LU Lone Arranger

Lincoln University Archives: A Student Guide

2011-05-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009 I wrote a student guide for the Lincoln University Archives and with funding from a faculty development grant printed 250 copies of faculty, staff and student use. It is available for sale on Lulu.com, and a pdf file of the document may be downloaded at no cost from that site. Here is the URL for my Lulu "storefront" where you can order print-on-demand copies: http://stores.lulu.com/lulonearranger .

And here is a direct link to download the pdf file: http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_67/7853000/7853059/6/print/7853059.pdf

My last day in Special Collections

2010-08-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day working in Lincoln University’s Special Collections and Archives, as my position of Special Collections Librarian has been eliminated. Hence, this will very likely be my final post. The Langston Hughes Memorial Library building remains closed, as renovations continue, and I remain cautiously optimistic that once the building reopens the decision-makers will have second thoughts about leaving Lincoln’s historic archival records unattended and will decide to hire an archivist to oversee them.

For the coming academic year I will remain on campus, with the title of Assistant Professor in Special Programs, working in the Office of Institutional Research, assisting the grants writer.

LU yearbooks through 1980 now available online

2010-03-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

This morning I completed the final uploads to our digital collection on the HBCU Library Alliance's server of our yearbooks through 1980. This was the final group of materials to be uploaded of the projects funded by our most recent grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). The others, described in previous posts, include Board of Trustee and Faculty Minute books, Garnett Literary Society materials, and even the earliest library catalogue of Ashmun Institute and Lincoln University.

Lincoln University's entire collection on this website is organized chronologically, so minute books are intermingled with yearbooks, photographs, etc. We now have 113 items, on six pages of the website (each page has a 20-item limit), so to see all items, it is necessary to navigate through all pages by hitting the "next page" button.

Here, again, is a link to the website: http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Flupa&CISOSTART=1,1

New Digitized Materials Online

2010-02-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our most recent grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission we have added additional digitized archival materials to our collection on the HBCU Library Alliance’s site “celebrating the founding of the historically black college and university.” These include the 1867 library catalogue for Ashmun Institute and Lincoln University, several Faculty Minute books (covering the years 1872-1943), and some early class books and yearbooks (1900, 1901, 1923, 1928-31).

Melvin Tolson appears in the 1923 yearbook (“The Paw”) and Langston Hughes in the 1929 yearbook (“Lincoln Phi Delta Theta News”) as graduating seniors, while Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe appears in the 1931 yearbook (“The Lion”) as a graduate instructor. Unfortunately, Thurgood Marshall’s picture never made it into the yearbook, probably because he had to drop out for a while after an accident and did not graduate with his class.

Over the next few weeks we will also upload additional faculty minute books to the site – through the mid-1970s. The rest of the yearbooks (through the mid-1970s) will come later, as well as the minutes and other materials of the Garnet Literary Society. Lots to look forward to! To go to the collection, click here.

Lincoln University’s Archives – a resource for genealogical researchers

2009-10-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

It should not be surprising to anyone that I am often contacted by African Americans doing genealogical research who want to learn more about an ancestor who, they know or believe, graduated from Lincoln University. It is always a pleasure to talk to or correspond with them and to alert them to the resources that we have digitized and made available from our website – alumni directories, college catalogues (which in past years included lists of students and information about their class rank and awards at graduation), alumni newsletters, student newspapers, etc. – that allow individuals to do their own research, without even visiting our campus.

Two genealogical researchers who have contacted me over the course of my nine years working in the Lincoln University Archives stand out as unusual, in that their genealogical search for an African-American ancestor came about after learning in middle age that they even had such an ancestor; in short, both these individuals had grown up assuming that their ancestry was strictly European.

In the first case, the individual learned in late middle age that his father had “passed” into the white community as a young man. It was only after his father’s death that he tracked down other members of his father’s family and discovered for the first time the reason for the total estrangement between his own nuclear family and his father’s extended family all the while he was growing up. He contacted Lincoln after learning that his grandfather, whom he had never known, was a Lincoln University graduate (class of 1888).

The second case occurred just last week, when an individual contacted me looking for information – and if possible, a photograph – of his grandfather, an 1897 graduate of Lincoln. This gentleman had no knowledge of his own African roots until he met his African American father for the first time about seven years ago. He described the experience of meeting and getting to know his father as wonderful, and declared his strong interest in finding more about his grandfather. Amazingly, it turned out that one of our online resources, the 1893-1901 Student Record Book that is part of our HBCU Library Alliance digital collection, contained a “thumbnail” size black and white photo of his grandfather!

We are very pleased to be able to help all descendants of Lincoln University graduates in their quest for information about their ancestors, and we continue to “grow” our collection of digitized resources that are available from our website. Our latest PHMC grant is funding the microfilming and digitization of yearbooks, Garnet Literary Society materials, and faculty and board of trustee minutes up to the mid-twentieth century and will result in significant contributions to our online archival collections, once they are complete in 2010.

