UR 7.3, Men’s Basketball records, 1895-2001,  3.33 cubic feet

The collection contains a large series of newspaper clippings related to men’s basketball dating from 1953 to 1988; game and player statistics dating as early as 1895 through 1990; series containing media guides, game programs, calendars, and other printed ephemera; and a small set of slides from circa 1997.  read more >>>

MC 4 Howard Pyle collection, 1894-1940, .25 linear feet

Howard Pyle, noted American illustrator, was an art instructor who headed the Drexel Institute’s School of Illustration from 1894 to 1900.  This collection contains correspondence and pamphlets documenting Howard Pyle’s time as an instructor in the school of illustration at Drexel.  read more >>>

UR 5.1 Early library records, 1891-1947, 2.66 cubic feet

The library and reading room of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry opened in 1892 under the direction of librarian Alice B. Kroeger.  Within its first year of operation, it had built a collection of nearly eight thousand volumes, chiefly through gifts and donations from Anthony J. Drexel and his business partner, George W. Childs.  The Drexel Institute library was also responsible for running the library school, which by 1900 was enrolling twenty students per year.  This collection consists of the minutes of the Trustees’ Committee on the Library from 1892 to 1917; accession and inventory books listing items received and withdrawn from the collection, 1891-1947; library circulation statistics, 1891-1923, and card catalogs.  It also includes a brief series of correspondence by library director Anne Wallace Howland, 1923-1930.

This collection is unprocessed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.

UR 4.1 Programs and invitations collection, 1892-1965 (bulk 1892-1915), 6.66 cubic feet

The collection consists of bound volumes and loose programs containing announcements, programs, and invitations to Drexel events.  The bulk of the events represented in the collection were sponsored by the Department of Free Public Lectures and Concerts, which served the school founder A.J. Drexel’s desire to “provide a liberal means of culture for the masses.”  Free lectures and concerts at the Drexel Institute began during the school’s first year of operation in 1892.  They were offered during the winter months and open to the general public until the abolishment of the department in 1915.  Other events were held by the Department of Fine and Applied Art, which was established in 1892; reached its zenith under the tenure of Howard Pyle, who headed its School of Illustration from 1894 through 1900; and was discontinued, with the exception of the course in architecture, in 1905.  The collection also contains programs of commencement ceremonies, the first of which was held in 1894; a program from the dedication of the institute in 1892; and invitations to an 1894 memorial service for institute founder Anthony J. Drexel.  Most of the programs date from the first twenty years of the operation of the institute, but the collection also contains a few programs and announcements from as late as the 1960s.

This collection is unprocessed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.

UR 4.9 Nesbitt College of Design Arts records, 1894-1993, 7 cubic feet

Includes records of:

• Nesbitt College of Design, Nutrition, Human Behavior, and Home Economics
• College of Home Economics
• School of Home Economics
• School of Domestic Science and Arts
• Department of Domestic Science
• Department of Domestic Arts
• Department of Domestic Economy

The school that would eventually become Nesbitt College was present at Drexel when it opened in 1892, in the courses of study specifically intended for the education of women, such as cookery, millinery, dressmaking, and normal courses (teacher training) in each of these subjects.  The curriculum expanded over the years to include domestic science, home economics, dietetics, applied arts, textile merchandising, and hotel management.  The school went through many curriculum and name changes before becoming Nesbitt College of Design Arts in 1985.  The collection, which contains records dating as early as 1895, consists of reports, photographs, newspaper clippings, speeches, materials compiled about the history of the college, publications, and notebooks and recipe cards used during the early years of the college.

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UR 4.8 Graduate School of Library Science Placement Office alumni cards, 1895-1973, 3 cubic feet

Drexel’s Graduate School of Library Science (later the College of Information Science and Technology) was founded as the Library and Reading Room during the Drexel Institute’s first year of operation in 1892.  It was closed by President Hollis Godfrey in 1914 and reopened as the School of Library Science in 1922.  This collection consists of two alphabetical sets of index cards containing information about graduates of the library school from the 1890s to the early 1970s.  Each card contains an alumnus’s address, initial job placement, and subsequent jobs held.  The cards are arranged in two alphabetical sets: one from 1895 to 1914, and the other from 1924 to 1973.

