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The papers were assembled by Colonel Frank Caldwell Hershberger (1888-1965) over a long international career as a veterinary medicine specialist. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs and postcards gathered into three scrapbooks dating from 1908 to circa 1955. These albums cover various locations in Europe and Africa, as well as Diamond, Wyoming, and the Philippines. Additional loose photographs date from circa 1905 and document his time at the University of Missouri, Camp Marfa (Texas), Fort Monroe (Virginia), Fort Riley (Kansas), Fort Sill (Oklahoma), and Fort Mills (Corregidor, Philippines). Photographs include military officers, military polo teams, training cavalry horses, and the process of transporting horses via troopship. Augmenting the visual materials are articles, diplomatic papers, typescripts, some correspondence and a diary related to Hershberger's work for the Chinese government (1914-1918). One typescript details the history of the Port Veterinarian for the Port of Embarkation, New York, 1921-1945. The collection also includes the Legion of Merit medal, Legionnaire degree, which is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.

The Franklin A. Coffman papers contain letters, autobiographical materials, paternal and maternal family genealogies, legal documents, literary works, awards and honors, printed materials, photographs, scrapbooks and photograph albums, and artifacts.
Personal correspondence is mainly amongst family members though there is a letter from J. Edgar Hoover regarding a poem Coffman published. Business correspondence is sparse. Coffman received a bound volume of congratulatory letters upon his retirement. The letters provide the best account of Coffman's work with the United States Department of Agriculture within the collection. Many describe interactions with Coffman during field work and visits to experiment stations across the country. There is no official governmental correspondence in the collection documenting Coffman's work.
Coffman handwrote autobiographical accounts of his life during his later years. These accounts are mainly of his childhood, college days and work in the Philippines. The accounts covering the years Coffman spent in the Philippines are extensive. They provide many details and impressions about the native people. The accounts also cover his travels to other Asian countries while based in the Philippines.
Coffman spent years gathering genealogical information from relatives and researching his ancestors. He traced his father's Coffman ancestors back to 1737 and his mother's Bayle ancestors back to 1796. There are notes, different versions of family trees, and extensive narrative written by Coffman describing the lives of his ancestors.
Legal documents are sparse.
Coffman was a prolific poet. There are clippings of poetry published in the Washington Post. Some poems were published without his name. Others have his initials, F.A.C., including two series of poems compiled in notebooks. There are also unpublished poems.
There are certificates for scholarly and service awards and honors, and the registration certificate for the Marion Oat. There are not certificates for all the awards and honors listed on Coffman's resume.
There are just a few United States Department of Agriculture's bulletins and farmer's Bulletins that Coffman authored or co-authored. The vast majority of Coffman's published research is not part of the collection.
One of Coffman's hobbies was photography. There are hundreds of photographs documenting his personal and professional lives. Subjects are wide-ranging. Coffman signed some of his photographs, mainly what he referred to as the "salon prints." There are photographs taken by others including professional portraits and candid photographs of Coffman at various ages. Many photographs are undated and unidentified.
There are seven scrapbooks containing photographs and memorabilia. 1) Photographs and memorabilia document a 10 day automobile trip to eastern cities and New England that Coffman took with his wife and daughter in 1936. Expenses totaled $110.96.
2) "The Farm" album contains photographs of family members, neighbors, friends, crops, farmhouse interiors and exteriors, Rocky Ford School, and Rocky Ford dam and mill. The album is dated 1913 and some photographs are identified. There are also approximately 56 photographs of Manhattan and Kansas State Agricultural College. The subjects are the campus, buildings, classmates, lake recreation, train depot, street car, and a railroad bridge. Some photos are identified and dated 1914.
3) This photo album with narrative is titled "The Many Faces of F.A.C." and is written by "A Couple of Norths and Shanghai Louis Kao." It was compiled in 1962 and contains photographs of Coffman in various locations.
4) The album has photographs of Coffman's family and ancestors (earliest date 1884), Sunday school class, the First Baptist Church in 1902, Kansas State Agricultural College, and Manhattan. There is extensive Kansas State Agricultural College memorabilia including a cadet corps certificate, 1908 fall term schedule, invitations, commencement programs, band programs, banquet programs, clippings and a baseball ticket. The album also has correspondence and drawings. The album has memorabilia from Coffman's transit back to the United States on the Shino Maru including menus and passenger list. There are photographs of the transit and memorabilia from a Hong Kong visit en route. There are photographs of Kansas State Agricultural College, Oklahoma A&M and Akron, Colorado. 1916.
5) The Philippines album contains photographs of Coffman's trip across the western United States to board the S.S. Manchuria for transit to the Philippines. Coffman photographed the Golden Gate Park, the Panama Pacific International Exhibition grounds, onboard ship recreation, Honolulu, Tokyo, Nagasaki, the Philippines' countryside, Filipinos' daily activities, Philippine experiment stations, cultural activities, villages, Coffman's office and co-workers, YMCA sports, Viscayia (German naval ship), Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kobe, Yamaa, Yokahoma, the voyage back to the United States on the Shino Maru (not to be confused with the Shinyo Maru), Honolulu experiment station, Universal Film City, and the San Diego Exposition. 1914-1916.
6) The photographs and memorabilia in this album are compiled in honor of Coffman's brother, Will, who died in 1920. It contains drawings, report cards, class schedule and photographs of Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, University of Kansas, and Will's travels. Loose commencement programs from Kansas State Agricultural College, 1913-1915, are with the album.
7) The album contains photographs from Coffman's days in Akron and his travels to Amarillo, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Arlington, New York, Philadelphia and Mount Vernon from 1919-1922. There is memorabilia from Washington, D.C., New York including a Metropolitan Opera House program and a Hippodrome souvenir book, Coffman's wedding and showers, and a program from the American Society of Agronomy 1922 meeting. Morrill, Kansas, Twin Oaks, Estes Park, county fairs, and Manhattan are also subjects of photographs. Alta Johnson's School Girl Days: A Memory Book from Washington County High School, 1914, is boxed with the scrapbooks.
The most notable artifacts are four cameras, presumably used by Coffman: Univex Model A, 1933; No. 1-A Kodak Junior Model A, 1914; No. 2 Folding Autographic Brownie, circa 1915-1916; Kodak Six-16 camera and leather case, circa 1932-1936.

