Spring Break
Archives release former President Papers
Josh Kurtz
Issue date: 7/11/08 Section: News
The Drexel University Archives and Special Collections have released the University's Presidential Papers, which chronicle changes over the University's history as affected by events including World War II and the civil rights movement.
The papers include letters and other records from past University presidents, rosters of previous Drexel students, information on previous Drexel programs and a variety of other information relating to the University, according to Robert Sieczkiewicz, university archivist and the supervisor for the project. The archives include documents ranging from the early days of the University until 1965.
"It's almost like looking directly into the lives of these people," Kate Wolfrom, a graduate student majoring in library and information science who helped process the archives, said.
One set of changes the archives illustrated were changes at Drexel that occurred due to World War II. Drexel held more than one commencement during this time in order to allow students to enter the workforce more quickly, according to Sieczkiewicz, and the University also focused on training women for the workforce during World War II, he said.
"From the very beginning we were training women to become librarians. … In the early days it was surprisingly balanced [between males and females]," Sieczkiewicz said.
The University's first business classes were secretarial classes that trained women for the workforce. These classes occurred "before Drexel was a college," Sieczkiewicz said. In addition, the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design started out as a school of domestic arts, and this program was also aimed at women.
Programs such as engineering also included female students in the early days of Drexel.
The archives also included civil rights progression, including correspondences between Drexel President James MacAlister and Booker T. Washington, centering on MacAlister wanting to educate African-Americans at Drexel around the end of the 19th century.
The papers include letters and other records from past University presidents, rosters of previous Drexel students, information on previous Drexel programs and a variety of other information relating to the University, according to Robert Sieczkiewicz, university archivist and the supervisor for the project. The archives include documents ranging from the early days of the University until 1965.
"It's almost like looking directly into the lives of these people," Kate Wolfrom, a graduate student majoring in library and information science who helped process the archives, said.
One set of changes the archives illustrated were changes at Drexel that occurred due to World War II. Drexel held more than one commencement during this time in order to allow students to enter the workforce more quickly, according to Sieczkiewicz, and the University also focused on training women for the workforce during World War II, he said.
"From the very beginning we were training women to become librarians. … In the early days it was surprisingly balanced [between males and females]," Sieczkiewicz said.
The University's first business classes were secretarial classes that trained women for the workforce. These classes occurred "before Drexel was a college," Sieczkiewicz said. In addition, the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design started out as a school of domestic arts, and this program was also aimed at women.
Programs such as engineering also included female students in the early days of Drexel.
The archives also included civil rights progression, including correspondences between Drexel President James MacAlister and Booker T. Washington, centering on MacAlister wanting to educate African-Americans at Drexel around the end of the 19th century.
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