This collection is unprocessed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.  Because the collection may contain confidential information, portions are currently restricted pending review by the archivist.  See the university archives’ policy on access to records for further information.

UR 4.10 College of Information Science and Technology records, 1892-2002, 16.33 cubic feet

Includes records of:

• College of Information Studies
• School of Library and Information Science
• Graduate School of Library Science
• School of Library Science
• Library School
• Library Department

What is now the College of Information Science and Technology (previously the Library and Reading Room, 1892-1914; School of Library Science, 1922-1954, Graduate School of Library Science, 1954-1978; School of Library and Information Science, 1978-1984; College of Information Studies, 1984-1995) was founded in 1892 when the Drexel Institute opened its doors.  This collection spans the entire history of the college, but the bulk of the material is administrative records (reports, faculty and staff meeting minutes, personnel files, grants, curriculum, etc.) dating mostly from the 1950s through the 1990s.  The collection also includes some student records; materials about specific deans, directors, and alumni; a series relating to the Rush Building; publications; publicity materials; photographs; and programs and memorabilia.  Some of the files contain letters by Guy Garrison, retired dean of the college, who was responsible for transferring the collection to the archives.

Finding Aid

UR 6.9 Commencement collection, 1894-2005, 3.33 cubic feet

Drexel celebrated its first school-wide commencement in 1894.  The collection includes programs, invitations, correspondence, speeches, and rosters related to commencement ceremonies at Drexel University and its predescessor institutions.  Records are arranged chronologically by date.

This collection is partially processed.  A preliminary inventory list is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.

UR 3.4 Financial records, 1892-2001, 5 cubic feet

This collection consists of financial records, including ledgers, account books and account balance worksheets, year-to-year spending comparisons, and annual financial reports, found among the collection in the Drexel University Archives.  It includes ledgers dating from the founding of the Institute in 1892 through 1916.  The provenance of the collection is unknown, and information about the creation of these documents and their transfer to the archives is unavailable.

This collection is partially processed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.

UR 2.4 Deeds of trust, charter, and bylaws, 1894-1977, 0.21 cubic feet

This collection consists of booklets containing copies of documents such as the charter (with which the Drexel Institute was incorporated), bylaws (which governs the Board of Trustees), deeds of trust (granting land and money to the institute), and extracts from the will of Anthony J. Drexel.  Early booklets also list the names of board members and committees. Also included with the collection is a small set of legal documents pertaining to the 1943 transfer of the securities granted by Anthony Drexel to the institute’s endowment fund.

This collection is partially processed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.  Because the collection may contain confidential information, portions are currently restricted pending review by the archivist.  See the university archives’ policy on access to records for further information.

UR 2.1 Board of Trustees and Executive Committee records, 1891-2005, 10.25 cubic feet

The Board of Trustees of the Drexel Institute was established in 1891 with the school’s founder, Anthony J. Drexel, as its president and his business partner, George W. Childs, as vice president.  The institute was also governed by a separate Board of Managers, which merged with the existing board into a twenty-four member Board of Trustees when Drexel was incorporated in 1894.  The Executive Committee was formed at the time of incorporation as a six-person standing committee entrusted with “the general charge and supervision of all the business of the institute.”  This collection consists chiefly of the minutes of meetings of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Managers, and the Executive Committee from 1891 to 1995.  It also contains reports and correspondence of the secretary of the board from 1896-1915, trustees’ and executive committee “board books” from 1985-1989 and 2000-2005, and a small set of administrative records, chiefly from the 1980s.

This collection is partially processed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.

MC 33, William B. Shoe papers, 1898-1943, 1 linear ft.

This collection contains items relating to the career and life of Drexel alumnus William B. Shoe. The bulk of the collection deals with his business life, with business licenses, blueprints and professional correspondence. There are also a number of photographs related to the launch and construction of his projects. The personal life of Mr. Shoe is primarily represented in his personal narrative, and with the inclusion of some photographs of students taken at the Drexel Institute, though he is not identified in any of these.

