Envelope contains 9 photographs of buildings at Case Western Reserve University. At the time the photographs were taken it was Case Institute of Technology.

The Case Institute was located in Cleveland Ohio. It was founded in 1877 by Leonard Case Jr., a philanthropic citizen of Cleveland and early benefactor of the engineering school. He initiated a secret trust to endow a polytechnic school in Cleveland. This school would train men in engineering and applied science, enabling them to build on a young, growing nation's vast resources. Within four months of his death in 1880, the trust was administered and the Case School of Applied Science was born.

Classes initially were held in the Case family's downtown Cleveland home until a provision to Stone's gift that Western Reserve University and the Case School of Applied Science occupy adjoining campuses led to the school's relocation in 1885 to what is now known as University Circle on the city's east side. Funds for the land, however, had to be raised by the community.

A committee for the two institutions raised $119,400 from 56 donors by March 1881. A land purchase discount from Cordelia Ford and Liberty E. Holden, whose 43-acre property formed the early campus, netted $33,000. The Ford family's University Circle-area homesteads were the initial locations of the Women's College of Western Reserve University and the School of Law.

The joint land purchase was the first of many collaborations between Western Reserve University and the Case School of Applied Science. Over the years, the university developed strong liberal arts and professional programs, while the institute, which adopted the name Case Institute of Technology in, became a top school of science and engineering.

The two institutions agreed their 1967 federation would create a complete university worthy of national distinction. Case Western Reserve University immediately became a leading institution for academics and research, as well as one the nation's top-ranked universities.