Special Collections
104 Paterno Library
814.865.7931
UL-spcolref@lists.psu.edu
Special Collections is located on the first floor of Paterno Library on the University Park Campus. Our mission is to provide primary source materials for researchers from Penn State and around the world.
Richard Pearce-Moses defines a primary source as: "Material that contains firsthand accounts of events and that was created contemporaneous to those events or later recalled by an eyewitness." Examples include diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories, author's manuscripts, and meeting minutes.
Here, researchers can find more than 200,000 printed volumes, more than 25 million archival records and manuscripts, and another million photographs, maps, prints, and audio-visual items.
If you have not used a special collections library before, please note that we are open for fewer hours than some other parts of the library, and that you must use our materials in our reading room. For more information, please visit our brief online tutorial and tour.
Additional information on searching Special Collections can be found here.
Jack Nichols Biographical Papers, 1934-2005, consists of .7 cubic feet of photocopies of personal papers which Nichols selected for his biographer, J. Louis Campbell III. Materials primarily include Nichols' writings, family histories, early photographs, related books, and video recordings of Nichols' memorial service donated by Campbell. Jack Nichols (1938-2005) co-founded The Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. in Nov. 1961 with Frank Kameny. His career included life-long gay rights activism, authoring several books on gay life, and writing for and/or editing The Advocate, Gay Weekly News, and GayToday.com.
W.S. Chappell Diary, 1877-1878, lists dates on which he had homosexual relations with an unidentified roommate. Chappell, of Montandon of Northumberland Co., Pa., roomed and boarded in Williamsport, Pa., 1877 to 1879.
Glenway Wescott Letter to Jon Carroll and Photograph, 1924-1964, consists of a letter and a photograph of Wescott and Charles R. Jackson with a lake in the background, circa 1924; also, letter to Jon Carroll, 30 July 1964, with advice for an aspiring young writer. Glenway Wescott, born in Wisconsin, part of the Paris literary circle of the 1920s was an openly homosexual man, who later conducted research for Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey's Institute of Sex Research.
Glenn Carrington Letters Received, 1927-1973, consists of 76 items, primarily personal letters from fellow bibliophile Harold Jackman and lifelong friend Ophelia Settle Egypt, with a few from prisoners. Calvin Glenn Carrington was a notable gay African-American book collector during the Harlem Renaissance.
C. Glenn Carrington Collection of African American Artists Exhibit Announcements, 1927-1982, describes exhibits in Europe and the United States, and suggests the intersection of race and sexual identity.
Saving Grace and Delpha who Resides with Miss Henderson, by Sallie McCorkle and Robin Becker, 2000, consists of a description and slides of a multi-media installations honoring the lifelong, intimate relationship between Delpha Weisendanger and Grace Henderson, Penn State’s first female dean. Biographical information for Weisendanger and Henderson is available in their respective Biographical Vertical Files.
May Sarton Letters and Poems, 1939-1982, consists of eight letters and thirty-six poems to Valeria Knapp, 1939-1940; 14 printed poems, sent as holiday cards, 1943-1962, signed by May Sarton to Valeria Knapp; and a biographical sketch of Valeria Knapp, by her brother Edgar H. Knapp.
Margaret C. Anderson Correspondence with Ben and Rose Caylor Hecht, 1959, includes Rose Caylor Hecht's critiques of the lesbianism in Anderson's manuscript. The collection also includes a two-page typed manuscript possibly an early draft for her autobiographical novel, The Strange Necessity (1969).
New Left Pamphlet Collection, 1893-1973 and undated, contains the following titles of pamphlets and small publications. Many of the items were published by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual or the Society for Individual Rights, both in San Francisco; other materials are from other U.S. cities.
Brief of Injustices, undated
CRH (Council on Religion and the Homosexual): 1964/1968, 1968
Gay Liberation Front "Flames", undated
Homosexuality: A Contemporary View of the Biblical Perspective, 1966
Gay Manifesto, undated
Churchmen Speak Out on Homosexual Law Reform, 1967
Draft and the Homosexual, 1971
Homosexuality is Not A Disease, undated
Homosexual Problem...Theirs or Ours?, 1970
Church and the Homosexual, 1967
Detroit Gay Liberator, 1971
Homosexuals & Employment, 1970
Homosexuality and the Sickness Theory, 1969
Challenge And Progress of Homosexual Law Reform, 1968
Armed Services & Homosexuality, undated
Research Through a Glass, Darkly, 1966
Statements by Churches and Church Committees on Homosexuality, 1971
Vector, 1972
Who is a Homosexual?, 1965
S.I.R. Pocket Lawyer, 1971
My Soul Vanished From Sight-A California Saga of Gay Liberation, undated
Vector Index, 1971
Task Force On Homosexuality, 1969
Study of 388 North American Homosexual Males, 1969.
