PACSCL: The Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries

Happy !

"Boy Scout Robert Harris (right), of Troop 72, gives small flags to (from left) Robert Bowman, David Gruber and Christopher Connell, of Havertown.", d. 7/3/1968. From the George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection

A week ago, folks from PACSCL member orgs and from gathered (Dobson Elementary) to help books so kids can check them out in the new school year.

What do a , a church , a land , and swank have in common? They all document &Resilience. Stay tuned for more!
With thanks to for supporting our !
(Image from the Christine Moore Howell collections )

Membership in PACSCL offers a number of excellent discounts, while offering staff at member institutions access to member-only opportunities. PACSCL also throws good parties. Sometimes with . Learn more at https://pacscl.org/who-we-are/join/

The offers researchers access to descriptions of more than 5,000 collections from over 200 regional institutions. Are your findable? If not, let PACSCL know! https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/

If you missed learning how folks dealt with the aftermath of fire and flooding at the and the exhibit discussed at PACSCL's May 21st , no worries! Here's the video!

I've Seen Fire & I've Seen Rain (Part II) PACSCL's Emergency Response Working Group invites you to contemplate what has to be the most exhausting thought an archivist or librarian can have: How will ...

season is expected to be brisk this year. Is your collection prepared? Check our PACSCL's resources at

Emergency Response – PACSCL In 2021, PACSCL formed a working group dedicated to assessing disaster response efforts among PACSCL members.  In response to a survey distributed to PACSCL member institutions in January 2021, the Disaster Response Working Group – renamed the Emergency Response Working Group in 2024 – drafted ...

PACSCL's DEI interns learn about working in and all the weirdness that entails. Check out past intern projects at https://pacscl.org/what-we-do/for-members/dei-internship-program/. !

PACSCL celebrates ! Check out pics from PACSCL's marathon at Dobson Elementary School in February.

PACSCL is delighted to have been a test site for the model created by & Sharon Mizota.
Read their article at https://loom.ly/5VpmFI8

The Birkinbine Engineering Company records, held , document that "pig iron" was so named in honor of Henry Birkinbine's daughter's beloved pet pig, Harriet.

You decide! Read 19th C newspaper coverage of women medical students attending an all male clinical lecture. Did public opinion favor the behavior of the women or the men?
https://loom.ly/8-xEnRA

Annie Eveline Sanford (1873-1961) was an educator, missionary, and women's rights advocate.

Primarily stationed at the Guntur Girls’ School in Guntur, India, Sanford assisted in hospital duties, taught Sunday school, and completed local missionary work during her service. During travel and work, Sanford kept a journal that she would write for several months, then send to her family as a letter. She also kept scrapbooks which depict various aspects of life in India.

In her letters, Sanford chronicles her experiences spreading education and Christianity with communities in India. She also highlights local customs, the rigid Indian caste system, the weather, traveling throughout India, and current events in India and in the U.S.

Explore Sanford's life and work through collections at United Lutheran Seminary https://loom.ly/C4RhI2E & https://loom.ly/FXm6LLc

Image captions: Annie Sanford portrait, 1903; a page of Sanford’s scrapbook showing girls in the classroom, c. 1920; first page of Sanford’s second “letter journal” to her family, February 1896; Annie Sanford portrait, 1943

(All photos from Annie Sanford Collection, Personal Papers and Manuscripts, Seminary Archives, United Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg PA)

Celebrate Women’s History Month! The Women's Auxiliary of The German Society of Pennsylvania was founded in 1900, with particular emphasis on helping families in the Philadelphia area. Learn more: https://loom.ly/a7DJXnM & https://loom.ly/c-NJ66I

Chloe Littlefield’s diaries, notes & letters feature an 1880s private duty nurse who exerted autonomy by crafting a life that balanced the hard demands of nursing w/ a vibrant social life https://loom.ly/EE0M_Q8 & https://loom.ly/r8FbcxI The Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing at Penn

Chloe Cudsworth Littlefield: A Different Type of Activism The Bates Center’s collections highlight the boundaries women as nurses crossed as well as the empowerment they created for themselves and for the profession. The basic idea of hiring nurses raised profound anxiety about class systems and private versus public spaces. Philadelphia’s nursing pion...

