Finally, I made my way over to the university archives with recent alums Chris Pohlad (who is currently interning with admissions) and Ryan Dumm (who is working on a local city council race). My time was short but what a interesting collection: photos, old banners, photographs going back to the first days of the college, and of course boxes and boxes of papers and other ephemera. I found that Politics and Government, once a track within the History Department (as I expected), split off around 1948-50, with one (new?) faculty member (Professor Hugh Tudor; BA Simpson College '26; taught in the department at least into the late 1950s). It wasn't clear to me why some of those in the History Department didn't join him, since that was pretty common back when the two disciplines weren't totally distinct, or why he appears to have come in as a new hire alongside the creation of the department. Anyone know anything more about Professor Tudor?
Lots to learn and digitize--expect to see it on the blog as the summer unfolds.
