Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

The first week of September marks the start of the autumn season. Yes, that’s your cue to finally get that Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte you’ve been waiting for all year! 

Today’s TBT celebrates Labor Day, a national holiday in the US since 1882. This particular advertisement details a celebratory race in honor of our nation’s backbone, the working class. For a quick history interjection, the Altoona Speedway, known as the world’s fastest oval board racetrack, opened in 1923 and hosted two races annually, one on Flag Day and one on Labor Day. These races attracted large crowds of people, and board racing, although dangerous, was a popular entertainment element during the Roaring Twenties.

To see the entire TBT document, feel free to click here. For more information about the Altoona Speedway, please click this link. 

With that, we hope your Labor Day weekend was spent joyfully with friends and family, leaving you refreshed to conquer the semester ahead!

Isabel Choi ’26 CLAS, Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library.