Exhibit highlights history of women's athletics at Penn State

Women's track and field, taken in 1919.

From Penn State Live:

"From High Heels to High Hopes: Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics at Penn State," a Penn State University Archives exhibit, is on display from Jan. 18 to June 7, in the Hintz Alumni Center on the University Park campus.

Women at Penn State were participating in sporting events as early as the 1900s in their physical education classes. From the early 1920s until the early 1960s, women participated in the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA), then the Women’s Recreation Association (WRA), which emphasized social recreation and the development of skills in various sports and activities. Women’s intercollegiate athletics began in 1964, with the first field hockey game played against Susquehanna University. Over the next few years, women’s teams were formed in golf, basketball, fencing, gymnastics, lacrosse, riflery, tennis, softball, bowling, swimming and diving, track and field, cross country and volleyball.

The passage of Title IX of The Federal Aid to Education Amendments in 1972 changed women’s sports. It prohibited sexual discrimination, resulted in the elimination of the rule forbidding scholarships and aid for women’s sports, and assisted in the formation of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). The NCAA took over women’s athletics in 1982. There are presently 13 Penn State women's teams playing in the Big Ten Conference. Women’s ice hockey, currently a club sport, will begin varsity play in the 2012–2013 season.

Penn State individuals and teams have enjoyed much success through the years, resulting in conference championships, tournament appearances and national championships. A number of women have gone on to participate nationally and internationally on professional teams and at the Olympics.

From the high-heeled women at the beginning of the 20th century to the finely tuned athletes of today, women’s athletics at Penn State has seen tremendous progress, giving women the opportunity to compete at the college level as well as national and international levels.

This exhibit features photographs from the Penn State University Archives collections. For additional information, contact Paul Dzyak at 814-865-2123 or Paul Karwacki at 814-863-9870.

New online exhibit: Selections from the William Warren Scranton Papers

The William Warren Scranton Papers housed at The Pennsylvania State University selectively document William Scranton’s stellar career in public service as well as in business, civic, and educational arenas. Gathered from his several offices, the papers supplement official state records at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and consist of 181.6 cubic feet of textual records and approximately 2,715 photographs, moving images, and audio tape recordings. Notable among the materials, the 2004 WVIA documentary In a Clear Light uses historic photographs from the papers to profile the life and career of William Scranton, as statesman, family man, and friend and advisor to five Presidents.

See the new online exhibit at:
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/scrantonhome.html

Fred Waring’s Songs for 2011 on iTunes U

Revive your hope and inspiration for the new year with with a video podcast on iTunes U featuring the music of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. This recently produced podcast, part of the Special Collection Library’s Fred Waring’s America collection, features 7 songs from 4 different Fred Waring albums.  These songs, all inspirational in theme, include performances from Fred Waring’s orchestra, glee club, and featured soloists. 

To view the video, go to http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/psu.edu.2125864609 or follow these steps:

1. Go to https://itunes.psu.edu/
2. Log in as a Penn State use or a guest (wait for iTunes to launch)
3. Select Penn State Podcast Shows
4. Select Fred Waring Collection

New podcasts will be added to iTunes U on or around the 15th of the month and will feature clips from the collection’s vast archive of 25,000 recordings on disc, wire, tape, kinescope and video, covering every radio and television broadcast made by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians from 1933–1960; concert recordings; reference recordings of Fred Waring music workshop sessions and concerts and other miscellaneous performances. For more information, call 814-863-2911.

Exhibit: African-American Music in the Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora

"African-American Music in the Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora," an exhibit, is on display from Jan. 14 to March 13, in the main exhibit hall on the first floor of Pattee Library, and also in the Diversity Studies Room, in room 109 of Pattee Library. A collection rich in materials relating to African-American, African, Latin-American, and Caribbean history and culture, the exhibit highlights musical resources with the display of album covers, sheet music, posters, and books related to spirituals, slavery songs, emasculation songs, blues, jazz, barbershop songs, vaudeville songs and piano rags.

