2015 Research Travel Award Winners

The Eberly Family Special Collections Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 research travel awards program. All winners will visit the Special Collections Library between June and August.

Albert M. Petska Eighth Air Force Archives winner:

• David Cain, 2nd Air Division Memorial Library & the University of East Anglia. Mr. Cain will be researching the social interaction of the 8th USAAF with local British people in the East of England between 1942 - 1945, with special focus on the relationship of 8th USAAF service persons to landscape and local people in Britain.

Dorothy Foehr Huck award winners:

• Bob Hodges, University of Washington. Mr. Hodges will be researching 19th and 20th century utopian literature in support of his dissertation Figurations of Modernity in Antebellum U. S. Romances.  His work wagers that reckoning with New Americanist revisionist criticisms of the romance offers a chance to reconstruct the romance’s reparative and sometimes utopian compensations for its imbrication with antebellum U.S. economic and technological modernizations.
• J. Wesley Leckrone, Widener University. Prof. Leckrone is writing a book entitled "Governing the Commonwealth: Politics, Policy and Executive Power in Pennsylvania.”  The primary topic is the use of gubernatorial power by the five executives elected since 1980.
• Angelique Szymanek, SUNY Binghamton. Ms. Szymanek’s topic is “Representations of Rape in Visual Culture.” Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between feminist art production and the anti-rape movement in the U.S. throughout the 1970s and she will be using the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection to support her work.

Helen F. Faust Women Writers award winners: 

• Amanda Stuckey, College of William & Mary. Ms. Stuckey  will be researching bodily behavior in the nineteenth-century boy book. She studies the female authorship of children's books in order to understand how the genre of the boy book emerged alongside mid to late nineteenth-century understandings of what constituted able-bodied, self-controlled, disciplined children's bodies and behavior.
• Arielle Zibrak, University of Wyoming. Prof. Zibrak’s topic is “Writing Against Reform: Aesthetic Counter-Traditions in the Age of Progress.” Her research focuses on current criticism of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century transatlantic fiction emphasizes its connection to the political reform movements (abolition, suffrage, temperance, etc.) that so dominated our conception of the period. Her book project attempts to dislodge the critical myth that popular literature and political reform were wholly coherent movements by highlighting significant writers like Rebecca Harding Davis, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton who, while committed to social change, wrote against reform, and its underrepresented externalities.

During their research visit, the winners will be invited to give a short, informal presentation about their research that will be open to the public.

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.

Behind-the-scenes look at the Special Collections Library

Chip Kidd with sketch of his iconic image for 
Jurassic Park book cover.
Image credit: Wilson Hitton for the Eberly Family Special
Collections Library

Discover what's so special!

The public is invited to discover What’s “special” in the Special Collections Library, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Friday, April 11, in The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, Penn State University Park.

Ever wonder what is so “special” about the Special Collections Library? Join us to find out. Rare book curator Sandy Stelts will show attendees rare and unique children’s “flap books” also known as “metamorphoses” or “harlequinades” and also demonstrate how Penn State faculty are studying and digitizing them. University Archivist Jackie Esposito will introduce visitors to the sports archives and explain Penn State's athletic history is preserved. Huck chair and head of the special collections Tim Pyatt will give a preview of the newly acquired Chip Kidd collection, which includes everything from book jacket designs to nearly one terabyte of digital records. Staff also will be available to guide visitors through the current exhibit, “Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago’s
Studio Art Pedagogy.”


For more information or questions about the physical access provided, contact LuAnn Shifter at lus7@psu.edu or 814-867-0290.

-Article originally appeared at news.psu.edu

Penn State Special Collections Research Travel Awards

The Eberly Family Special Collections Library on the University Park campus of Penn State offers travel awards of $1,500 for researchers whose work would benefit from access to the collections held at Penn State. Currently, three travel grants are available:

• The Dorothy Foehr Huck Research Travel Award: Supports one award for researchers using any collection from the Special Collections Library.

