Please join us on Thursday, April 25, from 12-1:15 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speakers’ Corner or via livestream for a book talk and Q&A event featuring historian Amy Jane Cohen. At the event, Cohen will discuss her recently published book, Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape: Deep Roots, Continuing Legacy (Temple University Press, 2024). The event will be moderated by Olukunle Owolabi, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of Africana Studies.

In Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape, Amy Cohen recounts notable aspects of the Black experience in Philadelphia from the late 1600s to the 1960s and how this history is marked in the contemporary city. Learn more here.

This ACS-approved event is being presented by the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest and is co-sponsored by Falvey Library, Falvey Library DEI Committee, Department of History, Department of Political Science and Africana Studies. It is free and open to the public.

View the Livestream here.

Go Phillies!

Whiteboard art courtesy of Joanne Quinn, Director of Communication & Marketing.

In honor of Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month, Hispanic/Latine Ministry in the Office for Mission and Ministry will be hosting a special event on Tuesday, October 3, on the “History of Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia.”

In his book, Before the Wave: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, 1910-1945, Dr. Vázquez-Hernández recounts the genesis of the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia during the interwar years (1917–1945). It connects the origins of this community to the mass migration of the post-WW II years when Puerto Ricans consolidated their presence in Philadelphia (1945–1985). This study compares the experiences of Puerto Ricans with that of the Italians, the Polish, and African Americans in Philadelphia during the early twentieth century. The scholarship on Puerto Ricans outside of New York has been, by and large, limited to the postwar period and a closer examination of the interwar years provides us a more complete picture of how the postwar migrants were established and developed over a much longer period than previously believed. Until now, there has been no comprehensive examination of this early diaspora in Philadelphia and this book rectifies this scholarly deficiency.

Program Schedule:

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Los Bomberos De La Calle, Plena Comparsa Group will lead a percussion and dance procession from the Riley Ellipse to the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Lecture by Dr. Vázquez-Hernández, author of Before the Wave: Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, 1910-1945, followed by a panel discussion with Johnny Irizarry and Carmen Febo-San Miguel, former Executive Directors of Taller Puertorriqueño and moderated by the current Executive Director, Nasheli Ortiz González in the Topper Theatre

7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.: Reception and Art Exhibit by Johnny Irizarry in the Lobby of the Mullen Center

Link for ticket information: https://forms.office.com/r/kjHg9pByVt

This event is co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Thomas of Villanova Center for the Common Good, Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest, Department of Spanish, Latin American Studies Program, Falvey Library, Department of English, Center for Peace and Justice Education, and Alumni Relations.

By Jenna Renaud

Happy Friday, Wildcats! Falvey Memorial Library is delivering you another semester of Weekend Recs, a blog dedicated to filling you in on what to read, listen to, and watch over the weekend. Jenna, a graduate assistant from the Communication department, scours the internet, peruses the news, and digs through book stacks to find new, relevant, and thought-provoking content that will challenge you and prepare you for the upcoming week. 

The MLB season is finally upon us, despite delays that pushed opening day from Thursday, March 31, to Thursday, April 7. The 2021-22 MLB lockout was the first since 1994; however, negotiations have now been settled, and the season can begin!

So let’s root, root, root for the home team (Go, Phillies!) and learn a little more about what’s happening currently in baseball with this week’s weekend recs, whether you have two minutes or an entire afternoon. 

If you have 2 minutes… read about MLB Opening Day and the decline in ticket sales. 

If you have 7 minutes and 39 seconds… watch this video from December breaking down the MLB lockout, what both sides want, and what the consequences are. 

Bonus: Watch this 8-minute-and-37-second video updating people on the MLB lockout. 

If you have 1 hour and 48 minutes… watch “Bull Durham,” arguably the best baseball movie of all time. 

If you have 8 hours and 20 minutes… read Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the story about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. 

If you have the afternoon… buy tickets to support Philadelphia’s very own Phillies in their opening weekend games against the Oakland Athletics.  

Jenna Renaud is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department.

Replica of The Lincoln Bible.

This Presidents’ Day, stop by Falvey Memorial Library’s first floor to view a replica of “The Lincoln Bible.” Used during his inauguration in 1861, the Lincoln Bible didn’t actually belong to the President. The clerk of the Supreme Court, William Thomas Carroll, was the owner of the Bible Lincoln placed his hand upon. The Bible remained in Carroll’s possession until it was acquired by the Lincoln family sometime after the president’s assassination in 1865. Now known as “The Lincoln Bible,” the original copy is currently housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Lincoln Bible was used by President Barack Obama at his inaugurations in 2009 and 2013. President Donald Trump also used the Bible at his inauguration in 2017.

The replica mirrors The Lincoln Bible as it appeared in 1861, as it was not possible to duplicate the wear and fading of the original copy. More features of the replica are listed below:

• 280-page, 1853 Oxford University Edition.
• Inscription of William Thomas Carroll, complete with the seal of the Supreme Court.
• Velvet-covered; framed with brass borders and has a brass clasp, authentic gilded edges, and two ribbon markers.

