Unrestricted access. These materials are stored offsite. Please allow three days for retrieval before use. Personnel and student records are restricted for 70 years from date of their creation.
Summary:
This collection of records of the College of the Liberal Arts documents liberal arts programs on all Penn State campuses, and Liberal Arts programs offered to undergraduates. Collection materials include correspondence, committee reports, meeting minutes, faculty information, personnel files, and administrative records.
In the University Archives, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. (#RGN 55).
Administrative History:
Classes in the liberal arts have been taught at Penn State since the beginning of the Farmer's High School in 1855; students were offered courses in philosophy, rhetoric, and English grammar and composition, and soon after in languages, political science, literature, and history. The School of Language and Literature was established in 1895 under Benjamin Gill; the same year, the School of History, Political Science, and Philosophy was created, with George W. Atherton as its first head. In 1907, the School of History, Political Science, and Philosophy became the School of History, Mathematics, and Philosophy; in 1909, the two were combined to form the School of the Liberal Arts. The first Dean of the new School was Edwin Erle Sparks, former Head of the School of History, Mathematics, and Philosophy; he held the position of acting Dean while he began his term as President of the College, from 1908 to 1910. In 1953, when the Pennsylvania State College became the Pennsylvania State University, the School of the Liberal Arts became the College of the Liberal Arts.