Albert Einstein photos and letter now online

2009-07-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Albert Einstein's letter to Lincoln University of January 1946, accepting an invitation to visit campus, is now accessible online, as are several images of the event. The letter is in German, and for those of us who do not understand German, we have also posted a translation that Lincoln University registrar and language professor Dr. Paul Kuehner rendered at the time, along with a letter from Dean Joseph Newton Hill to Marianne Grubb, the wife of Lincoln Univerisity language professor Armistead Otey Grubb (who was to become the Acting President of Lincoln after Horace Mann Bond's departure), transmitting the other two letters. Mrs. Grubb, according to correspondence that I have had with her daughter Susan, was instrumental in arranging the visit, and also provided hospitality in her home to Dr. Einstein on the day of his visit.

That visit, on May 3, 1946, was chronicled by several black and white pictures that we have in the archives. The pictures that we have posted online include two of Bond and Einstein in their academic robes, posing for pictures after the conferring of an honorary (Doctor of Laws)on the great physicist; one of Einstein and Bond with other black robed men, one of whom is former LU president William Hallock Johnson; one of Einstein at a blackboard in a University Hall classroom; and one of him, also in University Hall surrounded by children -- the children of faculty members, according to the student newspaper, The Lincolnian, in which this photo also appears, along with a very brief article describing the event of Einstein's visit.

These various items relating to Dr. Einstein's visit to Lincoln University on May 3, 1946 are posted on the HBCU Library Alliance's Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University, in Lincoln University's collection.

To go directly to that collection, in which we have posted items chronologically (so look for 1946 for the Einstein materials)...CLICK HERE:

It should be noted that Albert Einstein's visit to Lincoln University coincided with a conference on "Objectives and Curriculum" that occurred on May 3rd and 4th and included a session with W.E.B. DuBois as guest speaker -- written up in the same issue of the Lincolnian as the brief article about Einstein's visit (June 4, 1946).

And of course the Lincolnian is available as well, from our website, or by following this direct link...CLICK HERE.

19th Century Ashmun Institute and Lincoln University Newspaper Clippings Now Online

2009-06-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Chester County Historical Society, which has a clipping file of old newspaper articles about Lincoln University; to community resident Hersey Grey, a long-time collector of local history who provided us with the digital files; and to the HBCU Library Alliance's Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Black College and University, which has provided a venue on its CONTENTdm server for Lincoln University to host digital files, we have been able to share some old newspaper clippings, going back to 1853, when the Presbytery of New Castle organized the Ashmun Institute.

These clippings are from the American Republican, the Daily Local News, the Jeffersonian, the Oxford Press, and the Village Recorder, and span the years 1853-1874. They are posted on the website as a compound object, under the title, "1853-1874 Newspaper Clippings of Ashmun Institute and Lincoln University (PA)," appearing second in the list, which is arranged chronologically.

Click here for a direct link to our collection.

New digital projects in the works, thanks to PHMC grant

2009-04-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

A recent grant to Lincoln University by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) will fund the microfilming and digitization of additional holdings in the Lincoln University Archives. These holdings are the yearbooks from 1900-1980; the faculty minutes from 1872-1971; the board of trustee minutes from 1909-1959; and Garnet Literary Society materials from 1867-1917.

The yearbooks are a particularly popular resource, not only for Lincoln University students and alumni, but also for outside researchers seeking images and information about Lincoln University alumni, as they contain not only the senior class portraits, but also group photos of student organizations and sports teams.

Our yearbook collection is incomplete, particularly pre-1940, so anyone with a yearbook to donate is urged to contact me as quickly as possible. Any that we receive before July 15 can benefit our microfilming and digitization project and thus contribute to the collection that we make available online.

The earliest two yearbooks in our possession are the Lincoln University Class Books of 1900 and 1901, published by the Senior Classes of 1900 and 1901. Next is “The Paw,” published in 1923 by the Senior Class. Yearbooks apparently became the responsibility of the student newspaper, the Lincoln News, sometime after it started publication in 1925; our next yearbook is from 1928, described on the cover as “Lincoln: Pi Lambda Psi News 1928” and on the title page as the “Commencement Number” of the “Lincoln News.” The following year, the cover title was “Lincoln: Phi Delta Theta News 1929” but the title page remained “Commencement Number, Lincoln News”. Our 1930 yearbook may have lost its original cover, or perhaps never had one other than the title page: “Commencement Issue, Lincoln News, 1930.” Another hiatus in our collection appears, until 1937, by which time the yearbook has become The Lion, which it remained for many years (virtually every yearbook through 1980 retained some variant of the name, although the name Lion did not survive into the 21st century as the title of the yearbook; however, it became the name of the alumni newsletter in the 1980s). This particular year – 1937 – is unique in having a soft leather cover.