Underground Publications Collections, consists of 58 titles and/or issues of student and underground newspapers promoting social change, including one undated issue of Gay Power.
University Archives Collection of Oversize Materials, contain posters related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues such as hate crimes, pride week, and other organizations, dating from 1966-2009.
University Archives Photographic Vertical Files include photographs from an Archives exhibit on Gay, Lesbian and Bi-Sexual Issues, 2001. It includes a digital copy of newspaper clippings about major LGBTA issues at Penn State such as the official standing of the HOPS, discrimination cases brought against Penn State by Joseph Anconfora and Tony Carozza.
Vice Graphics Collection, in the Alice Marshall Collection at Penn State Harrisburg, includes six French illustrations of prostitutes and lesbians of the late 1800s, for which digital copies will be supplied upon request.
WPSX-TV, WPSU-FM, and Penn State Public Broadcasting Records, include a file about the history of the lesbian radio program, Purple Rabbit, 1992-1998, as well as an audiocassette recording of the show.
Homophiles of Penn State Records, 1965-1975, contains one cubic foot of newsletters, magazines, and pamphlets dealing with the events surrounding this student club's endeavor to achieve official club status at Penn State University, as well as gay newsletters and books (1965-1968). Homophiles of Penn State (HOPS) was formed in 1971 as a resource for homosexual students and dwindled during the 1970s. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Coalition collection holds additional records of the Homophiles of Penn State. Most of these materials are available digitally upon request.
Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual General Vertical File of the University Archives, Students/Organizations, includes newspaper clippings, flyers, pamphlets, and news releases concerning Penn State events and organizations.
Pennsylvania State University, Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Equity Records, 1990-2001, measures 2.1 cubic feet and includes its foundational documents, annual reports , meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, and program information. In addition, it contains historical materials about the history of LGBT life and organizations at Penn State, such as coalitions for lesbian and gay students and faculty. The Commission was formed in 1991 at Penn State as an advisory group to the Vice Provost for Educational Equity charged with improving campus climate and enhancing diversity.
The Lambda Student Alliance Records, 1987-1998, contain 4 cubic feet of flyers, memorabilia, t-shirts, and informational materials on events such as Pride Week. Beginning in the mid 1980s, the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Student Alliance, renamed the Lambda Student Alliance in 1998, served to unite supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community. In 2003, it merged with Allies and was superseded by Speak Out in 2003.
Pennsylvania State University, Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity Records, 1960-2010, measure 65 cubic feet, and include records of the president's Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equity. Materials include college and campus diversity plans, funding proposals and reports, commission minutes and files.
Strategic Study Group on the Status of Women Records, includes two subject files: Special Populations: Lesbian and Sexual Minorities, undated; and Gay and Lesbian Issues, 1988-1989.
Graduate Student Association Records, contains a file for the Coalition of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Graduate Students, dated 1992-1999.
Lambda Alumni Interest Group of the Penn State Alumni Association Records, 1971-2003, consists of one cubic foot of records pertaining to the creation, activities, and interests of the Lambda Alumni Interest Group, 1987-1998, consists of 4 cubic feet of photographs, correspondence, subject files, and memorabilia on events such as Pride Week. The Lambda Student Alliance served to unite allies: friends, family members, and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community.
Vice President of Student Affairs, Office of Student Life Records contains annual reports of the Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity, 1998-2001; a proposal for a center for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Students, 1996; and lesbian/gay issues files for 1995-2000.
Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force Records [photocopies], 1978-2008, consists of 2 cubic feet which were selected to document the history of this civil and human rights advocacy organization with a particular focus on the civil and human rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Materials include reports, articles, correspondence, speeches, programs, conference materials, press releases and clippings, artifacts, and 5 audio tapes and 2 video recordings.
American Sociological Association Records, contains materials from its Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology from 1981-1997. It also includes syllabi for teaching this topic in this time period. There are membership addresses for the Gay Caucus in 1980, as well as significant correspondence between the Gay Caucus and the ASA Executive Director. Other correspondence files document a protracted attempt to survey the position of gays and lesbians in the sociology profession. Subject files include reports on the status of LGBT-identified individuals within the professions of psychology and political science. Additional newsletters for the Gay Caucus within the ASA (1975-1981) can be found in the papers of feminist sociologist Jessie Bernard.