The Lincoln Bible will be on display in the Library’s first floor Wednesday, Feb. 16, through Monday, Feb. 28.

Dig deeper: You can now view a Bible Lincoln previously owned. The new Lincoln Bible resurfaced in 2019 and is on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. Gifted to Lincoln in 1864 at a charity event in Philadelphia, the cover reads, “Presented to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by the Ladies of the Citizens Volunteer Hospital of Philadelphia.”

Mary Lincoln gave the Bible to the Rev. Noyes W. Miner, a friend of the President, seven years after her husband’s death. Having been passed down through the generations, Miner’s descendants recently disclosed its existence and donated it to the public.

For more on President Lincoln, whose 213th birthday is Feb. 12, check out the links below:

• Abraham Lincoln
• The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Paludan, 1994)
• Lincoln: A President for the Ages (Weber, 2012)
• A. Lincoln: A Biography (White, 2009)
• Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction (Guelzo, 2009)
• Lincoln: The Screenplay (Kushner, 2012)
• Lincoln (DVD, 2013)
• Hand accounts of Lincoln’s funeral procession in Chicago and Philadelphia (Sherman Thackara Collection)

Looking for a specific resource on President Lincoln? Contact, Jutta Seibert, History Librarian. A special thank you to Andrew McKeough, ’19 CLAS for the exhibit concept.

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

References:

• Baker, P. (2019, June 20). A New Lincoln Bible, From a Mantel to a Presidential Library. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/us/politics/abraham-lincoln-bible.html
• Magazine, S., & Katz, B. (n.d.). A Bible Owned by Lincoln, Unknown to Historians for 150 Years, Goes on Display. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bible-owned-lincoln-unknown-historians-150-years-goes-display-180972473/
• The Story Behind the Lincoln Bible at Obama’s Inauguration. (n.d.). US News & World Report. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/god-and-country/2008/12/23/the-story-behind-the-lincoln-bible-at-obamas-inauguration

By Jenna Renaud 

Villanova University is celebrating the 46th Annual Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week (HHAW) from Sunday, November 14 through Saturday, November 20. To kick off the week, we dug deeper into the history of HHAW and provided resources to help you learn more about homelessness, hunger, and poverty.  

Did you know? 

• 37.2 million Americans live below the poverty level
• 580,000 Americans are homeless on a typical night
• 44 million Americans are at risk of suffering from hunger
• 1 in 6 children in the U.S. live in poverty 

Hunger & homelessness. Hunger Homelessness Awareness Week. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2021, from https://hhweek.org/hunger-and-homelessness/. 

History of HHAW 

HHAW was started in 1975 by Augustinian priest the Rev. Ray Jackson, OSA, and a group of Villanova students operating on their three pillars of education, advocacy, and service. The ultimate goal? Zero people affected by hunger and homelessness. Although starting at Villanova University, HHAW has since expanded to over 700 campuses and communities nationwide! Each year, HHAW has hundreds of thousands of participants that raise millions of dollars for local service providers.  

To learn more about HHAW at Villanova visit: https://vuhungerweek.wixsite.com/mysite  

To learn more about HHAW nationwide visit: https://hhweek.org/  

HHAW Villanova Events 

Monday, Nov. 15
Postgraduate Service Fair; Villanova Room-Connelly Center, 5–7 p.m.
Postgraduate Service Chat; The Refectory, 8-9:30 p.m. 

Wednesday, Nov. 17
Fair Trade Craft Fair; Connelly Center Ground Floor Atrium, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Keynote Event: The Heart of Camden, the Story of Father Michael Doyle; Connelly Cinema, 7 p.m. 

Thursday, Nov. 18
Donate A Meal; Campus Dining Halls, Lunch
The HHAW is hosting its annual Fast Day. For every meal donation collected, Dining Services will donate an amount for each meal to partner organizations helping those experiencing hunger and homelessness. 

Solidarity Vigil, The Grotto; 7 p.m. 

Saturday, Nov. 20
Back On My Feet Turkey Trot 5K; The Oreo, 9:30 a.m. 

For more information on HHAW and its schedule of events for 2021, visit the HHAW site. 

Book Recommendations 

All books are currently displayed outside of Holy Grounds on the first floor of Falvey. Books will be available for check-out starting next week.

Poverty and the underclass: changing perceptions of the poor in America by William Alton Kelso 

Confronting homelessness: poverty, politics, and the failure of social policy by David Wagner 

Homeless not hopeless: the survival networks of Latino and African American men by Edna Maritza Molina-Jackson 

Tell them who I am: The Lives of Homeless Women by Elliot Liebow 

All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? by Joel Berg 

Local HHAW Events & Initiatives

Below is a list of ways to get involved in HHAW in Philly. Click on the following link to view more information and a full description of events: https://www.phila.gov/2021-11-08-hunger-and-homelessness-awareness-week-2021-philly-events-and-information/

• Thanksgiving Food Drive 
• Bethesda Project HH Week Events 
• Pie in the Sky 2021 
• OHS Winter Clothing Donations 

Jenna Renaud is a graduate student in the Communication Department and graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library.

