Perry Greeley Holden collection

Record Group

Identifier: UA-17.26

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Holden Memoirs, which were printed in a scrapbook format, includes photographs, genealogies, and reproductions of correspondence, certificates and news clippings. The collection also includes a glass portrait of a woman in a wooden box.

There are also materials donated by a niece of Perry G. Holden including a photo album of car trips that Perry Holden and his wife, Carrie, took with Perry's brother, Ellsworth. They drove from Chicago to Wisconsin, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Oregon. Included are photographs of Wisconsin, South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park, Shoshone Dam, animals at Columbia Gardens in Butte, Montana, redwood trees, Mount Rainer, Canyon Beach, Oregon, a dinosaur quarry in Utah, Garden of the Gods, as well as images of them car camping. There are also images from another trip in 1935 which include the Badlands and Wisconsin Dells. Also donated by Holden's niece is a larger image of Ellsworth Holden with grizzly bears that was taken on the car trip.

Dates

Creation: 1891 - 1959

Creator

Holden, P. G. (Perry Greeley), 1865-1959 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material from this collection must be obtained from University Archives & Historical Collections, Michigan State University.

Biographical Note

Perry Greeley Holden (1865-1959) was an educator, farmer and scholar in the field of agriculture. He grew up in Almira, Benzie County, Michigan. Holden graduated from Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in 1889 and received his M.S. in 1895. He received his Bachelor of Pedagogy degree in 1894 from Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) and a Master of Pedagogy from the same institution in 1904. From August 1889 to May 1893, Holden was the Assistant Agriculturist to the Experiment Station at M.A.C. He was also a Commissioner of Schools for Benzie County from 1894-1895; Professor of Science at Benzonia College from 1894-1895; Assistant Professor of Agricultural Physics at the University of Illinois from September of 1896-1900; and Superintendent in the Agricultural Department of Illinois Sugar Refining Co. As of 1911 he was the Superintendent of the Extension Department of Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) in Ames, Iowa. By 1930 he was Field Director of the Agricultural Extension Department for International Harvester Company.