Thomas G. Waldman papers

Thomas G. Waldman was a scholar of medieval France, adjunct associate professor of history, and member of the development team at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1938, Waldman earned his BA and MA from Columbia University in 1960 and 1961, then his DPhil from Oxford University in 1970 with a thesis entitled Hugh 'of Amiens', Archibishop of Rouen (1130 - 1164).

Waldman spent much of his career at the University of Pennsylvania, serving first as a bibliographer of rare books and manuscripts in the University of Pennsylvania Libraries from 1971 to 1976, then working in development from 1979 until his retirement in 2007 as Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations, School of Arts and Sciences. While working in development, he was also an adjunct associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1993. He pursued his research on Anglo-Norman and French church history throughout his time at Penn, focusing particularly on Abbot Suger and the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Waldman participated in several scholarly societies, co-founded the Delaware Valley Medieval Association, and was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London.

Following his retirement from Corporate and Foundation Relations in 2007, Waldman continued to conduct research and participate in the scholarly community until shortly before his death on July 1, 2018.

In addition to this collection documenting his research and writing in medieval history, Waldman also donated "Ms. Coll. 1435, Thomas Waldman research collection on Nadar" to the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

This collection documents Waldman's research, writing, conference participation, and other scholarly activity dating from his student work on Hugh of Amiens at Oxford to extensive work on Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, papal charters, forged charters, and continued work on the acts of Hugh of Amiens conducted until shortly before his death.

The collection consists of four series. The first series, Subject Files, contains the majority of Waldman's research files. Waldman filed correspondence, copies of original medieval sources, his notes, copies of articles and book pages, and related writings together in one folder for a topic or project, and his organization has been maintained to the greatest extent possible. Folders that contain Waldman's own writings are noted with "writings". The second series consists of offprints, many inscribed to Waldman, and copies of articles. These are in folders by the last name of the author as Waldman kept them, but they are not alphabetized within folders. The third series consists of images, nearly all of manuscripts, many of them clearly identified, in formats including photographs, negatives, slides, and microfilm. The final series contains the physical media containing digital files, which are restricted. The digital files themselves will be integrated into the finding aid and available for use in digital form in the Kislak Center Reading Room.

Gift of the estate of Thomas G. Waldman, October 2018.

Waldman's folder labels, where present, were maintained to the greatest extent possible, and material that was found together was generally kept together. However, the collection contained a large amount of material that was not filed or identified, and this was foldered and integrated as well as possible to allow access. Images and copies of articles occur throughout the subject files as well as in dedicated series.

Some parts of the collection were in poor condition when received, with the edges of papers in non-standard sizes damaged. This is especially true for the copies of Charters of Hugh d'Amiens in box 6, folders 2- 10 and box 7, folders 1 and 2. These were left in the folders with related material, since the damage was already done, and the damage does not affect the legibility of the text.

There are eight folders of correspondence, some corresponding to folders established by Waldman and others combining unfiled correspondence found elsewhere in his papers. In the "Images" series, photographs were maintained in the original packets with Waldman's labels. Small packets correspond to groups of photographs that were clipped together with a label. The slides and microfilm have been maintained as they were received. Note that the images in many of the slides also exist as 8.5 x 11" pages in spiral bound books.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts: Thomas Waldman research collection on Nadar, Ms. Coll. 1435. https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/UPENN_RBML_PUSP.MS.COLL.1435

Use

Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce mateirals from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Preferred Citation

Thomas G. Waldman papers, 1962 - 2017, Ms. Coll. 1722, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Finding aids author

Meg Phillips

Date

2026 March 4

Subject

Medievalists

Middle Ages

People

Suger, Abbot of Saint Denis, 1081-1151

Hugh, of Amiens, Archbishop of Rouen, approximately 1080-1164

Organization

Abbaye de Saint-Denis (Saint-Denis, France)

Place

Europe -- History -- 476-1492

Language Note

Waldman worked in both English and French. Much of the collection consists of copies of medieval manuscripts and transcriptions in Latin. There is a small amount of material in German.