Happy Pi Day! If you're like us, it's an excuse to eat some delicious pie. We like to think that's what Lucretia Mott, 19th century foodie, would be doing today: https://loom.ly/fwGLnkU

Lucretia Mott: 19th Century Foodie When I was hired to digitize collections for PACSCL’s In Her Own Right project, I was most excited to work with the Lucretia Mott papers. Mott (1793-1880) was a Quaker minister, abolitionist, social reformer, and one of the igniters of the women’s rights movement, and I was eager to learn more a...

We continue our celebration of Women's History Month with a spotlight on Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882): teacher, antislavery activist, writer, and artist, and prominent member of the Philadelphia African American elite community. Her writings and illustrations are in the collections of and . Learn more about her here: https://loom.ly/Vmgr5aI

Sarah Mapps Douglass: Teacher, Activist, Artist Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882), a teacher, antislavery activist, writer, and artist, was a prominent member of the Philadelphia African American elite community. Douglass was a leader in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, an in*******al abolitionist group. She contributed over half a do...

The annual reports created by the Pennsylvania Society to Protect Children from Cruelty, 1878 -1920, including this example from 1893, describe the society’s work to ameliorate child abuse, including working with the parents or placing the child in foster care. They are used by scholars as well as students studying social work at the University of Pennsylvania and at Temple University to understand the history of child welfare policy. Anonymized stories reflect challenging life situations and occasional successes in restoring family units and supporting mothers. Until 1958, when the City of Philadelphia began to appropriate funds for the care of children, the society raised its own funds and was supported entirely by voluntary contributions, many from women. https://loom.ly/rmxEcX0
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Celebrate Women's History Month! Founded in 1895, the Mercy-Douglass Hospital and School of Nursing was Philadelphia’s first Black hospital and nurse training school. Its archives' pre-1920 student records document the demographics of nursing students, including age, education, and religion. The records also include letters from applicants, their references, the subjects required for training, and the qualities associated with a successful nurse.

This collection documents the intersections of efficiency and respectability among African Americans in Progressive-era healthcare. Students were to be well-educated and of good moral character, neat, clean, and of pleasing appearance, and both obedient and assertive. Embracing these values gave young Black women a way of earning a living, exercising agency, and playing an important and distinguished role in their communities.

Featured in PACSCL's In Her Own Right, continue reading about MDH, its students, and how they created space of their own: https://loom.ly/F70C8n0 and https://loom.ly/91eodnM

Celebrate Women's History Month by learning more about women who worked for their and other's rights, 1820 - 1920, in PACSCL's "In Her Own Right" project. https://loom.ly/kCbeKT4. Watch for postings through out the month.

Poor Will's Pocket for the year 1803; Being the seventh after Bissextile or , one of many almanacs among the Shipley--Bringhurst--Hargraves family papers . Finding aid: https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/ude_MSS0684

The first step in is the creation of a that will be used to frame content selection & editing. What words/activities/emotions/clothing/ideas illustrate or to you? Thanks !

PACSCL is delighted to announce that it has received a $119,400 Mellon Planning Grant to build & test ! Read more at https://pacscl.org/bjr/

's heart now beats in sync with the one at its newest member, ! Welcome to the Franklin Institute as PACSCL's 38th member! Read more at: https://pacscl.org/pacscl-welcomes-the-franklin-institute/

With thanks to SA George Husk for providing folks with training on 1/17. Being prepared helps.

PACSCL supports by sharing easily accessible digital content from member libraries. See more at https://pacscl.org/what-we-do/for-teachers/national-history-day-resources/

PACSCL thanks the Delmas Foundation for their generous support for the conversion of the shared PACSCL ! OPAC partners include , , , & . Read more at: https://loom.ly/4097vzE