• The Helen F. Faust Women Writers Research Travel Awards: Supports two awards for researchers working on a project including women writers that would benefit from use of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library’s collections

• The Albert M. Petska Eighth Air Force Archives Research Travel Award: supports one award for researchers working on a project pertaining to history of the Eighth Air Force during World War II.

Researchers receiving the awards would be expected to use the collections during the period of June to August of 2014. They will also be expected to participate in an informal public talk with library staff about their research project.

Who is eligible?

• Any faculty member, graduate student, or independent scholar with a research project requiring the use of materials held by the Special Collections Library is eligible to apply. All applicants must reside outside of a 100-mile radius of State College, Pennsylvania.
• Research topics should be strongly supported by the collections of the Special Collections Library. We encourage each prospective grant applicant to discuss his or her research project and the collections that might support it with Special Collections staff before submitting an application.
• For information about the collections, please visit our website.

What expenses does the award cover?

• There is no restriction on how the award may be used as long as the researcher visits Special Collections Library during the prescribed period. Please note that depending on how the award is used there may be tax implications for the recipients.

How do I apply?

• Complete an application 
• E-mail C.V. as an attachment (Word document or PDF) to LuAnn Shifter with “TRAVEL GRANT- (Enter Last Name)” in the subject line. We will send you an e-mail confirming that your application was received.

What dates do I need to remember?

• The deadline for applications is February 28, 2014 by 5:00 PM EST.
• Grant recipients will be announced by March 31, 2014.
• Grants must be used between June 1 and August 31, 2014.

For questions about the program, please contact:
Doris J. Malkmus djm51@psu.edu

Archival Adventures (Let's Explore!)

In Garth Nix’s novel Lirael, archives and libraries hold special powers. They are dangerous, alluring places filled with ancient books seething with written magic, where the librarians equip themselves with swords and the knowledge that they might not come back if they wander into the wrong section. Behind every door, ancient secrets come to life from ink and paper and there’s no turning back once you look in.

It’s a good thing that those libraries are fiction (imagine the insurance bills!), but Nix’s imaginings do hold a bit of truth. If knowledge is power, then libraries and archives are weapons of mass construction. Don’t worry, in Special Collections, enchanted creatures don’t come springing out of our shelves and you won’t need a sword to peruse the archives. However, there’s something magical about exploring archives. Time seems to disappear and your research pile mysteriously grows taller. You find connections in history between people, places, and things you had no idea about when you started. The most important thing, though, is that you come away with a broader perspective, more understanding about what you're researching, and a greater desire to explore and learn.

On that note, with the start of the fall 2012 semester and the Pattee/Paterno Library Open House, I'd like to take you for a backstage tour of some things you don't get to see when you visit Special Collections. Unfortunately, while we can’t show you everything here on the blog, I thought I might unveil some of the mystery of where exactly we get all that stuff we bring out to you in the Reading Room. 

When you first walk in, you get a nice sample of some of the rare books, manuscripts, and items we keep here at Special Collections. The exhibits do change, so check back frequently to see the newest offering!

On display until September 24th is "The Land Grant Act at 150: Promoting Liberal and Practical Education at Penn State"

See the doors at the very back? This is our Reading Room. Come on in...just make sure to check in at the desk--out of frame on the right--first! If you're not quite sure of the procedure, please either visit our home page or read our Special Collections tutorial (#8 on the list is a walk-through of the Reading Room with pictures). Now to the part you don't normally get to see!

Behind the doors in the Reading Room, we've got offices, the processing area, and other things needed to keep Special Collections serving you and functioning day to day. Nothing too fancy, and nothing really too interesting for anyone who isn't working here. The really cool part, the heart of Special Collections, is one floor down...

This isn't even all of them.

