UR 8.8, DUTV videos, 1980-2004, 14 cubic feet

This collection consists of recordings of Drexel University Television productions.  most items are VHS tapes.  This collection is partially processed.  A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the Archives for more information.

UR 7.25, Director of Men’s Physical Education and Intercollegiate Athletics records, 1969-1991, 1 cubic foot

Director of Men’s Physical Education and Intercollegiate Athletics John Semanik led the men’s athletics program from his appointment as director of athletics and business manager in 1962 until his retirement in 1991.  Born in Philadelphia in 1930, Mr. Semanik graduated from Drexel in 1956 with a B.S. in business administration.  read more >>>

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 10.8 Drexel historical films, 1937-1991, 8 reels and 6 tapes

This collection consists of eight historical films documenting the students, campus, athletics, and activities of the Drexel Institute of Technology.  The films were transferred to four 3/4″ tapes and two VHS tapes.

UR 4.25 Dance Ensemble performance recordings and programs, 2004-2008, 0.33 cubic feet

The Drexel University Dance Ensemble, established in 1978, is a program of the Dance Department in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. Open to all Drexel students on the basis of a competitive audition, the ensemble presents biannual performances featuring choreography by students, faculty, and outside professionals and a variety of dance styles. This collection consists of DVD recordings and printed programs and postcards for the Drexel University Dance Ensemble’s biannual performances. Performances include student and professional dancers, musicians, and choreographers.

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UR 4.6 Department of Performing Arts records, 1940-1990, 1 cubic foot

The performing arts at Drexel date back to 1892, when Drexel offered its auditorium as a rehearsal space for the Philadelphia Chorus.  The chorus was dissolved in the next year, and the Drexel Chorus was formed to replace it.  In 1897 Drexel formalized its choral music program by establishing a department that would later be called the Department of Evening Classes in Choral Music.  The department was abolished in 1909, but students continued to organize their own performing ensembles.  In 1942, Wallace D. Heaton, Jr., was appointed music director at Drexel, and over the next thirty-seven years he established the Department of Music and revitalized choral music at Drexel.  Clyde Shive joined the faculty as a professor for instrumental music and as the university organist in 1955.  A student dance ensemble was established in 1978.  The music department became the Department of Performing Arts when the College of Humanities and Social Sciences was founded in 1984.  More recently, the department has begun to offer a major in music industry and minors in dance, music, and theater, as well as sponsoring the dance ensemble and a number of vocal and instrumental music groups.  This collection consists of concert and recital programs, photographs, promotional materials, newspaper clippings, and correspondence related to concerts, tours, and festivals organized by the Department of Performing Arts and its predecessor, the Department of Music.

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UR 4.5 Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics records, 1973-1997, 3 cubic feet

The department of mechanical engineering began granting degrees in 1914. Its first department head, J. Harland Billings, was appointed in 1918. It became the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics in 1975. The collection includes correspondence, faculty meeting minutes, brochures detailing policies and guidelines for students, and a brief set of event files. A large portion of the collection consists of personnel records of department staff.

The collection is unprocessed. A preliminary inventory is available in the archives; contact the archivist at archives@drexel.edu for more information. Portions of the collection containing student and personnel records are closed to researchers. See the university archives’ policy on access to records for further information.

UR 6.8 Directories, 1956-2000, 1 cubic foot

Bound booklets containing contact information for students, faculty, and staff.

This collection is partially processed.  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 4.3 Dean of the College of Engineering records, 1954-1969, 6 cubic feet

LeRoy A. Brothers was dean of the College of Engineering from 1958 to 1970.  Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, he studied civil engineering at North Carolina State College and joined Drexel’s faculty as a professor of civil engineering in 1927.  He left Drexel in 1942 to serve in the U. S. Air Force, and in 1944 he became chief of operations analysis for the war in south and east Asia.  He left Drexel altogether in 1945, and in 1946 he became Assistant for Operations at the U. S. Air Force headquarters in Washington.  After returning to Drexel as dean in 1958, he served briefly as acting dean of faculty in 1961 and 1962.  The bulk of the records in the collection are files on academic departments and committees documenting the administration of the College of Engineering and Science from 1961 to 1965.   One box of material consists entirely of records of the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEA) Engineering College Administrative Council (ECAC) Committee for the Analysis of Engineering Enrollment.

