University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Comprises correspondence, research notes, typescripts, galleys, clippings, and photograph files pertaining only to Swanberg's biography of Theodore Dreiser.

Professor W. Norman Brown (1892-1975) was eminent Sanskritist and organizer of the first South Asia area studies program in the U.S. His papers include personal and scholarly correspondence, lecture notes, drafts and completed papers, and materials related to research, archeology, travel, and government service.

The papers document the literary career and the personal and professional life of twentieth-century American novelist and writer Waldo David Frank. Comprising correspondence, writings, publicity, writings by others, memorabilia, photographs, scrapbooks, and clippings spanning from 1879 to 1977, the collection contains 132 boxes and 3565 folders. The correspondence documents Frank's personal and professional relationships with writers, editors, artists, friends, and family. Letters from friendships with other writers and artists such as Jean Toomer, Sherwood Anderson, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Mumford, Van Wyck Brooks, and Hart Crane document congenial collaborations, sharing of ideas, and disagreements. The writings contain his notebooks, major works, articles, essays, and early writings tracing Frank's works and ideas of society and culture with psychological and social themes of man and his environment. Frank's passion for the culture and study of Spain, Latin America, and Mexico is apparent in correspondence and his research, preserved through notes and photographs of South America and Mexico. Letters and photographs display Frank's relationships with family members, his wives (Margaret Naumburg, Alma Magoon Frank, and Jean Klempner Frank) and his children. The materials in this collection divulge not only the writings of Waldo Frank, but the struggles of the writer and his encounters with himself and society as he seeks his vision of truth in the world. He was courageous in the face of his critics and his political enemies even when experiencing both written and physical attacks. Even though Frank claimed he was an outsider he was embraced by the people and cultures he championed and studied. Although largely forgotten by the end of his lifetime, his correspondence, writings, and ideas remain, providing insight into literary circles, political ideas, and historical events in the United States and Latin America during the early- to mid-twentieth century.

This collection contains some papers of the Jewish American scholar, writer and editor, Walter Hart Blumenthal (1883-1969). Although composed primarily of Blumenthal’s short stories and poetry, the collection includes one scholarly article published in 1960, titled “Spurious Shakespeare Portraiture” with some accompanying research materials. In 1965 Blumenthal compiled his poetry into the typescript of “Exit Laughing” and his short stories into “Perspectives: Stories of This Brief Tenement Wherein the Spirit Dwells”, both ultimately unpublished.

This collection contains pamphlets, reports, and other printed materials concerning nursing education in the mid-20th century. Also included is a postcard depicting an early visiting nurse automobile.

Personal papers of Wanda Gág, including correspondence to and from Wanda, as well as letters to and from Alma Schmidt Scott, a biographer of Gág, and letters among Gág family members; writings, such as diaries, children’s books, autobiographical works, and juvenilia; notes for talks and for writings; artwork; exhibition catalogs and related publicity material; writings about Gág, including obituaries, biographical pieces, and book reviews; financial records; materials regarding the Estate of Wanda Gág; newspaper clippings; memorabilia; photographs; and examples of Happiwork, a product for children created by Gág.

Watson Kintner, a University of Pennsylvania graduate and a man of means, traveled to more than 30 nations between 1933 until 1969. On his travels Kintner avoided tourist destinations, instead recording the daily life among the peoples visited, as well as sites of archaeological interest. Kintner took photography very seriously, and in the late 1960s and 1970s funded weekend seminars for University of Pennsylvania Museum graduate students. Upon his death, Kintner left an endowment towards various Museum activities and programs. Kintner’s travel records consist of three linear feet of journals, film notes, bills, correspondence, and preparatory notes on the culture, geography and history of the countries he visited (and some that he didn’t) between 1951 and 1969.

Watson Kintner entered the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated in 1916 with a degree in chemical engineering. The Watson Kintner Papers are a small collection containing the personal affects of Kintner. The bulk of the collection is comprised of photographs - many of the University of Pennsylvania's campus between 1911 and 1916 as well as a number of family images from the turn of the century.

The Industrial Research Unit of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1921 as the Industrial Research Department with a mission to "study the economic and social problems of business." Sponsored by the Trustees of the University and financially assisted by the Carnegie Corporation, the Department worked in close relationship with a group of representative Philadelphia firms, which furnished data for research and analysis. The collection documents the research work the Wharton Industrial Research Unit undertook from the 1920s to 1990s.

The Wharton School Office of the Dean Records documents the administrative activities of the Wharton School, principally covering the administrations from Simon N. Patten through Thomas P. Gerrity. Portions of this collection are closed.