Our earliest faculty minutes are handwritten, contained in two leather-bound record books. The older of these is titled, “Lincoln University Minutes of Faculty of the University,” spanning the years 1872-1916, and the second is titled, “Lincoln University Minutes of Faculty of the Arts,” and spans the years 1883-1921.

Each of these two sets of minutes has successor volumes. The Faculty of the University has one additional volume, dating from 1916-1943, that contains handwritten minutes until the mid 1930s, when typed minute pages began to be pasted into the book. No additional minute books labeled “Faculty of the University” exist in our collection. The typed minutes of the Lincoln University Faculty of the Arts from 1921-1938 are contained in a three-ring binder. From 1938 on there are five faculty minute books, all but one three-ring loose-leaf binders, containing typed minutes and bearing various titles:
“College Faculty Minutes,” “Faculty Minutes,” and “College Minutes.” They cover the following date ranges: 1941-47; 1947-58; 1958-65; 1965-71 and 1971-76.

We have already microfilmed and digitized our earliest Trustees’ minute books with a previous grant from PHMC, and these are available via the HBCU Library Alliance’s Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Black College and University at the following link:
http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Flupa

This new grant is allowing us to make five additional Board of Trustee minute books available online, spanning the dates 1909-1959. Only the earliest of these (also known as Lincoln University Book 6) is handwritten; the remainder are typed, with original handwritten signatures by the various secretaries of the Board of Trustees. These minutes are for general Board meetings, as well as meetings of the Executive Committee and the Financial Committee of the Lincoln University Board.

The Garnet Literary Society materials are of special interest, because they represent the oldest student organization on campus, dating back to 1867. The Garnet (sometimes spelled Garnett), named for the African American orator and Presbyterian minister Henry Highland Garnet, was the older of two literary societies (or lyceums) that provided the opportunity for students to practice oratory and debate on campus. These societies are documented in the college catalogues (which are already online, thanks to previous PHMC grants), but now for the first time a hand-written minute book spanning the years 1899-1917 will be available, along two printed documents – the society’s constitutions from 1867 and 1893 – and a letter to the Editor from Lincoln University student Archibald Grimke, clipped from the New Era newspaper on or after May 5, 1870 describing that year’s annual celebration of the founding of the society.

We hope to have the microfilming and digitization complete by the end of the summer. Microfilms will then go to the Pennsylvania Archives, a service copy for viewing and a print master for offsite, longterm storage. DVDs will be available for viewing at our library until the digital files are posted for viewing online via our website and/or the HBCU Library Alliance website.

Albert Einstein at Lincoln University

2008-10-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Two images from the Lincoln University Archives are featured in a recent publication by the Teaching Company, the DVD set of video lectures, Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian, taught by Professor Don Howard, University of Notre Dame. These are two black and white images of Albert Einstein's visit to Lincoln University on May 3, 1946, and they appear in Lecture 21, "A Lifelong Commitment to Social Justice," on the 2nd DVD, about six minutes in. One shows Albert Einstein at the blackboard in a classroom full of Lincoln University students and the other shows Lincoln University President Horace Mann Bond giving Einstein an honorary degree.

The student newspaper, The Lincolnian, June 4, 1946 has another charming image: Einstein mingling with a group of group of faculty children during his visit, as well as a brief article about the visit. This image and accompanying article are accessible, along with all the student newspapers, at www.lincoln.edu/library/specialcollections/lincolnnewslincolnian.html

LU Archival materials contribute to new book by Andrew Billingsley

2008-10-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families (University of South Carolina, 2007) is the title of a recently published book by Andrew Billingsley, professor of sociology and African American studies and senior scholar in residence at the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina.

Robert Smalls was an African American slave, known as "the first black hero of the Civil War" because of his sensational escape to the Union troops with the confederate ship Planter in 1862, who rose to prominence after his combat service in the Civil War, becoming a political leader -- a founding member of the South Carolina Republican party, a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Conventions of 1868 and 1895, and between those two pivotal events, one of which granted blacks the right to vote, and the other of which took that right away, he served as state legislator, state senator, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Lincoln University connection to Robert Smalls is via Samuel J. Bampfield, an 1872 graduate of Lincoln University. Bampfield married into the Smalls family on April 24, 1877, when the nineteen-year-old daughter of Robert Smalls, Elizabeth Lydia, became his wife. Another Lincoln University alumnus in the same graduating class who appears in the book is Thomas E. Miller, another black delegate at the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention, who along with Robert Smalls lobbied for an independent state college for blacks and eventually became the first president of the "Normal, Industrial, Agricultural and Mechanical College for the colored race."

At the time that Andrew Billingsley contacted me for information about Samuel Bampfield we were in early stages of our digitization efforts. By now, however, all of the materials that were helpful to him in his research are actually available online via our digital collections website, www.lincoln.edu/library/specialcollections/digitalcollections.html.

