The records of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club (MSC) provide a good source of information about current educational issues in the period from 1886 to 1969. The collection has been arranged into three series: Historical/Background Files, Administrative Records, and Correspondence.
The Michigan Schoolmaster' Club was founded in 1886 at the University of Michigan when a group of forward thinking "schoolmen" gathered together to discuss the feasibility of forming a teacher's club with the purpose of extending and improving the professional relationship between educators on the secondary and collegiate levels. Among those who encouraged and participated in the formation of this group were James B. Angell and John Dewey.
For the first seven years of its existence, meetings of the Schoolmasters' Club were held three times a year. As this arrangement became impractical, it was agreed that one meeting a year would suffice. These annual meetings were held on the campus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor until 1969, with the only break being the year 1945 when permission for the meeting was refused by the federal government. The format for the annual meeting was consistent: general sessions were held in the morning and a variety of conferences on specific academic subjects were held in the afternoon. Speakers for the general sessions were local and national figures in the field of education. The club published the proceedings of the annual meeting in its journal from 1894 onward.
In 1965 and 1968, the Schoolmasters' Club undertook the planning of a series of "Articulation Workshops" which were held at various junior and community colleges in Michigan. The aim of these workshops was to identify problems common to secondary and collegiate level educators and then to work towards possible solutions.
As attendance at the annual meetings and membership waned in the second half of the century, it became clear that the Schoolmasters' Club would need either to rethink its mission or fade out of existence. Several alternative options were discussed by the executive committee. It was decided in 1969 that remaining funds should be used to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Michigan in the name of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club.
