2008 Woodie Awards
Your place in Muhlenberg's history
Jennifer Jarson
Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: Life!
- Page 1 of 3 next >
"History never looks like history when you are living through it" (John W. Gardner).
As students here at the College, you undoubtedly focus on the here and now--classes to attend, papers to write, friends to meet, parties to enjoy…but your time and experiences at the College now become a part of the College's legacy as soon as they're past. That legacy is collected in Trexler Library's Special Collections and Archives.
Just as you probably have photo albums, papers, scrapbooks and journals documenting your childhood at home, so too is the College's past recorded and collected to help preserve the history and memories created here. A quick spin through Special Collections and Archives holdings lets us review a virtual scrapbook from your predecessors at the College.
The College seems quite happily situated in west Allentown, but it wasn't always the case. A large map from the Brennen Map Collection (City of Allentown, 1876) shows the College where it began its existence--on the southeast side of Allentown at the corner of Walnut and 4th Streets. In fact, the plot of farmland that was to become the College's new (and current) home in 1905 was too far west of the city proper to appear on city maps of the time.
Freshmen had a tough time in days of yore at the College. The student "M" book laid out explicit regulations for freshmen including, at various times: the requirement for female students to wear cardinal-colored scarves, all freshmen to wear a cardinal and grey "dink" (a little beanie cap), the ability to sing the Alma Mater on demand (copies of the music and recording by various groups are available in the archives) and the requirement for all freshmen to enter buildings through the front door (except the Student Union--that had to be entered through the rear). Well-defined contests between the freshmen and sophomores (including tug-of-wars and water fights) determined how long the regulations stayed in place.
Movies taken on campus during the 1940s reveal other campus activities. For a time during WWII, military units were stationed on campus while the men completed accelerated degrees. To house this influx of students, barracks and quonset huts were erected on campus, south of Chew Street, including housing for married servicemen and their families. The movies show that campus parades and military reviews were also big at this time.
As students here at the College, you undoubtedly focus on the here and now--classes to attend, papers to write, friends to meet, parties to enjoy…but your time and experiences at the College now become a part of the College's legacy as soon as they're past. That legacy is collected in Trexler Library's Special Collections and Archives.
Just as you probably have photo albums, papers, scrapbooks and journals documenting your childhood at home, so too is the College's past recorded and collected to help preserve the history and memories created here. A quick spin through Special Collections and Archives holdings lets us review a virtual scrapbook from your predecessors at the College.
The College seems quite happily situated in west Allentown, but it wasn't always the case. A large map from the Brennen Map Collection (City of Allentown, 1876) shows the College where it began its existence--on the southeast side of Allentown at the corner of Walnut and 4th Streets. In fact, the plot of farmland that was to become the College's new (and current) home in 1905 was too far west of the city proper to appear on city maps of the time.
Freshmen had a tough time in days of yore at the College. The student "M" book laid out explicit regulations for freshmen including, at various times: the requirement for female students to wear cardinal-colored scarves, all freshmen to wear a cardinal and grey "dink" (a little beanie cap), the ability to sing the Alma Mater on demand (copies of the music and recording by various groups are available in the archives) and the requirement for all freshmen to enter buildings through the front door (except the Student Union--that had to be entered through the rear). Well-defined contests between the freshmen and sophomores (including tug-of-wars and water fights) determined how long the regulations stayed in place.
Movies taken on campus during the 1940s reveal other campus activities. For a time during WWII, military units were stationed on campus while the men completed accelerated degrees. To house this influx of students, barracks and quonset huts were erected on campus, south of Chew Street, including housing for married servicemen and their families. The movies show that campus parades and military reviews were also big at this time.