James O. Horton to deliver keynote at exhibit opening

2008-09-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

“Abraham Lincoln and Slavery in American History and Memory” will be the topic of the keynote address delivered by renowned historian and author Dr. James Oliver Horton at the opening of the exhibit, “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” on Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 4:30 PM in the Mary Dod Brown Chapel. Doors to the exhibit will open at 3:45 PM, and light refreshments will be served.

Dr. Horton is widely known and respected as the editor and author – often in collaboration with his wife, Dr. Lois E. Horton – of numerous books, the most recent being Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory (New Press, 2006). Members of the campus and surrounding communities may remember his previous visit to Lincoln University in the late 1990s, shortly after the publication of the Hortons’ book, In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and protest Among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860 (Oxford University Press, 1997), which was a nominee for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in History. Another Horton collaboration, Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America (Rutgers University Press, 2001) was a Choice Outstanding Academic Book for 2001.

The Hortons also co-authored the book Slavery and the Making of American History (Oxford University Press 2004), the companion book for the WNET PBS series of the same name which aired in February, 2005.

Dr. Horton, who is the Benjamin Banneker Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at The George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), is also a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, appointed by the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

Organized by the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York City, in cooperation with the American Library Association (ALA), the traveling panel exhibition, which will remain on Lincoln University’s campus through November 14, 2008, has been made possible through major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, created by Congress and charged with planning the national celebration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday. “Forever Free” draws upon original documents in the collections of the Huntington Library and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. It was curated by John Rhodehamel, Norris Foundation Curator of American historical manuscripts at the Huntington Library. The large panels that make up the exhibit feature facsimile copies and enlargements of these original documents.

Lincoln University of Pennsylvania’s Langston Hughes Memorial Library was selected as one of 63 libraries nationwide to host the exhibit for six weeks during the period between 2006-2009 (with 2009 marking Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial). Because of the closure of the library for renovations, the exhibit will instead be mounted in the Fellowship Hall of the Mary Dod Brown Memorial Chapel, which is across the street from the library’s current temporary quarters. In addition to Dr. Horton’s keynote address, the opening program will also feature the performance of Civil War era music by the Lincoln University concert choir. The public is warmly invited to attend this event and is urged to contact Special Collections Librarian Susan Pevar (484-365-7266, spevar@lincoln.edu) for more information, or to schedule a visit to the exhibit at another time.

"Forever Free" Abraham Lincoln Exhibit

2008-09-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

We are in the final countdown toward the arrival of the traveling exhibit, "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation," which is scheduled to be on our campus from October 2-November 14. This is a panel exhibit of reproduced images from the Huntington Library and Gilder Lehrman Institute collections of historic documents, and its journey across the country with stops at 63 libraries is being funded by a major grant from NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities). More information about the exhibit is available at the ALA (American Library Association) website.

Because the Langston Hughes Memorial Library is currently closed for renovations, the exhibit will be held instead in the Fellowship Hall of our historic Mary Dod Brown Memorial Chapel, located directly across Maple Drive from our temporary library quarters, which cannot accommodate the 6-panel exhibit.

I will soon be posting more information about our opening event on October 2, but in the meantime, anyone seeking additional information should contact me directly at spevar@lincoln.edu.

SAA San Francisco 2008

2008-08-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I am attending the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) -- held in San Francisco this year -- as a presenter, having put together a successful proposal: "Leveraging Outreach to Further Your Goals: Tips for Small Repositories." The germ of the idea had come to me in late September of 2007, very close to the deadline for proposals, and I sent out an email to the Lone Arrangers ListServ, looking for volunteers to participate in a panel discussion. I immediately got responses from three volunteers, all of which looked really promising, so I took the role of moderator, fine tuned the idea and sent the proposal to SAA. I also contacted several of the SAA groups looking for endorsements (recommended but not required) and was happy to be endorsed by the Lone Arrangers Round Table Steering Committee.

In the end, we were selected, and given the time slot of 8:30 A.M. Thursday morning. I must say it was a pleasant surprise to face a full room at that hour. Each presenter, Melinda Isler, Allaina Wallace, and Darlene Richardson gave interesting presentations, from very varied perspectives, and I was pleased with audience response, based on questions. More information is available on the SAA website, and the session was taped, so tapes or CDs are presumably available from SAA: go to www.archivists.org

My husband, Marc Pevar, LU Class of 1967, accompanied me on the trip, and yesterday (Thursday) after a busy morning (my session, followed by one on rethinking finding aids), we took a break from the conference to travel to nearby Oakland, to meet Ghanaian artist Anthony Komla, whose home and studio are in the neighborhood of Fruitvale. Mr. Komla recently donated a magnificent wooden bas relief carving commemorating Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah and his association with Lincoln University. Anthony Komla had been inspired to create a piece honoring Nkrumah for the 50th anniversary of the founding of independent Ghana in 1957, and had contacted me in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library after discovering the Ghanaian leader's ties to Lincoln University. I had seen the carving, which Mr. Komla had shipped to the President's office just a few weeks ago, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet the artist and see his workshop, located in the garage of his home in Fruitland. We told him that the likely permanent home for the commemorative Nkrumah piece will the Lincoln University's International Cultural Center, which is currently under construction. Mr. Komla hopes to visit the university for a formal presentation at some future date.

