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“America’s Game at Penn”Franklin Field has been the home to Penn Football since 1895. However, Penn football is not the only football team found within the holdings of the...
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The first mention of the atom in Rabbinic literature?Recently cataloged is a volume of Talmud touted as the largest Talmud ever printed; “Shas ha-gadol shebi-gedolim”, meaning the Talmud...
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A Love Story in the Walter J. Lear PapersWalter Lear (1923-2010) was an American physician, public health official, and activist for healthcare reform, LGBTQ+ rights, and numerous other...
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Necessity is the Mother of InventionEconomic turmoil has been a hallmark of 2022 and 2023, with unease about rising inflation a key reason for concern. When the inflation rate hit...
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Orienting Images: the interaction of illustrations with the physicality of the bookThe Hugo Bürkner preliminary drawings for Georg Wigand’s Robinson Crusoe is a small collection, comprised of a series of sketches by Burkner...
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Six Degrees of James SpadyI had not heard of James Spady prior to being asked to work on, or “process,” his archival collection here at the Kislak Center. Archivists process...
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̶H̶a̶l̶f̶ A Third of a Bible is Better Than None (When ̶I̶t̶s̶ It’s an Incunable)The library of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies holds a small number of incunables in both Hebrew and Latin. Among them is a portion of...
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Schizonyms and the Satirical Humor of Cartoonist John JonikSchizonyms sounded made up when I first came across it in processing the papers of John Jonik. But upon delving into his life and artistic career,...
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Cucumber Pumps and Other OdditiesWhen it came time to process a small collection of business invoices, I cringed and let out a small sigh as I honestly thought the work would be...
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Peace Then, Peace Now: 7 Ways to Pursue Peace Inspired by Activists of Philly’s Past“Today the choice is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.” — Martin Luther King, Jr....
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Look, Down in the Book! It’s an Initial Space! It’s a Guide Letter! It’s …… a lovely illuminated 16-line initial S to begin Saint Vincent Ferrer’s Easter sermon on the verse “Surrexit, non est hic”...
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Happy Birthday Hemingway!Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. For some his name might elicit an internal sense of dread, harkening back...
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Celebrating Ashley Bryan’s 100th Birthday with Poetry and with a newly processed collection!Ashley Bryan was born 100 years ago this past July 13th! Though he isn’t here to join us, that won’t stop those of us who have been...
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“Some low ankle high thing on floor:” from concept to final Philadelphia Sculptors exhibitArchival collections are wonderful for a million reasons, but one of the reasons I love to work with them versus a book, a film, an artwork, etc.,...
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The Ups and Downs of a Three Month Voyage from England to IndiaAs an archivist, I find that diaries are one of my favorite things with which to work—they are rarely polished or tidied. Since most diary...
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The Kislak Kitchen: Minnie Wrixon’s Orange PuddingLately, I have been fortunate to break up my processing of a rather large and unwieldy archival collection by cataloging some of the Kislak...
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Japan BeautifulThe Panama- Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco, California from February 20-December 4, 1915. Like other world’s fair...
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Creativity Is a Sleeping and Cunning Beast That Seems to Come and Go as It Pleases: The Jeffery Cotton papersJeffery Cotton (1957-2013) was an accomplished artist who kept passionate journals documenting his growth as a musician and as a person. He kept...
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Time for a family meeting!It is not unusual or uncommon for families to gather together for a family meeting. What is unusual, it to document it as though it were a formal...
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UPenn CAJS Rar Ms 620 and the mysterious Scroll of AntiochusUPenn CAJS Rar Ms 620 is a bifolium from an Iberian bible which probably dates from the end of the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th...
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Penn Libraries hosts BitCurator Forum 2023: Digital Archivists across Philadelphia gather to share ideas and resources… in-person!On March 28 and 29, 2023, three of the Penn Libraries’ digitally oriented staff–Rachel Appel (Digital Preservation Librarian), Sam Sfirri...
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Writing by Coal Oil Lamps, Editors in Exile, and Exposing the German American Bund: A Few Stories from the Career of William C. LengelWhen I began working on the papers of author, editor, and literary agent, William C. Lengel (1888-1965), the assumption I had was that Lengel and...
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A letter writing catWhenever I process a collection, my hope is to find something fun and completely unexpected. A letter from George and Helen Seldes’s cat, Henry,...
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Take Note(s): A New IndulgenceA former owner of the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection‘s copiously annotated copy of the medico-pharmacological magnum opus Polyanthea...
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Where did she find the time? : The Very Industrious Life of Elizabeth FeeElizabeth Fee was a professor, historian, and major figure in the history of science, medicine, and public health in the late 20th and early 21st...