Finding Aid

UR 1.1 James MacAlister papers, 1889-1941, 0.66 cubic feet

James MacAlister (1840-1913) served as the first president of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry from 1891 to 1913. He was a proponent of vocational and technical education throughout his career. This collection documents his term as president, his views on education, and his involvement in the early history of the Drexel Institute. Records include MacAlister’s letters, a book that he published, lectures, and his personal notebook, as well as research notes believed to have been compiled by Harriet Worrell for the book Drexel Institute of Technology 1891-1941: A Memorial History. Of particular interest in the collection are letters to Booker T. Washington and Andrew Carnegie and correspondence with James Wilson and Wilson Brothers & Company, the architectural firm that designed Drexel’s first two buildings.

Finding Aid

PC 5 Buildings and campus photographs, 1891-2001, 3 cubic feet read more >>>

George W. Childs collection, 1845-1967

MC 10, 1 cubic foot

George W. Childs (1829-1894) was the founder and editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, a noted philanthropist, and a longtime friend of Anthony J. Drexel.  He was influential in encouraging Drexel to establish a school for the education of men and women, and he served on the institute’s board of trustees from the school’s founding until his death.  The bulk of the collection consists of scrapbooks containing clippings published on the event of Childs’s death and shortly after it.  The rest of the collection consists of publications about Childs, memorial addresses in his honor, and some correspondence, including a letter signed by President Grover Cleveland from 1891.  Most of the material is from the 1890s, but a few later articles and letters about Childs were found with the collection.

This collection is partially processed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information.

UR 12.1 Periodicals collection, 1896-2005, 5.6 cubic feet

Periodicals published by Drexel University and its predecessor organizations.  Includes general news periodicals, alumni news, student publications, and specialty periodicals published by departments and offices within the university.  Collection also contains course catalogs, informational circulars, and other periodicals published for students and staff on a weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule.

See inventory arranged by date.

See digitized items from this collection.

PC 3 Early photographs of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry, 1885-1931, 2.56 cubic feet

This collection consists of photographs of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry from 1891 to 1936. It includes photographs of the exterior and interior of the Main Building, men’s and women’s athletic teams, and students from various academic departments.

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PC 4 People photographs, 1880-2000 , 8 cubic feet

This collection consists of a series of files containing photographs of individual people, primarily Drexel faculty, trustees, and staff, as well as some alumni. Photos date as early as 1880 and as late as 2000, but are chiefly from the 1980s and early 1990s; many are undated. The bulk of the photos are black-and-white or color prints, but files also contain a few negatives and contact sheets. Some photographs transferred from the Office of University Relations have captions or annotations associated with them, providing dates and additional information about the subject of the photograph.

Although the provenance of the photographs is not known, it is believed that most were originally transferred to the University Archives from the Office of University Relations. Archives staff have also occasionally added photos to this collection as they are found among unrelated records or accessioned.

Some additional photographs of people are filed with biographies, CVs, newspaper clippings, and other materials about the individual in UR 10.2, the Biographical Reference Collection.

Finding Aid

UR 6.4 Student record books, 1892-1916, 6 cubic feet

This collection of record books lists Drexel Institute students from the years 1892-1914.  It includes student records from the following classes and departments: art (1893-1905), domestic science (1892-1915), architecture (1895-1902, 1912-1914), mechanic arts (1892-1906), mechanical drawing (1899-1900), machine construction (1899-1900), and normal course/teacher training (1893-1916).  The collection also includes a record of scholarships (1892-1902), a record of diplomas and certificates awarded (1893-1914), and a record of enrollment by department (1892-1893).  Student record books for the art department during the years of Howard Pyle’s School of Illustration are a part of this collection.

Finding Aid

UR 1.1, 0.66 cubic feet

James MacAlister (1840-1913) served as the first president of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry from 1891 to 1913.  He was a proponent of vocational and technical education throughout his career.  This collection documents his term as president, his views on education, and his involvement in the early history of the Drexel Institute.  Records include MacAlister’s letters, a book that he published, lectures, and his personal notebook, as well as research notes believed to have been compiled by Harriet Worrell for the book Drexel Institute of Technology 1891-1941: A Memorial History.  Of particular interest in the collection are letters to Booker T. Washington and Andrew Carnegie and correspondence with James Wilson and Wilson Brothers & Company, the architectural firm that designed Drexel’s first two buidlings.

Finding Aid