The Black History and Visual Culture digital collection consists of materials gathered from Penn State Special Collections that highlight Black life and Culture. This ongoing initiative will be integral to research, teaching, and experiential learning for the Penn State community and beyond.
The Penn State Altoona Archives contains photographs of early campus such as: faculty, buildings, and administration; along with the founding documents of the Penn State Altoona Alumni Association, business documentation of campus expansion in the 1960's and 1970's. This collection also contains personal papers that include Robert E. Eiche's correspondence with Penn State Altoona servicemen and women during World War II. Various other programs and event materials are housed in the collection as well as the Pi Lambda Phi's Records. An oral history collection has been started chronicling some of the college’s integral moments.
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 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 Capitolite (later known as The Capitalite), Penn State Harrisburg's annual student yearbook, serves as a record of students' academic and social lives on the Middletown campus. This digital collection includes every yearbook that was produced by students from 1968 through 1995, when it ceased publication. Original copies of each yearbook are housed in Archives & Special Collections at the Penn State Harrisburg Library.
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.
The collection of yearbooks for Penn State DuBois, “La Vita” (1963-1965) and the “Lion’s Paw” (1972-73; 1975-76; 1978-79) provide digital access to campus history and life during the 1960s and 1970s.
Constructed in 1896, the obelisk, also called the polylith, stands 32.7 feet high and weighs 53.4 tons. This "pile of rocks" was created the same year the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (formerly the School of Mines) came into existence. The obelisk, built by State College stonemason Michael Womer, began as a kind of answer to all the requests the college had been receiving for information on stones.
The Greater Allegheny Campus Collection is comprised of student yearbooks: “The Technician’s Log” (1955), “The Centaur” (1956-59), “Profile” (1960-63) and “Parvenu” (1971-72).