Military History in Special Collections

Image from the 8th Air Force Archive

Jackie Esposito, University Archivist, and Jim Quigel, Head of Historical Collections and Labor Archives, will be teaching two ROTC classes in military history this semester. In preparation, and together with Paul Dyzak (one of our noble Archives Supervisors), they put together a list of military-related collections in our library, sorted chronologically by conflict, from the Revolutionary War to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Click here to download the list.

Participants needed for usability studies

Attention Penn State students and employees, particularly undergrads and faculty!

Participate in a 1-hour usability study. Help us to make the Special Collections website even better. We are seeking individuals willing to think aloud while working through a pre-determined set of tasks. The sessions will be recorded and are being conducted for research purposes. Participants will be compensated $15 for their time.

Anyone over 18 may apply.  For more information, contact me at dmb61@psu.edu.

Thanks!

Hidden Gems in the Rare Books Unit: LGBT Utopias

From the Arthur O. Lewis Utopia Collection description:

In his British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, an Annotated, Chronological Bibliography, Lyman Tower Sargent credits Penn State with "having established the best Utopia Collection in the world"... Our collection is indeed wide-ranging and includes communal studies, the works of utopian theorists, and fabulous voyages. The collection gathers together as many utopias and dystopias in major languages as we can find. Works written in England and America predominate.

Rare Books and Manuscripts Curator Sandy Stelts informed me about these LGBT utopias for our diversity-related outreach.

Worlds apart : an anthology of lesbian and gay science fiction and fantasy / edited by Camilla Decarnin, Eric Garber, and Lyn Paleo. Boston : Alyson Publications, 1986.

Contents:
Harper Conan and Singer David, by Edgar Pangborn
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr.
To Keep the Oath, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Do Androids Dream of Electric Love? by Walt Liebscher
Lollipop and the Tar Baby, by John Varley
The Mystery of the Young Gentlemen, by Joanna Russ
The Gods of Reorth, by Elizabeth A. Lynn
Find the Lady, by Nicholas Fisk
No Day Too Long, by Jewelle Gomez
Full Fathom Five My Father Lies, by Rand B. Lee
Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones, by Samuel R. Delany

Lesbian land / edited by Joyce Cheney. Minneapolis, Minn. : Word Weavers, c1985.

This book contains interviews, essays and photographs from women-only communities in the 1980s.

Jarrod Jonsrud to speak on Holcombe Rucker

Monday, April 11, 2011, Noon-1 p.m., Mann Assembly Room

Jarrod Jonsrud is a Ph.D. Candidate in Kinesiology at Penn State. His research interest lies in the history and philosophy of sport. He has been working on sports-related oral histories for the University Archives.

Holcombe Rucker (1926-1965) worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a playground director for almost 20 years.

Jarrod had this to say about his upcoming talk:

"This investigation into Holcombe Rucker’s life, and his honest struggle to give the children of Harlem a better chance to overcome their hardships should serve as a reminder that he was more than the originator of summer basketball tournaments.  He was a man who inspired a generation to do their best, and to put that same inspired effort back in to the community.  Holcombe Rucker and his sacrifices to the city of Harlem, the lives of countless youth, and the game of basketball deserve more recognition.  The spirit of Holcombe Rucker does not reside at a park, or on a basketball court; each time someone he taught teaches that to another, his spirit is revived and his legacy reborn."

(Belated) St. Patrick's Day Treat: Fred Waring on iTunes U

Listeners can now view a Fred Waring St. Patrick’s Day video podcast on the Fred Waring Collection on iTunes U. The collection known as Fred Waring’s America, is a unique part of the Special Collections Library at Penn State University Libraries. The current selection lets listeners relive Fred Waring’s St. Patrick’s Day shows, originally aired on CBS from 1949 to 1955.

Fred Waring’s America documents 20th century American popular culture through song, radio, movies and television performance. The large-scale collection provides primary source material for researchers, musicians and music educators, orchestra and choral conductors, documentary filmmakers, golden-age radio enthusiasts as well as media and cultural historians.

