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TBT: Fall Classic From the Roaring Twenties

Image of the flyer for the Fall classic Altoona Speedway : national 250-mile championship. Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1st, 1924.

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.



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TBT: Rallying Since 1866

Photograph of Villanova Baseball player George Emma standing on a base with his mitt in mid-air. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library. Image was taken March 28, 1957.

Photograph, Baseball (George Emma), March 28, 1957. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


With All-Star Week quickly approaching, the first half of the Major League Baseball season is almost finished. This week’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) features a photo from the 1957 Villanova University varsity baseball season. Did you know that Villanova first began playing varsity baseball in 1866? The program is one of the oldest collegiate programs in the country! “In a history that spans more than 150 years, Villanova has played more than 3,500 games and has had more than 1,500 student-athletes wear the uniform.”

Check out additional baseball photos in the Villanova University Digital Library. Looking for more information on the history of Villanova athletics? The exhibit, “Wildcats Past & Present: Moments from the History of Sports at Villanova,” features assorted and unique items representative of the varied sports played at Villanova. Prefer a podcast? Both episodes of the History of Athletics at Villanova can be played here.

For more baseball, explore the resources below! Catch a game this weekend: The Philadelphia Phillies begin a home series with the Washington Nationals tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. Congratulations to LSU men’s baseball! The team defeated Florida 18-4 in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the Men’s College World Series finals Monday, June 26, in Omaha, NE.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Her favorite baseball team is the Cleveland Guardians. 

 

 


 


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TBT: Villanova 1964, Peter, Paul, and Mary Sing Out

Peter, Paul and Mary

For this Throwback Thursday, we rewind to 1964 when legendary folk band Peter, Paul, and Mary visited Villanova to play for a crowd of 4,500. Alluded to in the Belle Air yearbook simply as “The Folk Singing Trio,” Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers, sang their newly recorded hits like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

Peter, Paul, and Mary were a combination of entertainment and activism and sang “If I Had a Hammer” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the Million Man March on Washington shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke, according to Michael Scott Cain’s Folk Music and the New Left in the Sixties, part of Falvey’s collection.

Check out this memory (page 64) and many others, courtesy of our Digital Library.

 


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From the Archives: TBT Commencement

Congratulations to the Class of 2023. In honor of this weekend’s commencement is a #TBT of commencement ceremonies of years past.

And did you know former U.S. President Grover Cleveland received an honorary degree at Villanova?

 

More commencement and student life photographs can be in found in the Distinctive Collections Digital Library.

 


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From the Archives: Happy Mother’s Day to All Moms

For all the mothers and the mothers-at-heart, thank you for your care and kindness. Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day is an unlikely popular tradition of Villanova history. From the early 1900s, Mothers were invited on campus to celebrate Mother’s Day with their child. The day’s events would include tree-planting ceremony, corsage giving, mass, luncheon, games, and entertainment. Mother’s Day activities were incorporated into Junior Week festivities which began in 1935. By the 1950s, more than 400 Mothers and Grandmothers would visit marking it as one of the largest events each year. Parents Weekend overtime replaced Mother’s Day traditions. Though having Mothers partake in Junior celebrations bolstered the idea of Villanova’s community representing families of students too.

 

 

 

 

 

An especially long-standing tradition, that started long before it was incorporated with Mother’s Day activities, was the Junior tree-planting ceremony. The tree-planting ceremony was considered the class tree, a precursor to more elaborate class gifts. Typically, the event was held after Mass and students would walk in a parade to plant the tree. With time, the tradition evolved to include Mothers participating in the planting ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More about Mother’s Day and Junior Week can be found in Blazers and Class Rings digital exhibit and Digital Library.


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TBT: Adventure World

Czech 'dime novel' cover. Image is of two astronauts floating in space.

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


May 11 is National Twilight Zone Day! Honor Rod Serling’s television series by reading a dime novel from the Villanova University Digital Library. The “Czech ‘dime novel’ – roughly translated as ‘Adventure World’ – (pictured above) covers stories of science fiction and adventure. Starting in 1927 and running until 1938, this was a popular Czech title for adults and children.” Skim the Dime Novel and Popular Literature collection here.

Looking for more sci-fi adventures? You can stream The Twilight Zone on Paramount+ and Amazon Prime. If you’re looking for some recommendations, Entertainment Weekly ranked 30 of the “best” Twilight Zone episodes. You can also check out the Falvey Library resources below:


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library.

 

 


 

 

 


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Papermaking Mills in Pennsylvania

“Birdseye view of the Riverside Paper Mills”

 

Villanova University’s Digital Library presents and preserves digital collections of selected holdings from our University Archives and Special Collections, as well as partner materials including institutional partners as well as individual donors. A recently added title from my own family’s bookshelf, Along the Pathway from Fibre to Paper, shares a rare, illustrated history and step-by-step detail of the papermaking process in one of Philadelphia’s many paper mills at the turn of the twentieth century.

 

Riverside Paper Mills

The booklet was produced by W.C. Hamilton & Sons, owners of the Riverside Paper Mills, “where good paper has been made since 1853” – according to its title page.  The description opens with the history and long tradition of the papermaking industry in the Philadelphia region including the very first paper mill built in North America, established by William Rittenhouse in 1690.

