Title: Racine-Kenosha County Teachers College (Wis.). Office of the President: Records
Inclusive Dates: 1916-1971

Creator:

• Racine-Kenosha County Teachers College (Wis.). Office of the President

Call Number: Racine Series 44

Quantity: 6.0 c.f. (15 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the Archives & Area Research Center, Library/Learning Center, University of Wisconsin-Parkside; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Parkside Library / Parkside Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

School Board minutes, audit reports, annual reports, publications, correspondence, and attendance books from the college's inception in 1916 to its closing in 1971.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-raci0044

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By subject and thereunder chronological.

In early 1916 the Racine County Board of Supervisors planned a Racine County Training School for Teachers. The Village of Union Grove offered the proposed school the use of two rooms in its new high school and the village graded school for practice teaching. The County Board accepted the offer and Union Grove became home for the school.

In fall of 1917 the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors, which also hoped to establish a training school, visited the school. Soon afterward the two counties sponsored the Racine-Kenosha Joint County Training School for Teachers. Enrollment increased and larger quarters found. Plans were drawn for the construction of a building that was completed in the fall of 1919. A dormitory was needed and in the summer of 1922 students occupied Storms Hall. On November 30, 1922, a fire partially destroyed the school building. The school moved into the new dormitory while the school building was repaired. In the following decades the school thrived, so that by 1967 it was the largest county teachers college in the state with a faculty of 9, and 140 students. Like other teacher training colleges in Wisconsin, the Racine-Kenosha Joint County Training School for Teachers underwent several name changes:

1916-1923	Racine-Kenosha Joint County Training School for Teachers
1923-1927	Racine-Kenosha County Rural Normal School
1927-1955	Racine-Kenosha County Normal School
1955-1971	Racine-Kenosha County Teacher College

The collection is generally well organized and straight-forward. The minutes of the Racine-Kenosha Rural Normal School Board, from 1916 to June 1966 are typed and inserted in a ledger. The minutes for August 1966 to the final meeting December 1971 are mimeographed and placed in a loose-leaf binder.

Financial Reports are divided into two parts. The first, School Audit Reports, are bound and cover the years 1950-1970. The second part, miscellaneous, includes such things as teacher contracts, scholarship funds, account receipts, payrolls and tuition statements. There is also a volume covering 1960-1971 which includes student names, fee payments and days attending school.

The Annual Reports cover different areas. Annual Reports to the County Boards, 1922-1970 are self-explanatory. Other reports cover such things as census data, suspended school districts, and teachers' annual reports. Most of these reports are on printed forms for filing with the state. These reports are sometimes incomplete and do not cover a wide span of years. The Reports of the Department of Public Instruction are written to the school president after a visit to the school.

Publications include The Rural Normal School Bulletin published by the Racine-Kenosha Rural Normal School, from Vol. I, #1 (September 1918) to Vol. 28, #1 (March 1947). The bulletins are directed at teachers in the two counties, and include news of events at various schools, suggestions for improved teaching, and announcements from the Rural Normal School. Since there are issues missing, it is not known how long the school published the bulletin. The Racine County school directories run from 1917 to 1974. There are also miscellaneous school publications, such as college catalogs, commencement programs, copies of Owl, the college yearbook, booklets celebrating the silver and golden anniversaries of the Racine-Kenosha Teachers College, as well as informational brochures on Wisconsin's County Normal Schools. It is not clear if the yearbook was published regularly or if copies were simply not retained. There are few issues, and a gap between issues.

General information includes histories of Wisconsin's County Teachers Colleges, and a typed manuscript history of the Racine-Kenosha County Teachers College. The collection does not include much correspondence, although some comes from President W.W. Storms and deals with construction of the building, 1916-1920, and some concerning the future of the building after the close of the college. There is also some correspondence from the files of William D. Thompson, president of the college from 1965 until his death in 1971. There are a few miscellaneous newspaper clippings from the sixties and some additional clippings from 1970-71 dealing with the future of the building.

Also included in the collection are nearly 50 attendance books. The attendance books are for the normal school associated with the college, spanning the years 1916 to 1971. Two of the books give no indication of the years they were used, while other single volumes cover from one to ten years. The attendance books, although frequently incomplete, include such information as name, age, and sex of student, the number of days attending school, visitors to the school, name of teacher, teacher's comments, needs of the school as reported to the district clerk, and some pupil grades.

Student transcripts are also available. Racine Series 42 contains transcripts for the normal school, and Racine Series 43 has transcripts for the college. Photographs were removed and placed in the iconographic collection of the State Historical Society.

