Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

This week’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) features the late Robin Williams who performed at Villanova on Saturday, Oct. 4, 1986 for Parents’ Weekend. According to the Villanovan article, written by Elia DiTaddeo, “Williams called his stand-up comedy routine ‘Legalized Insanity.’” Students could purchase $13 or $14 tickets to see the comedy act. Small gifts were also given to Williams before the show, including “a small Villanova sweatshirt for Williams’ son.” Read the full article here. Thinking of watching one of Williams’ films over the holiday? Good Will Hunting is available at Falvey Library (portable DVD players are also available to loan.) The film premiered 25 years ago on Dec. 2, 1997.

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

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change this world.” –Dead Poets Society

Happy Commencement Week, Villanova seniors! To celebrate your graduation, we throwback to 1995 when Commencement featured 60 Minutes Co-Editor and journalist Ed Bradley (1941-2006.) Bradley, a respected journalist, won 19 Emmy Awards in addition to a Peabody Award for his investigative report on the AIDS crisis in Africa.

The Grateful Dead. Jimi Hendrix. The Who. Santana. Fifty years ago, on Aug. 15–18, 1969, Woodstock Music and Art Fair happened.

As the book Festival notes (pictured, showing Grace Slick and Jerry Garcia), “Perhaps it wasn’t as big as the accomplishments of Apollo 11. And perhaps it was something larger.”

Historians estimate 400,000 people attended this iconic three-day event, filled with peace, love, happiness, and a dollop of mud. (A bit short of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash estimate of a million!)

While we don’t know for sure whether any Villanovans attended Woodstock, and the festival itself did not merit a mention in The Villanovan, Villanova’s student newspaper, we know an awful lot about life on campus during this time of upheaval, social change, and unrest.

Students at Villanova certainly did not heed the counter culture mandate to “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Were they “feelin’ groovy?” Possibly. But these students, like many of the young people during this time period, had to cope with traumatic and divisive events. Like Villanovans in the decades after, they questioned, they reasoned, and they graduated with dreams of shaping the world.

Learn more about how far out Villanova was in the ’60s in the library’s digital exhibit: https://exhibits.library.villanova.edu/nova-stories.

Shawn Proctor, MFA, is Communications and Marketing Program Manager at Falvey Memorial Library. He has been attending the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the closest modern iteration of Woodstock, since 1999.

Photo courtesy of University Archives.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

The 1962 Villanova University yearbook staff poses for a group photo. View more images from the 1960s in Distinctive Collections’ new digital exhibit, Nova Stories: Campus Life from the 1960s. Curated by Beaudry Allen, the exhibit draws on University Archives to reveal the photographs, newspaper-clippings, audio-recordings, and programs that illustrate what student life was like in the 1960s and highlights some of the traditions and changes happening on campus.

What was Villanova like fifty years ago?

Distinctive Collections is proud to announce our new digital exhibit, Nova Stories: Campus Life from the 1960s. Curated by Beaudry Allen, the exhibit draws on University Archives to reveal the photographs, newspaper-clippings, and programs that illustrate what student life was like in the 1960s and highlights some of the traditions and changes happening on campus.

A special element to the exhibit is audio recordings of current Villanova students reading 1960s articles from The Villanovan. So a special thanks goes out to Shannon Murray, Tariere Tebepah, Lilly Sullivan, Nasir Dowling, Matthew Fagerstrom, Samantha Palazzolo, and Norman Williams.

Many of the images from the exhibit can be found in Villanova Digital Library.

The exhibit will remain ongoing to add newly digitized or acquired materials.

The ‘Cats who worked on The Villanovan newspaper filled the November 1916 issue primarily with their Thanksgiving-themed original stories and poetry, including the hymn below by Gerard F. Hart, class of 1919. Their works were especially poignant as one of the worst moments of World War I, the Battle of the Somme, took place that year.

May all Villanovans enjoy Thanksgiving with their family and friends. Amen.

Images from the Villanova University Digital Library.

‘Caturday post by Luisa Cywinski, writer for the Communication and Service Promotion team and team leader of Access Services.