Lincoln Institute of Philadelphia v. Lincoln University of Chester County

2008-07-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Over the past eight years that I have worked in the Lincoln University Archives, I have received two or three queries about Native American women students attending Lincoln Institute, Philadelphia. The researchers were all under the impression that Lincoln Institute and Lincoln University in Pennsylvania were one and the same institution. I knew that they could not have been, aside from all else, because in the nineteenth century, the era that these women attended Lincoln Institute, Lincoln University most certainly had no female students!

Several attempts to find more information about this elusive Lincoln Institute in Philadelphia proved fruitless, but last night I serendipitously came across some answers! My first clue came (unsought) while I was browsing a copy of our online Lincoln University Herald alumni newsletters. On the last page of the 1899 issue, in a brief note about two common mistakes made about Lincoln University was mention of Lincoln Institute, "an academy for Indians," whose name was often misapplied to Lincoln University. Prompted by this note, I was motivated to go back to Google (as my last search had been several years ago), and this time, thanks to Google Books, I came up with information! The search terms [Lincoln Institute Philadelphia Indian ] brought up History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 by John Thomas Scharf, Thompson Westcott - Philadelphia (Pa.) - 1884 - 2399 pages.

On page 1698 the Lincoln Institute is described as having been founded in 1866 by Miss Mary McHenry in her home at 1902 Chestnut Street as a home for orphaned children of soldiers, and then transformed (after the original orphans had grown up and left) into an institute for "some seventy Indian girls, under an arrangement with the government of the United States." Interestingly, the Lincoln Herald note, published over a decade later, indicates that the Lincoln Institute had been recently denied an appropriation by Congress. So perhaps it was on its way to oblivion by that time. I hope that anyone with additional information will contact me, so that I can help the next researcher investigating The Lincoln Institute in Philadelphia!

Digital collections recently updated

2008-07-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

The various digital collections that I reported on back in August '07 have been completed and are now available online. Most are on our Lincoln University server and available in pdf format from our website, but some are on the HBCU Library Alliance's Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University, with links from our website. So for both, go to: http://www.lincoln.edu/library/specialcollections/digitalcollections.html.

The collections on our own server will probably not be growing in the near future, but the HBCU Library Alliance collection is offering us a wonderful opportunity to expand our online holdings, and we expect to take full advantage of it! CLICK HERE for a direct link to Lincoln University of PA's contributions to that collection.

"Great Debaters": Lincoln University v. Oxford University in 1925

2008-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

The Lincoln News of February 1, 1927 reports that Lincoln University was the winner of the first interracial, international debate in 1925, held at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore, against a team from Oxford University. For the story, CLICK HERE.

That "1925" is a typo (suggested by the fact that the article was published in February 1927, an unlikely time lapse for a 1925 event to be reported) is confirmed by another report of the same event in another campus publication, The Lincoln University Herald, which identifies the date as December 1926.

You can also do a search for other stories in the student newspapers, The Lincoln News and The Lincolnian by going the Lincoln website, clicking on Library, clicking on Special Collections and Archives, clicking on Digital Collections, Clicking on Lincoln News and Lincolnians, following the link to the database, and then following the directions under the Search tab.

Melvin Tolson, the subject of the recent Denzel Washington film, The Great Debaters, graduated from Lincoln, but unfortunately it was in 1923, which was several years before the first student newspaper was published. However, the Lincolnians report that Tolson visited Lincoln several times, and following his death in 1966 the English club was renamed the Tolson Society.

LU Memorabilia Abroad

2007-10-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Rob Johnson, LU Class of 1967 (aka Dr. Robert C. Johnson III), holder of multiple higher degrees and now Chair of the Ethnic Studies programs at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, recently shared some thoughts and feelings in an email to his LU class members (one of whom is my husband, Marc Pevar). Rob graciously agreed to let me quote him, so here is what he said about Lincoln University memorabilia: "I am proud to see Lincoln folks with Lincoln memorabilia in other lands. The reach of Lincoln's influence is great. I had great feelings of pride and euphoria when I was in Ghana in the 1990s and was at the memorial to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with my son and he pointed out to me the replica of Nkrumah's dorm room from Lincoln University. Similarly, when I visit Nelson Mandela's home in Soweto, South Africa and see his honorary degree from Lincoln prominently displayed for people from all over the world to see, I am proud."