Each of those shelves moves with the push of a button for even more storage space and accessibility. Just think, try to imagine for a moment, how much we have down here based on this one picture alone...now double it. Quadruple that and you might get a decent estimate near what we have in the main storage, cold storage, the Annexes, and our other storage rooms for Fred Waring's America and Blockson combined. I know I'm getting excited here, so bear with me, but the knowledge held in this picture is priceless. It would also take many, many years and lots of people to go through and harvest that knowledge completely, because we're still getting boxes of new material pretty much every day. 

Boxes upon boxes upon boxes. What will you find?

If you're an academic explorer, this place is the treasure vault that never runs dry.

Finally, I've gotten to the books. But we all know we had those down here!

Just for the heck of it, I also took a picture of one of our intern's pamphlet folder work since she so neatly laid them out to dry. These will be used to help preserve our more delicate pamphlets.

I've been working here nearly two years, gone through multiple tours during my time as a student, and I still get all excited just looking at the pictures. Actually getting to go down into the heart of Special Collections is a trial in maintaining my composure (aka not getting distracted or sidetracked). If you're like me, hunting for one book means you don't come back with it, but you do come back with 10 other books nowhere near the same subject as the original prey. I may not be in Nix's universe, but libraries and archives are still an exciting promise of adventure, learning, and mystery...just without all the physical danger.

So, if you like exploring history and want to find out more about Special Collections, come visit us during our Open House (September 12th/13th, 2012)! We look forward to seeing you there and continuing to help you research in the future. Otherwise, keep tuned for more archive adventures...I'll try to get some good stories, focus on interesting collections or specific items, and continue my search for intrigues and oddities!

-Alex

Flickr and YouTube Host The Julia L. Maietta and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Collection

This Flickr exhibit highlights Julia L. Maietta's life and career as a labor and political activist and also documents many social and political issues confronting the American workforce from the late 1930s to the late 1970s. The images selected have been drawn from several archival and personal paper collections within the Historical Collections and Labor Archives, most notably the Julia Maietta Papers and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Joint Board of Pennsylvania collection. The source is listed for each displayed image. The digital exhibition represented here focuses on the central theme of Maietta and her lifetime devotion to aiding working people. Items on display include groups of letters, cartoons, pamphlets, workers' complaint forms, union meeting minutes and historical photographic images. Collectively, these aid our understanding of how the labor movement shaped the lives of working women and their families from the 1930s to the 1970s. Julia Maietta's remarkable story of rise from factory girl to labor representative can now be shared with those willing to view and listen.


This online exhibition was created by Amanda Masullo, Archival Assistant, Historical Collections and Labor Archives and Jim Quigel, Head of Historical Collections and Labor Archives.

For the Julia L. Maietta Oral History and Campaign Advertisements click here for the Penn State Historical Collections and Labor Archives YouTube playlist.

YouTube editor: T. Babcock.
Metadata editor: G. Johns.

Special Collections Travel Grant Recipient Visits Penn State!

Rachel Pierce of the University of Virginia, recipient of a Special Collections Huck Research Travel Grant, will describe her research about the contested nature of feminism in the 1970s, in an informal talk entitled, "Feminist Republicans?: The Pursuit of Women's Equity within the Nixon and Ford Administrations."


The event will be held at the Paterno Library Mann Conference Room at 4pm on Monday, May 7 th . Don't miss this timely opportunity to join a conversation about women's issues and politics

Libraries announce archives research contest winners!

Penn State's Special Collections Library recently conducted its local version of the Society of American Archivists “I Found it in the Archives” contest (http://www.archivists.org).The contest gave researchers an opportunity to submit an essay describing their quest for information within the Special Collections Library. Several superb entries were received and blind-reviewed by an expert panel of judges. The first place winner’s entry will be submitted for the national contest to be judged by the Society of American Archivists.

The Penn State winners will be acknowledged by the University Libraries Dean Barbara Dewey and presented with their prizes by Special Collections Library Head Tim Pyatt at a special ceremony at 2 p.m. on Jan. 18 in Foster Auditorium, 101 Paterno Library. This ceremony is open to the public.

