Kathrine Tiffany Papers

SC-95
Tiffany, Kathrine Belanger, 1879-1978
3 Boxes (3 linear feet)
1924-1978 (bulk:1936-1945)

Introduction
The papers of Kathrine Bellanger Macdonald Tiffany highlight the teaching and campus advising work of the former Wheaton College professor. The majority of her papers were sent to the archives of the University of North Dakota in 1975.

Provenance: Wheaton College obtained Mrs. Tiffany's papers in 1977 after she had moved to a Pennsylvania.

Restrictions: There are no restrictions on this collection. Duplication may be restricted if copying could cause damage to items.

Collection Description
The papers of Kathrine Bellanger Macdonald Tiffany cover a period of forty-nine years. The greatest concentration was between the years of 1936-1945. Wheaton College obtained Mrs. Tiffany's papers in 1977 after she had moved to a Pennsylvania nursing home where she later died. The majority of her papers were sent to the archives of the University of North Dakota in 1975. The papers in the Wheaton College Archives consist of the remainder -- most of which Mrs. Tiffany expected to destroy. The personal correspondence is from her later years which was between the1960’s and 1970’s. For the most part, it is family oriented or a continuation of correspondence with former students. Most of it is in the form of personal notes. The business correspondence deals exclusively with vacancies in the Wheaton College English Department. In each case, the correspondence is complete. The sixteen diaries consist of short entries dealing with the weather, church, family, and friends. The teaching notebooks are supplemental to the teaching notes. The Pleiades Miscellany, an important campus publication in the 1940s, is well represented by a complete range of manuscripts, dummies, and in some instances galley proofs. The books and the church bulletins are of value to the collection because of their heavy annotations. The greatest weakness in the collection is its lack of depth. The erratic nature of the items, the great gaps in chronology affect its overall usefulness. The strength of the collection rests in its eclectic nature. The college correspondence is reflective of college attitudes and hiring practices. The personal papers reveal a woman. The collection as a whole presents the world of the evangelical college in the second quarter of the twentieth century.

Biographical/Historical Sketch
Kathrine Belanger Macdonald Tiffany was born in Wisconsin in August, 1878. She died in the Quarryville Presbyterian Home, Quarryville, Pennsylvania on April 18, 1978. Mrs. Tiffany grew up in North Dakota. She graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1889, one of its earliest graduates. Not long before her death, a study center was built on campus in her honor which became known as The Kathrine Bellanger Tiffany Graduate Study Center. It was dedicated there on April 22, 1972. In 1904 Kathrine Bellanger married educator Neil C. Macdonald who died in 1923. Later, she remarried in 1925 to Orin Edward Tiffany, the president of Greenville (Illinois) College. In 1928, Dr. and Mrs. Tiffany moved to Wheaton College (Illinois) where Dr. Tiffany assumed the chairmanship of the Division of Social Sciences. Kathrine Bellanger Tiffany taught in the Wheaton College English Department. She refused the chairmanship of the department because she lacked a Doctor's Degree (Mrs. Tiffany had done graduate work at the Universities of Chicago and Washington as well as Northwestern and Harvard. In the process, she accrued over seventy graduate hours in literature). In 1940 she declined an honorary doctorate from the University of North Dakota due to a personal conviction against them. After her retirement from teaching, Mrs. Tiffany rewrote and corrected manuscripts for writers and speakers -- among them President Edman of Wheaton and President Starcher of the University of North Dakota. After the death of her husband in 1950, Mrs. Tiffany devoted her energies to the Orin Edward Tiffany Memorial Lecture Series at Wheaton College, fund raising for the University of North Dakota, and working at the Wheaton Bible Church.

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