The Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance department records documents one of the oldest departments of Eastern Michigan University. Courses in Physical education and physical exercises were offered to students in the first years of the Michigan State Normal School, but by 1894 a new gymnasium had been built and the Department of Physical Training was established and by 1896 physical training courses were required of all students regardless of major, a requirement that would remain until the 1990s. The collection documents the department from 1894 to 2004, when the department was moved into the College of Health and Human Services and rebranded as the School of Health Promotion & Human Performance and reorganized to include the Orthotics and Prosthetics program and Physicians Assistant program.

The Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance department records (HPERD) are organized into 6 series Department Administration, Department History and Timelines, Division and Program Course Materials, Events, Promotional Materials and News, and Teaching Texts.

Department Administration includes manuals, policy documents, surveys, and statistics. Department History and Timelines includes a number of documents and articles created by Lloyd W. Olds and others that outline the development of the department. Division and Program Course Materials includes course descriptions and proposals, course outlines and drill examples. The Events series documents receptions, clubs and workshops sponsored by the department as well as a subseries on the Centennial celebration for the Department in 1994. Included in this subseries are the research files of Erik Pedersen, emeritus faculty from the department and co-chair of the centennial committee.

The collection while extensive is not a complete record of the department or the divisions within the department. The collection also does not document the department after the reorganization and move to the School of Health Promotion & Human Performance.

The two final series include Promotional Materials and News that consists of brochures, flyers and clippings and Teaching Texts which includes publications used by faculty members in the department.