University of Mississippi Registrar Letters

In February 2003, the University of Mississippi’s Office of the Registrar transferred thirteen ledgers to the Department of Archives and Special Collections. Dr. Charlotte Fant, the University Registrar, agreed that the ledgers needed to be housed in more suitable conditions due to their age and state of deterioration.

This volume is the University of Mississippi, President’s Registrar of Applications for Admission, 1856-1861, 1895-1901. The ledger list contains the date the application was received, the name of the applicant, the name of the correspondent, information on the correspondent’s relation to the applicant, the post office, for which grade applied, to which admitted, and a general remarks section.

Three Presidents and Five Chancellors

On Line 101 in the general remarks section of the President’s Register is written “left by advice of the Chancellor.” Three men held the title of President of the University of Mississippi before the title changed to Chancellor. George H. Holmes, a native of British Guiana (1848-1849), Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, a lawyer and Methodist minister (1849-1856), and Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (1856-1861).

The change in title from President to Chancellor occurred under Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard who proposed the change. Barnard was dismissed in 1861 as the Civil War erupted, and a gap in recordings in this ledger reflects the university’s closure until 1865.

With Barnard, this ledger holds the registrar records under five Chancellors. Barnard’s successor, John Newton Waddel, was a charter member of the Board of Trustees who served as chancellor from 1865-1872. Alexander P. Stewart (1874-1886) served in the confederacy and is credited with leading the movement to admit women; Edward Mayes (1886-1892) took the position as the first native Mississippian and alumnus to lead the University of Mississippi; and Robert Fulton (1892-1906) was the second to lead his alma mater. Fulton led the creation of the schools of Engineering, Education, and Medicine.