MSS 986 AV National Normal

              MSS 986 AV
National Normal University Records
Page 1
OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Manuscripts/Audiovisual Collections
MSS 986 AV
National Normal University Records
1860-1955
OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION
Number: MSS 986 AV
Title: National Normal University Records
Creator: Assembled by Warren County Museum
and the Ohio Historical Society
Dates: 1860-1955
Media: Records, photographs
Quantity: 6 cubic feet, 13 oversized volumes
Location: Ohio Historical Center
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE COLLECTION
The National Normal University was located in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio. In 1855, the
Holbrook family took over the buildings of the Lebanon Academy and chartered the
Southwestern Ohio Normal School. In 1870, the name of the institution was changed to
National Normal School, in 1881 to National Normal University, and in 1907 to Lebanon
University. In 1917, the institution was absorbed by Wilmington College.
During its peak in the 1880s, the enrollment at this institution exceeded 2,000 students, with 800
to 1,000 students registered for each ten-week term. At this time, the National Normal
University included a teachers’ college and colleges of business, engineering, liberal arts, law,
medicine and theology, along with a conservatory of music, and schools of fine arts, telegraphy,
phonography, typewriting, pharmacy, modern languages, and photography.
During the period from 1855 to 1895, the teaching staff was dominated by the Holbrook family.
Much of the teaching was conducted by R. Heber Holbrook, Ph.D., son the president. The
school graduated its first students in 1864, after struggling with limited enrollment during the
Civil War. By 1875, the school had a collegiate department with classic and scientific courses of
study, a teacher’s department, a business department and an engineering department with a
total enrollment of 1,576 for the year. The library contained 2,000 volumes and there was a
faculty of eighteen. By 1886, departments of law, medicine, shorthand, typing, pharmacy, and
photography had been added, with a corresponding expansion in the faculty to thirty-five
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