Special Collections News

International Correspondence Schools Collection

 

The International Correspondence Schools of Scranton (I.C.S.) was a pioneer in distance education in the early twentieth century. Founded in 1891, it had its beginnings as a question and answer section in the pages of Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner, a mining journal published in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania by Thomas J. Foster. Due to an excessive number of mining accidents, Pennsylvania passed the Mine Safety Act of 1885, which required miners and inspectors to pass an exhaustive examination on mine safety. The column provided a method for miners and inspectors to ask and receive help from mining safety experts. By 1895, the column was so successful operations had to be moved from Shenandoah to a large office building in Scranton where staff could be totally dedicated to answering questions. This led to the separation of the column from the journal and the establishment of I.C.S. The collection includes marketing materials, textbooks, photographs, and other artifacts ranging from the late 1890s to the early 1990s. We will also be mounting an exhibit of the I.C.S. collection in the Heritage Room during the autumn semester. The exhibit will run September 18 through December 17.

 

Seymour and Cathy Brotman Collection

 

The Brotmans moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1970 from Plainfield, New Jersey where Seymour Brotman had served as assistant executive director of the Plainfield Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) from 1968 to 1970. Together, the Brotmans have served the Jewish and Scranton communities for nearly three decades. They were instrumental in the relocation of Ethiopian and Soviet Jews to the U.S., Israel, and Canada and in creating a thriving Jewish community within the Scranton area. The Seymour and Kathy Brotman Collection documents the Brotmans' careers as leaders within the Jewish community and the Scranton area. Documents include newspaper articles by Seymour Brotman from his tenure as executive director of the Jewish Community Center as well as from his time as executive director of the Scranton-Lackawanna Jewish Federation. There are also documents detailing Mrs. Brotman's activities in both civic and Jewish organizations.

 

El Salvador Exhibit

 

The Heritage Room will also feature an exhibit titled Seven Years of Bridges to El Salvador 1999-2006. The University of Scranton and the Jesuit Community jointly sponsor a faculty, staff, administrator trip to El Salvador each year, or recently every two years, to build a greater awareness and commitment to the University's mission to educate for justice. The exhibit will include past and present initiatives and collaborative efforts to build solidarity between the people of El Salvador and the University of Scranton. This exhibit will complement a series of campus events planned for Fall 2006 by Bridges to El Salvador to educate the campus and community on current issues in El Salvador, including education, environment, fair trade, immigration, women's issues and youth. The exhibit will be co-curated by Michael Knies and Marie Karam, director of the Bridges to El Salvador program. The exhibit will run September 4 through December 17.

 

Jesuit Community Donation

 

The Jesuit Community has donated $2500 to the Hill-Davis and Jesuit Collection. The collection, named after two deceased prominent University of Scranton Jesuits Fathers William Hill and Royden Davis, aims to expand the library's collection of both contemporary Jesuit scholarship and rare Jesuit publications.