Whitman College Museum records, 1931-1997

The first museum at Whitman College was located in Gentleman's Hall (more commonly known as North Hall and now replaced by Stanton Hall) in 1888, which also housed a science laboratory and served as a temporary residential building for male students. Wanting a history of Whitman College to be written, Penrose called upon residents to donate material and proposed that retired Professor William Lyman would write it. Regrettably, the skilled local historian died in 1920, so Penrose decided that he and Professor Walter Eells would take on the task. Unfortunately, the urgency of other responsibilities delayed Penrose's plan until 1935. However, although the president failed to get the college a written history in the 1920s, he did promote and expand the school's museum through methods like requesting donations to collections. One of the museum's significant collections, which was managed by the museum and the college, was the Myron Eells Indian Collection housed in Memorial Hall. The collection, now housed in the archives, includes articles, books, manuscripts, correspondence, speeches, sermons, and another small collection relating to the Whitman mission. Today, Whitman College's main museum entity is the historic Maxey Museum, which started in 1899 and houses a collection of approximately 3,500 historical artifacts, with exhibitions designed and curated by students and managed by the museum director. Together with the Whitman College and Northwest Archive and the Sheehan Galley, the Maxey Museum forms part of the college's overall collection, which includes natural history specimens, historical documents, rare books, and art.