To mark the Libraries’ current exhibition, Inventing the Page: Student Literary Magazines at Drexel, the Archives’ blog continues its series of essays about past literary magazines by Drexel alumna and Archives volunteer, Martha Cornog. Inventing the Page is on display at W. W. Hagerty Library until June 11.

All’s Unfair in Love and War: The Roaring Twenties, the Depression, and World War II in Drexerd

by Martha Cornog

A wonderfully fetching and fashionable young flapper decorates the cover of the second issue of Drexerd, a Drexel literary magazine running from 1921 through 1942. Enthusiastically serving up mostly humorous material at first, a majority of the longer stories in the earlier years give glimpses of romantic rivalries and conquests with a lighthearted touch. The Great War was over at last, and frivolity as well as coquetry rushed in to soothe the hangovers of battle, if only aggravate the hangovers from Prohibition’s bootleg booze.

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To mark the Libraries’ new exhibition, Inventing the Page: Student Literary Magazines at Drexel, the Archives’ blog will feature a series of essays about past literary magazines by Drexel alumna and Archives volunteer, Martha Cornog. The new exhibition opens Wednesday, April 18, with a reception from 5-7 p.m. at Hagerty Library.

Echo of Things to Come: Drexel’s First Literary Magazine

by Martha Cornog

“We propose to entertain and be entertained,” wrote The Drexel Echo‘s fledgling editors, “to encourage and be encouraged, to be instructed, and, if possible, to instruct.”

Drexel’s first campus publication with literary content, Echo blossomed from the student body in 1907, a mere sixteen years after the institution was founded. By then, college literary magazines had become academic standbys. The Columbia Review claims to have been the first in the nation as of 1815, but then Columbia University itself was founded in 1754. The much older Harvard, first U.S. academic body as of 1636, dates its own Harvard Advocate magazine to 1866. So while ever so much younger, Drexel’s Echo was certainly faster off the mark.

Actually, the monthly Echo resembles more an all-purpose campus magazine than a literary journal. While a handful of creative efforts—prose and poetry—open each issue, a “School Notes” section of news items follows with brief notes about class officers, faculty changes, news of the Library School, and the perennial sports updates. Reports on goings-on among student organizations and a jokes section close out the first issue. And on the back cover linger four paid advertisements: for a meat market, two photographers, and a sporting goods store.

Cover of the first issue of the Drexel Echo, 1907

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Ever since learning about the dink while working on our Fall 2010 exhibition, “Greetings on Thee, Little Guys: A History of Freshmen at Drexel,” Archives staff have wished for one of these blue and gold beanies to add to the Archives’ collections. That wish has finally come true.  Just this month we received not one, but two dinks, donated by two different alumni. Paula Milmon Hutt ’55 mailed hers from Denver, Colorado. George Piper ’57 dropped his off. George also donated his game ball from the penultimate game of the 1955 season.

Stop by Hagerty Library to check out our current exhibit Dragons on the Gridiron on display until March 30th. Don’t miss your chance to see more items from the Archives’ collections!

Last evening Drexel faculty, students and staff gathered at Hagerty Library to mark the opening of the University Archives’ newest exhibition, Access Everywhere: Computing at Drexel, 1984 – present. The exhibition, which runs until December 10, begins with Drexel’s Microcomputing Project and the distribution of Macintosh computers to Drexel students and faculty in March 1984. Two professors at last night’s conversation were there for the distribution: Tom Hewett and Ray Brebach shared their memories of that dramatic era in Drexel’s history. Professor Jeremy Johnson added the perspective of a computer scientist as we discussed the impact of several key information technologies on Drexel over the last few decades. The speakers agreed that while the introduction of the Macintosh was the most dramatic change, the technology with most pervasive impact, that has changed education at Drexel the most, was wireless computing. Tom Hewett remembered the moment when a colleague first demonstrated how the Apple base station could connect everyone in a room to the internet, without cables. The conversation ranged from Drexel’s role as an innovator in computing to the complex relationship between books and hypertext to and the future of input devices beyond the mouse and keyboard.

Missed this discussion? You’ll have another chance to discuss these and more topics with Drexel faculty, students and alumni at 6 p.m. on November 10 at the Library Learning Terrace, when we screen Going National, followed by another panel discussion. We hope to see you then.

Faculty and students examine the new exhibition, "Access Everywhere," before the conversation

To lend some historical perspective to National Hazing Prevention Week, photographs and documents from the Drexel University Archives are on display at the Creese Student Center until Friday, September 30.  The items demonstrate changing socialization rituals at Drexel and are drawn from our fall 2010 exhibition, “Greetings on Thee Little Guys: A History of Freshman at Drexel.”

Our latest exhibition, “Researching Diversity at Drexel,” opened August 10. This week we’ll be hosting an opening reception with coffee and conversation about researching and documenting diversity. The reception will take place in the atrium of the W.W. Hagerty Library (33rd and Market Streets) on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 5 p.m. We hope to see you there!

Drexel opened its doors in 1891 as a technical school dedicated to educating men and women students of all races, religions, and backgrounds. However, the history of diversity at Drexel, as at any institution, is complex. This exhibition contains documents from the University Archives and essays written by students in Dr. Sharon Brubaker’s English 103 classes that explore issues of race, gender and cultural diversity at Drexel.

A guide for international students, Drexel University

Drexel’s two-day commencement begins today. In honor of all the graduates, the Archives presents a new online exhibition, The History of Drexel Commencement. Created by Andrew Beck, an iSchool student and Archives volunteer, the exhibition presents materials from the Archives’ collections that document the ceremony, speakers and locations of this rite of passage. See it here: http://archives.library.drexel.edu/displays/exhibits/show/commencement

To mark the opening of the Archives’ newest exhibition, “Access for Everyone: Computing at Drexel, 1946 – 1984,” Archives volunteer Martha Cornog explores one dimension of that history.

A Taste of Things to Come: Computing at Drexel, 1946-1984

By Martha Cornog

In 1983, Drexel made national headlines by requiring all students and faculty to have personal computers, the first major academic body to do so. Even the fashion-design majors in the Nesbitt College had to go tech, an increasingly accepted thing at the upper levels of that industry. “It’s really incredible how patternmakers have terminals right next to their sewing machines,” commented Bernard Sagik, Drexel’s Vice President of Academic Affairs, after visiting Christian Dior studios in New York.^{1 (more…)}

Please join us for a reception to celebrate the opening of our newest exhibition, “Access for Everyone: Computing at Drexel, 1946 – 1984″ on Wednesday, May 11th from 4 to 6 PM in W. W. Hagerty Library. The reception is free and open to the public and includes refreshments and a live demo of vintage computers, co-sponsored by TechServ.

Drexel University made history with its Microcomputer Project in 1984, which required all incoming freshman to purchase a personal computer. However, the history of computing at Drexel dates back to the very beginning of computer history. This exciting exhibit traces the growing role of computers at Drexel and the University’s initiatives to provide access to the Drexel academic community.

For more information, email archives@drexel.edu or call 215-895-6706.

Computer science students and faculty, circa 1980

Intrigued by those mysterious, covered display cases on the first floor of Hagerty Library? Tomorrow at 4 p.m., all will be revealed. The University Archives proudly presents our newest exhibition, “Greetings on Thee, Little Guys: A History of Freshmen at Drexel” at Hagerty Library (33rd and Market Streets). An opening reception for the exhibition will be held at the library on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 from 4 to 6 p.m.

The exhibition covers a century of the new student experience, featuring photos, handbooks and more from the past hundred years. The reception is free and open to students, faculty and staff. Refreshments will be served. For more information, email archives@drexel.edu or call 215-895-6706.