranged and organized so that I did not have to do any actual organizing of the materials contained in the collection. I was told that the collection was basically arranged in the order that the archives received the various files, records, manuscripts, etc. Whenever the archives receives new material, it likes to keep the contents in its original arrangement, provided that the system by which the materials are filed is done in a logical manner. The ordering may not be the way the archives wishes to arrange collection's, but as long as it is arranged in a logical manner, the archives will maintain the collections original order. Within the particular box that I worked, the files were arranged in alphabetical order, not chronological order, each folder simply numbered in increasing order (1,2 .... ). And they covered the period in which Shuman was either Assistant Treasurer or Financial Vice-President and Treasurer. Within the individual files, the material was generally arranged in reverse chronological order. There was some material that seemed out of place, but I made sure to keep all materials in the order that I found them because the collection was already organized by the archives. Most of the files contain letters of correspondence from Shuman; approximately eighty-five percent of the material in the folders are letters.

This first box of the collection does not contain material centered around one main theme, for as I said previously, I was told the collection was arranged according to the order in which the archives received the materials. There seems to be four major topics contained in this part of the collection. First, administrative functions are documented. There are five folders containing minutes from the meetings of the President's Cabinet from 1963-1971. There is a folder solely concerned with the By-laws of Dickinson College. One folder contains material of the Administrative Assembly from 1971-73, and another contains material from the College's Administrative Council from 1967-70. Second, financial aspects of the College are documented. A major portion of the financial records are represented in correspondence between Shuman and the American Bank and Trust Co., containing instructions on how to direct the College's financial holdings in stocks, certificates of deposit, loans, etc. Also related to financial matters, there is a folder on annuities and reports from 1939, a folder containing information on the Colleges accounting firm (1964), and a folder dealing with the College's auditor (l964). There is also two folders that relate to the purchase of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity house and the purchase of the Beta Theta Pi house, both of which were purchased by the College in 1964. Third, a folder that seemed like it should not be contained in the Treasurer's Collection, deals with the formulation of a new alcohol policy for the College, and reports on the influence alcohol has on the campus social activities. The fourth topic covers the Bicentennial of Dickinson College and the Bicentennial Celebration of Cumberland County, of which Dickinson took an active part.

This general overview does not cover every folder that is contained in this box, however, it points out the folders that are of relative importance in this particular box, and best exemplify the duties of the Treasurer and Financial Vice-President.
 
 
 
 

Journal

I found this project quite interesting because I liked the fact that I made it my duty to investigate someone else's personal papers. Even though this collection contains material of the Treasurer's Office, for all intents and purposes I was looking at the personal papers of George Shuman, Jr. while he worked for the College. However, I would not want to do this type of thing for a living. The project starts to lose its appeal after a while, and for all the work you do in delving through the collection, the final product of all your work is just a general overview.

I did not start the project until much later than I really wanted. This is mostly my fault because I tend to be a big procrastinator, but also partially because Mr. Hing had to find a suitable collection for me to work with. When I first got the box I thought this was going to be a relatively easy and interesting project. Well, it proved interesting in the beginning, but easy? No way. First, when I opened the box and started to look through the materials, I noticed that material covered was not centered around the years 1938-48, like we had discussed in class. Instead, Mr. Hing had just given me the first box of the whole collection, thinking it would be easier for both him and me if I just started the collection from the beginning. So, rather than start a project I thought might not be appropriate for what we were trying to accomplish, I put the whole thing on hold for a couple of days until I could talk with Professor Osborne about whether it would be alright for me to do the box anyhow.

After settling the fact that it was a suitable time period, I finally settled down to actually trying to figure out what was in this collection. Although the material was interesting to skim through, the process was a bore. Sitting there, leafing through material, trying to decide whether the material should be included in the scope and content could drive someone to an insane asylum if they did it for too long. I literally could not work on this project for more than two hours at a time because by that time I found myself starting to skip over material, not even looking at it to see whether it was of vital importance or not. Plus, I found it a little mind boggling, seeing as I was the person deciding whether or not a certain letter or photograph was of any great value to the researcher. Just because I do not think a piece of information is of any great value, does not mean it is not a vital piece to a confusing puzzle for someone else.

After compiling what I thought should be included in the scope and content, I set about trying to put it into writing. And then I panicked. While I was sitting at the computer typing this up, I kept telling myself that this was too general and too brief. Plus, I felt that I was not giving a substantial biographical sketch of George Shuman, or a substantial administrative history of the Treasurer's Office or the title of Financial Vice-President. To make sure that what I was doing was correct, I consulted Mr. Hing more than once, including having him look over the rough draft of the scope and content, asking him for suggestions. After his repeated assurance that the draft looked good I finally started to feel more comfortable with what I was doing. I finally came to realize that a scope and content should in no way resemble a listing of each folder and what is contained within those folders. That is senseless because, in essence, that is what the researcher does; my purpose was to lead the researcher to areas where he might be able to find vital information.