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Special Collections and Archives

Kiwanis Club of Kent, Ohio

Kiwanis Club of Kent, Ohio records, 1925-1975 (bulk 1950-1975)

Inventory prepared by Merritt Donaghy, April 23, 1976
2 record storage boxes, 1.5 cubic feet

This material is housed in a climate-controlled facility off-site and requires advance notice for retrieval. Please request this material at least 24 hours prior to your visit by contacting the Department of Special Collections and Archives.

Scope and Content

On November 24, 1975 Mr. Foster Brooks donated a copy of the 50-Year History, 1925-1975, Kiwanis Club of Kent, Ohio to the American History Research Center. The initial gift was followed by the donation of the remainder of the records on February 20, 1976. In addition to these materials, the collection contains the Kiwanis Club lecturn used in meetings from 1926 through 1975 and three banners from the old Kent State Normal School.

The bulk of the collection pertains to the Kent Club and includes meeting minutes, bulletins, publications, correspondence, and membership lists. Three folders of material from Kiwanis International, as well as the folders containing the various reports submitted regularly by the Kent Club to the International body, and communications from the larger organization filed in the correspondence folders, reveal the relationship maintained between parent and local clubs in a widespread service organization of this kind. Additional folders pertaining to Ohio District and divisional groups and respective of correspondence show also how Kiwanis operates on the state level.

The materials of the collection have been organized first topically according to type of material and then chronologically with the major divisions in Box 1 being published histories; minutes; correspondence; membership and officer lists; reports submitted to Kiwanis International; Kent club committee reports; financial papers, including Preventorium materials; and various miscellaneous categories. Besides the Preventorium folder the only exeption to topical arrangement is folder 35 in Box 1 which contains, along with entry-date membership lists, xerox copies of 1925 and 1926 Membership reports sent to Kent Kiwanis from the International office in connection with their 50th anniversary, and also several items of correspondence relating to that occasion. In Box 2 are arranged Kent Kiwanis bulletins, materials pertaining to Kiwanis International, Ohio District and divisional groups, other local Kiwanis clubs, and, finally, publications of non-Kiwanis organizations. Xerox copies of newspaper clippings have been placed at the end of the collection. Photographs, marked (av) in the inventory, have been removed to the audio-visual file.

Two items of correspondence dated 1953 are restricted until 2025. Researchers may obtain access to them before that time, however, by securing the written permission of the president of the Kent Kiwanis Club.

Historical Note

Although the Kent Kiwanis Club was organized in 1925 the records in this collection, mostly correspondence, minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors, reports submitted to Kiwanis International and the Kent club's own weekly bulletins, cover the club's activities from the 1950s with some material from the 1940s. At the head of the collection the researcher will also find the 50-Year History, a summary of the club's activities and accomplishments. It traces, for example, from the first year the progress of plans to establish the Portage County Preventorium, a summer camp for underprivileged children. This project, initiated, for a long time maintained and always largely supported by Kent Kiwanians, operated from 1928 until 1974. Club support of the Preventorium is evidenced throughout the records, but letters, documents and receipts pertaining to the rental of the property, as well as a brief history of the project have been placed in a separate folder. The 50-Year History notes another major project undertaken by the club in 1970, the establishment of Camp Spelman, a general recreational facility.

