8/6/820 Guide to the Perry G. Holden Memoir Perry G. Holden Memoir

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Guide to the Perry G. Holden Memoir 1944 University of Illinois Archives Overview of the Collection Perry G. Holden Memoir 1944 8/6/820 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Department of Crop Sciences 0.40 English University of Illinois Archives
19 Library 1408 W. Gregory Dr. Urbana, IL, URL: http://archives.library.illinois.edu Email: illiarch@illinois.edu Phone: (217) 333-0798 Fax: (217) 333-2868

Other Information:

0 Pages

Historical Note:

The Agronomy Department was established in 1899 as a division of the College of Agriculture.1 The department is concerned with the utilizing of fertile soils to their fullest advantage, and with bettering the social and economic position of the owner and tiller of the soil.2

On May 11, 1995, the Board of Trustees approved the renaming and reorganization of the College. It was renamed the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and several changes were made in the organization of departments and divisions.3 The Department of Agronomy, except for soil scientists, was combined with the Department of Plant Pathology to create the Department of Crop Sciences.4 The Department's areas of study are plant breeding and genetics, biotechnology and genetic engineering, crop evaluation, crop protection, plant pathology, design of field experiments, weeds and their control, and production and pathology of cereals, corn, soybeans, and forage crops.5 Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees are available through graduate study and course work.6

1. Richard G. Moores, Fields of Rich Toil, (Urbana: 1970), p. 235. n. 33 and p. 222. Board of Trustees Transactions, 20th Report, August 16, 1899, p. 140. See also Through the Years with the Department of Agronomy, Special Publication No. 1, University of Illinois College of Agriculture, May, 1960, p. 6.

2. Through the Years with the Department with the Department of Agronomy, p. 7.

3. Board of Trustees Transactions, 68th Report, May 11, 1995, p. 277-8.

4. University of Illinois, Faculty and Student Senate, Urbana-Champaign Senate, meeting minutes, March 27, 1995, EP 94.33, p. 35.

5. Programs of Study 2001-2003, p. 46.

6. Ibid., p. 221.

Access Terms

This Collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Topical Term: Agricultural Education Corn Funk Brothers Seed Company Illinois Farmers Institute International Harvester Iowa State University Michigan State University Sugar Beets
Administrative Information Accruals:

September 1963

Arrangement of Materials:

Chronologically with family history at beginning and end

Scope and Contents

Illustrated personal memoir by Perry G. Holden (1865-1959), assistant professor of soil physics and professor of agronomy (1896-1900), including reproductions of letters, photographs, magazine articles, documents, reminiscences, charts and manuscripts relating to Holden's family and career. As a "corn evangelist", "corn disciple" and "apostle of vitalized educations", he advocated corn selection and germination testing, sugar best culture and agricultural education. From Michigan State, Holden worked closely with Eugene Davenport in lobbying for an $150,000 agricultural building and an appropriation for the College of Agriculture. In a reminiscence he recounts his strategy in mobilizing the Farmers Institute and agricultural leaders in a struggle with President Andrew S. Draper. Holden helped increase agricultural enrollment by securing Farmers Institute scholarships and thwarting the president's plan for an agricultural high school. An able organizer, promoter and partisan, Holden left Illinois to promote sugar beet culture, assist the Funk Brothers Seed Co., develop the Extension Department at Iowa State through "Corn Gospel Trains" and serve as director of International Harvester's Agricultural Extension Department. The memoir contains a copy of Holden's 72-page booklet, "Young Folks, Do Something, Be Somebody."