Gavitt Medical Co. Records were donated to the University Archives at Kansas State University by Professor Charles Gardner Shaw in 1971. This collection is identified as accession number PC 1988.07.
This collection consists of correspondence documenting sales of the Gavitt System Regulator. The majority of the correspondence pertains to purchasing the product, some detailing how they first received the product and giving glowing testimonials of how it helped them: "It has cured me of a bad case of Catarrh and heart disease, and is commencing to give me strength." Other letters are inquiries about becoming agents for the company, explaining that either the correspondent is unaware of anyone selling their product in the area, or that the current agent is unable to continue to provide adequate service for the area.
Probably the most significant correspondence in the collection is the reports which the agents sent to the company's office in Topeka documenting the sales of the product. Many of these reports were penned on the back of the correspondence from the company, providing valuable insight into the times. The company letters include arguments for convincing the reluctant buyer to purchase their product: "Many say they employ a family physician after they get sick. The graveyards are full of people who had family physicians called after they got sick. The time to take medicine is when the disease first makes its appearance and the only way to take it is to have it in the house handy at all times." The company also provides advice on marketing, suggesting that agents target parents with sons in the military: "...we have not heard of a single case where the soldiers have had Malaria, Typhoid or Yellow fever where they had a box of our System Regulator sent to them."
Interspersed throughout the collection are personal letters from the Shore family and friends. These letters document the events in the lives of the family and the communities of Alma, Clay Center, Emporia and White City, Kansas, including births, deaths, and assorted gossip.
Of particular note is a letter from Jesse L. Shore to Kansas Secretary of State, George Clark, pointing out a error in the Session Laws of 1901, Chapter 420, and requesting that Mr. Clark check the actual bill to make sure it is correct. Mr. Clark's reply confirms that the error is in the bill as well and that the bill is invalid until the legislature meets again and can correct it.

