By his vision and foresight, the officials of the University and Church were inspired to authorize the establishment of a joint archives to collect historical materials of the two institutions. Support Financial Support comes from DePauw University and by the North Indiana and South Indiana Conferences of the United Methodist Church. The Archives and Special Collections staff is made up of the coordinator, four archives assistants and student assistants.
Volunteers assist the regular staff in various projects.
Archival Collections Rare and historically valuable manuscripts documenting the origins of DePauw University and Indiana United Methodism form a nucleus around which the two collections are built. The United Methodist collection is composed of conference and district records, individual church histories, records of active and abandoned churches and ministers papers including diaries of circuit riding preachers. Special Collections Located with the Archives since 1987, the special collections include Methodist publications, faculty and alumni publications, state and local history, the Governor James C. Whitcomb Library, Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame Records, Society of Professional Journalists Records, Audrey Knowlton World War Pamphlets and the Brett Harte first editions collection. Certain books of high monetary value, in poor condition or representing early printing history are also part of special collections. The purpose of preserving resources in the Archives and Special Collections is to make them available to researchers interested in DePauw University, the United Methodist Church and the special collections.