Calvin University

“College Conduct” at Calvin in the 1920s

“College Conduct” at Calvin in the 1920s

Some of the Calvin College students in the cover image of this post look like they could be rascals; one or two look studious. There were troublemakers of various sorts on campus in the 1920s and 1930s, as at pretty much any school. But what […]

Sadie Roelofs and Women Students at Calvin in the 1920s and 1930s

Sadie Roelofs and Women Students at Calvin in the 1920s and 1930s

In November 1928 Sadie Roelofs set off a “November Revolution.” Editor-in-chief of the Calvin College student newspaper, Chimes, she criticized apathy among students and implied the same about faculty, all in a short editorial entitled “Self-Satisfaction.” Other Chimes writers followed her lead. One urged toleration […]

Architecture and Philosophy on Calvin’s Campus

Architecture and Philosophy on Calvin’s Campus

This blog post summarizes, excerpts, and links to a story done by Chimes, the student newspaper at Calvin University. The Chimes story is based on a summer research project done by student researchers Gabby Freshly and Natalie Sytsma and supervised by art history professor Craig […]

Counting Presidents

Counting Presidents

Dr. Wiebe Boer is the __________ president of Calvin University. a) Second b) Tenth c) Eleventh d) Twelfth The answer to the multiple-choice question is trickier than you might think. Anyone who tells you that facts are facts is half wrong. The answer depends less […]

The Rivals – The Origins of Basketball at Calvin

The Rivals – The Origins of Basketball at Calvin

While researching the origins of the Calvin-Hope men’s basketball rivalry, I was intrigued by references to a group of Calvin students around 1920 who played basketball under the name “The Rivals.” Who were these guys? Who were they rivals for (if anyone)? And was the […]

A Hausa Boy at Heart – Calvin University’s New President

A Hausa Boy at Heart – Calvin University’s New President

A significant number of students at Calvin University are “third-culture kids” (TCKs). Calvin’s newly-appointed president, Wiebe Boer, is one of them. Boer will be inaugurated this Fall, succeeding Michael le Roy who served as president since 2012. Many TCKs at Calvin are also “missionary kids” […]

Archival Work and Oddities

Archival Work and Oddities

When Dr. Katerberg, the curator of the archives, asked me to write a blog post about what I do here at Heritage Hall, he suggested I use a restaurant analogy, with a ‘front-of-house’ and ‘back-of-house’ divide. I’ve waited tables in past summers, and I’ve gotten […]

From Collecting Postcards to Working in an Archive

From Collecting Postcards to Working in an Archive

When I was a child, my cousin sent me a postcard from Peru, where he was working at the time. It wasn’t the first postcard I’d received, but it was the one that sparked in me an interest in collecting postcards from around the world, […]

Chimes and American Violence 50 Years Ago

Chimes and American Violence 50 Years Ago

This week I thought it might be interesting to see what was being discussed 50 years ago in Chimes, the student newspaper of Calvin College, now Calvin University. As I scanned the 5 March 1971 issue of Chimes, several articles caught my eye. Two stories […]

Training Teachers

Training Teachers

I don’t train teachers, at least not in the way the education department and the history and social studies education majors do. But this week I’ve been thinking about training teachers. I’m teaching the capstone course in the history major, and history education and social […]