The fact is that Lincoln University is known and respected all over the world. That is one reason that our growing online digital collections of Lincoln University archival materials is such a high priority for me.

Thoughts from SAA Chicago 2007

2007-08-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

I’m posting this on my last day at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists, held this year in Chicago – I head home to Pennsylvania first thing tomorrow morning.

I arrived early so that I could attend some pre-conference workshops. Aside from my genuine interest in the topics of my selected workshops, the necessity of earning continuing education credits to maintain my certification by the Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA) provided important motivation to attend them.

I learned about an NHPRC-funded project, undertaken by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to study the problem of electronic records management by academic institutions and develop tools to help those institutions successfully implement electronic records management policies. These tools, known as “Managing the Digital University Desktop” (MDUD) are freely accessible at www.ils.unc.edu/digitaldesktop/.

My second workshop took place at the Newberry Library and also concerned digitization – the digitization of Special Collections. The speakers were charged with being “provocative” and some suggestions that resonated with me were (1) to take advantage of the popularity of Wikipedia by contributing articles and citations that would bring customers to our own repositories and (2) to remember that the standard for archivists is to catalogue to a higher level than the individual item (that is, to the folder or box or collection level) and to apply that standard to our digital collections, including photos.

I was particularly tickled by the first, because the week before leaving for Chicago I actually made my first Wikipedia post, adding information about Kwame Nkrumah and citing Lincoln University’s online resources – the alumni directories and the Lincolnians!

And as for the second, it was like a revelation, removing an important hurdle that has been standing in the way of my undertaking to digitize our Lincoln University Archives photo collection – the lack of documentation about specific photos. Now I plan to commit serious time and effort to preparing a grant proposal for that ambitious project.

In addition to the “for credit” workshops I attended a number of other programs and meetings before and during the conference. At the Lone Arrangers meeting I was a discussion leader, using my experience with planning and implementing digitization projects at Lincoln as a springboard for discussion on the topic, particularly to encourage those who have not yet made the leap to digitization.

As I start to pack up my things for my early departure tomorrow, I have to say what a great city Chicago is – and we have been fortunate to meet walking distance from some of its treasures – Millennium Park and the Art Institute to name just two….I definitely want to come back and see more!

Current Microfilming and Digitization Projects

2007-08-23T08:21:00.001-07:00

Several projects are underway that will increase our online digital collections and at the same time provide the security of longterm preservation afforded by microfilming paper collections. A $15,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is funding preservation microfilming, scanning of the films, and creation of PDF files by OCLC of several collections, and Lincoln University is funding two smaller projects of the same nature. Most of these are university serial print publications, but several are handwritten 19th century manuscripts.

The handwritten materials include the Ashmun Institute and early Lincoln University Board of Trustee minutes, the minutes of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society and the Young Men's Colonization Society and a ledger book designated as a "Class Book" containing notes and thumb-nail photos of students.

Print materials include early (19th century) and mid-late 20th century Lincoln University catalogues and 20th century alumni newsletters. They will join the 19th and early 20th century newsletters, early 20th century catalogues, and student newspapers that are already online, accessible from our website

Lincoln University Receives PHC Grant for Book Group

2006-10-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Lincoln University of Pennsylvania has received a Pennsylvania Humanities Council grant to host a reading and discussion group in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library. The series is free of charge and open to the public. The next session is scheduled for Sunday, October 22, from 3-5 PM.

Led by Dr. Emilie Passow of Drexel University, the audience will examine the themes of estrangement and homecoming in selected works of Jewish literature. For more information, contact Special Collections Librarian Susan Pevar at 610-932-8300, ext. 3266 (spevar@lincoln.edu).

The reading and discussion series is part of a program called “Lets Talk About It: Jewish Literature,” developed by The American Library Association and Nextbook, Inc., which selected Lincoln University as a host site for the series. For more information about the program, visit www.nextbook.org/ala/index.html.

Lincoln University’s local partners include the Chester County Office of The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, as well as the Avon-Grove and Oxford public libraries. Books in the series are available for participants to borrow from all three libraries.

The Pennsylvania Humanities Council inspires individuals to enjoy and share a life of learning enriched by human experience across time and around the world. Since 1973, the PHC has empowered local groups to offer high-quality public programs that have a positive impact on the everyday life of their communities. The PHC represents Pennsylvania in the Federal-State Partnership of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, visit www.pahumanities.org or call 800-462-04

Black African Jews: The Abayudaya of Uganda

2006-07-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

In connection with our upcoming Jewish literature book group, "Between Two Worlds" (see last posting) an email from a friend yesterday provided a link to a BBC site that has a slide show about Ugandans who call themselves "Abayudaya", which means "Jews". They have adopted Judaism as their religion, following the lead of their warrior leader Kakungulu who converted to Judaism in 1919, based solely on his reading of the Jewish scriptures. Since then they have connected with other Jews. Oddly, the link I copied here isn't working -- I reach BBC but get an Error 404. Yet the link still works from my email. Oh well, I have now removed the link from here.

