Ledgers Collection

This collection consists of over 480 ledgers and a few ledger sheets containing accounts payable and receivable records, student rolls (including records of payment, attendance, and offenses, as well as some grades), time sheets and wages, dormitory records, budgets, and some records of correspondence.

The ledgers dating from 1887 to about 1945 provide rich documentation of the day-to-day operation of the Georgia School of Technology, as it was then called. The ledgers from the earliest years of this time period (1887-1920) are particularly significant, since they represent some of the earliest extant manuscripts produced by Georgia Tech. Many of these ledgers record cash accounts, tuition and fees, and other accounting information (see Board and Fees, Cash and Bill Books, Petty Cash, Expense Accounts, Accounting Ledgers, and Tuition and Fees ledgers). Besides this financial information, the early ledgers contain copies of outgoing correspondence from the shop superintendent from 1888 to 1890 (see [Copies of] Letters Sent - Shops Superintendent), lists of times spent by students on various woodshop projects from 1890 to 1895 (Time Books), lists of students by county or state of origin from 1900 to ca. 1923 (County Books, Student Listings by State), various dormitory records from 1901 to 1909 (see Dormitory), offense and demerit books from ca. 1905 to ca. 1917, absence records from 1903 to 1908, as well as exams and grades from woodshop, textile courses, and other classes from ca. 1889 to ca. 1907 (see Records of Scholarship, Woodshop Apprentice Time/Grades, Textile Grades, Exams, Grade Books). An undated pledge book (tentatively titled the Lyman Hall Pledge Book) also dates from this early period (probably ca. 1900). Early library records are also available (see Catalogues of Accessions and Library Ledgers). The Catalogues of Accessions contain lists of the earliest books obtained by the library, from August 1899 to 1907. Another early ledger, Inventory (UA335-L443), contains an inventory of materials and supplies dating from 1894. Many of the early ledgers also include enclosures containing additional relevant information.

The ledgers from the 1920s through the 1940s record mainly financial information such as tuition and fees and scholarships. Several payroll ledgers date from the 1930s and 1940s (see Weekly Payroll 1935, Monthly Payrolls 1936-1937, Payroll (Monthly and Weekly) 1934-1935, Faculty Payroll Book 1935-1936, and Faculty Schedule Cards 1941-1945). A series of ledgers from the 1920s provide lists of alumni pledges and accounts due.

The ledgers that date from the postwar period of the late 1940s and 1950s consist mainly of financial and budgetary information for Georgia Tech, although some records of grades (which are restricted), housing financial accounts, and library statistics are also available. Budgetary and financial ledgers predominate after about 1960. These include budgets for Georgia Tech as a whole as well as for the library, the Engineering Experiment Station (later the Georgia Tech Research Institute), and the Southern Technical Institute, a division of Georgia Tech.

In June 2012, processors added two account ledgers from the 1950s and 1960s (L484 and L485), a library serials register dating from the mid 1940s to early 1970s (L486), a register of donations to the Greater Tech fund from 1914 to 1920 (L487), and a set of faculty schedule cards (with salaries) from the wartime years of 1941 through 1945 (L488).

The years from 1982 to 1991 are not covered; the period of the 1990s is sparsely documented, and the years from 1995 to 1998 are not covered at all.