5 linear inches.
1 reel of microfilm.
1 audio tape.
Folder list.
Professor of chemistry, 1895-1900, and president, 1919-1922, University of Notre Dame; priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Correspondence (1880s-1940), primarily with Francis W. Howard, 1905-1940; and printed material. Microfilm contains Burns' diary (1867-1940), which includes accounts of conversations with leaders and officials of the University of Notre Dame including John W. Cavanaugh, Andrew Morrissey, John A. Zahm, William Corby, and Archbishop John Joseph Keane; concerning budgetary questions and strategies, battles over educational policy, changes in parietals, campus politics, the death of Fr. Corby, the Spanish-American War, and Vatican reaction to Zahm's book on evolution in 1899. Microfilm also contains a biographical sketch of Zahm and statistical analyses of students by classes (1895-1899).