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 3.15 Dean of the Faculty marketing and management survey records, 1955-1956, 0.33 cubic feet

In 1955, the Drexel Institute of Technology initiated a management survey with support from the Ford Foundation’s Fund for the Advancement of Education. The consulting firm of Alderson & Sessions was hired to conduct the survey. The study was carried out in two phases: a management phase, which examined Drexel’s organizational structure and managerial effectiveness, and a marketing phase, which looked at Drexel’s appeal to students and its relationship to other Philadelphia institutions. This collection consists of records compiled by dean of the faculty Harry L. Bowman, who served on the Survey Advisory Committee. It includes three of the four volumes comprising the full final report: detailed analyses from the marketing and management phases of the project and statistical data compiled for the marketing phase. (A copy of the fourth volume, an executive summary of the entire report, is available in the Nesbitt College of Design Arts records). It also includes a file of correspondence and meeting minutes compiled by Dean Bowman.

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

UR 3.7 Dean of the Faculty records, 1948-1966, 0.33 cubic feet

This collection consists chiefly of annual reports submitted by the dean of faculty to the president of the Drexel Institute of Technology: Harry L. Bowman (b. 1899, dean of faculty 1953-1961), LeRoy A. Brothers (1904-1985, interim dean of faculty 1961-1962), and Kenneth G. Matheson, Jr. (b. 1902, dean of faculty 1962-1967). read more >>>

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 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.

UR 12.2 Drexel University Bulletin, 1924-1957, 1977-1981, 1.33 cubic feet

The Drexel University Bulletin (also known as the Drexel Institute of Technology Bulletin) was a promotional publication used as a student recruitment tool.  Specific issues of the Bulletin provided details of programs at Drexel; particular issues were dedicated to cooperative education, engineering, library science, home economics, and science.  Other issues were used to recruit female students.  Drexel occasionally used the Bulletin to publish its annual reports and lists of alumni.  The collection consists of Bulletin issues from 1924 to 1957 and 1977 to 1981.

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

MC 5 Documentation Abstracts, Inc., records, 1966-1969, 2 cubic feet

Documentation Abstracts was an abstracting and indexing service started in 1966 by ADI (the American Documentation Institute, later the American Society for Information Science) and ACS/DCL (the American Chemical Society’s Division on Chemical Literature).  They began publishing a journal of abstracts on information science literature in 1966.  Documentation Abstracts was later referred to as Information Science Abstracts starting in 1969 and Information Science and Technology Abstracts from 2001 to the present.  The collection consists of the records kept by Richard Snyder, director of the Science and Technology Library at the Drexel Institute, during his period of involvement with Documentation Abstracts, first as the Special Libraries Association’s representative to the corporation and later as treasurer and acting business manager, from its founding in 1966 through 1969.

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

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 7 Department of Athletics photographs, 1931-2001, 7.33 linear feet

This collection consists of photographs of individual athletes and team sports from 1931 to 2001. It is arranged into two series: photographs of people, and photographs arranged by sport.

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MC 1 Drexel family collection, 1826-1991, 9.3 cubic feet

The collection contains correspondence, memoirs, genealogical charts, newsletters, pamphlets, family reunion material, scrapbooks, legal documents, publications, and newspaper clippings related to the descendants of Francis Martin Drexel. Includes a diary written by Francis Martin Drexel in 1826-1830 and three letters authored by Anthony J. Drexel, the founder of Drexel University. The bulk of material dates from the twentieth century and is contained in eleven volumes of scrapbooks that begin with the death of Anthony J. Drexel in 1893.

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