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Montana State University, Office of the President Records, 1881-1927, 1964-1994

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Montana State University (Bozeman, Mont.). Office of the President; State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (Montana). Office of the President; Montana State College. Office of the President; Ryon, Augustus M.; Reid, James R., 1849-1937; Hamilton, James McClellan, 1861-1940; Atkinson, Alfred, 1879-1958; Strand, A.L. (August Leroy), 1894-1980; Renne, Roland R., 1905-1989; Johnson, Leon H., 1908-1969; McIntosh, Carl W., 1914-2009; Tietz, William, 1927-2020; Malone, Michael P., 1940-1991
Title
Montana State University, Office of the President Records
Dates
1881-1927, 1964-1994 (inclusive)
Quantity
149 linear feet, (in 150 boxes)
Collection Number
MSU.74001
Summary
The Montana State University, President's Office Records consist of correspondence, reports, budgets, and other papers dealing with the operation of the institution. The collection contains records from early presidential administrations of Augustus Ryon, James Reid, and James M. Hamilton. It also contains records from presidents in the 1970s and 1980s including Leon H. Johnson, Carl W. McIntosh, and William Tietz. Matters documented in the files range from the routine hiring of employees such as custodians, to student instruction, state and federal agency regulations, and college departmental reports. Files from later administrations demonstrate the growth of the university, its curriculum, and services provided to students.
Repository
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
Collection materials are in English
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Biographical Note

Montana State University (MSU) was founded in 1893 as the state's land-grant college. Originally named the Agricultural College of the State of Montana, the college was later renamed the Montana College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and by the 1920s it was commonly referred to as Montana State College (MSC). The college was initially overseen by a local executive board which hired the president and faculty, but as time passed the board became peripheral in the operations of the school. The first president hired was Augustus M. Ryon, who led the college from its inception to 1894 when the executive board replaced him with James Reid. In 1904, James M. Hamilton, a former superintendent of public schools in Missoula, was chosen as president, and he remained in the office until 1919.

In 1913, the Montana state legislature passed a bill that consolidated all the state's colleges into one system under the administration of a chancellor. The chancellorship system allowed colleges in the state to maintain much of their autonomy. Each school retained its own president, but all state colleges were organized them under a single administrative unit.

Roland Renne, who served as president from 1946-1964 began pushing for MSC to be legally recognized as a university. In 1958 and 1960 independent review boards visited the campus and agreed that the college met the criteria to be recognized as university, however, the proposal sparked controversy across the state. Beginning in 1935, the State University in Missoula became known as Montana State University, and upgrading MSC to a university would create a conflict between the names of the universities. After battles in the legislature in both 1961 and 1963, the board of education approved a name change for both universities, on July 1, 1965, the name changes officially went into effect, renaming Montana State College to Montana State University, and Montana State University in Missoula to the University of Montana.

The university also experienced a shift in its governance and oversight with the adoption of new state constitution in 1972. The constitution split the Board of Education to establish two new governing bodies of education, the Board of Public Education, which oversaw K-12 education, and the Board of Regents, which oversaw higher education. The constitution endowed the Board of Regents with a greater degree of autonomy than the former Board of Education, which allowed it to determine specific allocation of monies within the university system.

Montana State University has had seventeen presidents between 1893 and 2025. Presidents include Augustus M. Ryon (1893-1894), James Reid (1894-1904), James M. Hamilton (1904-1919), Alfred Atkinson (1919-1937), A.L. Strand (1937-1942), Roland Renne (1943-1964), Leon H. Johnson (1964-1969), Carl W. McIntosh (1970-1977), William Tietz (1977-1990), Michael P. Malone (1991-1999), Geoffrey Gamble (2000-2009), Waded Cruzado (2010-2025), and Brock Tessman (beginning in 2025). Each administration has shaped the growth and curriculum of the university as the campus the campus and student body have expanded.

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Content Description

The Montana State University, Office of President records consist of correspondence, reports, budgets, and other papers dealing with the operation of the institution. Matters documented in the files range from the routine hiring of employees such as custodians, to student instruction, meeting agendas, state and federal agency regulations, and college departmental reports. The records say much about the wide-ranging duties of the Office of the Presidents of and how those duties changed over time the faculty and administrative infrastructure grew.

Records in the collection encompass the presidential administrations of MSU's early presidents Augustus M. Ryon (1893-1894), James Reid (1894-1904), and James M. Hamilton (1904-1919), as well as the administrations from the latter half of the 20th century including Leon H. Johnson (1964-1969), Carl W. McIntosh (1970-1977), William Tietz (1977-1990), and Michael Malone (1991-1999).

