This collection consists of faculty records of Centenary College of Louisiana (Jackson, Louisiana). It includes notes (1854-1887), minutes of meetings (1850-1905), and loose items removed from minute book 1900-1905.

The notes (1854-1887) primarily consist of loose-leaf drafts containing information that also appears in the minute books. Also included is a report about students throwing the college bell in a cistern (1867 January 18).

The minutes of meetings are recorded in three manuscript volumes (1850-1852, 1852-1890, 1900-1905), which are also available as typescripts. Faculty meetings usually occurred on a weekly basis during the academic year, which lasted from approximately September to July. The meetings were attended by Centenary’s president as well as the faculty of the college and preparatory department. The minutes regularly document cases of student discipline for offenses such as class absences, leaving campus without permission, playing cards, fighting, and drinking alcohol. The minutes also include a variety of resolutions and reports, list the results for preparatory and college students’ intermediate examinations (each January/February) and final examinations (each June/July), and identify students eligible for class advancement and degrees. Information of a more unique nature is described below.

The minute book (1850-1852) includes a resolution for faculty to serve as campus police (1850 October 15), rules about students depositing guns with faculty members (1851 January 14), an explanation of the “System of Marking, Reporting, and Assigning the Honors of College” (1851 January 21), and a resolution prohibiting students from buying or drinking alcohol (1851 June 9). A preface (1850 October 9) explains that a previous faculty record book documenting “the first four years” of Centenary College of Louisiana was destroyed in a fire; this approximately corresponds to the earliest years of the newly renamed institution covering 1845 to 1850. A separate note written on the manuscript volume’s endpaper indicates that this 1850-1852 volume was thrown in a pond of water and retrieved.

The minute book (1852-1890) includes details about music instruction for instruments and voice (1852 June 29, 1852 October 12, 1855 December 7, 1856 January 14), a contract for students residing in dormitory rooms (1852 October 12), a disciplinary case of a student shooting and killing a Black person (1852 October 19), permission for students to form a French language literary society (1854 November 24), the formation and activities of a student military company (1856 January 14, 1860 November 21, 1861 February 19, 1861 April 9), outlining and adopting the Natural Science course of study (1859 October 6), and a motion to build a gymnasium (1859 October 17). The American Civil War caused many students to leave Centenary, so the faculty ended college classes, but continued operating the preparatory school (1861 May 21). The faculty minutes later state, “Students have all gone to war. College suspended and God help the right!” (1861 October 7). Meeting minutes resume on 1866 October 9, but no minutes were recorded from 1867 January 18 through 1873 February 17. The final years of this minute book show that many faculty meetings were devoted to praying for the college’s success (1876-1885). In addition, the minutes mention a student baseball club denied permission to compete in Baton Rouge (1875 February 15), students suspended for joining an armed mob pursuing armed Black people (1876 May 17), rules outlining a system of demerits (1876 October 5, revised 1880 November 1), a system of reporting student delinquencies and excuses (1879 January 13), faculty demanding to collect guns from students (1879 January 27), Thanksgiving Day activities (1879 November 24), rules about study hours (1884 September 29), students getting permission to attend a fair at the nearby town of Clinton (1888 October, 1889 November 4), discussion about keeping livestock off campus (1889 January 14), selling ice cream on campus and operating a refreshment stand during commencement (1889 March 4, 1889 April 8, 1889 April 29, 1890 April 21), and the faculty choosing a senior class debate topic during commencement titled “Resolved that the Negro should be disfranchised” (1890 April 1).

The minute book (1900-1905) documents the college’s final years in Jackson, Louisiana, and notes the faculty approving the college’s move to Shreveport, Louisiana (1903 March 19). With women first enrolling at Centenary in fall 1898, the minutes contain early references to them at the college, such as: rules for female students (1900 September 18; 1901 September 10), the consideration of accepting female students from town (1901 January 3), repeated faculty recommendations to trustees that women be allowed to earn degrees (1901 June 3; 1902 May 27; 1903 April 27; 1904 May 4; 1904 May 31), and the issue of not allowing a female valedictorian (1904 May 19). References to college laws and statutes include a requirement that students take an oath to uphold the college laws (1901 September 10), a student academic corps organized to identify and try cases of misconduct (1901 September 24), and a detailed list of the principal rules of the college (1903 September 22). The faculty also enacted rules about playing cards (1900 April 25), dancing (1900 November 6), the library (1901 September 18), tobacco (1901 October 15; 1902 September 22), guns (1902 December 4; 1904 October 4), earning department certificates (1902 March 4; 1902 September 22), and methods of discipline (13 January 1903). Descriptions of academic awards include a freshman prize for scholarship (1901 January 22), McGehee medal (23 April 1902), Schwing medal (9 March 1903; 1903 November 24), Winecoff Latin prize (27 April 1903; 1903 November 24), and John C. Harrell medal for hymn and scripture reading (27 April 1903). References to student athletics mention a tennis court request (1900 October 16), athletic association constitution (1900 December 11), and baseball games (1902 May 6; 1904 February 3). References to a student glee club relate to purchasing instruments (1901 October 22; 1902 October 6; 1902 October 20). Resolutions acknowledge the death of college trustees: Rev. Charles Green Andrews (1900 March), Peter James (1900 March), William Hezekiah Nathaniel Magruder (1900 March), and John Newton Pharr (1903 November 24). Also included is a resolution and activities memorializing the death of United States President William McKinley (1901 September 16-17). In addition, the minutes include information about the death of Centenary student Hamlin G. Lumpkin (1902 November 26; 1902 December 5).

Loose items removed from minute book 1900-1905 and located in separate folders include a student petition about reversing the suspension of J. M. Tucker (1903 March 9), a letter to Dr. P. H. Jones about financial support and encouraging students to enroll (1903 October 6), a letter to United States Senator Murphy J. Foster about the Panama Canal (circa 1903), a handbill for Centenary’s Commercial Department (circa 1903), loose papers containing preliminary meeting minutes later recorded in the manuscript volume (1904 February - May), and a loose paper containing meeting minutes not recorded in the manuscript volume (1904 June 7).