Image courtesy of Memorable Days: The Emilie Davis Diaries.

Celebrate Women’s History Month by exploring transcripts of Emilie Davis’ diaries. Davis was an African American woman living in Philadelphia during the U.S. Civil War. In three of her pocket diaries (1863, 1864, and 1865) she “recounts black Philadelphians’ celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, nervous excitement during the battle of Gettysburg, and their collective mourning of President Lincoln.” Her diaries provide readers the opportunity to “experience the Civil War in real time as events unfolded for Americans.”

The original diaries, part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s (HSP) collections, were transcribed by Villanova students for The People’s Contest: A Civil War Era Digital Archiving Project. Working to advance scholarship on Pennsylvania during the Civil War era, the Richards Civil War Era Center, The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, Senator John Heinz History Center, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania curated The People’s Contest to highlight archives and special collections throughout the commonwealth.

Led by Judith Giesberg, PhD, Robert M. Birmingham Chair in the Humanities, Professor of History at Villanova University, Memorable Days: The Emilie Davis Diaries project features scans and transcriptions from Emilie’s pocket diaries. Support for the website project was provided by Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library, The Department of History, Department of Communication, and the Villanova Institute for Teaching and Learning. Transcriptions and annotations were conduction by Villanova students. View the full list of contributors on the project webpage. Website development was provided by Michael Mafodda, MBA, and Samantha Viani ’14 CLAS.

Read Davis’ diaries here. For additional resources visit the links below:

• Memorable Days by Emilie Davis (2012)
• Emilie Davis’s Civil War: the diaries of a free Black woman in Philadelphia, 1863-1865 by Emilie Davis, edited by Judith Giesberg (2014)
• The Civil War pocket diaries of Emilie Frances Davis by Karsonya Whitehead (2014)

Explore more Women’s History Month resources in this blog by Susan Turkel, Social Sciences Librarian, and this resource list by Merrill Stein, Political Science Librarian. For help with your research, please contact the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian Jutta Seibert.

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

By Beaudry Rae Allen, Laura Bang, and Deborah Bishov

Illustration of a smiling young Black man with shoulder-length locs with text saying “Walter Wallace Jr.” and “Black Disabled Lives Matter” By Micah Bazant

This week we mourn and once again must grapple with the senseless killing of a black person by the police, this time in Philadelphia. Walter Wallace Jr. was gunned down by Philadelphia Police on the 6100 block of Locust Street, despite the fact that his family had called for an ambulance and begged the police not to shoot, because he was experiencing a mental health crisis. The events unfolding are not a microcosm, but they highlight issues around race, police brutality, and mental health services in our communities.

The use of excessive force by the police, particularly in this geographic location, is sadly not an anomaly and sparks a reminder of the Philadelphia Police Department’s sordid history with the West Philadelphia community. Only a few blocks from the site of Wallace’s murder is the site of the 1985 MOVE bombing in which Philadelphia Police dropped a bomb on a residential home of the black liberation group MOVE. The bombing killed 6 adults and 5 children as well as destroying many homes in the area. If this is your first time reading about the MOVE bombings the library has many resources available to learn more about the events and how Philadelphia has been shaped by the events.

Physical Books Available for Contactless Pickup

• Let it Burn!: The Philadelphia Tragedy: https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/185201
• The MOVE Crisis in Philadelphia: Extremist Groups and Conflict Resolution https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/387592

Digital Access

• Let the Fire Burn (Video) https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/1941681
• MOVE: An American Religion https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/2337187

Additional resources for support:

• University Counseling Center (610) 519-4050
• Office of Health Promotion (610) 519-7409
• Campus Ministry (610) 519-4080

Please contact these departments, as they are available for emotional, mental, and spiritual support. Support and services are available to all students, whether on-campus, off-campus, or at home.

Photo courtesy of University Archives.

Throwback Thursday

Villanova graduates gathered in Convention Hall in Philadelphia on May 12, 1969, for commencement. The ceremony featured remarks from University President the Reverend Robert J. Welsh, OSA, and commencement speaker the Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. of the United States District Court.

Wildcats are traveling from the suburbs and cities to participate in the World Meeting of Families and to see Pope Francis this weekend. Here’s one Wildcat’s-eye view of the train station activity in Paoli, PA, one of two SEPTA regional rail stations on the Paoli Thorndale line that will accept passengers with special passes to Philadelphia today and tomorrow. We hope everyone enjoys the Francis Festival and the address by Pope Francis at Independence Hall!

Read all of our Pope Francis and World Meeting of Families blogs that were published this week.