Tag: Manuscripts
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Learn the Law with Bernard G. Segal
When I first walked around the Biddle Law Archives as a project archivist, I kept seeing boxes with “Segal” written on the outside in faded cursive. I started counting the number of boxes I came across and quickly lost track. I opened a few of the boxes and saw folders labeled with “Lawyers Committee for…
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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…
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Lemons or Lemonade? Thomas H. Jones picks Lemonade
It will probably come as no surprise to faithful readers of this blog that I have fallen in love again. My newest historical boyfriend is Thomas H. Jones, a Black soldier in the 4407th Quartermasters Service Company who served in Europe during World War II. We know, from plenty of evidence, that Blacks were not…
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The Curious Style of William Steig
William Steig is best known as a writer/illustrator of children’s books—or, if you’re younger than forty, as the inspiration for the DreamWorks animated film Shrek. But Steig didn’t begin writing books for younger readers until he was sixty-one. For much of his career he was most well-known as a frequent contributor to The New Yorker,…
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Joseph Castaldo’s Graphic Score
Joseph Castaldo (1927-2000) was a composer of classical music and a teacher of music theory and composition. He was a talented musician, but at the very early age of 11, he had begun to compose his own pieces and after he returned to the United States after a stint in the United States Army Band…
Unique at Penn 