Wesleyan University Shanklin Hall renovation records

Shanklin Laboratory at Wesleyan University was originally built in the late 1920s, finished in 1928. The funds for the building were donated by the friends of late University president William Arnold Shanklin, and its construction was part of a 1.25 million dollar building initiative on campus. The Shanklin renovation initiative (beginning in 1963) was a result of the University’s decision to increase the size of the student body by 510, and to put a greater emphasis on scientific research and competitive science programming. Additionally, the University was pushing forward a huge building plan for the new Science Center (renamed Exley Science Center in 2002), which broke ground in 1965. The Shanklin renovations were completed in pieces; most phases were done room by room as funds became available. Accordingly, many of the papers in this collection are correspondence between individual professors and administrators lobbying for personal offices and labs to be renovated and updated. A summary of all renovations completed year-by-year can be found in Folder 17 (Subseries 5.1: Planning Correspondence).