Scholarship Letters, 1995 - 1996

The Frederick L. Hemke Papers fill 13 boxes, spanning the years 1962 to 2004, with the bulk of the material dating between 1990 and 2000. The Papers document Hemke's career at Northwestern, focusing on his administrative and teaching roles in the School of Music, and his service as representative to the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA.

The Papers consist mainly of correspondence, and fall into three basic categories: biographical materials, School of Music files, and Northwestern University Athletics materials. School of Music files include correspondence (general, students, faculty, administration), materials relating to other NU committees aside from athletics, and publications. Athletics files include subject files and files relating specifically to the Big Ten Conference and to the NCAA. For the most part, the papers are arranged alphabetically within series or subseries, with a chronological arrangement within the folders.

Biographical Materials include faculty information sheets, biographical sketches, and curricula vitae; newspaper clippings, press releases, and recital announcements.

School of Music - General Correspondence contains personal correspondence with other faculty, staff, alumni, former, current, and prospective students, other saxophone performers, judges, and critics, with outside teaching opportunities, with the companies for whom he worked as a consultant, and with personal friends. Since Hemke attached letters received to the copies of his outgoing letters, both sides of the conversations are represented here. The bulk of this material dates from 1986 through 1996. The material in this subseries is arranged chronologically.

School of Music - Faculty and Staff Files include general files on class loads for professors from 1971 through 1999, doctoral council decisions, faculty biographies, awards, and part-time faculty, and Hemke's nomination for Professor of the Year.class.

School of Music - Faculty and Staff Correspondence consists of professional correspondence with individual faculty and staff of the School of Music, primarily reflecting Hemke's roles on various committees, such as the Committee for Review and Tenure, and later, from his role as associate dean. Materials are foldered by the name of the individual faculty or staff member, and include curricula vitae, review and/or tenure committee decisions, student evaluations of instructors and professors, salary and/or retirement package information and letters to the administration regarding instructors.

School of Music - Alumni and Students Files, dating mostly between1995 and 1998, are comprised of information on student scholarships and other awards, graduate assistantships, lists of graduates of the School of Music, scholarship letters, student information forms, and a number of ungraded student papers from the late-1960s through 2000.

School of Music - Administration Files encompass a wide range of material relating both to Hemke's relationship with the administration, and to his own role as a member of the administration. This series documents the day-to-day operations of the School of Music, as well as strategic level. Information on outside productions, such as the String Academy, the Quintet of the Americas residency, the New Music Ensemble, the “Calling America Home” series, and “America Sings” can be found here, as well as internal matters, such as the School of Music Centennial, the Honors Concerts, the Cross School Initiative and the Integrated Arts Curriculum, scheduling and room assignments. There are also materials of a sensitive nature, such as budgets and salary information, and recommendations written by Hemke for students and faculty.

Files on Other Committees document activities in which Hemke participated outside the School of Music, including his service as the Master of the Communications Residential College, and his long-term input into the building and upgrading of undergraduate housing on campus.

Publications consist of two works by Hemke: a primer on the saxophone written for his role as a consultant for a company that produced saxophone-related material; and a short biographical sketch of a Swedish-American musician, written while he was a board member of the Swedish-American Historical Society.

Northwestern University Athletics General Files reflect Hemke's role as the chairman of the Committee on Athletics and Recreation. Included is information on student-athletes, the athletic department and inter-collegiate sports programs, the refurbishment of McGaw Hall in 1981, and the reports of the CAR meetings. The bulk of the material is concentrated in two time periods: 1980-1983, and 1995-2000.

Big Ten Conference Files cover Hemke's role as the Northwestern University faculty representative to the conference. Most of the information that can be found here relate to Conference history and governance, and meetings minutes. However, two areas of additional interest to researchers are the folders that deal with the addition of Penn State to the conference, c. 1990, and the commissioner search in 1998-99.

NCAA files relate to Hemke's role as the Big Ten Conference faculty representative to the NCAA. The primary documents of interest here are those that cover the NCAA's overtaking of the AIAW as the overseer of women's inter-collegiate sports programs, c. 1980-81.

Addition, Boxes 14-18 The addition to the Frederick Hemke Papers, filling five boxes, consists of files relating to Hemke's teaching and administrative work in the School of Music. The bulk of the files is made up of general correspondence, arranged chronologically, and of administrative files, arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically within the folders. In addition, there is a small amount of material relating to faculty and staff and to alumni and students.