Pennsylvania History and Geography

The Women’s Suffrage collection documents both the national women’s rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement in Pennsylvania purchased by the Eberly Family Special Collections Library.

These materials include booklets, editorial cartoons, fliers and pamphlets documenting the work of : the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters; the National League of Women Voters (U.S.); the National Women's Trade Union League of America; the Pennsylvania Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage; and the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association.

The Hayfield Estate records consists of correspondence, financial records, and drawings documenting the activity of the estates owned by John C. and Bertha R. Conyngham, most notably, the construction of their estate on Hayfield Farm.

The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North America (AA) formed in 1876 to support industrial workers working in the United States. The AA lost membership during a series of key strikes in the early to mid-1880s, but regained strength after joining the newly formed American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1887. In 1935, Phillip Murray and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) largely subsumed the AA’s efforts to unionize the steel workers. At that time, the AA joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and ceased to exist as an independent entity. These records document the organizing efforts of the AA from 1892 through the period following its consolidation as part of the CIO in 1935. The materials here include minute books and ledgers for the Fulton Lodge No. 46, McKee Lodge No. 161, and the Tri-boro Lodge No. 186 as well as ritual books which document the initiation process for new members of the AA.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) President’s Office correspondence includes communications between the UMWA Office of the President and district organizers. This correspondence documents issues that filtered through district representatives to executives at UMWA district and international offices, as well as the presidential decisions on action to be taken. Materials describe mine disasters, organizing activities, wildcat strikes, rivalries with competing regional unions, and diverse grievances and range from the earliest materials in the 1890s to the most in the 1980s.

The United Mine Workers of America photographic, graphic, and artifacts collection consists of photographic surveys of American miners’ homes, panoramic photographs of UMWA conventions and conferences, oversize posters and cartoons, and reproduced images of original documentation exhibited by the UMWA, as well as several union related artifacts from 1891-1997.

The online collection consists of yearbooks “Nittany Cub” (1956-60; 1984), “The Dyne” (1961-74), “Paw Prints” (1975-80 no 1978), and “Dimensions” (1988), literary journals (1974-78; 1981-83, 1985-86; 1992-93; 1994-95), and commencement guides (1983; 1985-94; 1996-2003; 2005-10).

The Kirschner Family papers document the resettlement of members of the Kirschner family during their immigration from Eastern Europe to Philadelphia in the late 1930s. The papers contain Michael S. Kirschner's personal correspondence, which details his immigration from the occupied town of Bialystok in present-day Poland to the United States on the eve of World War II (1939-1945). A significant portion of the materials consist of personal correspondence from Jewish refugees requesting resettlement to the United States and immigration affidavits of support from eligible sponsors. These letters were written to Isadore L. Kirschner from various Jewish organizations throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cresson Literary Society - The Students' Miscellany - Literary Magazine, 1887, 1893. The Cresson Literary Society formed simultaneously with the Washington Agricultural Literary Society (later, the Washington Literary Society) in March 1859, only a few years after the founding of the Farmer’s High School. The Miscellany was a newspaper that featured college news, humorous stories and poems, and cryptic rumors about the romantic activities of students and Cresson Society members. 

The Washington Agricultural Literary Society (later, the Washington Literary Society) formed simultaneously with the Cresson Literary Society in March 1859, only a few years after the founding of the Farmer’s High School. The collection features The Photosphere, Literary Magazine, 1874 and The Anonymous – Critical Editorials and Humorous Gossip, 1859.

This collection consists of three volumes of minutes and correspondence from the Soldiers’ Aid Society of Hartsville from 1861 through 1865 and a single volume “Minute Book” from the Wrightstown Soldiers’ Aid Society. During the Civil War, numerous communities throughout the Union established soldiers’ aid societies to raise money to help provision Union soldiers from their communities while those soldiers were in the field.