Collection Summary
Information for Researchers
Biography
Scope and Content
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Benjamin Ide Wheeler Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1854-1927
Collection Number: BANC MSS C-B 1044
Creator: Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, 1854-1927
Extent:
Number of containers: 11 boxes, 2 cartons, 1 portfolio, 1 oversize folder and 1 volume
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Personal correspondence of the President of the University of California; his writings and speeches (Mss. and printed); genealogical
material on the Wheeler and Ide families; and clippings relating mainly to the University of California, 1912-1913.
A small group of papers of his father, Benjamin Wheeler, is included.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Benjamin Ide Wheeler papers, BANC MSS C-B 1044, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Biography
Benjamin ide Wheeler, Greek scholar, philologist and president of the University of California, was born July 15, 1854 at
Randolph, Massachusetts. He attended Thornton Academy and Colby Academy prior to entering Brown University. Upon his graduation
in 1875, he taught in Providence High School for two years, then became a tutor at Brown from 1879 to 1881. He continued his
studies in Germany, at Leipzig, Heidelberg, Jena and Berlin from 1881 to 1885, obtaining his doctorate, summa cum laude, at
Heidelberg in 1885. After travelling in Greece during the spring and summer of 1885, he went to Harvard as instructor in German
and Latin. In 1886 he accepted a professorship at Cornell, teaching Greek and comparative philology, and publishing many related
articles. In 1895 he was a member of the staff of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Wheeler turned down tempting offers from Colgate University and other schools to accept the presidency of the young University
of California in 1899. This post he held until his resignation twenty years later in 1919, having seen the University expand
in students, staff and physical structure. After his retirement, he resumed his teaching career, and in 1920 travelled to
Japan as a member of a commission appointed by the Board of Trade on the Pacific Coast to attempt to strengthen relationships
between Japan and the United States. Wheeler died in 1927.
Included among his publications are:
Alexander the Great;
Dionysus and Immortality;
The Greek Noun Accent; and
Introduction to the Study of Language.
Scope and Content
The papers, transferred to the Bancroft Library from Archives in March 1966, consist mainly of personal correspondence prior
to and during his presidency of the University of California; some of his writings and speeches (manuscript and printed);
miscellaneous subject files relating for the most part to academic life; correspondence and papers relating to the genealogy
of the Ide and Wheeler families; and clippings, mainly from 1912 and 1913, concerning the University of California.
Note
Note: The Bulk of Wheeler's Personal Papers were Destroyed in Berkeley Fire of Sep. 1923.
A key to the arrangement of the papers follows.