Joseph Free Papers, 1923-1974 | Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections

The Joseph Free Papers are organized into eleven series. The variety of Dr. Free's activities as a professor was shown by his work folders containing correspondence from overseas tours, teaching materials, and departmental information. Dr. Free was especially involved in coordinating archaeological study group tours to Dothan in the Holy Land. He led nine such tours between 1953 and 1964 as documented by mimeographed correspondence and news articles. Dr. Free taught courses at Wheaton in Anthropology, Archaeology, Bible, and French. Many of his syllabi, exams, handouts and student papers are included in the Collection. Also included is a notebook of Dr. Free's lesson plans for Archaeology 103 between the years of 1940 and 1957. As a professor, Dr. Free had several advisees in his field of study; a folder containing advisee's papers during the 1949-year and correspondence from the Registrar (1957-1960) is incorporated. His involvement as Director of Archaeological Studies is recorded by departmental correspondence and pamphlets of Wheaton Archaeology Conferences.

Dr. Free's interest in archaeological research is documented by the boxes of notecards filed by author and subject for journal articles, magazine articles, and books; the folders of articles on archaeological discoveries of that day; and the folders of student papers he collected. Dr. Free authored several articles concerning his own excavations for the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (BASOR) and for Moody Monthly. Several of these articles are contained in the Collection. His competency as a biblical scholar is illustrated by his syllabi Factual Apologetics and Archaeology and the Old Testament. Dr. Free deals with archaeology in relation to the scriptures in his book, Archaeology and Bible History.