Access & Use

Biographical Note
Julian Sturtevant Rammelkamp was born in Jacksonville, Illinois on August 4, 1917.  He graduated from Jacksonville High School and attended Illinois College, where he served as freshman class president, editor of the student newspaper, student marshal, and a member of the Sigma Pi Society.  Also, his father was the college president, so he was immersed in an academic environment for many of his early years and quickly became passionate about his studies.

After receiving his A.B. degree from Illinois in 1939, Rammelkamp continued with graduate work at Brown University until 1941, when he left to serve four years in the Army Signal Corps, spending two years in the Panama Canal Zone.  After leaving military life, he began his studies again at Harvard University, earning his M.A. in 1947, and teaching and tutoring in the History department there for three more years.  In 1961 he earned a Harvard Ph.D.

After working as a newspaper reporter and high school teacher in the early 1950s, Rammelkamp joined the History department at Albion College in 1954.  His career at Albion was distinguished by his work as Pre-Law advisor for the majority of his tenure, his post as department chair from 1975 to 1983, and his challenging classes in British and American constitutional, social and urban history.  He inspired and encouraged countless students, corresponding with many for years after their time at Albion was over.

Dr. Rammelkamp also evaluated proposals for the National Endowment for the Humanities and conducted extensive research in the field of American journalism history.  He had articles published in many journals and encyclopedias, and his book, Pulitzer’s Post-Dispatch: 1878 – 1883, is considered a standard text in his field.

Two endowed scholarships in History exist to honor Dr. Rammelkamp’s contributions to Albion: the Julian S. Rammelkamp Award in American History and the Julian S. Rammelkamp Junior Scholarship in History.  One was begun in 1982 by an anonymous donor, and the other was established upon his retirement in 1984.

Dr. Rammelkamp died on August 24, 1994, survived by his wife, Mabel, and their sons.

Scope & Content
The Papers of Dr. Julian Rammelkamp are made up of six series: Lecture Notes, Graduate Notes and Documents, Correspondence, Class Materials, Recommendations, and Miscellaneous.

The Lecture Notes series can be found in Box 1 of the collection.  It consists of 14 folders of handwritten notes, used for Rammelkamp’s lectures as a professor of history at Albion College.  The notes cover various areas of British and American history and political science: some examples include History 309 – Diplomatic History, U.S. Social and Cultural History 1607-1860, and Great Britain in the Twentieth Century.  These notes were used and continually revised and updated by Rammelkamp throughout the late 1960s, 70s and early 80s. 

The Graduate Notes and Documents series is located in Folders 1-15 of Box 2.  This series encompasses Rammelkamp’s graduate career as a student and tutor in Harvard’s history department in the late 1940s.  It contains Rammelkamp’s handwritten notes from classes and reading material, departmental exam sheets, class syllabi and related documents. 

The third series, Correspondence, is also located in Box 2, in folders 16-21.  These documents represent some of Rammelkamp’s personal and professional notes and letters.  From reminders on scrap paper to an extended correspondence with Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. for research purposes, this series covers many areas of formal and informal communication between Rammelkamp and others.

The Recommendations series is divided alphabetically into the last five folders, 21-26, of Box 2.  These folders contain correspondence, documentation and records relating to letters of recommendation that Rammelkamp wrote for his students and colleagues throughout the 1970s and 80s, along with the letters themselves.

The Class Materials series consists of exam and assignment sheets for classes taught by Rammelkamp, student papers, blue books, and class rosters, and can be found in folders1-8 of Box 3. Copies of the exam/assignment sheets comprise the bulk of this series, arranged in five folders by discipline and numbered class level. 

Miscellaneous papers comprise the last series in the collection.  These can be found in folders 9-12, Box 3.  In this series are news clippings, pictures and photos, photocopies of selected pages of books or journals, assorted historical publications relating to Illinois, and a “Readings in Legal History” course pack. 
 

Inventory