The George Brunn papers consist of: an eight-volume run of a newsletter, The California Consumer: Official Organ of the Association of California Consumers from 1962–1969; a two-volume run from 1963–1965 of the Association of California Consumers publication, Legislative News Letter (edited by Brunn); and a reprint of an article Brunn authored about wage garnishment that was published in a 1965 edition of the California Law Review. A copy of a statement Brunn made during a California judicial hearing in 1969 is included in the papers. Of interest is a handwritten note accompanying the statement sent to Richard L. D. Morse that says, “Dick—A battle in the consumer credit wars. We won that round. George.” The year is illegible. Two poems Brunn penned add levity to the collection.

The George R. Peters Papers collection is composed of his personal correspondence from 1966-1976. Some correspondence and documents are related the business of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social work. The majority of the collection, however, concerns professional activities, organizations, publications, and Dr. Peters' colleagues. Dr. Peters was a professor of gerontology and sociology within the Department of Sociology and also served as the director of the Center of Aging at K-State from 1977-1992. Within each folder there are logs that lists the incoming and outgoing letters in chronological order with each entry providing the sender, recipient, and subject.

The Owens Papers (1890-1946) contain ten items consisting of a scrapbook, two diplomas, two certificates, and five photographs. They were donated to the University Archives by his daughter, Ana Elnora Owens. The scrapbook contains a handwritten autobiography (20 pages) and a "History of Agricultural Instruction in Virginia" (14 pages), both written in 1945-1946. Owens' autobiography describes his childhood in Kansas (near Alma in Wabaunsee County) and his experience at Kansas State Agricultural College as the first Black person to graduate from the institution in 1899. It provides a description of his employment at Tuskegee Institute after graduation where he worked under Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. He left Tuskegee in 1908 to take a position at the Virginia Normal and Industrial School (Virginia State College) in Petersburg where he had a very successful career.
His writings describe the agricultural program at the school and his work in Virginia as the leader in vocational agriculture, including his organizational efforts for the New Farmers of Virginia that became the New Farmers of America. He provides an extensive list of others who were involved in vocational agriculture throughout the state. The two diplomas were awarded at the time of his graduation from high school in Wabaunsee County, Kansas in 1890, and Kansas State Agricultural College in 1899 where he obtained a bachelor of science degree in the "general course." The two certificates in the collection were awarded by Virginia State College. The first is a "Certificate of Merit" for ten years of service in 1945 and the second in appreciation for his teaching and service presented by the Alumni Association in 1946. Two of the five photographs show Owens as a student at KSAC in 1899 (one in his cadet uniform), two with his wife, Waddie Hill (a wedding photo in 1901 and another in 1903 with their newborn child), and one taken at the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute in 1920.

These papers include the wartime correspondence and related documents of George Dudley Wheatley, a first lieutenant in the United States Army who was involved in several decisive actions of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during the First World War. The collection consists of 122 pieces and spans the years 1909; 1916-1919; 1923.
The documents presented in this collection offer a historically important window into the daily life of soldiers involved in America’s first major involvement in international military affairs beginning with a document from a friend stationed in the Dominican Republic in 1916 to a then stateside George Wheatley. It describes the occupation and sentiments towards Americans, combat encountered by Army and Marine Corps units, along with personal commentary on college football and the reelection of Woodrow Wilson.
The majority of the collection involves letters mailed from George Wheatley to his parents. They begin with his time at the officer’s candidate training school at Plattsburg, New York, in 1917. Among the items mentioned is the effects and treatment of a camp epidemic of German measles. They are followed by letters referring to the accommodations and experiences aboard his transport ship to Europe in 1918 (the SS Mongolia), and travels through England and France, including tourism, military railway transportation, and the conduct of the French military, and his activities at an Allied Expeditionary Forces school in Chatillon-sur-Seine. The remainder of the letters is an account of his experiences on the battle front in 1918.
The strength of the collection is the letters written to his father in 1919 from Springfield, Vermont, after he returned to the United States and was discharged from the U. S. Army. Wheatley provides vivid descriptions of his involvement in combat on the front lines, including letters that describe his being wounded on two occasions while in combat, his association with Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan, and military engagements from the beginning of 1918 until the end of the war. A few of his letters provide eye witness accounts of Donovan’s leadership, participation in combat, and being wounded. Donovan later became head of the Office of Strategic Services and played an important role in forming the Central Intelligence Agency. Among the pages of a small notebook is a chronological list Wheatley maintained of his whereabouts from the time he entered the military in January 1918, through his movements in Europe, and until his discharge on April 1, 1919.
The following are among the locations noted by Wheatley in his papers during the war: Chatillon, Rambervillers, Moyermont, Chattel sur Moselle, Coulars, Ecury-sur-Coole, La Borry, Jonchery, Suippes Valley, Vardeney, Epieds, Montport, Barritz, Bordeaux, Paris, Blois, St. Organy, La Marche, Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel, Verdin, Mountfaucon, Landres et St. Georges, St. Georges, Exermont, Les Petes Armoises, Le Vivier, Artaise, Chaumont, Sedan, Buzaucy, Thenorgnes, Argonne. Muese-Argonne.