Notable absences are records from the administrations of Alfred Atkinson (1919-1937), A.L. Strand (1934-1942), and Roland Renne (1943-1964). These records are currently unprocessed and can be made available upon request. Records from presidential administrations after Michael Malone are not included in this collection.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into series by presidential administration. Papers from the Ryon and Reid administrations have been combined into a single series due to the short duration of the Ryon administration and the inability to separate the records of these two presidents.

Records from later presidential administrations were received in multiple accretions that follow a rough chronological order. These accretions have been arranged into series by presidential administration and divided into subseries by accretion. Subseries are arranged in chronologically, but files within each subseries are in the order in which they were received from the Office of the President.

Series 1: Augustus M. Ryon and James Reid Administrations, 1894-1904

Series 2: James M. Hamilton Administration, 1904-1919

Series 2, Subseries 1: Administrative Files Series 2, Subseries 2: Dean of Men and Professor of Economics Files, 1919-1939 Series 2, Subseries 3: James M. Hamilton Personal Papers, 1881-1927 Series 3: Leon Johnson Administration, 1964-1969

Series 3, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1965-1965 Series 3, Subseries 2: Administrative Files, 1965-1966 Series 3, Subseries 3: Administrative Files, 1966-1968 Series 4: Carl W. McIntosh Administration, 1970-1977

Series 4, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1971-1977 Series 4, Subseries 2: Administrative Files, 1971-1975 Series 5: William Tietz Administration, 1977-1990

Series 5, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1970-1986 Series 5, Subseries 2: Administrative Files, 1975-1980 Series 5, Subseries 3: Administrative Files - Accreditation, 1971-1980 Series 5, Subseries 4: Administrative Files, 1978-1980 Series 5, Subseries 5: Administrative Files, 1981 Series 5, Subseries 6: Administrative Files, 1981-1982 Series 5, Subseries 7: Administrative Files, 1983-1984 Series 5, Subseries 8: Administrative Files, 1984-1985 Series 5, Subseries 9: Administrative Files, 1984-1986 Series 5, Subseries 10: Administrative Files, 1986-1987 Series 5, Subseries 11: Administrative Files, 1986-1988 Series 5, Subseries 12: Administrative Files, 1988-1989 Series 5, Subseries 13: Administrative Files, 1989-1990 Series 5, Subseries 14: Administrative Files, 1989-1990 Series 5, Subseries 15: Director of Communications - Marilyn Wessel Files, 1977-1991 Series 6: Michael P. Malone Administration, 1991-1994 Series 6, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1979-1990 Series 6, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1990-1991 Series 6, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1991-1992 Series 6, Subseries 1: Administrative Files, 1992-1994

Acquisition Information

Correspondence, reports, financial statements and other records created or maintained by the office of the Montana State College president's office were gathered from different campus locations between the 1960s and 1970s. Several open cartons found on the fourth floor of Roberts Hall sometime prior to 1966 were combined with three units of small drawer cabinets from the Registrar's office in Montana Hall. The cabinets had apparently been forgotten when President James M. Hamilton's office was enlarged earlier in the twentieth century. These cabinets contained Hamilton's personal papers along with some of the records he created while serving as the Dean of Men after his presidency. During the summer of 1966, the contents of the cartons were removed and flattened before their placement in manila envelopes, but aside from separating printed materials, there was no further attempt to logically sort the material. Additional files found in the old telephone office of Montana Hall in 1958 were also added to the mix in the 1960s. The combined papers were recorded as a separate accession in 1974 with a rough arrangement identifying files pertaining to the administration of James Reid, president from 1894-1904 as "PR-2" and the files pertaining to Hamilton's tenure from 1904-1919 as "PR 3."

Records from the Johnson, McIntosh, Tietz, and Malone administrations were transferred to the archives from the Office of the President through multiple accretions been 1973 and 1995.

Processing Note

Records from the Ryon, Reid, and Hamilton administrations were processed 2013 May 16.

An addition to this collection, including records from the Johnson, McIntosh, Tietz, and Malone administrations, was processed in 2025. At the time of processing, files containing confidential materials such as student records and staff and personnel records were removed from the collection. Other items deemed of low research value like receipts, travel reimbursement forms, newspaper clippings, or items duplicated elsewhere were also removed from the collection. At this time restricted files containing student grades and records related to disciplinary action in the James Hamilton administrative files were removed and destroyed.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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Subject Terms

  • College presidents--Montana--Bozeman (Mont.)
  • Education, Higher--Montana
  • Schools--Montana

Series 1 and 2 processed by Kim Allen Scott in 2013.Series 3-5 published by Heather Mulliner in 2025.
2025

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