Eben Mumford papers

Record Group

Identifier: UA-17.91

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers of Eben Mumford contain case notes, data, and manuscripts of rural communities and land utilization studies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Professional correspondence, research data, manuscripts, research notes from the agriculture experiment station, standard of living in Michigan projects, the rural church project, and Michigan school districts are also found in Mumford’s papers. Also included are class notes, possibly from classes Mumford taught.

The collection also contains images (both photograph prints and glass negatives) of rural scenes including fields, crops, plowing with horses, and people, mostly identified in Michigan. There are a few postcards of West Branch, Michigan.

Dates

Creation: 1915 - 1940

Creator

Mumford, Eben (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

Eben Mumford was born in Ohio. He received his B.S. from Buchtel College (later Akron College) and, in 1906, a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. From 1912 to 1921, he was the state leader of the County Agricultural Agents in Michigan for Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) Cooperative Extension. From 1922 to 1923, he taught agricultural economics. He helped to form the Michigan State Farm Bureau as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 1924, Mumford helped organize the department of sociology at M.A.C. and was appointed professor and head of the department in 1924. He retired on September 1, 1938 and died on October 17, 1942.

(Source: History of Agriculture Economics department web page by Elton B. Hill)