The contest winners are:

First Place (Recipient of a $100 Barnes and Noble gift card):
Mark Dyreson, kinesiology
Essay topic: 1940s “Fair Play” movement to integrate intercollegiate athletics

Second Place (Recipient of a Penn State fleece jacket):
Deryck Holdsworth, geography
Essay Topic: Cambria House Hotel Ledger

Third place (Recipient of a copy of the Penn State Press’ "Ice Cream U" with a $10 Berkey Creamery gift card):
Dr. Dean Snow, anthropology
Essay topic: Bishop James Ussher Medieval Manuscripts

Fourth place tie (Recipients will choose either of a copy of "The Nittany Lion: An Illustrated Tale" or "Penn State: Then and Now"):
Michelle Kennedy, undergraduate student, medieval studies
Essay Topic: Medieval Facsimiles
Ronald A. Smith, emeritus kinesiology
Essay Topic: State College Memorial Field, “the Sinkhole”

For more information, contact Jackie Esposito at 814-865-1793.

A Seat in Civil Rights History- Greyhound Poster Collection

From Rosa Parks quietly sitting in a bus' white section to the Freedom Rides by civil rights activists through the Deep South, buses have played an integral role in our country's struggle against racism. The Greyhound Bus Corporation celebrated some of its history by producing a series of annual posters in conjunction with Black History Month.

Beginning in 2000, Penn State's James Quigel, the head of Historical Collections and Labor Archives, in The Special Collections Library, noticed the posters hanging each February, in the Fullington/Greyhound Bus Station in State College. When he expressed interest in archiving the posters for the University Libraries collection, the Greyhound Bus Corporation in Dallas agreed and gave Penn State permission to use for university events commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.

This virtual exhibit includes the seven posters comprising the Greyhound Bus Corporation, Celebrating Black History Month Poster Collection, in Historical Collections and Labor Archives, The Special Collections Library, Penn State. For more information, contact James Quigel at 814-863-3181.

Poster 1

February 1999

Highlights of Black History—One life touches many lifetimes as family and social histories are woven into our cultural identities. Benjamin Banneker, November 9, 1731–October 9, 1806, a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer, who made the first clock in the new world; William Alexander Leidsdorff, who launched the first steamboat in San Francisco in1847; Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936; Toni Morrison, who in 1993, was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1993; and more. Read more at

www.libraries.psu.edu/psul
/speccolls/rbm/blockson.html


Poster 2

February 2000

Founded in 1914, Greyhound Lines, Inc. is the largest provider of intercity bus transportation. Today it serves more than 2,300 destinations with 13,000 daily departures across North America. It has become an American icon, providing safe, enjoyable and affordable travel to nearly 25 million passengers each year. The Greyhound running dog is one of the most-recognized brands in the world.

Poster 3

February 2001

Clockwise from top left: Rev. Henry Holmes, William H. Suber Sr., Muriel Hightower, Michael "Little Man" Lawson, Milton Leverette, Cleon Wiiliams, Tyrone Jones, Tom Shaffer, Dennis Baker. Special thanks to Chuck Jones, who dedicated Greyhound memorabilia used in this poster.


Poster 4

February 2002

In 1961, the Freedom Riders, a brave group of men and women, black and white, young and old, boarded buses, trains and planes headed for the deep South to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in all interstate public facilities. They found violence in Alabama and were jailed in Jackson, Mississippi. Their efforts led to a Federal law effective November 1, 1961, banning segregation at all interstate public facilities based on "race, color, or creed," Read more at http://www.freedomridersfoundation.org/
id16.html (Link not affiliated with the Alumni Library.)


