Thank you to all the students and staff that attended DCDE’s annual Halloween event on Tuesday! Each year DCDE opens our deepest darkest vault to unveil our spookiest material as well as bring some levity to your day’s studies in Falvey.

Many treats, from candy to pizza, were available to Halloween revelers to enjoy. In addition, DCDE had wooden block prints created by our DCDE coordinator, Mike Sgier, available for people to take home.

A print demonstration was done at the event and intended to highlight the type of printing done for some of the bibles on display in the our new exhibit, Divine Inspiration: Revealing the Sacred in Biblical Texts and Imagery.

This year was a return of our Haunted Villanova Map with attendees placing stickers on places at Villanova they think are eerie or know of a good ghost story. Alumni Hall, Tolentine Hall, Middleton Hall, and Falvey Library seemed to be the spookiest places on campus lately.

And as we do every year we had on display some of DCDE collections’ spookiest and fantastical items. These items illustrate the discourse around the unexplained in the past or what was considered popular stories of ghosts, monsters, etc.

Always a fan favorite is  hand drawn jack-o-lanterns of Halloween letter from 1925, which demonstrates how Halloween was celebrated in the past.

On display and available to see by appointment in Special Collections:

Irish Witchcraft and Demonology from the McGarrity Collection

Letter, To: “Dear Papa” From: Catherine Meave McGarrity, October 22, 1925 from the McGarrity Collection

Issues from Weird Tales from our Dime Novel Collection

The Amateur’s Guide to Magic and Mystery and the Black Art: Fully Exposed

Villanova University Archives, Villanova University. Special Olympics, 1992.

This week’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) celebrates the lighting of the Olympic flame at the 1992 Special Olympics Pennsylvania Fall Festival. Hosted and organized by Villanova University students, the festival is the largest annual student-run Special Olympics event in the world. More than 1,200 athletes will compete at the 35th Fall Festival at Villanova University Nov. 3-5. To learn more about Fall Festival, visit this webpage.

Ethan Shea, former Graduate Assistant at Falvey Library, highlighted additional throwbacks to past Special Olympics on this blog. In 2019, Beaudry Rae Allen, Preservation & Digital Archivist, curated an exhibit containing facsimiles of photographs and programs from the early days of the event.

Best of luck to all the athletes competing this weekend!

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

…Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children…

“I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr., August 28th, 1963

Center for Peace and Justice

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Falvey Library and Center for Peace and Justice Education have come together to present an area to reflect and celebrate the historic day. By the Center for Peace and Justice Education today, there will be images from Villanova University’s Distinctive Collections of Martin Luther King Jr from the 1960s. Of particular note, there is a pennant passed out during the March on Washington day that is currently housed at in Distinctive Collections at Falvey Library. On display are other images of King at other protests and his visit to Villanova in 1965.

We Shall Overcome. I Marched for Equality in the Freedom Parade. Pennant distributed to attendees on August 28th, 1963. Distinctive Collections, Falvey Library.

The March on Washington, also known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a massive protest march on August 28th, 1963, when over 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  The event aimed to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans. Other speakers included A. Phillip Randolph, the march director and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, the NAACP’s executive secretary; Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers; and John Lewis, led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Even sixty years later the march and MLK’s words still resonate today just as injustice and white supremacy evolves over time and the fight for equality continues for social justice, voting rights, education, and criminal reform.

–Villanova’s Connection to the “I Have a Dream” Speech–

King’s physical speech was originally in possession of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame player and coach George Raveling, who came in receipt of the artifact while volunteering at the 1963 March on Washington. Villanova University became the speech’s steward and has entered into a long-term loan agreement with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to display it.

Credit: Villanova Photography Collection. Digital Library@Villanova University

Today, Falvey Library and the Villanova community celebrate Independence Day. This photo, courtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University, was taken of Villanova’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, in the 1940s. The University maintains one of about 60 U.S. NROTC units, and “reserve commissions as Ensign or 2nd Lieutenant are awarded upon successful completion of prescribed naval science courses and graduation from the University.”

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

Commencement ceremony outside, 1927

Commencement Audience, 1927

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

Former U.S. President Grover Cleveland with Archbishop Patrick John Ryan of Philadelphia after receiving an honorary degree at commencement in 1902

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

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

Mother’s Day Luncheon, 1947

Mother’s Day Program, 1952

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.