Endpaper

The Riverside Paper Mills were located in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery County, situated on the Schuylkill River. The area, adjacent to Roxborough, Philadelphia and formerly known as Lafayette Station, is now known as Miquon.

An explanation of the company’s trademark image and the name “Miquon” is given. The trademark, appearing on nearly every page as well as the book’s endpapers, depicts the face of William Penn within a round circle over a feather quill pen, with the words – MIQUON – RIVERSIDE MILLS.

The origin of the name Miquon is said to derive from a meeting of Lenape people with William Penn. Penn’s interpreter, searching for a way to translate Penn’s name, pointed to a goose quill on the ground and said, “Onas, signifying a Quill or Pen. But his familiar name was Miquon” [8].

 

 

The Papermaking Process

The book then details the many steps and processes of turning wood fiber to paper, with large photographic plates of the machinery and workers to illustrate each step. The second half of the book incudes samples of the final products, including Hamilton’s Fine Writing paper, buff colored paper, and envelope papers.

 

“The Steam Splitter”

 

“The Fourdrinier Paper Machine. Dry End.”

 

My favorite part of the whole publication is, of course, that it belonged to my great-great-grandfather. A dedication bookplate on the front fly leaf reads, “Harry West, associated with W.C. Hamilton & Sons / Riverside Paper Mills / Lafayette / Montgomery County / Pennsylvania / for twenty-seven years / is the owner of this descriptive-history of the institution he has helped to build.” Signed by Freas B. Snyder, President. [Dated] 7/1/21. being no. 19 of 350 copies.” The italicized words are hand-written in the intentional blank spaces left in the printed text. I love that there is a blank space for he (and therefore, also presumably for she) indicating that copies were likely given to both men and women who worked in or were associated with the mills.

Unfortunately, Harry West died at the mill in 1925. His death certificate indicates that he was working as “Head Drainer” and cause of death listed as “crushed skull, cervical vertebrae, and left shoulder by belt driven pulley at W/C Hamilton & Sons White Marsh Township, Monty Co., Pa.”

In 1999, the former mill buildings were preserved and redeveloped into an office complex (named River Park I and River Park II). Since 2012, River Park II has been home to the campus of AIM Academy, an independent school for grades 1-12.

For more on Paper and Papermaking in Greater Philadelphia see also: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/paper-and-papermaking/

If you have a unique or interesting item you would like to see digitized, please reach out to us at digitallibrary@villanova.edu.

 


Rebecca Oviedo is Distinctive Collections Archivist at Falvey Memorial Library.

 


 


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Celebrate National Parks Week 

Image courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


By Isabel Choi

In honor of the events and festivities that go on during National Parks Week 2023 (April 22-30), today’s blog is dedicated to Villanova’s prized historical artifactThe Liberty Bell’s Sister.  

Many people are familiar with The Liberty Belloriginally made by order of The Pennsylvania Assembly to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges, which rang on the tower of the Pennsylvania State House. But did you know that after it cracked, another bell, the Liberty Bell’s Sister, was created by the same company to replace it? However, at the last minute, The Pennsylvania Assembly voted to keep both (keeping the broken Liberty Bell as is.) For more historical context and information about seeing the liberty bells, check out this blog. 

Both bells were used during special occasions, including the reading of The Declaration of Independence. The Liberty Bell still resides in Philadelphia in Independent National Historical Park, so if you have some time on the weekend, you can celebrate National Parks Week by paying a visit! Other national parks in and around Philadelphia include Edgar Allan Poe’s historic site, The Alleghany Portage Railroad historic site, and Flight 93 National Memorial. Enjoy the weekend, Wildcats! 


Isabel Choi ’26 is a Communication & Marketing Assistant at Falvey Library.

 

 


 


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TBT: Halfway Home


“Halfway home is this putt by Ron Zurinskas. Bob Byrwa attends the pin, while Dave Doyle patiently awaits his turn” (1959 Belle Air, p. 208).

The Masters Tournament, the first of the four major championships in professional golf, aired this past Sunday. This week’s Throwback Thursday (#TBT) features the 1958 varsity golf team (three of the members are pictured above.) The team “turned in the school’s fifth consecutive winning season by triumphing in six of ten matches” (p. 208).

The 2022-2023 Villanova Men’s Golf Team won the Wildcat Spring Invitational for the second straight year at the LuLu Country Club in Glenside, Pa. on April 11, 2023. Best of luck to the Men’s Golf Team this spring!


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication & Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. She enjoys golfing…but only in scrambles. 

 

 


 


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TBT: It’s Officially National Poetry Month!  

Image courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


By: Isabel Choi

April, month of 

beautiful blooms and morning dew 

Celebrates the work 

Of our favorite poets –  

Frost, Dickinson, Shakespeare, 

Whitman, Cummings, Hughes, 

Many, many more 

Even our poet, McGarrity 

acknowledges 

All the forms, emotions, and hues 

That poetry brings to our hearts 

April, month of 

Beautiful words 

Take inspiration from today’s TBT, a poem written by Irish-American activist Joseph McGarrity in 1936 and write a poem (cultivated from your own “fertile mind.”)


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

 

 


 


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Last Modified: April 6, 2023

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