Folder -- Contents

Box 1

  1. Histories of the Kiwanis Club of Kent, 1925-1955 and 1925-1975.
  2. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1940 and undated.
  3. Minutes, Board of Directors, May 12, 1949.
  4. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1950.
  5. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1951 and undated.
  6. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1952.
  7. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1953.
  8. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1954.
  9. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1955.
  10. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1956.
  11. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1957.
  12. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1958.
  13. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1959 and undated.
  14. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1960.
  15. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1961.
  16. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1962.
  17. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1963 and undated.
  18. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1965.
  19. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1966.
  20. Minutes, Board of Directors, 1967.
  21. Correspondence, April 25, 1940 - October 3, 1949.
  22. Correspondence, January 16, 1950 - December 6, 1950 and undated.
  23. Correspondence, March 8, 1951 - November 20, 1952.
  24. Correspondence, january 15, 1953 - december 31, 1953 and dated.
  25. Correspondence, January 18, 1954 - November 17, 1955 and undated.
  26. Correspondence, February 27, 1956 - December 18, 1958 and undated.
  27. Correspondence, January 28, 1959 - December 7, 1959 and undated.
  28. Correspondence, march 10, 1960 - December 27, 1961 and dated.
  29. Correspondence, January 19, 1962 - December 27, 1962 and undated.
  30. Correspondence, January 3, 1963 - November 7, 1963 and undated.
  31. Correspondence, June 7, 1965 - November 23, 1966 and undated.
  32. Correspondence, January 3, 1967 - October 31, 1967.
  33. Correspondence, October 8, 1971 - September 18, 1975 and undated.
  34. Membership lists, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1963, and Membership Directory, 1974-75.
  35. Membership lists giving entry dates; xerox copies of Membership Reports for 1925 and 1926; and correspondence relating to the 50th anniversary.
  36. Miscellaneous attendance records.
  37. Miscellaneous applications for memebership.
  38. Miscellaneous materials pertaining to membership.
  39. Miscellaneous Certificates of Election of Delegates to District and International conventions.
  40. Miscellaneous committee and officer lists.
  41. Miscellaneous nomination and election lists for Board of Directors.
  42. Annual reports: Committee Chairmen, 1951-1953, 1956, 1959, 1961-1963, 1966, 1967.
  43. Annual reports: Club Elections, 1950-1952, 1954-1956, 1959-1962, 1966, 1967.
  44. Monthly and Semi-Annual Reports: Membership and Activity Reports, 1950, 1951, 1953-1956 (for 1925 and 1926 see folder 35); also Activity Surveys, 1953, 1954.
  45. Monthly Reports and Quarterly Achievement Reports, 1960-1963, 1965-1967.
  46. Annual Achievement Reports, 1949, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1961-1963, 1965, 1966 (for instructions on preparing 1940 Report see Box 2, folder 29).
  47. Miscellaneous committee reports, including Nominating Committee reports, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1968.
  48. Miscellaneous Education Committee materials.
  49. Treasure's reports, 1950-1965 and undated (incomplete).
  50. Budgets, 1940, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1966, 1975-76.
  51. Financial records pertaining to dues and subscriptions owed and paid to Kiwanis International -- miscellaneous (see also correspondence, December 10, 1965).
  52. Miscellaneous bills and receipts.
  53. Miscellaneous materials pertaining to the Portage County Preventorium.
  54. Miscellaneous items pertaining to the Bylaws.
  55. Programs and tickets for 40th and 25th anniversaries.
  56. Miscellaneous papers, and two anniversary buttons "1915-1965."

Box 2

  1. Bulletins: January 3, 1940.
  2. Bulletins: 1950.
  3. Bulletins: 1951.
  4. Bulletins: December 27, 1953 and January 31 and May 2, 1954.
  5. Bulletins: 1955.
  6. Bulletins: 1956.
  7. Bulletins: December 29, 1957.
  8. Bulletins: 1958.
  9. Bulletins: 1959.
  10. Bulletins: 1960.
  11. Bulletins: 1961.
  12. Bulletins: 1962.
  13. Bulletins: 1963.
  14. Bulletins: 1964.
  15. Bulletins: 1965.
  16. Bulletins: 1966.
  17. Bulletins: 1967.
  18. Bulletins: 1968.
  19. Bulletins: 1969.
  20. Bulletins: 1970.
  21. Bulletins: 1971.
  22. Bulletins: 1972.
  23. Bulletins: 1973 (missing January)
  24. Bulletins: 1974.
  25. Bulletins: 1975 (incomplete)
  26. Bulletins: January 8, 15, and 29, 1976.
  27. Kiwanis International: miscellaneous officer lists, news releases, speeches, programs.
  28. Kiwanis International: miscellaneous publications: Magazine, Quarterly and Bulletins.
  29. Kiwanis International: annual reports, 1951, 1964, 1966; and miscellaneous pamphlets, flyers and directives.
  30. Ohio District Kiwanis: officer and committee lists, 1951-1956, 1966; minutes, 1940; Bulletins, 1940, 1951, 1965, 1966; miscellaneous Monthly Action Reports; "The Ohio Plan" 1950; and miscellaneous programs, notices, etc.
  31. Ohio District Kiwanis, 11th Division: miscellaneous publications, officer lists, etc.
  32. Ohio District Kiwanis, 20th Division: miscellaneous materials
  33. Miscellaneous officer lists, bulletins, etc. of the Kiwanis clubs of Ravenna, Akron, Portage Lakes, Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio, and of Hollywood, California and Hollywood, Florida.
  34. Miscellaneous publications of non-Kiwanis Organizations, including: the Wally Taber Safari Show; Kent Jaycees; Kent Chamber of Commerce; and Avenues to Kent Progress, published by the National Association of Real Estate Boards.
  35. Xerox copies of miscellaneous newspaper clippings: 1951, 1962, 1963.
  36. Three photographs: 1962, 1975 and 1974 or 75.
  37. Restricted materials have been placed in a special file.