Tree Planting, 1949

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.

In honor of Women’s Basketball earning #4 Seed in NCAA Championship, hosting first and second round games at Finneran Pavilion starting tomorrow, AND being a big favorite, here is a look back Women’s Basketball throughout the years.

50 years ago…

                                               Women’s Basketball, Belle Air 1973

1983 & 1993…

Women’s Basketball, Belle Air 1983

Women’s Basketball, Belle Air 1993

And this year with such momentum with the team and Maddy Siegrist, senior guard, who is broke the Big East and Villanova single-game scoring records and became the Big East’s all-time leading scorer, is reminiscent of the 1980s Women’s Basketball team. In fact, Siegrist on January 20, 2023, surpassed Shelly Pennefather, 1983–1987 forward, for Villanova’s career scoring record while scoring 23 points in a 73–57 win over Creighton.

Women’s Basketball, Belle Air 1987

More images of Villanova Basketball throughout the years can be found in the University Archives and Digital Library.

The section of the spring exhibit, “Poetic License: Seven Curators’ Poetry Selections from Distinctive Collections” titled “Building a Voice at Villanova and the Power of Poetry,” was initially influenced by Rita Dove’s quote, “poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful” and pondering how to exemplify that through the poems of our community. From the earliest curriculum at Villanova, poetry has been a mainstay in many courses of study. In the classroom, the study of the art and structure of a verse can expand one’s own voice to express identity and experience; strength and vulnerability; and bring a community together or provide a lens to a community experience. It is with those tools of expression the poems chosen for the exhibit are a reflection of the different ways poetry has been expressed on campus and insight to the many different incarnations of poetry societies, student publications, and poetry groups of Villanova. The poems traverse between personal reflections, politics, and religion. Ultimately, to showcase the power of the voices of our community through poetry.

The display was curated by Beaudry Allen, Digital and Preservation Archivist, and material found in the Villanova University Archives.

Cover of Lynx publication, 1970

You can read more poetry by students in our digitized collection of Lynx, student run biannual literary publication.

Program, Villanova University Falvey Memorial Library Dedication, Saturday November 16th, 1968.

On November 16, 1968, Villanova celebrated the dedication of Falvey Memorial Library’s new building. As part of the celebration, Dr. Francis M. Hammond of the U.S. Office of Education received an honorary Villanova degree in recognition of his contributions to interracial justice and higher education.

Dr. Hammond was serving as Higher Education Facilities Program Officer at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare at the time of his honorary degree. Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, he had previously taught at Seton Hall University and was the institution’s first African-American faculty member (1946). Photos of the event from University Archives are now online in the Digital Library.

Dr. Francis M. Hammond, 1911-1978.

Photograph, Falvey Memorial Library Dedication (Convocation), 1968.

Dr. Francis M. Hammond with wife and family, receiving an honorary degree from Rev. Robert J. Welsh O.S.A. (28th president of Villanova) at the dedication of Falvey Memorial Library.

After the presentation of the degree, Dr. Hammond delivered the address at the ceremony. You can read the text of the words he spoke to dedicate the new library building – now in the Digital Library here: https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:757210.

You can also read more about Dr. Hammond and the Falvey Memorial Library dedication ceremony on p.2 of the Villanovan (November 13, 1968) here: https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:187269. 

Rebecca Oviedo is Distinctive Collections Librarian/Archivist at Falvey Memorial Library.

Photo courtesy of the Villanova Digital Library. Special Olympic contenders and Villanova Students, November 1987.

This week’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) celebrates the annual Special Olympics Pennsylvania Fall Festival hosted and organized by Villanova University students. The festival is the largest annual student-run Special Olympics event in the world. More than 1,200 athletes will compete at the 34th Fall Festival at Villanova University on November 4-6, 2022. To learn more about Fall Festival visit this webpage.

Ethan Shea, Graduate Assistant at Falvey Library, highlighted additional throwbacks to past Special Olympics on this blog. On Falvey’s third floor, Beaudry Rae Allen, Preservation & Digital Archivist, curated an exhibit containing facsimiles of photographs and programs from the early days of the event.

Best of luck to all the athletes competing this weekend!

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