Finding Aid
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Papers of Silas Totten Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department. Copyright: Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials. Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement. Acquisition and Processing Information: These papers were transferred to the University Archives by the Office of the President; date unknown. Guide posted to the Internet December 2006. Photographs: |
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Biographical Note
Silas Totten served as the second president of the State University of Iowa, from 1859 to 1862.
The outlook for the future of the university was very discouraging when Totten assumed the presidency. The treasury was empty, most courses were temporarily closed, land sales to raise funds were not proceeding as expected, and tensions leading to the Civil War were mounting. Amid these difficulties, the university’s Board of Trustees elected Totten and requested that he prepare a new plan of organization for the institution. For the first time, the university developed independent departments, each with its own distinct classes and course of study.
Like his predecessor, Amos Dean, Totten graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York. In 1833, he was ordained as an Episcopal minister and joined the faculty of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, becoming its president in 1841. From 1841 until moving to Iowa City in 1859, he was a member of the faculty at William and Mary College in Virginia.
Totten had publicly expressed sympathy with the South during the Civil War, prompting angry local reaction. In 1862 a pro-Union crowd pursued his son, a university student also sympathetic to the Confederacy. Totten’s son escaped, never to return again. The incident caused Totten to resign on August 19 of that year. Totten returned to the ministry in Illinois, and, later, Kentucky.
Totten was born on March 26, 1804, in Scoharie County, New York. He died on October 7, 1873, at age 69.
[D. McCartney, 12/2006]
Related Materials
Catalogs of the University, 1859-1862 (RG 01.08)
Records of the Board of Trustees and Board of Regents, 1847-1909 (RG 04.01)
Manuscript File Collection (RG 01.01.01)
Box Contents List
Publications; 0.25 ft.
