University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

This is a collection of Book-of-the-Month club news, mailings, and offers along with a few examples of other book-seller related materials such as advertisements, catalogs, lists, and financial and business documents, mostly receipts. The bulk of the collection is from the years 1850 to 1961 with a few outlying documents from the 1820s to 1840s.

The American Section was one of the first to evolve during the early development of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The University Archaeological Association established in 1887 and later, the American Exploration Society, established in 1892, exhibited several small collections in College Hall before the building campaign for the museum began. Charles Abbott was the first curator of the section succeeded by Henry C. Mercer and then Stewart Culin who was also named Director in 1899. Each succeeding curator was responsible for adding collections, many of them representing their own expeditions in the United States, Alaska, Mexico, Central America and South America. Records in the files are dated from 1826 through the 1980s. The transfer of materials to the Archives took place piecemeal and without a central organization. The current re-processing placed the files into three series, Deaccessions and Loans, Collectors and Collections and Exhibits.

Arthur Hobson Quinn (1875-1960) was a professor and dean of English and History at the University of Pennsylvania and an internationally recognized authority on the history of American drama. This collection contains material representative of Quinn’s entire professional life: correspondence, manuscripts of books and articles, lecture notes, reviews of contemporary plays, his collection of playbills and libretti, and material related to his research on Edgar Allan Poe and the American realist playwright James A. Herne.

A. Mitchell Palmer was a Democrat politician from Pennsylvania who served as Congressman, Alien Property Custodian and Attorney General between 1908 and 1921. This collection covers, to a limited degree, each of these three stages of Palmer’s career. It includes photographs, correspondence, and administrative documentation relating to Palmer’s political campaigns, his support of president Woodrow Wilson, and his involvement with organizations such as the Chemical Foundation, especially during his appointment as Alien Property Custodian.

Charles Hallowell Stephens (1855-1931), followed several careers; illustrator, art teacher, collector of American Indian artifacts, and amateur anthropologist. Born and raised in Philadelphia he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts studying under the tutelage of Thomas Eakins. The importance of Stephens for the Penn Museum resides in his extensive collection of Native American artifacts that was estimated to have about 2000 items, about 1700 of which were acquired by the Penn Museum in 1945. The collection is divided into eight series: Correspondence, Blackfoot, Sioux, Collection Materials, Correspondence on Data, Visual Material, American Pageant Association, and Photographs.

Charles Mulford Robinson (1869-1917) was a newspaper editor, author, and professor celebrated as one of the United States' first urban planners and early proponents of the "City Beautiful" movement. This collection features several of his urban improvement reports delivered to communities which solicited his services as a "civic advisor," as well as the personal correspondence of him and his wife Eliza; newspaper clippings about his life, death, and activities; scrapbooks; poems, prose-pieces, hymns, and plays composed by Robinson in his spare time; photographs; and other personal records from throughout his life.

Founded in 1907, the Charlotte Cushman Club was originally intended to provide respectable lodgings for actresses appearing in Philadelphia theaters. In the years of World War II the Club ceased to provide residential services, becoming a favorite gathering place of theater lovers as well as of the many actresses and actors visiting the city with their touring companies. The Charlotte Cushman Club Records offer insight into the activities, the administration, and the membership of the Club during the whole life of the organization, until its closure in 1998. The collection also includes part of the holdings of the former Club’s museum and library.

The Chestnut Hill Hospital School of Nursing Records consist of 20.45 linear feet of hospital records, school administration records, faculty and student files, yearbooks, photographs, and some artifacts. The records extend from the school's creation in 1908 until its closing in 1987. The collection comprehensively documents the growth of a suburban community hospital nurse training program.

Clarence S. Fisher was born in Philadelphia in 1876 and attended the University of Pennsylvania, attaining a degree in architecture in 1897 but devoting his entire life to archaeology. His first archaeology field experience was as the architect for the initial Babylonian expedition to Nippur from 1898 to 1900. This was followed by a research fellowship in Babylonian archaeology at the University Museum. Fisher also worked as an assistant to Harvard Archaeologist, George Andrew Reisner in Egypt and Samaria. From Reisner, Fisher learned archaeological techniques and the methods of meticulous record keeping he would use in his later work. Fisher was appointed a curator of the Egyptian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum by George B. Gordon in 1914. He spent the next nine years in the field collecting data in Dendereh, Giza, Memphis, and Dra Abu el-Naga. Fisher's expedition to the cemetery at Dendereh re-worked a site that had been explored by Charles S. Rosher and W.M. Flinders Petrie, producing more precise data and a wealth of objects from the burial sites. The Clarence S. Fisher Dendereh expedition records consist of seven archival boxes of correspondence, diaries, notebooks, plans, post-excavation notes and photographs. Additional material includes three card files with tomb notecards and object cards. In addition, there are seven large object register books stored in two boxes and oversize materials stored in the map case.

Clarence S. Fisher was born in Philadelphia in 1876 and attended the University of Pennsylvania, attaining a degree in architecture in 1897 but devoting his entire life to archaeology. His first archaeology field experience was as the architect for the initial Babylonian expedition to Nippur from 1898 to 1900. This was followed by a research fellowship in Babylonian archaeology at the University Museum. Fisher also gained experience as an assistant to Harvard Archaeologist, George Andrew Reisner in Egypt and Samaria. From Reisner, Fisher learned archaeological techniques and the methods of meticulous record keeping he would use in his later work. Fisher was appointed a curator of the Egyptian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum by George B. Gordon in 1914. He spent the next nine years in the field collecting data in Dendereh, Giza, Memphis, and Dra Abu el-Naga. The Clarence S. Fisher Memphis excavation records consist of six archival boxes of correspondence, notes, field cards, diaries, catalogues and photographs. In addition there is a card file with object notes. Oversize drawings, maps, plans, watercolors and financial records complete the collection.