Poster 5

February 2003

Most everyone knows that Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play major league baseball during the modern era. Surprisingly, few people have given much thought to how Robinson came to the attention of major league scouts, where he played before signing with the Dodgers, or what the nature of baseball in the black community was before professional baseball's integration. Read more at:

www.negroleaguebaseball.com/
history101.html (Link not affiliated with the Alumni Library.)


Poster 6

February 2004

Enjoy the sound clip of this Greyhound Bus Lines 2003 Motor Coach Industries G4500 #7149 on: Youtube
(Link not affiliated with the Alumni Library.)


Poster 7

February 2005

1870: First African-American US Senator Took Oath Of Office
Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African-American to serve in the US Senate as well as the US Congress. He represented Mississippi from 1870-1871, during reconstruction. As of 2011, he is one of six African Americans to ever serve in the US Senate.

1874: First African-American Yale Graduate
Edward Alexander Bouchet was the first African-American student to graduate from Yale University. He graduated in the Class of 1874, with a focus in physics.

1876: First African-American Earned His Doctorate
Edward Alexander Bouchet was also the first African-American to earn a doctorate. He received his doctorate in physics from Yale University in 1876.

1939: First African-American Academy Award Winner
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award She won the award for best supporting actress for her role of Mammy in Gone With The Wind (1939).

1947: First African-American Major League Baseball Player
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

1950: First African-American Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Ralph Johnson Bunche was an African-American political scientist and diplomat, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine,

1956: First African-American Tennis Player Won A Major Title
Althea Gibson was the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title in 1956.

1961: First African-American Freedom Riders Tested Desegregation In The South
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (1960) and Morgan v. Virginia. The first Freedom Ride left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.

1983: First African-American Mayor Of Chicago
Harold Lee Washington was a lawyer and politician who became the first African-American Mayor of Chicago, serving from 1983 until his death in 1987.

1983: First African-American Made A Serious Bid For Presidency
Jesse Jackson was the first major party African-American candidate to run nationwide primary campaigns as a Democratic Party candidate.

1992: First African-American Woman Astronaut
Mae Carol Jemison, a physician and NASA astronaut, became the first African-American woman to travel in space, when she went into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on September 12, 1992.

1992: First African-American Woman Elected to the US Senate
Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun is a politician and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United State Senate from 1993 to 1999. To date in 2011, she is the first and only African-American women elected to the Senate

1997: First African-American Golfer Won The Masters Tournament
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods became the first golfer of African-American heritage to win the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia in 1997.

2001: First African-American Appointed Secretary Of State
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army He was the first African-American United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.

Political protest art focus of University Libraries exhibit

An exhibit featuring political protest art from the Thomas W. Benson Collection, will be on display from Nov. 18 to Feb. 1, 2012, in the Diversity Studies Room, 203 Pattee Library. The collection captures the intensely political climate and emerging student engagement with war, patriotism and anti-imperialism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibit is open during standard library hours. Call 814-865-3063 to confirm times.

Benson will give a gallery talk at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 29, in the Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library and also on MediaSite Live at www.libraries.psu.edu/mtss. No login required.

The Benson Political Protest Poster Collection began in August 1969, when Thomas W. Benson on sabbatical from Penn State arrived as visiting professor to spend the year in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. Political activity on campus was common though a fairly quiet presence, but the climate on the Berkeley campus changed dramatically in 1969 when the public learned of the 1968 My Lai Massacre, a murder of more than 350 innocent victims by U.S. troops. This massacre, combined with then Governor Ronald Reagan’s anti-University campaign and fiscal cuts, along with President Nixon’s April 1970 Cambodian invasion, fueled emotional demonstrations and strikes by faculty and students.

Benson noted, “The university became a sort of teach-in about the war.” Student design artists and activists banded together and created the Berkeley Political Poster Workshop that designed, printed, and distributed hundreds of political protest posters in support of the anti-war movement.

