University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Allan Wayne Solomonow (born 1937) is a Jewish peace activist who was active in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area from the 1970s through the 2010s. His particular concern was Middle East peace, especially the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This collection documents Solomonow's life's work and primarily comprise his professional papers related to the Jewish peace community as well as collected secondary material that informed his thinking.

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.

Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897-1973) was an American writer best known for her popular (and occasionally controversial) biographies of prominent American and English historical figures. Her books were great successes in the popular market, but sometimes received criticism from academics for their occasional re-imagining of historical occurrences. This collection includes 5 boxes of material related to her 1950 biography of John Adams, John Adams and the American Revolution. It includes two full drafts of the book, organized by chapter, with each chapter containing various revisions. It also includes various versions of the book’s prologue, source notes, and bibliography, as well as notes and corrections, along with a statement by Drinker Bowen explaining her biographical methods.

Comprising documents related to Fry’s life and career: correspondence, research, and letters from numerous artists and colleagues, handwritten lectures, typescript essays, over 1000 photographs of artists’ works with special interest in Pablo Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Henri Laurens, and David Smith. Correspondence with artists (some include slides and drawings), curators, art historians, and museums. Highlights of curated exhibitions include the 1967 5th Guggenheim International Exhibition, the 1969 David Smith retrospective, the canceled 1971 Hans Haacke exhibition, and the 1987 Documenta 8. Materials related to Fry’s special interest in cubism, specifically Pablo Picasso, include the book Cubism, lectures, notes, photographs, and research.

Elihu Katz (born 1926) is an American Israeli sociologist and media scholar who has made substantial contributions to the field of communication, specifically in the areas of media effects, diffusion, uses and gratifications and reception, and media events. This primary portion of Katz’s papers documents his scholarly and professional activities at the Guttman Institute of Applied Social Research, and Annenberg Schools for Communication at the University of California and University of Pennsylvania, respectively. Materials pertaining to the University of Chicago, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Israel Broadcasting Authority are also present, but less substantially so. The collection is divided into ten series and includes correspondence; drafts of talks, papers, articles, and books; research notes; conference materials; teaching materials and course documents; public opinion studies and reports; Israeli broadcasting materials; and biographical documents.

Frederick H. Gaige (1937-2009) was an educator and an expert on Nepal who did research on a Fulbright Fellowship from 1966 to 1968 and earned his doctoral degree in South Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970. This collection consists of papers and research compiled by Gaige, largely during the years of his education at the University of Pennsylvania and during his Fulbright Fellowship in Nepal which culminated in the publication of Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal.

This collection consists of advertisements by dentists and dental practices in France; images (both illustration and photographic) of dentists, patients, and apparatus; and writings by French dentists relating to the field of dentistry.

Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000) was an American author and artist, primarily known for his children’s stories and illustrations of children’s books, although he also produced adult-oriented work. Sometime around 1977, Gorey established a company, Doomed Enterprises, to handle all matters related to publication and licensing of his work. This collection consists primarily of records of Andreas Brown's and the Gotham Book Mart's records relating to Doomed Enterprises, documents relating to the execution of the Edward Gorey estate after 2000 (for which Brown served as an executor), and other documents and artifacts documenting Gorey’s public image and legacy.

Harry Mathews (1930-2017) is an experimental poet and prose writer. Mathews is well known for authoring several highly acclaimed novels; co-founding and co-editing the literary magazine, Locus Solus; and for his membership in the French avant-garde literary society, Olipo. The collection documents Mathews’ professional life, and to a lesser extent, his personal life and includes drafts, typescripts, and corrected typescripts of Mathews' prose and poetry; publicity and promotion resulting from his literary work; research files probably used for writing his books; teaching and workshop records; writings by others; extensive correspondence which is restricted from use unless permission is granted by Mathews; and a small amount of audio visual material as well as several computer files.

The Hedgerow Theatre Company was established in 1923 by Jasper Deeter, a New York based actor and director. Located in the Rose Valley Arts and Crafts Community of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Hedgerow holds the distinction as the longest serving Repertory Theatre in America. The Hedgerow Theatre Company records contains a wide variety of materials, from business records and show materials to member ephemera and photographs. The collection provides both a practical and intimate look into the workings of this repertory theatre.

This collection includes material related to the lives and work of Helen (1901-1985), Ira (1908-1997), and Michael Wolfert (1936-2001). It contains correspondence between the family and others; manuscripts by all three subjects, as well as others; financial documents; personal documents; photos taken by and of the family; newspaper clippings collected by Helen and Ira; and notes and miscellanea from all three subjects.

Joseph (Joe) Eyer (1944-2017) was a scholar from Philadelphia whose research focused on social causes and health effects of stress. This collection includes Eyer’s writings (both published and unpublished) on medicine, mental illness, and socio-economic issues related to stress; course material from his doctoral program in biology at the University of Pennsylvania; and letters to and collaborative engagement with his colleagues, in particular, Jeremy Brecher, Ingrid Waldron, and Peter Sterling. This collection documents the Philadelphia scholars' research on topics including mortality, addiction, suicide, ecology, physiology, and sex.