Box   1 Folder   1	Inventory
	Minutes-Racine-Kenosha Rural Normal School Board
Box   1	March 1916-October 1928 Physical Description: 1 volume
Box   1	February 1929-January 12, 1937 Physical Description: 1 volume
Box   2	January 19, 1937-October 1947 Physical Description: 1 volume
Box   3	November 1947-June 1966 Physical Description: 1 volume
Box   3 Folder   1	August 1966-December 1971
	Racine-Kenosha Joint County Normal School, Audit Reports
Box   4 Folder   1	1950-51
Box   4 Folder   2	1951-1952
Box   4 Folder   3	1952-1953
Box   4 Folder   4	1953-1954
Box   4 Folder   5	1954-1955
Box   4 Folder   6	1955-1956
Box   4 Folder   7	1956-1957
Box   4 Folder   8	1957-1958
Box   4 Folder   9	1958-1959
Box   4 Folder   10	1959-1960
Box   4 Folder   11	1960-1961
Box   4 Folder   12	1961-1962
Box   4 Folder   13	1962-1963
Box   4 Folder   14	1963-1964
	Racine-Kenosha Joint County Teachers College, Audit Reports
Box   5 Folder   1	1964-1965
Box   5 Folder   2	1965-1966
Box   5 Folder   3	1966-1967
Box   5 Folder   4	1967-1968
Box   5 Folder   5	1968-1969
Box   5 Folder   6	1969-1970
Box   6 Folder   1	Elizabeth Vogel Memorial Scholarship Fund
Box   6 Folder   2	General Account Receipts from County Treasurer
Box   6 Folder   3	Payrolls, 1918-1920
	Teacher Contracts
Box   6 Folder   4	1919-1920
Box   6 Folder   5	1964-1971, A - I
Box   6 Folder   6	1964-1971, J - Z
Box   6 Folder   7	Tuition Statements , 1959-1971
Box   6 Folder   8	College Register, 1960-1971 Physical Description: 1 volume
Box   7 Folder   1	Annual Report of the County Teachers Colleges, 1921-1971 (incomplete)
	Annual Reports to County Boards
Box   7 Folder   2	1922-1949
Box   7 Folder   3	1950-1961-2
Box   7 Folder   4	1962-3 - 1966-7
Box   7 Folder   5	1967-8 - 1969-70
Box   7 Folder   6	Contracts with Towns for Teaching Grade School Students
Box   7 Folder   7	Fall Reports to the State - College and Normal School
Box   7 Folder   8	Reports of the Department of Public Instruction
Box   7 Folder   9	Reports of Suspended School Districts, 1966-1970
Box   7 Folder   10	School Census Data
Box   7 Folder   11	Teachers' Annual Reports, 1959-1967
Box   8 Folder   1	College Catalogs
Box   8 Folder   2	College Commencement Programs
Box   8 Folder   3	Golden Anniversary Booklet, 1917-1967
Box   8 Folder   4	“The Keno-Cine” , 1920
Box   8 Folder   5	Miscellaneous College Catalogs
Box   8 Folder   6	Miscellaneous Publications
Box   8 Folder   7	“Owl” College Yearbook
Box   8 Folder   8	Racine-Kenosha Teachers College Window Decal
Box   8 Folder   9	Silver Anniversary Booklet, 1916-1941
Box   8 Folder   10	“Training for Teaching” Quarterly Bulletin Catalog Issue
Box   8 Folder   11	Wisconsin's County Normal Schools
	Racine School Directories
Box   9 Folder   1	1927-1937
Box   9 Folder   2	1937-1952
Box   9 Folder   3	1952-1958
Box   9 Folder   4	1958-1974
	Rural Normal School Bulletin
Box   9 Folder   5	1918-1926
Box   9 Folder   6	1927-1934
Box   9 Folder   7	1935-1947
	Correspondence
Box   10 Folder   1	President Wm. D. Thompson, 1970-1971
Box   10 Folder   2	Dealing with Future of Building, 1970-1971
Box   10 Folder   3	Histories of Wisconsin County Teachers Colleges
Box   10 Folder   4	History - Racine-Kenosha County Teachers College
Box   10 Folder   5	Information on County Normal Schools
Box   10 Folder   6	Miscellaneous Material
Box   10 Folder   7	Miscellaneous newspaper clippings
Box   10 Folder   8	Newspaper Clippings, 1970-71-- dealing with future of building
Box   10 Folder   9	Proposal for Future of R-K College Buildings
Box   10 Folder   10	Records and Correspondence Regarding Building Construction, 1916-1920
	Attendance Books
Box   11 Folder   1	no date
Box   11 Folder   2	no date
Box   11 Folder   3	1916-1919
Box   11 Folder   4	1920-1921
Box   11 Folder   5	1921-1922
Box   11 Folder   6	1923-1924
Box   11 Folder   7	1921-1929
Box   11 Folder   8	1921-1931
Box   11 Folder   9	1923-1924, 1935-1936
Box   12 Folder   1	1922-1924
Box   12 Folder   2	1923-1926
Box   12 Folder   3	1925-1927
Box   12 Folder   4	1927-1929
Box   12 Folder   5	1930-1931
Box   12 Folder   6	1931-1932
Box   12 Folder   7	1932-1933
Box   12 Folder   8	1934-1938
Box   13 Folder   1	1930-1934
Box   13 Folder   2	1932-1939
Box   13 Folder   3	1938-1944
Box   13 Folder   4	1938-1944
Box   13 Folder   5	1945-1946
Box   13 Folder   6	1945-1946
Box   13 Folder   7	1946-1947
Box   13 Folder   8	1946-1947
Box   13 Folder   9	1948-1954
Box   13 Folder   10	1948-1954
Box   14 Folder   1	1954-1959
Box   14 Folder   2	1954-1960
Box   14 Folder   3	1959-1960
Box   14 Folder   4	1960-1961
Box   14 Folder   5	1960-1961
Box   14 Folder   6	1963-1964
Box   14 Folder   7	1964-1965
Box   14 Folder   8	1966-1967
Box   14 Folder   9	1966-1967
Box   14 Folder   10	1966-1967
Box   14 Folder   11	1966-1967
Box   14 Folder   12	1967-1968
Box   14 Folder   13	1967-1968
Box   14 Folder   14	1967-1968
Box   14 Folder   15	1967-1968
Box   14 Folder   16	1967-1968
Box   15 Folder   1	1968-1969
Box   15 Folder   2	1968-1969
Box   15 Folder   3	1968-1969
Box   15 Folder   4	1968-1969
Box   15 Folder   5	1968-1969
Box   15 Folder   6	1968-1969
Box   15 Folder   7	1970-1971
Box   15 Folder   8	1970-1971