The bulk of this collection documents the academic career of Gerry L. Posler from 1965 to 2008 with materials that include his resume, awards, research and presentation notes, course materials, correspondence, and printed materials. Additionally, there are articles he authored and photographs of graduate students and department experiments, as well as research manuscripts from the early twentieth century. The collection also includes materials related to the creation of a departmental history edited by Gerry Posler and Gary Paulson in celebration of the department of Agronomy’s centennial in 2006. Posler collected, assembled, edited, and author several of the chapters in the publication titled “A Centennial History of the Department Agronomy, Kansas State University”. Additionally there are about 721 files (761MB), of digital files provided by Posler. The digital files include course materials, publication drafts, presentations, retirement biographical information, resumes, and photographs. These files have been kept in their original order.

The Global Campus Records, formally known as Division of Continuing Education, consists of material from 1951 to 2007. The material found in this collection partly pertains to the credit courses offered through Global Campus from 1975 to 2002. It contains files from courses offered during the semester and intersession (winter, spring, summer) periods. Some of the colleges that are highlighted in the Global Campus Records include the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Education, and College of Engineering; the bulk of these files are related to the College of Arts & Sciences. These files are typically composed of resources and manuals for distance and online courses, enrollment statistics, course information packets, photographs, videotapes, credit course promotional material, course evaluations, course financing, reports and reviews related to credit courses, and correspondence related to credit courses.

Some of the material found in this collection pertains to Conference and Non- Credit Programs (CNCP) and opportunities provided across campus. Files possess materials related to conference and program agendas, enrollment and attendee lists, budget and financial information, speaker presentations, brochures and pamphlets, correspondence related to conferences and programs, and promotional materials. Along with CNCP there are also conference files incorporated into this collection. There are also brochures and marketing material for the conferences, final budgets, attendance reports, and notes from the conferences that occurred from 1989-2007.

The bulk of the material in this collection is contained in the Dean’s Office and Administrative series. These contain files taken from the office of the Dean of Global Campus or related offices. These also contain files from organizations such as Western Kansas Community Services Consortium (WKCSC), National University Degree Consortium (NUDC) along with files from the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA).

The Administrative series specifically contains some files from the office of David Stewart, on non-traditional studies. Along with those files it contains things from the Kansas Board of Regents, reading files, meeting minutes and notes, and final budgeting reports.

The Dean’s office series contains files from the offices of Elizabeth Unger and Robert Kruh, both previous Deans of Global Campus. There are also some files pertaining to Army education through Fort Riley. Lastly, files and correspondence on academic outreach and how to go about campus improvements.

This collection is composed of literary productions and photographs from between 1964-1971. The included literary production records are made up of correspondence (1964), notes, editor's notes, early drafts, fourth draft for A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks, as well as the original manuscript for Whispers of Intimate Things by Gordon Parks (1971). The included photographs are largely focused around the filming of the Learning Tree. This box includes images of Gordon Parks, crew and cast, filming sites, and others. There is also a box of photo slides as well.