John Bach McMaster (1852-1932) was an American writer and professor best known for his landmark history of the United States, A History of the People of the United States, which appeared in eight volumes from 1883 to 1913. McMaster’s historical technique was notable in its use of newspaper material and his insistence on providing social context from all classes, not simply the political leaders of the time. This collection contains correspondence, writings by McMaster, material used by McMaster in his research, and personal material, such as newspaper clippings of his life and work, testimonials by colleagues, and memorabilia.

Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951), an art collector and founder of the Barnes Foundation, had an uneasy relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, despite efforts on both parts to establish a collaboration in art education between the Barnes Foundation and the University. This collection contains primarily correspondence between Barnes (or the secretary of the Barnes Foundation, Nelle E. Mullen, on Barnes' behalf) and University of Pennsylvania officials, largely related to an effort to establish a joint Penn-Barnes course, which met for only a few sessions in 1946 before being called off by Barnes.

Joseph and Yehudit Shadur were pioneers of Jewish folk art and the subject of Middle Eastern studies and environmental conservation in Israel. Their collection includes two series, one of the writings, correspondence, book reviews, and research by Joseph Shadur, and the other, published works by or about Yehudit Shadur, or containing images of her paper-cuts. These documents date from 1894 to 2002, with the majority of the documents produced from 1960 to 2002.

Joseph Francis Ambrose Jackson (1867-1946) was a historian, lecturer, artist, journalist, and writer active in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This collection offers insight into Jackson’s intellectual activity as a theater historian. It includes a manuscript of an unpublished essay on the history of American dramatic literature, an alphabetical listing of American playwrights, a collection of portraits of 18th-century actors, and handwritten notes on the theatrical history of pre-and post-revolutionary Philadelphia.

The papers of Kanji Dwarkadas, an Indian politician and activist born in 1892, contain correspondence and writings by both Dwarkadas and some of his contemporaries, dating from 1914 to 1965. Active in Mumbai (then Bombay), Dwarkadas began his career alongside Annie Besant, Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Indian Home Rule movement. Letters to and from these individuals and many other important figures in twentieth century Indian politics are included in this collection, along with a number of interviews conducted by Dwarkadas. Beginning in the 1920s, Dwarkadas was actively involved in organizations to promote social welfare in Mumbai, such as the Prostitution Inquiry Committee and Children’s Aid Society (meeting minutes, resolutions and reports from these and other groups are included in the collection). Dwarkadas withdrew from politics in 1933 and focused his energies on labor organization and worker’s rights.

Comprising nineteen series, the Mumford papers provide extensive documentation of Mumford's professional life over a period of approximately seventy years. Predominant are correspondence and drafts of and notes for Mumford's writings, which include publications of over forty books and pamphlets and approximately one thousand articles and book reviews.

Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) was one of the foremost American intellectuals of the twentieth century. This collection consists of material by or about Lewis Mumford which was purchased to supplement the Lewis Mumford papers, circa 1905-1987, Ms. Coll. 2.

Maggie Paley is a prolific journalist and author. Her works include Bad Manners, a novel, and The Book of the Penis, a book of popular nonfiction. Paley was a well-connected participant in a wide variety of NYC cultural life during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and this collection contains her own writing, correspondence with notable figures, and cultural material she collected. Paley worked as an editor at The Paris Review and a staff writer for LIFE and The Saturday Evening Post before establishing a career as a freelance journalist. Since the 1960’s she has been a social fixture in New York artistic circles, and was a close acquaintance of such figures as Jill Krementz, Harry Matthews, and Rachael Hadas.

The collection comprises the personal papers of Alma Mahler, the personal and professional papers of Franz Werfel, memorabilia related to Gustav Mahler, and the research files of Adolf D. Klarmann concerning Franz Werfel. Materials include correspondence to and from Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, as well as to and from Adolf Klarmann, sometimes on behalf of Alma; writings of Alma, such as diaries and memoirs, as well as her musical compositions; writings of Werfel, such as poems, plays, novels, novellas and stories, and essays; memorabilia relating to Alma, her parents, Gustav Mahler, and Werfel, such as clippings, programs, and personal documents; photographs; and audio files, such as interviews and songs. Also included are Klarmann’s research notes and writings on Werfel, as well as material relating to Klarmann’s work as editor of Werfel’s writings.

Margaret Naumburg (1890–1983) was an American psychologist, educator, artist, and author. She was one of the first proponents of art therapy and utilitzed art as a method for both diagnosis and therapy. The collection contains materials documenting all the phases of Naumburg's long and productive work life. The materials include correspondence; copies of and materials for Naumburg's writings, lectures, and exhibit catalogs; materials for case studies; lecture notes for the courses she taught and papers her students wrote in those courses; and work by others that she collected and saved. Other media in the collection include slides, photographs, and audio recordings.

Mark Jan Dresden (1911-1986) was a Dutch-American Iranist who studied Indology. He taught Persian and Old and Middle Iranian Languages at the University of Pennsylvania from 1949 until his retirement in 1977. Dresden’s work on Khotanese, Persian and Iranian languages and texts is widely published. This collection, dating from 1930 to 1994 contains correspondence, ephemera, event files, lectures, financial documents, funding and grants files, project files, research and writing, and personal documents.