Listeners can link via http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/psu.edu.2125864609 or they can 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, on or around the 15th of the month. The podcasts will feature clips from the collection's vast archive of 25,000 recordings on disc, wire, tape, kinescope and video. The recordings cover every radio and television broadcast made by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians from 1933­1960; concert recordings; reference recordings of Fred Waring music workshop sessions and concerts; and other miscellaneous performances, appearances and interviews, including recent interviews with famous cartoonists who spent time at Waring's golf resort every summer from the late 1940s through 1970s.

Professor and Archives Donor John Lucas to Give Talk on Olympic History

John Lucas is professor emeritus of exercise and sport science in the College of Health and Human Development's Department of Kinesiology. He is also the author of four books, including "The Future of the Olympics" (1992) and "The Modern Olympic Games" (1980). Lucas is the official North American historian for the Olympic games, and in 1996 he received the International Olympic Committee’s highest honor, the Olympic Order gold medal.

On December 15 2010, University Archivist Jackie Esposito announced the gift of the John A. Lucas Olympic History Collection, 162 cubic feet of books, professional journals, article reprints, research files, biographies, and individual articles organized chronologically by Olympiad. The collection should be available for research use before the opening ceremonies of the 2012 summer games in London.

Professor Lucas will deliver a talk entitled "Athens 1896 to London 2012: A Perspective on the Olympic Games," on Wednesday, April 6, 2011, from noon to 1pm in the Mann Assembly Room.

Luis Alberto Sanchez Latin American Literature Collection

From our Rare Books and Manuscripts unit:

Dr. Luis Alberto Sanchez (1900-1994) was a Peruvian politician, author, and founding member of the left-leaning American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party. In addition, he was a leading authority on American and Latin American literature. His academic career included years as a professor, and later as a rector, at Universidad de San Marcos, Peru; he also taught at the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia University, colleges in Florida and Oklahoma, the Sorbonne in Paris, and universities in Madrid and Jerusalem. Dr. Donald C. Henderson and Grace P. Perez translated and compiled Sanchez's correspondence in Literature and Politics in Latin America: An Annotated Calendar of the Luis Alberto Sanchez Correspondence, 1919-1980 (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, 1982).

The Luis Alberto Sanchez Collection forms an integral part of the holdings of the Pennsylvania State University Libraries, which has been collecting materials that deal with the literature of Central and South America since the 1930s. Sanchez's library, which includes many extremely rare works of literary authors published by small presses, was purchased by the Penn State Libraries in 1969. The subjects range from history and politics to Latin American criticism, poetry, and theater. Imprint dates of the literary works range from 1890 to the 1960s, with a majority of them being published in the 1920s through the 1950s. In a study made to determine their uniqueness among research libraries in North America, only thirty percent of the titles were reported held in other libraries in the United States and Canada. The rarest of the Sanchez books are shelved in the Rare Books Room; the Sanchez Papers are housed in Historical Collections and Labor Archives.

More about the Luis Alberto Sanchez Latin American Literature Collection:
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/speccolls/rbm/sanchez.html

Robert Joyce Papers, 1952-1973: documenting acts of social disobedience in America

"Joyce captured history in the making," March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington DC (August 29, 1963)

"I Have a Dream," March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, DC (August 28, 1963)

"Burn Baby Burn," H. Rap Brown (October 27, 1967)

"Young Freedom Riders" (c. 1960s)

From the Historical Collections and Labor Archives unit:

Robert Joyce was a self-taught art illustrator and photojournalist from a Wooster, Massachusetts, working-class background.  As a young man, he began a 25-year photojournalism career with the National Guardian in New York, covering progressive causes, social protest, and acts of civil disobedience and producing a large archive of images of the 20th century American left.

The Robert Joyce papers include photographs of acts of social disobedience, including Civil Rights Movement sit-ins, riots, Cold War peace demonstrations, and anti-Vietnam War protests. Depictions include the Cuban Missile crisis, a “Kill a Commie for Christ" counter-protest, a “Wall Street is War Street” demonstration, and activities of the Bread and Puppet Theater. There are approximately 500 rolls of negatives and 500 prints and contact prints, as well as 83 contact sheets, and 125 photo prints.  The collection also holds 28 mounted photos used by Kurt Wamfried and Ed Leos for a Robert Joyce exhibit in April 1976. The collection includes a 1973 oral history interview with Joyce and issues of Working Artist magazine, March 13, 1961-July 15, 1970.

Finding aid: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/dam/psul/up/digital/findingaids/1620.htm