The Eberly Family Special Collections Library acquired the political protest posters in 2009 as a gift from Benson, the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Rhetoric, Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn State College of the Liberal Arts, and the editor of the series in Rhetoric and Communication for the University of South Carolina Press.

To view the full online Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Digital Collection, go to http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/benson.html online.

To access the original Berkeley protest poster prints within the Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Collection, contact Historical Collections and Labor Archives, The Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, Penn State University Park. For more information, or if you anticipate needing accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact James Quigel at 814-865-1793.

Local Contest at Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Penn State University Libraries

“I Found it in the Archives” Contest

Nationally Sponsored by the Society of American Archivists (SAA), www.archivists.org

The contest is an opportunity for Special Collections researchers (all categories) to submit a short story of their quest for information and their success in finding it in the Penn State Special Collections Library. The story – submitted either as a 400-word written essay or as a video recording of no more than two minutes – should tell their tale of discovery and show the result/s of their search.

Ground Rules:

1) Who Can Enter? Any person who has utilized Special Collections materials within the past calendar year (January 1, 2011-Present).

Faculty, staff and student employees (current or former) of the Special Collections Library or its affiliated Library departments are ineligible to enter this contest.

2) Where to submit entries? General drop off of entries can be accomplished in person at: 104 Paterno Library, University Park, Pa 16802 or online to UL-SPCOLREF@lists.psu.edu

3) How will they be judged? A five-person panel of Penn State University archival professionals will review all submitted entries and choose three winners who will be awarded first, second and third place prizes.

The first place winning entry will then be submitted to the Society of American Archivists national contest. The winner of the national contest will receive a trip to the SAA Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego, CA in August 2012.

4) What is the timing? Entries for the local Penn State contest will be accepted beginning 8:00 a.m. EST, Tuesday, November 1, 2011 through 5:00 p.m. EST, Friday, December 2, 2011. Prize winners will be announced at a public event in the Foster Auditorium, University Libraries on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

5) What are the prizes?

FIRST PRIZE: $100 Barnes and Noble Bookstore Gift Card

SECOND PRIZE: Penn State Fleece Jacket

THIRD PRIZE: Autographed Penn State Creamery book authored by former Penn State University Archivist and SAA President Lee Stout

Additional information about the contest can be obtained by contacting Contest co-Chairs Jeanette Eisenhart at jce3@psu.edu and/or Meredith Weber at maw9@psu.edu at 814-863-1793.

Looking at French Revolution Pamphlets on Bastille Day

Observations de quelques patriots sur la nécessité de conserver les monuments de la literature et des arts. Paris, [1793]. Pamphlet #556, French Revolution Pamphlet Collection

On July 14, the French celebrate Bastille Day. The Bastille was a medieval fortress and prison located in the center of Paris, which during the French Revolution represented royal authority. The storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 is held as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation of France and the reconciliation of all French citizens. Festivities, including fireworks and parades, are held all over France on Bastille Day.

In honor of Bastille Day, Sandy Stelts, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, is showcasing our collection of French Revolution Pamphlets:

The pamphlet pictured above is a plea by several moderates who call themselves the sons of Renouard (the printer), of Chardin (the painter), and of Charlemagne, in which they argue strongly for the preservation of France’s heritage. For a time the Republic called for the destruction of landmarks of the past, most notably the cathedral of Notre Dame. Collections of paintings and furniture were sold off, and religious objects were melted down for their gold and silver in order to raise funds for warfare. As one among a number of protests, this pamphlet is interesting as it cites the losses in past conflicts when great manuscripts and books were destroyed or mutilated and collections scattered. The plea is made that such collections are a part of the national patrimony and far more than symbols of tyranny and repression.

