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University Archives and Records Center Guide to the
Archives General Collection UPA 3 Introduction
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Constitution and Charter Collection Matriculation and Class Records Matriculation and Lecture Tickets Diploma and Certificate Collection Typescripts of Other Documents Photocopies of Other Documents Architectural Drawings and Plans
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Introduction to
the Guide to the Archives: THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
AND THE GUIDE Note: This introduction, written by University
of Pennsylvania Archivist James Dallett, appeared in the Guide
to the Archives of the University of Pennsylvania from 1750
to 1820 published in 1978) The University of Pennsylvania Archives was established
in 1945 and has since had custody of the historical collections
of the University, the noncurrent records of the administrative,
academic and social divisions of the institution and the papers
of individual members of the alumni, faculty and trustees.
With present holdings amounting to some 9,000 cubic feet of
records, the collection is one of the six largest academic
archives in the country. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, official records
of the University, usually minute books and correspondence,
were held variously by the Secretary of the corporation, the
Provost and the Dean of the Medical department. Awareness
of the historical significance of the growing accumulation
of University manuscripts came during the terms of office
of Secretaries Edward W. Mumford (1919-1941) and Phelps Soule
(1941-1946). Their colleague, George E. Nitzsche, Recorder
of the University from 1901 to 1944 and its sometime "Publicity
Agent", went out of his way to seek, collect and preserve
manuscripts, photographs, prints and memorabilia relating
to Pennsylvania’s history. Both Nitzsche, best remembered
for his guide to the University which was published in five
editions, and his contemporary, Dr. Edgar Fahs Smith, Provost
from 1910 to 1920 and a collector of scientific manuscripts,
maintained archival collections in their respective offices
in College Hall. The University Library, which acquired the more permanent
University publications for its own shelves, and which housed
early medical dissertations and a miscellany of Penn memorabilia
in those pre-Archives days, also held a large segment of the
personal papers of Benjamin Franklin. The Franklin Papers
were among the manuscripts placed in the Rare Book Department
at its creation in 1945. At that time, biographical files
of deceased alumni and other members of the academic community
which would later come to the Archives were inseparable from
those of living persons kept in the Alumni Records office
in Blanchard Hall. Soon after the end of World War II, Professors of History
Roy F. Nichols, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
and Charles W. David, Director of University Libraries, were
able to secure the appointment by the trustees of Leonidas
Dodson, then Assistant Professor of History, as the first,
but part-time, University Archivist. He would hold the office
until the appointment of the present full-time incumbent in
1971. Dr. Dodson set up shop in his office in Bennett Hall. The
Archives took charge of the historical files in the office
of the Secretary and of the Nitzsche collection and received
from the University Library and from the Alumni Records office
the transfer of material germane to its purposes. As the role
of the new department came to be understood, non-current records
were placed in the custody of the Archives by offices throughout
the University. Two rooms in Bennett Hall were augmented by
basement storage facilities inefficiently dispersed round
the campus and when these arrangements proved inadequate,
the operation moved, in 1955, to the north arcade of Franklin
Field. The new quarters, providing sufficient stack area but
lacking standard environmental controls, conservation and
exhibition facilities and without even proper processing space
and a search room, remain today the home of the Archives. The University Archives collection, drawn from a diverse
provenance, has many facets. In addition to accumulated and
deposited internal records - some of them a permanent part
of the collection, others assigned to the "records center"
for temporary retention - the department maintains information
files on every conceivable topic of University activity, There
are some 100,000 biographical folders on deceased alumni,
faculty members, administrators and trustees including the
deposited papers of many among them, a substantial collection
of photographs, drawings and prints of individuals, activities
and buildings, and copies of virtually all University-originated
regular publications and of countless ephemeral printed pieces,
together with scientific and mechanical instruments, a number
of paintings and sculptures, furniture and architectural elements
and such memorabilia as jewelry, trophies and academic dress.