I first learned about the Abayudaya several years ago when I came across (and purchased for my husband) a book by Richard Sobol and Jeffrey Summit and an accompanying cd of music by members of the Abayudaya community. Richard Sobol is a photographer, and has an interesting site with more information about and images of the Abayudaya.

Jewish Literature Series at Lincoln University

2006-07-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Lincoln University's LANGSTON HUGHES MEMORIAL LIBRARY (LHML) will host a free and open-to-the public five-part reading and discussion series exploring the theme, Between Two Worlds: Stories of Estrangement and Homecoming. Sponsored by Lincoln University’s Lectures and Recitals Committee, the series is part of a program called Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature - Identity and Imagination, and will explore Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of five different books.

LHML is one of over 150 libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series, which was developed by Nextbook and the American Library Association (ALA) . Two local libraries, the Oxford Public Library and the Avon-Grove Public Library, are promoting the program among their users, and the Chester County Office of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is also a local partner.

“We are delighted to have been chosen to host this unique series that will give our students a chance to discuss themes in Jewish literature with members of the community and with the help of a well-qualified scholar,” said Patrick Hall, Director of the Langston Hughes Memorial Library.

The first program will explore Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman and will be held on Sunday, September 17, 2006 at 3 PM. For details or to register, please contact Special Collections Librarian Susan Pevar (phone: 610-932-8300, ext. 3266 or email spevar@lincoln.edu).

Additional books will be discussed one Sunday afternoon per month at the library, skipping December. Dr. Emilie Passow, Associate Professor, Dept. of English and Philosophy, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, will lead a discussion of the book at each session. Dr. Passow's background in teaching and lecturing on Jewish literature and Jewish studies is extensive, and she has led discussions on these same books previously at the Delaware County Library System.

The complete schedule follows (all programs are at 3 PM on Sunday):
September 17, 2006: Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman
October 22, 2006: Mr. Sammlers Planet by Saul Bellow
November 19, 2006: Out of Egypt by André Aciman
January 21, 2007: The Centaur in the Garden by Moacyr Skliar
February 25, 2007: Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman

The Langston Hughes Memorial Library is named for one of Lincoln University's most famous graduates, the celebrated poet Langston Hughes, who graduated in 1929. The Library houses a collection of more than 185,000 volumes and annually subscribes to approximately 700 periodicals. Its Special Collections contain the Lincoln University Archives as well as an extensive collection of materials representing all aspects of the Black experience, including African-American and African materials.

Walter Wright, Lincoln University’s Fourth President

2006-07-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Walter Livingston Wright, the first acting president (1924-26) and fourth president of Lincoln University (1936-45) became a professor of mathematics at Lincoln University in 1893, a year after receiving his A.B. at Princeton. This was during the presidency of Lincoln University's first president, Isaac Norton Rendall, who was succeeded by his nephew John Rendall in 1905. During John Rendall's presidency Wright was the treasurer of the faculty.

When John Rendall died in 1924 Wright was the almost unanimous choice for the presidency among the alumni, but he was opposed by several conservative board members on the grounds that he was not an ordained Presbyterian minister. He served as Acting President until William Hallock Johnson, a colleague and friend who had the benefit of ordination, was elected president, and Wright assumed the new position of Vice President (while remaining on the teaching faculty).

After Johnson's retirement in 1936 Wright became president and served in that position until 1945, when Horace Mann Bond (father of Julian Bond) became the first Black president of Lincoln University. Under Wright, Lincoln achieved its status as a ‘state-aided’ higher institution in the 1937-39 biennial appropriation bill. By the time Walter Wright retired in 1945, almost half the faculty members were black, including two black women, who were faculty wives and the only women on the faculty. Horace Mann Bond's book Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania (1976) fills in many more details about Walter Wright's career at Lincoln University. Additional sources include the blogger's personal knowledge, in combination with the 1945 yearbook and/or the 1944-45 catalogue (faculty with degrees from LU and Howard in that era are assumed to have been black).

Additional information is also available online. The Langston Hughes Memorial Library has links on its website to pdf files for the Lincoln University Herald , a university newsletter (1894-1936), with catalogue issues between the years of 1919-1936. These are searchable, year-by-year, and it is possible to enter "Wright" as a search term and find him in both the newsletters and catalogues. The following page has links to the specific issues: http://www.lincoln.edu/library/specialcollections/herald.html

Lincoln University's First Alumna, Ruth Fales

2006-06-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Virtually forgotten among her many illustrious graduates is Lincoln University’s first alumna, Ruth Wolfgard Fales, who graduated in 1953. Who was Ruth Fales, and how did she happen to become Lincoln University’s first alumna? Her story is fascinating in its own right and sheds some light on a closed chapter of Lincoln University’s history.

