What are some of the oldest items in the Archives?
The oldest official record is the Minutes and Records of the Board of Trustees of Monmouth University. The first entry is dated March 10, 1855 and ends with entries from 1881. Other items include the original Butler family letters from the 1850s and 1860s; a notebook used by Reverend John E. Murphy in the 1870s to record funds solicited for the Christian College; diplomas and a monthly report card from 1871; and many photographs from the 19th century. From the 1890s, we have a photograph of our first football team (1893); an 1897 library catalog; and still remarkably intact are two herbariums, containing pressed flowers and plants alongside recorded descriptions, that students compiled for a botany class.
