New Finding Aids (special edition)

An announcement from our Collections Manager

Matt Francis

 Welcome to a very special edition of the "New/Updated Finding Aids" emails.  While we are continuing to crank out new finding aids, I want to take a moment to highlight six recent finding aids that all involve "something new" for our Special Collections Library.

Finding Aid for a Hybrid Collection (analog and born-digital):

As everyone is already aware we are beginning to receive more and more born-digital records along with traditional analog materials.  With this in mind we have recently published a finding aid that arranges and describes analog materials along with web-captured and fixed media born-digital records.  All of the materials are intellectually integrated together, so for example there is a publication series that contains digital and analog materials, as opposed to creating separate analog and born-digital series which would both contain publications.  I am hoping that this finding aid will serve as a useful example for future hybrid collection work. 

PSUA 8428 Pennsylvania College of Technology records - Located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn College) is a special mission affiliate of The Pennsylvania State University, providing applied technology education. Penn College became an affiliate of the university in 1989, after establishing a national reputation for education supporting workforce development, first as a technical institute and later as a community college.

Directly linking from inventory description to digital surrogates:

Somewhat related to the above finding aid, we have republished the Thomas Benson papers finding aid so that it not only contains description for 30 linear feet of new materials, but also provides direct links to digitized materials from the inventory.  These links should increase use of materials (via remote users), help preserve the original items, and save on staff retrieval time.  I am hoping that as we increase our project digitization work that we will begin producing more finding aids such as this.

PSUA 6352 Thomas Benson papers - This collection contains materials from former Pennsylvania State University professor Thomas Benson, and document his academic work on political rhetoric, film criticism, rhetorical theory, freedom of speech, nonverbal communication, and the rhetoric of contemporary conflict. Of interest, the collection includes a large set of protest posters from the late 1960s and 1970s.

PSU Fayette - Coal & Coke Heritage Center Finding Aids now available:

Thanks to Julie's hard work down at Fayette, we now have three EAD finding aids published for three collections at the Coal & Coke Heritage Center.  The finding aids are discoverable through our finding aid portal (both the google search bar and the a-z> list), and contain data informing users that the collections are housed at Fayette.  To my knowledge this is the first time that we have integrated EAD finding aids from one of our other geographic locations into our web infrastructure, and we all owe Julie a big thank you for her processing work on these collections!

CCHC 1 USX Corporation records - The USX Corporation records were given to the Coal and Coke Heritage Center upon the closure of a local USX office. Most of the materials include the name of the Corporation's partner: H.C. Frick Company. And, some items may include the Corporation's previous and current name: U.S. Steel. The collection spans the company's activities from 1840-1983.

CCHC 4 John A. Enman papers - The collection consists of three series, Collectibles; Research materials; and Writing and Publications. As the collection consists of both materials generated by Dr. Enman and resources used to research his work, it contains items dated from 1884 through 2013.

CCHC 5 Reid Moser photographs - The collection is comprised of 154 photographs taken between 1942 and 1945. They document construction and structural changes at Dearth Mine, Juniata, Leisenring #1, Leisenring #2, Leisenring #3, Robena, Shoaf, and Trotter Water Company Plant A.

Archive Adventures: What's a Bucket Bowl?...and happy accidents

Though the library is usually dedicated to quiet study zones, you can't escape the highly contagious Blue-White buzz that has been spread around the whole building. So, in celebration, I've been wandering the aisles looking for history on the infamous "Bucket Bowl."

According to Lou Prato's article on the history of the Blue-White game, the "Bucket Bowl", as it was known, started in 1951 and came out of a tradition of scrimmages, intrasquad or against another school, to close spring practice. People would gather and watch these bouts informally before 1951. However, starting that year the student newspaper, the Collegian (see link for the historical digital database), presented the winning team with a wooden water bucket from 1951 until 1954, thus coining the term "Bucket Bowl" for what we now call Blue-White.

Unfortunately, this is where the trail petered out. Despite my search among our records, the Blue-White game doesn't appear again in our records until the 1980's. As disappointing as it was not to find the detailed history of the spring game, what I found instead was a delightful history of PSU football antics and animals.

In 1955, wily PSU students kidnapped the Navy mascot (Billy the Goat) from his home in Annapolis. Initial speculation pointed towards Pitt trying to frame PSU, but it later came out that the whole affair was an attempt at a hilarious entrance of a Sigma Chi float (with Billy aboard) to the PSU Homecoming game. Unfortunately for the frat brothers, officers found the goat on a farm outside State College before the big game, and Billy was returned to his university. They admitted to their "crime" readily, upset that Pitt was getting all the praise, and lamented that they had grown very attached to Billy. How did they get him quietly into a car and calm enough to travel the six hours back to State College? They doped him with ether and "scratched his neck" to comfort him on the trip.

Another example of the humorous early years, when live animal mascots were all the rage, was the 1969 Orange Bowl victory by PSU over Kansas. They didn't just bring home a trophy (and tons and tons of oranges)...they brought home a buffalo. Delighted students transported the prize back to PSU, and after some great photo shots and lots of attention, the massive creature went to his permanent home at the Erie Zoo in PA.

In other pictures, it is very obvious that the students were enamored with this big guy! 

