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Swarthmore College Lantern Slide and Glass Plate Collection
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
George A. Hoadley (1848-1936) was a professor of physics at Swarthmore College from 1888-1914 and a vice-president of the College from 1892-1914. A resident of the Borough of Swarthmore, he built a house at 518 Walnut Lane in 1892. An avid amateur photographer, he served as the president of the Swarthmore College Camera Club which sponsored an annual lantern slide exhibitions. A selection of pictures of the College and Borough were collected by Professor Hoadley and presented in the form of lantern slides at the Alumni Banquet on June 9, 1917. .
The images came from a variety of sources including a series of photographs taken by Broadbent and Phillips just previous to and immediately after the fire of 1881; a series of large format photographs taken by Charles Doron, Class of 1881; photographs of the College and environs by James L. Vail, Class of 1896 (non-graduate); and photographs taken by Herbert L. Noxon, Class of 1897, as part of his engineering degree.
James Lindley Vail attended Swarthmore College and took photographs of the College, student activities, and Swarthmore Borough. In addition to the following miscellaneous lantern slides labeled as his, the College also has a collection his glass negatives from which the slides were made, stored with the lantern slides in a separate box. Several of his lantern slides were integrated into Professor Hoadley's slide presentation. Vail apparently took photographs while a student, and prints of his photographs appear in College publications as well as student photo albums (i.e., PA 108).
Herbert L. Noxon, B.S., Swarthmore College, 1897. An album compiled as part of his degree in engineering on Phototopography is in the Picture Collection, PA-010/07. Noxon subsequently earned degrees in Pharmacy and Dentistry at the University of Southern California.
The collection of Swarthmore College lantern slides contains historic images of the College and Borough of Swarthmore and photographs of College events and activities. The core of the collection was the selection presented by Professor George A. Hoadley at the Alumni Banquet on June 9, 1917. An avid amateur photographer, he served as the president of the Swarthmore College Camera Club which sponsored an annual lantern slide exhibition. The lantern slides were created from a number of sources, including photographs by Charles Doron, James Vail, Herbert N. Noxon, and Broadbent and Phillips. In addition to the Hoadley slides, the collection also includes colored photographs by John Wister relating to the College and Crum Woods, lantern slides made of the campus plans of Karchner and Livingston (1931), and glass plate negatives by James Vail.
The Hoadley Alumni lantern slide lecture as received was arranged in the order of Hoadley's presentation. Other collections are sorted into groups by creator.
A number of Hoadley's images were included in a booklet, Swarthmore Scenes, published circa 1903. In 1993, a number of these images were included in the published centennial history of Swarthmore Borough, Swarthmore Illustrated (See PA 64) and other images were scanned and included in the book Images of America: Swarthmore Borough.
Early photographs by Broadbent and Phillips and Tyson Studios are stored oversize, FHL Picture Collection.
A selection of historic images of the College and Borough were collected by Professor Hoadley and presented in the form of lantern slides at the Alumni Banquet on June 9, 1917. It is likely that he also collected most of the other lantern slides in the present collection and donated them to Swarthmore College. There is no documentation for this, but according to both his daughter, Florence Hoadley, who died in 1996, and his granddaughter, Dorothy Lawrence, his collection of lantern slides were given to the College. The Wister and campus plan slides likely were transferred from the Scott Arboretum and other College departments.
Lantern slides from various sources were stored in Friends Historical Library. In 1993, an effort was made to consolidate and describe them and to create surrogate copies. Prints and copy negatives were assigned the number PA 89. Copy prints were added to PA 064, Swarthmore Borough Picture Collection. With the consolidation of photograhic formats into better finding aids, the slides were recataloged as PA 198.
Organization
Subject
- Photographers
- Universities and colleges -- Pennsylvania -- Swarthmore
- College students -- Pennsylvania
- Architecture -- Pennsylvania -- Swarthmore
Place
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- Susanna Morikawa
- Finding Aid Date
- 2019
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is available for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
George A. Hoadley, retired Professor of Physics and Vice-President compiled a group of images to present at the Alumni Banquet on June 7, 1917. The images came from a variety of sources including the a series of photographs taken by Broadbent and Phillips just previous to and immediately after the fire of 1881; a series of large format photographs taken by Charles Doron, Class of 1881; photographs of the College and environs by James L. Vail, Class of 1896 (non-graduate); and photographs taken by Herbert L. Noxon, Class of 1897, as part of his engineering degree. The slides are sorted first, by their order in the Alumni Banquet presentation, and then in additional categories.
Probably collected by Hoadley but not included in his Alumni Banquet presentation; some are labeled with Swarthmore College Alumni Association stickers. Some labeled Vail and are dated circa 1912.
Theatricals, May Day, graduation, lacrosse game, etc. Many are labeled.
Formerly cataloged separately as PA 089, the folder contains George Hoadley's typed list of lantern slides, some copy images, and notes on assembling the collection by staff.
John C. Wister (1887-1982) became director of the Scott Foundation on January 1, 1930. He was a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard's School of Landscape Architecture and a noted horticulturist, writing books on irises and lilacs and editing many others.
SPA 111, Scott Arboretum picture collection. Slides including earliest plantings on the Arboretum, the lilac walk, etc.
21 glass negatives, listed as numbered on original photo sleeves. Likely taken at Alumni Day, 1913?
Scan # A000842
Scan # A0008403
Scan # A0008110
Scan # A0008107, A0008405
Scan # A008108, A0008404
Scan # A0008106
Scan # A0008105
Scan # A0008109, A0008400