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Washington State College Graduation Certificates, 1896-1908

Overview of the Collection

Creator
State College of Washington
Title
Washington State College Graduation Certificates
Dates
1896-1908 (inclusive)
Quantity
2.25 Linear feet of shelf space, (1 box)Most of the diplomas are approximately 16 inches tall by 21 inches wide.
Collection Number
Archives 347 (collection)
Summary
Washington State Agricultural College and School of Science (later State College of Washington, later Washington State University) was authorized in 1890 and began teaching classes in January of 1892. The collection consists of individual graduation certificates from Washington State University, then under earlier institutional names including Washington State College (or the State College of Washington), and the Washington State Agricultural College and School of Science. The majority of the certificates are from programs not considered to be college-level degrees. It seems likely that all the sub-college certificates comprised the original set of materials, and the three college level certificates may have been later additions to these materials.
Repository
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is open and available for research use.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Washington State Agricultural College and School of Science (later State College of Washington, later Washington State University) was authorized in 1890 and began teaching classes in January of 1892. For its first couple decades, the college offered both college-level programs and below college-level programs, the equivalent of today's high-school work (when the college began, no more than six four-year high school existed in Washington). The primary non-college program was the Preparatory School, retitled in 1905 as the Elementary School, later the Department of Elementary Science. Program enrollment slowly decreased once high schools became more commonplace, grew briefly again just after World War I, and the began decreasing again until the program was finally permanently discontinued after the 1925-1926 school year. Several other lower-level programs had existed beside their college-level counterparts, including agriculture, artisanship, and business.

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Content Description

The collection consists of individual graduation certificates from Washington State University, then under earlier institutional names including Washington State College (or the State College of Washington), and the Washington State Agricultural College and School of Science. The majority of the certificates are from programs not considered to be college-level degrees. It seems likely that all the sub-college certificates comprised the original set of materials, and the college level and normal certificates may have been later additions to these materials.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Item Description] Washington State College Graduation Certificates, 1896-1908 (Archives 347)

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in three series. The first several items are actual college diplomas, in chronological order. Next is normal diplomas, which are not awards of graduaiton, but rather the equivalent of today's teaching certificates. The remainder of the items are the lower level diplomas, with the non-preparatory/elementary school certificates preceding the preparatory/elementary school ones. Within each sub-series, certificates are ordered by year of issue, and then alphabetically by last name of the recipient.

Acquisition Information

The materials in this collection were transferred to Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) from an unknown source sometime prior to 2001.

Future Additions

In the future, other "loose" graduation certificates may be added to this collection.

Processing Note

This collection was processed in October 2014 by University Archivist Mark O'English.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid prepared by Mark O'English.
2016

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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