 So, even though the history of Blue-White was sparse, I did get to have an adventure that I never would have imagined when I initially set out on this topic. It may be that in the future we will come across materials about the spring scrimmages that were hidden away in a folder or among the stacks and stacks of boxes we have on football history. Who knows? We work tirelessly to make sure we document everything we can, but there's never enough time to go through every single collection we have. That's why archives encourage researchers and history-adventurers...like you...to do exploring as well. Who knows what you will find?

In the meantime, dream of spring and the thought of a beautiful Old Main lawn while you're waiting for the Blue-White game! We hope to see you at our event this Friday ("What's Special in Special Collections?")!

Orange Bowl(ing) in 1969.

Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago's Studio Art Pedagogy

“Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago’s Studio Art Pedagogy,” an exhibition, is on display from March 24 to June 13 in The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library. The exhibit is one of many activities at Penn State, during spring 2014, to celebrate Chicago and her work and can be viewed online. 

In 2011, artist, author and educator Judy Chicago gave Penn State University Libraries the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection, one of the most important private collections of feminist art education. The collection includes textual, photographic, graphic and audiovisual materials related to various art education projects and instruction of Chicago as well as her extensive journal writing about her teaching. It began in the early 1970s, when after a decade of professional art practice, Chicago began a program for women at the California State College, in Fresno — a pedagogical approach to art education that expanded and continues.

University Archivist Jackie Esposito wrote, “Art is tactile; archives are contextual. For each moment that art touches the human soul, an archive offers a visual, written or audio reflection of that event to provide visceral documentation for the ages. Art transcends time; archives capture the moments that resonate within human experience and preserve them for eternity. Judy Chicago’s archival collection allows the researcher to connect her art with her need to instruct the viewer over a transom of ideas, ideologies, concepts, theories and emotions, so that when the viewer walks away from the work, he or she is changed forever.”

The exhibition is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and from 1 to 5 p.m. during the spring semester.

The Judy Chicago events are sponsored at Penn State by the Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art, the School of Visual Arts, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Office of Research in the College of Arts and Architecture, The Eberly Family Special Collections Library in the University Libraries, the HUB-Robeson Galleries, the Women’s Studies Program, the Sexuality and Gender Studies Minor, the Women’s Studies Graduate Organization and the Department of Art History, as well as Through the Flower and the National Art Education Association Women’s Caucus.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Jackie Esposito at jxe2@psu.edu or 814-863-3791.

New Finding Aids Available

The following collections have new or updated finding aids available --

PSUA 8948 William L. Joyce papers - William Joyce was the former head of the Special Collections Library at Pennsylvania State University. The collection primarily consists of materials related Joyce's service on various committees related to library studies.

RBM 9529 Edwin Forbes Civil War etchings - Edwin Forbes (1839-1895) was an American landscape painter, etcher and staff artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper best known for his sketches of military life during the American Civil War (1861-1865). The collection consists of 40 black and white etchings originally published by Forbes in 1876 as "Life Studies of the Great Army." The collection also includes the book "Civil War Etchings / Edwin Forbes," edited by William Forrest Dawson (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1985).

HCLA 9534 George H. McIntire railroad journals - George H. McIntire was the first superintendent of the Franklin Division Railroad, a position he held for over 20 years during the Pennsylvania oil boom. This collection consists of 38 of his handwritten journals.

PSUA 1067 National Art Education Association records - The collection contains the records of the National Art Education Association, Eastern Arts Association, Pacific Arts Association, Southeastern Art Association, Western Arts Association, International Society of Education Through Art, and the State Art Education Associat. It also includes art curricula, art periodicals and publications on training and careers in art education, and photograph albums from the associations' conventions.

PSUA 1133 Pennsylvania Art Education Association records - In the early twentieth century, small, county-based art education affiliates of the Pennsylvania State Education Association unified and pursued the goals of art education through a separate, specialized organization--the Pennsylvania Art Education Association. This collection contains the constitution and bylaws, meeting minutes, financial records, conference programs, correspondence, newsletters, art education papers and special programs, art education books, photographs and slides of conferences and members, and committee records.

PSUA 1219 Pennsylvania State University, Office of Physical Plant records - The Penn State Office of Physical Plant (OPP) maintains daily operations of buildings and infrastructure on the University Park campus, as well as overseeing planning, design, and construction of capital facilities for all campuses.

PSUA 154 Pennsylvania State University, University Central Files & Real Estate Services records - This collection includes reports, contracts, and files related to property management.

PSUA 435 Pennsylvania State University, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center records - The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA, was founded in 1963 with a $50 million grant from the Hershey Foundation. Ownership passed in 1968 to Penn State which designed and operated the medical school, a teaching hospital, and facilities for medical research and graduate programs of the Center. The collection documents primarily the early planning and building records between the Hershey Foundation and Penn State University as well as subsequent public relations materials.

PSUA 1385 Pennsylvania State University, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life Records - The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life receives reports from and advises individual fraternities and sororities; as part of the Division of Student Affairs, and it connects Penn State's administration with the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association, and National Panhellenic Council. The collection includes correspondence, reports, membership lists, minutes, and budgets, as well as annual reports from each fraternity and sorority. The collection also contains records documenting Homecoming, Interfraternity Council Dance Marathon [THON], and Spring Week.