According to her application for admission, Fales was born Ruth Wolfgard Ilgner in Berlin, Germany on April 5, 1915. Her son Evan reports that in 1938 or early 1939 she and her husband, Walter Fales, fled Nazi Germany, via Switzerland, ending up in Italy in 1939. They managed to reach the United States by the end of 1939, starting out their life here as a maid-butler team in New England. Walter Fales had been an eminent scholar and professor in Germany, and, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, he was able to re-establish an academic career in this country.

In 1946 Dr. Fales accepted a position as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Lincoln University and moved to the campus with Ruth and their two young children, Evan, two and Corinna, one.

Four years later, in 1950/51, Ruth Fales enrolled in classes at Lincoln University. She was one of at least four women students enrolled at Lincoln that year. Perhaps because she was a faculty wife she does not appear in the 1950/51 catalogue, but three other women, all with local addresses, are listed as “Special Students” (this was the first catalogue in which women students appeared). Fales, however, had a head start over the other three, for her transcript shows that Lincoln University accepted 104 transfer credits for courses that she had completed in Germany prior to fleeing the Nazis. Over the course of 1950/51 and 1951/52, Fales completed an additional 15 credits at Lincoln, as well as 6 credits at the Parsons School of Design summer school. In fact, by February 1952 she had earned enough credits to graduate. The faculty recommended her to the Board of Trustees, to receive a bachelor’s degree at the 1952 Commencement.

Ruth Fales’ career goal was to become a teacher, and it was in her pursuit of teaching certification from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that her path toward receiving a B.A. hit a snag. Responding to a letter that she wrote to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Instruction requesting a certificate to teach elementary school in Pennsylvania, the Director of Teacher Education and Certification wrote to Lincoln University President Horace Mann Bond, declaring that, under Lincoln University’s current charter, which limited the institution to “the education of persons of the male sex,” the University’s ability to grant Ruth Fales a degree was in question.

The existing charter also restricted Lincoln University’s enrollment to “colored” youth, and while President Bond recognized that this had never prevented the institution from educating and granting degrees to young white men, the university decided that the most prudent course would be to eliminate both racial and gender restrictions from the charter, and to hold off awarding Ruth Fales her degree until this change had been accomplished. Thus Ruth Fales did not receive her degree until 1953, more than a year after she had completed all her coursework. Meanwhile, her husband had become ill with cancer. By the Spring Semester of 1953 Dr. Fales was unable to teach his classes, and he died in April, 1953, shortly after learning that his wife would be able to receive her degree at the upcoming Commencement in June.

Little fanfare accompanied this milestone in Lincoln University’s history. For one thing, the university had not yet made a commitment to full coeducation. The charter change, although it was apparently initiated in order to accommodate women students – specifically Ruth Fales – was not publicized as having that goal.

Rather, the publicity it received emphasized the goal of transforming Lincoln University into a racially integrated institution, “…where men from everywhere in the world may come, who wish to learn, and to practise, the art and science and faith of the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God.” This plan for transformation, known as Lincoln University’s “New Program,” was a response to recent Civil Rights laws, which the Board of Trustees believed would obviate Lincoln’s mission to educate Blacks (just as emancipation had resulted in the transformation of Ashmun Institute as a seminary to educate free Blacks as missionaries for the Colonization Movement into Lincoln University as an institution to educate the newly freed slaves for professions in this country). Strikingly absent from the New Program was any reference to women.

Yet within a decade Lincoln University had become fully committed to coeducation, making plans to house women on campus. The goal of full racial integration of the student body, on the other hand, faded, as the Black Power movement emerged in the 1960s and 70s and with it a revived perception of the value of an institution primarily for Blacks.

Meanwhile, after her husband’s death and her graduation from Lincoln University, Ruth Fales quietly forged on with her life. No longer eligible for campus housing, she moved off-campus with her children to the nearby Lincoln Village, where she lived for many years. She pursued a graduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania and received a Master’s degree in 1960. That same year she became the teacher of the London Grove Friends Meeting Kindergarten, where she taught until her retirement in the early 1980s. Over the years I have met many of her former students who remember her with great affection. She built a house in University Heights, the private development where a number of faculty members bought homes in the 1960s and 70s and lived there until health problems forced her to move into the Friends Home in Kennett Square. Through the years she maintained a connection with Lincoln University, attending concerts, lectures and recitals and participating in the Lincoln Community Players.

In her last years Ruth Fales lived in a nursing home near her son Evan’s home in Iowa, robbed by Alzheimer’s Disease of her intellect, but not her joie de vivre. She passed away peacefully on January 17, 2004 at the age of 88.