Full press release here.
Blockson Collection overview here.
Blockson Blog here. 

Team Digital Preservation and the Arctic Mountain Adventure

Historic digitization initiative provides unprecedented access to JFK Library archive

Washington, DC…To help mark the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and Caroline Kennedy, President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, have unveiled the nation’s largest online digitized presidential archive, providing unprecedented global access to the most important papers, records, photographs and recordings of President John F. Kennedy’s thousand days in office...

See the new website at http://www.jfklibrary.org/


View the rest of the official press release at http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2011/nr11-53.html

Struwwelpeter Gallery Talk a Big Hit

Bettina Brandt, lecturer in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, and 7-year-old Vera Mendum-Purdy delighted an audience with their readings from "Struwwelpeter," the popular 19th-century children’s tale by Heinrich Hoffmann, which has delighted children on both sides of the Atlantic since its first publication in 1845. The reading was in conjunction with the exhibition “Highlights
from the Allison-Shelley Collection of German Literature in English Translation,” on display in The Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, and extended to February 11.

Presentation: Amish Diversity in Central Pennsylvania

12 to 1pm on Feb. 4 in the Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library

Mainstream depictions of the Amish often portray them as a monolithic, unchanging religious society. Tourism and popular media paint an Amish portrait of a farming sect with plain clothes and dark-colored buggies. However, Amish groups vary considerably and engage in a constant negotiation of cultural change. More than three centuries after their founding in Europe, defining the Amish is an ever more challenging enterprise. This presentation will highlight some of the differences within a single Amish settlement in nearby Kishacoquillas "Big" Valley, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. By showing how cultural identity partially relies on separation from outsiders, we will explore the education, language, dress, rituals, and other social and cultural identifiers of the Amish groups in Big Valley. Additionally, the presentation will show how cultural boundaries are formed and move throughout time as a group’s or individual’s identification changes. The presentation will rely on information contained in the John A. Hostetler and Gertrude E. Huntington Papers housed at the University Archives, as well as original research gleaned from the Big Valley Oral History Project, sponsored in part by the University Libraries. By exposing the university community to these Amish cultures, we can greater appreciate the diversity and lifestyles of our "plain" neighbors in Central Pennsylvania.

Joshua R. Brown is the Candace and Patrick E. Malloy graduate assistant in the University Archives and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures. He is the author and editor of several articles and books about the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch. His current book project with co-editor Julia Spicher Kasdorf (Associate Professor of English and Women’s Studies) will produce an annotated edition of Fred Lewis Pattee’s local color novel The House of the Black Ring through Penn State Press. Brown’s interests are primarily in minority languages, language death, and language & gender / sexuality.

Talk features film footage, audio clips from the civil rights movement

Selma, ""Bloody Sunday,"" March 7, 1965

From Penn State Live:

"Lifting the Veil: The Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists," will be presented by Barry Kernfeld at 2 p.m. on Jan. 17, in Foster Auditorium, room 102 of the Paterno Library. Highlights will include rare security surveillance photographs from the files of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, audio clips of previously unreleased speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and archived film footage featuring civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael and the 1964 Voting Rights movement.

Kernfeld is a staff archivist in Historical Collections and Labor Archives, The Special Collections Library in the University Libraries. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The presentation will also be available for viewing through MediaSite Live at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/mtss/ online. For more information on the collection, go to http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/rabin/alabama.html online. For questions, contact Shirley Davis at 814-863-5449.

For more information about events at Penn State related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, visit http://live.psu.edu/tag/MLK online.

International Council on Archives: Universal Declaration

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON ARCHIVES
International Council on Archives
http://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/UDA.pdf

Archives record decisions, actions and memories. Archives are a unique and irreplaceable heritage passed from one generation to another. Archives are managed from creation to preserve their value and meaning. They are authoritative sources of information underpinning accountable and transparent administrative actions. They play an essential role in the development of societies by safeguarding and contributing to individual and community memory. Open access to archives enriches our knowledge of human society, promotes democracy, protects citizens' rights and enhances the quality of life.

