MC 41 Mary S. Irick Drexel scrapbook, 1917-1956, 1 volume

This scrapbook contains news clippings describing Mary S. Irick Drexel’s work as the Chairman of the Bureau of Canteen Service of the Pennsylvania-Delaware Division of the American Red Cross during World War I. read more >>>

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 43 Kathryn Musser Smith collection, 1914-1966, .25 linear feet

This collection contains the papers of Kathryn Musser Smith, 1916 graduate of the Drexel Institute.  The collection which ranges from 1914-1966 consists of ephemera generated during Smith’s tenure as a student and includes commencement programs, dance cards, class schedules and correspondence.  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 3.15 Inventory of buildings, furnishings, and items, 1921-1922, 0.5 cubic feet

This collection consists of an inventory of buildings, furnishings and items in the Main building, East Hall (now Randell Hall), North 33rd Hall, and Powelton Hall.  The inventory was conducted between 1921-1922 and consists of 3×5 index cards arranged by floor/room number.  read more >>>

UR 5.2 Library records, 1929-2002, 32.33 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. The first library was housed in the Main Building and was also responsible for running the library school until 1962. A new library, later called the Korman Center, opened in 1959, but planning for another new library began shortly thereafter. The W. W. Hagerty Library opened in 1983. This two largest components of this collection are drafts of the library building program for the construction of Hagerty Library, 1970-1978, and annual reports from the library and its departments, 1964-1997. Other records include subject files compiled chiefly by library director Richard Snyder, staff meeting minutes, some correspondence, and pamphlets pertaining to library events and exhibits.

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 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.

Finding Aid

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 8.2 Tau Beta Pi Pennsylvania Zeta Chapter records, 1926-1987, 6 cubic feet

Tau Beta Pi, a national honorary fraternity for engineering students, was founded at Lehigh University in 1885.  Drexel’s chapter, the Pennsylvania Zeta chapter, was established in 1930.  This collection documents the chapter’s activities and members from its founding through 1987.  It includes administrative materials such as the Tau Beta Pi bylaws, the Pennsylvania Zeta chapter charter, and publications and catalogs from the national office.  The bulk of the collection consists of chronological files that document the year-by-year activities of Drexel’s chapter; these files contain correspondence, surveys submitted to the national office, and records of projects sponsored in that year.  In addition, there is a set of index cards listing the names of Tau Beta Pi members, as well as a few un-awarded membership certificates and keys.

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

UR 8.1 Drexel Women’s Club records, 1927-1980, 5 cubic feet

The Drexel Women’s Club was founded in 1927 by the wife of Drexel’s president, Kenneth G. Matheson.  Membership was opened to female faculty and staff as well as the wives of faculty and administrators.  To fulfill its stated purpose of “promot[ing] good fellowship and to further the interests of the Institute in every way possible,” the Women’s Club began to offer student loans, scholarships, and awards.  In 1942, the club began to publish the Drexel News Letter, a publication sent to Drexel men serving in the armed forces during World War II, with news about happenings at Drexel and from its readers.  The Women’s Club has also sponsored card parties, plays, teas, and other benefit events such as fundraisers for its scholarship and loan funds.  Records in the collection include the club’s constitution, financial records, minutes, membership rosters, annual reports, subject files on events sponsored by the Women’s Club, newsletters, and a history of the club written in 1947.

This collection is unprocessed.  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 2.2 Investment Committee records, 1924-1996, 1.42 cubic feet

Includes records of:

• Finance Committee
• Endowment Fund Trustees

The Drexel Institute’s first finance committee was established in 1891 as a standing committee of the Board of Managers, which merged with the Board of Trustees in 1894.  It appears to have been dissolved or become less active in the early 1920s.  In 1924, when the Institute initiated its first endowment campaign, a group called the “endowment fund trustees” was established to oversee the money raised during the campaign.  The endowment fund trustees stopped meeting in 1943, and a new finance committee took over its oversight of the endowment interest and principal.  The finance committee was renamed the investment committee in 1987.  This collection consists chiefly of the minutes of these committees from 1924 to 1995. A small series of administrative files is also included.

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 2.4 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 3.16 Day College advertising scrapbook, 1923-1926, 1 volume

This scrapbook contains advertisements for the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry ranging from the spring of 1923 to December 1925. It has copies of gender-specific letters sent to high schools and colleges from across the region and country advertising the library science and home economics programs as well as the cooperative program for engineering and business. This scrapbook also contains newspaper clippings pertaining to commencement ceremonies and Drexel Institute’s endowment drive, alumni bulletins and bound department bulletins during this time-span. The scrapbook is annotated with detailed notes of schools and colleges that received letters from Drexel Institute.