James Gordon McDowell Papers
James Gordon McDowell, a German and European history professor, joined WFU's history department in 1965 and was active in the University community. This collection contains evidence of McDowell's professional work, with a small amount of personal correspondence. Materials include bibliographies and reading lists, budgets, correspondence, course readings, examinations, lectures, meeting minutes, memorandums, and syllabuses. Some items date to McDowell's graduate school career.
Biographical and Historical Note
James Gordon McDowell, a WFU German and European history professor, was born April 25, 1930. He received a bachelor's degree from Colgate University and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins Univerity, where he studied German and European history and politics. He joined WFU's history department in 1965. Aside from his professorship, McDowell was active in the University community. He chaired the Committee on Institutional Planning and sat on many others, ran National History Day competitions on campus, and founded the undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages and German Studies programs at WFU.
McDowell was reported missing during a medical leave on November 1, 1982, and was presumed to have been distressed after his wife, Hannelore, passed away unexpectedly in 1981; he was found deceased under his home in Winston-Salem in early 1983. James and Hannelore were survived by one son. Today, the WFU History Department's James Gordon McDowell History Fund financially supports campus guest speakers and the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society.
Collection Overview
This collection contains evidence of McDowell's professional work, with a small amount of personal correspondence. Materials include bibliographies and reading lists, budgets, correspondence, course readings, examinations, lectures, meeting minutes, memorandums, and syllabuses. Some items date to McDowell's graduate school career.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by Immanuel Eggers, Olivia Field, and Stephanie Bennett, 2021 January
- Access Restrictions
- The collection is open for use with some restrictions: graduate student materials are open to access but will not be available for digitization until 75 years after creation.
- Copyright Notice
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- James Gordon McDowell Papers (MS371), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.