To this effect, we recognize

• the unique quality of archives as authentic evidence of administrative, cultural and intellectual activities and as a reflection of the evolution of societies;
• the vital necessity of archives for supporting business efficiency, accountability and transparency, for protecting citizens rights, for establishing individual and collective memory, for understanding the past, and for documenting the present to guide future actions;
• the diversity of archives in recording every area of human activity;
• the multiplicity of formats in which archives are created including paper, electronic, audio visual and other types;
• the role of archivists as trained professionals with initial and continuing education, serving their societies by supporting the creation of records and by selecting, maintaining and making these records available for use;
• the collective responsibility of all - citizens, public administrators and decision-makers, owners or holders of public or private archives, and archivists and other information specialists - in the management of archives.

We therefore undertake to work together in order that

• appropriate national archival policies and laws are adopted and enforced;
• the management of archives is valued and carried out competently by all bodies, private or public, which create and use archives in the course of conducting their business;
• adequate resources are allocated to support the proper management of archives, including the employment of trained professionals;
• archives are managed and preserved in ways that ensure their authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability;
• archives are made accessible to everyone, while respecting the pertinent laws and the rights of individuals, creators, owners and users;
• archives are used to contribute to the promotion of responsible citizenship.

Special Collections Gallery Talk Features Classic German Children’s Book

Dr. Brandt

A gallery talk by Bettina Brandt, lecturer in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, will be held on Tuesday, January 18, at 4:30 p.m. in 104 Paterno Library, in conjunction with the exhibition “Highlights from the Allison-Shelley Collection of German Literature in English Translation.” Dr. Brandt’s informal talk will focus on the editions and translations of Struwwelpeter, the popular 19th-century children’s tale by Heinrich Hoffmann, which has delighted children on both sides of the Atlantic since its first publication in 1845. Hoffmann (1809-1894), a German psychiatrist, wrote and illustrated the book for his own children. Stuwwelpeter, whose title character is an unkempt boy who does not groom himself, is a highly exaggerated morality tale in which badly behaved children come to bad ends. In English the title is sometimes known as “Slovenly Peter” or “Shock-Headed Peter.” 

In addition to giving a brief history of the book, Brandt and her 7-year-old daughter, Vera, will read from English translations of Struwwelpeter. While modern audiences sometimes consider the book shocking and inappropriate for children, Brandt says it’s easy to understand why the books have become popular world-wide. “Childhood doesn’t have nationality. The stories are short, they rhyme, they’re easy to get into, and there are some excellent translations. As a kid in Germany I was in awe of the illustrations. I was particularly drawn to the girl who plays with matches and goes up in flames!”

Bettina Brandt earned master’s degrees in French and German from the University of Utrecht and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Comparative Literature, with a dissertation on Germanophone women associated with the historical avant-garde, particularly Surrealism. She has published numerous essays on modern writers, and her translations of German fiction include contemporary German-Jewish writers into English. She is currently writing a scholarly treatment on transnational literature in the experimental mode and co-editing a collection of essays on the Nobel laureate, Herta Müller.  Before coming to Penn State, she taught as an assistant professor at MIT, Columbia University, and Montclair State University.

The Allison-Shelley Collection of German Literature in Translation, which was bequeathed to the University Libraries in 1972 by the late Professor Philip Allison Shelley, provides opportunities for the study of the literary and cultural influences of the German-speaking nations of Europe on the United States and England. The exhibition features highlights from the collection’s strengths in children’s literature and fairy tales, toys and games made for export, early appearances of the Christmas tree, and documentation of the lives and traditions of Pennsylvania German culture. The exhibition will run through February 11, 2011.

The gallery talk is free and open to the public.

For further information, contact Sandra Stelts, curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Phone: 814-863-5388, Email: sks5@psu.edu