Rare Books and Manuscripts’ collection of 720 French Revolution pamphlets, ranging from 1789 to 1796, includes both private and government publications that deal with virtually all aspects of the Revolution, but there is a particular emphasis on political and military issues, financial matters, the position of the clergy, and legal and social conditions throughout France. Among the authors represented are many major Revolutionary figures, including Lucien Bonaparte, Danton, Lafayette, Marat, Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Talleyrand. The collection represents only a few of the almost overwhelming number of pamphlets and books that appeared when the events were current and that were part of an enormous production of paper and ideas—including polemics, cruel edicts, new constitutions, pleas for sobriety, demands for justice, excoriations of the past, and justifications for legal murder.

Celebrating World Social Media Day!

The Eberly Family Special Collections Library recognizes World Social Media Day by launching its newest web 2.0 service -- the Penn State Special Collections Library Flickr site. Together with the Library's Digitized Collections, this will be another vehicle for us to share collection content with researchers, classes, and folks just interested in our materials.

For our inaugural set, we have posted images from our exhibit "Home Front to Battle Front: Celebrating the Civil War Legacy." So if you are unable to make it to the Penn State campus, or just want to see the images again after your visit, you can access them on the PSU Flickr site:

Home Front to Battlefront: Celebrating the Civil War Legacy

Plate 37: The Advance of the Cavalry Skirmish Line
Edwin Forbes, circa 1862-1864
Gift of John Eakin, 2010

An exhibit by the Historical Collections & Labor Archives unit
June 23-October 7, 2011
104 Paterno Library

In conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Eberly Family Special Collections Library will feature a special exhibition chronicling the Civil War Era and its legacy.  Drawing upon an rich array of unique primary source materials—including family letters, diaries, photographic images, historical lithographs and broadsides, official government records—the exhibition explores themes of slavery and abolitionism, sectionalism, the battlefield experience of the common soldier, health and medical conditions during the war, Penn State and the Civil War, and the construction of cultural memory of the epic conflict.

New Digital Collection: Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Posters

The Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Digital Collection is a unique educational and scholarly resource documenting and exploring themes associated with the student anti-war movement and campus unrest in America during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Consisting of 75 iconic political protest posters and accompanying memorabilia—the core produced by student activists affiliated with the University of California (UC)-Berkeley’s Political Poster Workshop—the collection was assembled by Professor Thomas W. Benson, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Rhetoric, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University during his early years as a faculty member affiliated with UC-Berkeley and the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The visually compelling agitprop posters aided in mobilizing faculty and student participation in campus demonstrations and sit-ins in opposition to the Vietnam War and the military-industrial complex. As an eyewitness to the events of that tumultuous era and later a nationally recognized scholar in the field of communications theory and political rhetoric, Professor Benson occupies a unique vantage point to assay the organic relationship of the posters to mass movement political action. His included oral history interview and scholarly paper presentation on the subject of polemical poster artwork of the late 1960s and early 1970s richly contextualize the digital collection.

This digital gallery is organized and arranged by thematic series and preserves for posterity the rare and fragile political graphic artwork that shaped the social, political, and cultural discourse of the Vietnam War era. The digitized political protest posters serve as an important vehicle to generate classroom discussion and educational projects devoted to the study of the American anti-war movement and the counterculture. Moreover, the Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Digital Collection is interdisciplinary in nature and can be used by researchers in a number of academic fields—political science, history, sociology, communications and rhetorical theory, art education and history—to facilitate research and scholarship on the history the New Left and the role of political graphic art as visual rhetoric.

See images from the collections here:
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/benson.html

New Online Exhibit: Juniata County History Project

Featuring several thousand images, this collection encompasses the range of lifetime experiences in Juniata County over the course of the 20th century.  Highlighting both exceptional photographs as well as portraits that could easily have been taken from any family mantelpiece, the images illustrate rural Pennsylvania’s cultural heritage.  The Juniata County History Project was a long term ethnographic research project dedicated to understanding the various forms of visual communication in Juniata County (Pa.).  These exhibit panels showcase customary scenes from everyday life in central Pennsylvania, including agriculture, marriage, childhood, and the rural tradition of the estate auction.

http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/juniata.html

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.

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