The Clark and Madeira Family Papers offers a perspective on the personal, social, and professional lives of a rich and vibrant upper class Philadelphia family in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. It is reflective their affection for learning, travel as well as their undying affection for each other.

The Curriculum and Lecture Notes Collection was created by the University Archives in the 1950s to assemble individual manuscripts and small groupings of archival material relating to courses taught at the University of Pennsylvania throughout its entire history. This collection documents the teaching methods used in the various schools of the University of Pennsylvania throughout its history.

Cyrus Adler was a prominent Jewish scholar and communal builder. Born in 1863, he had a tremendous role in shaping much of Jewish America by the time of his death in 1940. The collection contains Dr. Adler's business correspondence and personal papers and spans much of his multi-faceted career. It also contains many papers connected to the formation and day-to-day business of the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning. (See the Biography and Scope and Content Notes for a more detailed description of Adler's life and the collection.)

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania authorized the establishment of a “Department of Biology” at the University in April 1884 and elected the founding members of its faculty one month later. This collection documents the early history and development of the Department of Biology and the teaching of botany and zoology at the University of Pennsylvania until 1916.

The Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr. Papers documents the career and life of University of Pennsylvania Professor of Philosophy Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr. The collection consists primarily of lecture materials, addresses, and copies of publications – particularly material on his final work Experience and Reflection.

Enid Frank Goldsmith, the sister of Waldo Frank (1889-1967), was born on March 30, 1888, and died on December 7, 1983. The letters in this collection span several generations and mainly include correspondence between various members of the Frank and Goldsmith families between 1886 and 1984. The majority of the letters are either written to or by Enid Goldsmith between 1917 and 1960. Other prominent writers include Waldo Frank, Julius J. Frank, and Morton Goldsmith.

F. (Falco) Antonio Di Cecco (1888-1954) was an Italian American composer and conductor based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The collection includes sixteen complete and unpublished music works by Di Cecco, along with a small number of personal notebooks and printed music books.

The Frazer Family Papers span over 200 years of an American family. The collection provides insight into five generations of University of Pennsylvania alum as well as three generations of educators, all in the field of chemistry, at the University of Pennsylvania and contains the papers of Persifor Frazer, Robert Frazer, John Fries Frazer, Persifor Frazer, Robert Frazer, John Frazer, John Frazer, Jr., and Tench Frazer, as well as a range of other family members and relatives. The collection is particularly strong in representing the professional and personal activities of Persifor Frazer (1844-1909) and his son John Frazer (1882-1964) from the 1860s to the 1950s.

Frederick McDonald Massiah became a leader in the use of reinforced concrete in building construction,and was one of the first successful African-American contracting engineers in the United States. The Frederick and Edith L. Massiah Papers documents the professional activities of Frederick Massiah as a contract engineer and business man, as well as the Massiah Family life in Philadelphia. The collection is organized into three series: Business Papers, Family Papers, and Awards and Certificates.

George Byron Gordon, explorer in Central America and Alaska, and first to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, was born in New Perth, Prince Edward Island, Canada on August 4,1870. Gordon attended the University of South Carolina for one year in 1888 then completed his degree at Harvard University. Selected as an assistant to John G. Owens in 1892, Gordon accompanied Owens on the Harvard-sponsored excavation at Copan, Honduras. When Owens died in the field, Gordon was given the leadership to close down that portion of the work and then continued as Director of the next six sessions in Copan, until 1900. While performing these duties, Gordon attained his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1894. Gordon joined the Free Museum of Science and Art(later the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology)in 1903 as Assistant Curator in the Section of General Ethnology. He led two expeditions to Alaska, in 1905 and 1907 with his brother MacLaren Gordon. Gordon was appointed Director of the Free Museum of Science and Art in 1910 and oversaw one of the largest periods of growth in its collection and prestige. The Director's Office records of George Byron Gordon consist of correspondence in folders and in bound volumes. The records are organized alphabetically in the folders and by date in the bound volumes.

George Byron Gordon led expeditions to Copan at the end of the nineteenth century and, with his brother MacLaren Gordon, to Alaska in 1905 and 1907. As Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and as Director of the Museum, Gordon was first to conduct regular lectures to undergraduate and graduate students in Anthropology and oversaw one of the the largest periods of Museum growth. The G.B. Gordon Central America collection includes diaries, surveying notes, reports and stories from the Copan Expeditions and the Yucatan Expedition in 1910, original stories, articles, and book reviews written by Dr. Gordon, communication with The British Museum about Maya site excavation, Gordon's introductions composed for speakers for the Saturday Afternoon Lecture Series, speeches to professional organizations, and class lectures.

George Wharton Pepper, an 1862 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, was a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer and U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. The George Wharton Pepper Papers document his personal and professional life.

Gordon Alexander Block (1885-1964) was a Philadelphia lawyer and collector of Lincoln documents and memorabilia. The collection includes twenty-three documents either signed by Lincoln or in his hand including a number of pleadings and court documents from his years as a lawyer in Illinois. The collection also contains a variety of ephemera from the Civil War era, including campaign ribbons and songbooks from 1860 and 1864 as well as broadsides, ribbons, and mourning cards issued after Lincoln’s assassination. In addition, researchers will find a rich selection of visual representations of Lincoln in the collection, including lithographs, prints, photographs, and engravings of the sixteenth president.