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Kenneth C.M. Sills: administrative records

 Record Group
Identifier: A01.02.08

  • Staff Only
  • Please use the Collection Organization section below to place requests.

Scope and Content

Files of President Kenneth C.M. Sills include general office correspondence and specific correspondence relating to the closing of the Medical School of Maine, the conferring of honorary degrees, athletics, fraternities, the Institute of Modern Literature, the establishment of the Kent Island Station, the Tallman Foundation and the Committee on the Limitation of Numbers. The files also include correspondence with a number of prominent alumni including Percival Baxter '98, William W. Lawrence '98, Ripley Dana '01, Harvey D. Gibson '02, Clement Robinson '03, Robert Hale '10, and Robert P.T. Coffin '15. For related Kenneth C.M. Sills materials, see the Kenneth C.M. Sills Collection.

Dates

  • Creation: 1889-1969

Creator

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Biographical/Historical Note

Kenneth Charles Morton Sills (1879-1954) was Bowdoin's eighth president. A graduate in the class of 1901, he served first as Dean of the College (1910-1917) under William DeWitt Hyde. Following Hyde's death in 1917, he served as acting president until 1918 when he assumed the presidency. His tenure in office is the longest in Bowdoin's history, 35 years.

A number of important issues and events characterized his presidency. He served through three wars and the Great Depression, took steps to maintain Bowdoin as a small liberal arts college, fought for and achieved institutional control over athletics, ended the B.S. degree distinction and closed the Medical School of Maine, while strengthening other areas of the curriculum and the faculty.

Extent

47.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Record Groups

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Kenneth C.M. Sills Administrative Records
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine 04011 Repository

http://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/index.shtml
Contact:
3000 College Station
Brunswick Maine 04011 USA
(207) 725-3288

Acknowledgment of non-neutrality

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