Eric Nies collection, circa 1904-1907, 1915, 2006.

The Eric Nies collection contains scrapbook pages, a diploma, and the Eric Nies Chronicle by Nancy Nies, American Iris Society. The scrapbook pages contain photos of cadets, photos of the basketball team and photo of the baseball team with Nies. There are also event and athletic tickets, a bath ticket, a cadet certificate, dormitory regulations, Intercollegiate Athletics Rules of Eligibility, a note of punishment, and an athletic mass meeting flyer. There are also loose photographs of Nies from a scrapbook, and postcards of campus and the Lansing Capitol. The Eric Nies Chronicle gives biographical information on his life and information about his work with irises.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: "Item title, Collection title, Collection Identifier, Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan."

Eric Nies was born in 1884 in Saugatuck, Michigan, later spending some of his childhood in Holland, Michigan. From 1904-1907 he attended Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) where he played baseball. In 1913 he and his wife Grace Avery Perry moved to California. He received his degree from Michigan Agricultural College in 1915 after finishing course work. In 1915 he began teaching at a military school which led to a career in teaching and administration. In the 1920s he began hybridizing irises which began a lifelong interest. Eric Nies passed away in 1952.