Category: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
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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. Lengel
When 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 his relationship to author Theodore Dreiser is what researchers would probably find most interesting. From their standpoint as authors, Dreiser’s work is still in publication and remains of interest to…
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A letter writing cat
Whenever I process a collection, my hope is to find something fun and completely unexpected. A letter from George and Helen Seldes’s cat, Henry, would definitely fit that criterion. Journalist, author, press critic and publisher, George and his wife Helen spent the winter of 1962 in Spain. They honeymooned in Spain and would often return…
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Take Note(s): A New Indulgence
A former owner of the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection‘s copiously annotated copy of the medico-pharmacological magnum opus Polyanthea Medicinal (1716) by Portuguese physician João Curvo Semmedo (1635-1719) left this note containing what appears to be a recipe of his or her own on a small sheet of paper. Of equal interest is the printed…
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Where did she find the time? : The Very Industrious Life of Elizabeth Fee
Elizabeth Fee was a professor, historian, and major figure in the history of science, medicine, and public health in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Over the last six months, while delving into the tangible remnants of her life and work, I have also learned that she was an attentive mentor, an uplifter, a…
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Everyone Has a Grandmother
As an archivist, I have learned that collections will often surprise you. In the case of the Doshia Mae and William M. Blackmon photograph collection, I find it interesting how it is both unusual and entirely typical of collections of historical family photographs I have seen. Many people will likely recognize the types of scenes…
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The Marvelous Mrs. Rubinstein
I probably would have never heard of Frankie Rubinstein if not for her relationship to Alvin Rubinstein, a distinguished political science professor who taught at Penn for over forty years. When I first began looking through a collection of Rubinstein related diaries, journals, and correspondence, the expectation was that it would provide valuable insight into…
Unique at Penn 