William C. Farabee (1865-1925) was a physical and cultural anthropologist, archaeologist, and cartographer who devoted most of his life’s work to documenting and interpreting the native cultures of South America, principally the Arawak and Carib peoples of the Amazon basin and the native peoples of the Andes. He also conducted archaeological studies at Marajo Island, Brazil, and at several other locations, including Peru and Ecuador. The collection consists of 5.3 linear feet of textual and photographic documentation related principally to the Amazon expedition of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1913-1916, and also to the Andean expedition of 1922-1923.

Willaim Edmonds Horner was dean of the Medical School of Pennsylvania (1822-1852), Professor of Anatomy (1831-1853), and wrote the first pathology textbook published in the United States (Treatise on Pathological Anatomy, 1829). The Journals detail William Edmonds Horner's travels from the United States to Europe in 1821.

William Gomberg came to the University of Pennsylvania in 1959 when he joined the faculty of the Wharton School, where he stayed for the remainder of his career as a Professor of Management and Industrial Relations. The William Gomberg Papers document his scholarly work in labor relations and management history.

The William H. Davenport collection includes records from field research in the Santa Cruz Islands, Guadalcanal and San Cristobal Islands, and other Solomon Islands; the Moluccas and Sulawesi in Indonesia; and Sarawak in Malaysia, among other locations. Materials span the period from 1952-2002 and contain records primarily related to Davenport's field research, professional activities, student mentoring, and articles and publications.

This collection contains donations made by William Helfand, a noted collector of medical ephemera. Materials include printed pamphlets, sheet music, and posters.

A gift of historian of pharmacy and medicine Dr. William H. Helfand, this collection of ex-votos and devotional paintings on medical subjects offers insight into Mexican religious folk practices. Ex-votos are votive paintings usually hung in churches and religious venues as a sign of gratitude for received blessings or healings. The collection includes ex-votos dated between 1868 and 2002 and dedicated to Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint James the Moor-slayer, Saint Paschal Baylon, Saint Barbara, Saint Judas Thaddeus, Saint Nicholas, and Saint Cosmas.

William Robertson Coe II was born in 1926 in New York City. Dr. Coe trained as an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1950, MA 1953, and Ph. D 1958). He joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology in 1959 and the Penn Museum as assistant curator in the same year. Coe conducted early excavations in Belize, Bolivia, and El Salvador and later directed excavations at Tayasal and Quirigua in Guatemala, but is best known for his long-term commitment with the Museum’s Tikal Project in Guatemala from 1956-1969. He took over the directorship of the Tikal field operations in 1963. His meticulous archaeological recording skills culminated in his monumental achievement, publication in 1990 of the six-volume “Tikal Report 14,” one of the most significant archaeological reports ever. Coe received the Guatemalan government’s highest honor, “The Order of the Quetzal,” in 1969 and the Drexel Medal from the Penn Museum in 1991. He was also known as a superb teacher of Mesoamerican Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. He retired from the University in 1987. He died in 2009 at the age of 82. The William R. Coe II collection of personal papers spans the period from 1949-1969. It contains materials related to his early field research, articles and publications, prior to his extensive work in Tikal, which is housed with the Tikal Project records, photographs, and publications. The collection consists of 2 archival boxes of material, with a primary focus on Nohoch Ek, British Honduras, an early expedition conducted as an undergraduate student along with his brother Michael Coe and also on William Coe’s University of Pennsylvania master’s thesis on Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Notable ephemera within the collection include his personal state of Pennsylvania TIKAL license plate and the “Order of the Quetzal” medal, along with Guatemalan news clippings about the award.

William R. Mathews (1893-1969) was a journalist, newspaper editor and publisher who corresponded extensively with John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), a politician who served as a United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. This collection represents years of correspondence between these two men, with occasional notes to or from one of their wives. The letters demonstrate Dulles and Mathews' friendship and mutual respect, as they discuss the political and military events that occurred between 1941 and 1957.

William Wister Haines (1908-1989) was an American author, screenwriter, and playwright, most famous for his novels Slim and High Tension, which depicted working-class protagonists during the Great Depression, and Command Decision, a play and novel depicting the final stages of World War II. This collection includes material related to his literary work, especially in the form of drafts of novels, short stories, essays and articles, screenplays and television scripts, and plays.

This collection contains records relating to the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia. Materials include historical accounts, administrative records, board minutes, annual reports, correspondence, and photographs.

The Wyn Ritchie Evans papers include correspondence, writings, photographs, and personal papers that shed light on her connection to the arts scene and to Herman Sachs, her endeavors as a professional writer, and her life with Ray Evans.

This collection contains published material relating to atomic energy and the atomic age.