All relate to the history of Pennsylvania. The Guide to the Archives of the University of Pennsylvania
from 1740 to 1820 is the first detailed description
in print of any part of this huge collection. In the 1961
edition of Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the
United States, edited by Philip M. Hamer, three paragraphs
were devoted to the vast holdings of the department. In an
equal amount of space, Lisabeth M. Holloway listed Penn’s
materials on the history of medicine in Philadelphia
Resources in the History of the Health Sciences, published
in 1975. A brief summary of the University Archives appeared
in the leaflet describing the exhibition "Prelude to the Bicentennial,"
sponsored by the department in 1973-1974. The resources of the Archives have not been listed in The
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and
the scope of a forthcoming publication of the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission which will, in effect,
update the 1961 Hamer guide, permits only one long descriptive
paragraph on the collection. Of course, some passing attention
has always been paid to individual items in the Archives.
Such manuscripts as the Constitutions of 1749, the mandamus
conferring the doctor of laws degree upon George Washington
in 1783, the letter written in 1808 by Thomas Jefferson to
Benjamin Rush extolling the advantages of a Philadelphia education,
to mention only items included in this Guide,
have all been quoted in recent books. Copies of letters to,
from or about distinguished Americans whose "papers" are in
process of publication - Franklin, Morris, Peale, Latrobe,
Henry - have been sent to their editors. This ad hoc
dissemination fails, however, to indicate either the extent
or the utility of the archives. Although determined scholars sometimes find the sources
they need without benefit of printed bibliographies and guides,
manuscript depositories have an obligation to potential clients,
and to themselves, to provide information about their holdings
which goes beyond purely internal inventories and indices.
Thus, the opportunity to list and publicize even a small part
of the collection is important to an office whose tiny staff
and even more diminutive budget make it difficult to keep
up with the daily demands upon an operation which must be
primarily an information service and a records depository
for a large and pragmatic urban university. The present Guide presents such an opportunity.
It includes all the material relevant to the given time frame
found in twenty-three departmental record groups. Manuscript,
printed, typewritten, photocopied and filmed documents, iconography,
"architectural" items and memorabilia are all listed. In addition,
concise description is provided of seven archival or historical
collections in other University offices which relate to the
period 1740-1820. A few comments on format are desirable. The Guide
is in many ways more an inventory or register than a summary
guide. Because of the concentration on a limited period, it
has been possible to give individual manuscripts in the Archives
General collection the full dress treatment of a catalogue;
the papers of the trustees and of the two faculties, the matriculation
and lecture ticket collection and the diploma and dissertation
collections have all been recorded in detail. A charwoman’s
bill for sweeping out a classroom thus has equal billing with
a David Rittenhouse letter. Potential users of the collection
will often be able to assess its usefulness for their subject
merely by consulting this guide-cum-catalogue. It should be kept in mind that, while the ensemble of archives
covered here contains many "collector’s items," it does
not constitute a body of American manuscripts in terms of
individual documents which have shaped the course of the nation
or that of human destiny. The essence of the collection is,
rather, the progression of education in the United States
and many items concern the development of American thought.
The material listed in the Guide is important for its part
in the documentation of the early years of an innovative teaching
institution now in its third century. The very continuity
and sequentiality of the overall collection give value and
distinction to the archives at Pennsylvania. The format varies according to the arrangement of the record
group described. Individual entries have been numbered, however,
in one continuous sequence from I through 2035. Some one hundred
and eleven items within the compass of the Guide
transferred lately from the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection
have been inserted as addenda to the record group to which
they belong. They are entered in their own alphabetical sequence
at the end of the alphabetical sequence of the category in
question. Each addenda entry is numbered to follow the item
which it succeeds alphabetically in the main sequence with
the addition of an "a" or "b" For example, in Section 1, addenda
item 10a (Allen, Andrew) is numbered to follow record group
item 10 (Alison, Francis and Hannah his wife) in the main
sequence. Such abbreviations as have been used - Pa., Phila., Univ.
as well as manuscript terminology - ALS, LS, ADS, DS and so
on - will be easily understood. Standard works of bibliography
cited by author’s surname only are Robert B. Austin,
Early American Medical Imprints, A guide to works printed
in the United States 1668-1820, Charles Evans,
American Bibliography, Joseph Sabin and Ralph R. Shaw
and Richard H. Shoemaker, American Bibliography, a preliminary
checklist for 1801 to 1819. The names of persons included
in the Dictionary of American Biography have
been italicized in the index.
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