Berlin B. Chapman Papers
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 2229
The Berlin B. Chapman Papers consists of postcards, photographs, books, and manuscript materials documenting Chapman’s personal life and professional career. The bulk of the collection pertains to materials related to education, including Chapman’s own academic experiences as well as the history of educational institutions and the teaching profession in Marion County and central West Virginia.
A substantial portion of the collection pertains to Webster Springs High School, Fairmont State College, Glenville State College, and West Virginia University. These materials include institutional records, correspondence, and publications that reflect both local and regional educational history.
The collection also contains personal papers, including grade reports, teaching certificates, and correspondence, which provide insight into Chapman’s life and career as an educator.
Box 11 contains the Central Loving West Virginia Literary Association Loving Cup, a trophy exchanged among high schools which participated in contests sponsored by the Central West Virginia Literary Association between 1917 and 1923. Webster Springs High School won the permanent rights to the cup in 1923.
Box 12 is a microfilm copy of a scrapbook outlining the history of college debating in West Virginia, 1933-1941. The scrapbook was prepared by Dr. Chapman and the Fairmont State College debate teams.
Box 14 is a microfilm copy of "One Family in the Twentieth Century." (ADD 1988 May 31)
The collection includes multiple addenda accrued between 1974 and 1996.
No special access restriction applies.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Berlin Basil Chapman was born in 1900 in Webster Springs, West Virginia. Chapman attended elementary and high school in Webster Springs before attending Glenville Normal School in 1922, then earning a A.B. from West Virginia University in 1924, an M.A. from Harvard University in 1927, and a Ph.D. in History from University of Wisconsin in 1931. From 1927 to 1930, he served on the history faculty at Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University, OSU). His dissertation, titled "Federal Management of Lands of Oklahoma Territory, 1865–1907," was published in 1979.
In the 1930s, he taught economics at State Teachers' College, Fairmont, West Virginia, but he returned to OSU in 1941 and remained there through 1966. Champan was a member the American Historical Association, Phi Alpha Theta, and the Society of American Historians. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Historical Society's Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame in 1993. B. B. Chapman died on February 6, 1995, in Orlando, Florida.
5.2 Linear Feet (6 document cases, 5 in. each; 1 record carton, 15 in.; 4 flat storage boxes, 3 in. each; 1 oversize folder, 0.1 in. total.; 3 reels of microfilm, 1.75 in. each )
English
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / URL: West Virginia & Regional History Center
Gift from Chapman, Berlin Basil, 1972-1996.
Original scrapbook is in the Fairmont State College Library.
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository