Check out Philadelphia Dance Projects’ dance history timeline representing the work of independent dancers in Philadelphia, circa 1975-94. Their Local Dance History Project presents photos, videos, comments, and more documenting the development of contemporary dance in Philadelphia–a history largely unpreserved at present. Beginning with the work of 11 dance and performance artists: Terry Beck, Michael Biello & Dan Martin, Jac Carley, Jano Cohen, Terry Fox, Tonio Guerra, Wendy Hammarstrom, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Steve Krieckhaus, and Melanie Stewart, the project looks to create a digital collection reflecting their work. These artists were among the first to explore post-modern, improvisation, and performance genres in the city during the late 1970s and early 80s.
The digital collection of this largely undocumented history is being preserved and shared through a partnership of Philadelphia Dance Projects and the Special Collections Research Center at Temple University Libraries. A work in progress, the timeline will grow as additional resources are available and as additional artists add their content.
“No, I am not crazy for writing you twice in one day, just head over heels in love with you!” Thus, the ever romantic, Master Sergeant Jesse Lare began his letter to Mildred Patterson of Fishtown, Philadelphia, on September 27, 1944. Jesse and Mildred had not known each other for very long. They met at a mutual friend’s house several months earlier, and their correspondence had begun in June, when Jesse first wrote to Mildred. They maintained a correspondence that lasted almost two years and led to their marriage.
Jesse, who was also from Philadelphia, was stationed in Memphis at Second Army Headquarters, and later, at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. He was serving in the Second Army, a training outfit that readied troops for combat and other army jobs. Mildred lived in Philadelphia, and worked at the Kensington National Bank. From the start, they were dedicated pen pals, and they wrote with increased frequency as time went on. Through their letter writing, Mildred and Jesse shared in each other’s lives, including their relationship, their work, their friends and families, and their leisure. In his free time, Jesse liked to bowl, play golf, and go to the movies. Mildred liked to go to Wildwood and other towns along the Jersey Shore, and she frequently turned to the Ouija board for her fortune. They told each other about the daily goings on of life, from progress in the war to activities in Philadelphia and at the army base, the weather, and their feelings. It is clear they were well-suited friends, and the romance that quickly developed was a natural next step.
Mildred accepts Jesse’s proposal, January 13, 1945
Having met in person only a few times, they married in January 1945. As a married couple, they maintained a candid correspondence in which they regularly discussed the ups and downs of their relationship and future together.
The Jesse and Mildred Lare Correspondence, 1944-1945, was donated to the Special Collections Research Center by Jesse and Mildred Lare’s daughter, in early 2015. This great World War II era collection has been processed and is available for research use! To learn more, check out the online finding aid. – Courtney Smerz, Collection Management Archivist, SCRC
Scholars have long been interested in the cultural and socioeconomic conditions that led Jews to success in the early film industry. Jewish immigrants, and particularly those from Eastern Europe, were adept at developing film technology and skilled at writing, directing, and marketing movies. Even the moguls who created Hollywood’s studio system–William Fox, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, and Adolph Zukor, among others–were Jewish immigrants who rose from unprepossessing circumstances to become some of the most powerful men in the country. In books, articles, and documentaries, historians and film buffs have attempted to explain this unique aspect of film history.
What’s been less well-studied, however, is the relationship between Hollywood and Philadelphia’s own rich Jewish history. And I must admit that I’ve never given it much thought either, despite being a Philadelphia Jewish Archives collections project archivist in the Special Collections Research Center and classic film enthusiast. That changed, however, after I discovered an intriguing letter in the Robert B. Wolf and Morris Wolf Papers.
Robert and his father, Morris, were prominent members of the Philadelphia Jewish community. Morris served with the American Red Cross during World War I and was stationed in Paris. It was among his letters from France that I came across a curious passage:
Letter to Edwin Wolf, December 1918.
Dated December 26, 1918, the letter is addressed to Morris’ father, Edwin. “Dear Father:” Morris wrote, “I made my first visit to a moving picture house last evening….There was a picture of Gaby Deslys’s, which I thought was very good. It seems to me that Goldwyn would make a tremendous hit by trying to get say five pictures a year with this star for the United States.” He later reminded, “I suggest that you speak to Goldwyn about it.”
Call me crazy, but was Morris Wolf referring to THE Sam Goldwyn? The famous producer of dozens of classic American films? If he was, then what was the connection between the Wolf family and the Hollywood film industry?
A search of the collection produced more hints, but frustratingly few answers. I found an employment contract for First National Pictures, a film company that merged with Warner Bros. in 1928. The collection also includes a 1959 Philadelphia Inquirer article that mentions that the family starred in and produced Westerns at a Montgomery County motion picture studio (Betzwood, anyone?)
Hoping to find more information, I turned to secondary sources. To my surprise, I found that little has been written about Philadelphia Jews and their role in the national film industry. To be sure, Siegmund Lubin’s career has been well documented, but there are significant gaps in the literature on this subject.
So, if anyone out there decides to tackle this topic, Morris Wolf and I will be eagerly awaiting your findings. Until then, feel free to use the Robert B. Wolf and Morris Wolf Papers and take a stab at unravelling the mystery yourself….
Page from a notebook kept by Walter Massey Phillips recording tugboats seen on the Delaware River, 1920s. Walter Massey Phillips Papers, SCRC 136, Special Collections Research Center.
Walter M. Phillips, Sr. (1912-1985) was active in Philadelphia civic affairs for more than thirty years, particularly during the period of the 1940s-1960s, which was known as the “Philadelphia Renaissance.” During this time, political organizers worked for reform of what was seen as an immensely corrupt city government. While Phillips was an enormous political presence behind the scenes, he never held a political office, and by all accounts his reticent personality kept his significant role in the Philadelphia reform movement from wider renown. However, noted architect and city planner Edmund Bacon once called Phillips “the greatest single figure in the renaissance.”
A graduate of Episcopal Academy, Princeton, and Harvard Law School, Phillips was a chief organizer of the City Policy Committee, President of the Citizens’ Council on City Planning, Board Member of the Greater Philadelphia Movement, President of the Philadelphia Housing Association, Executive Secretary with the Delaware River Basin Advisory Committee, Trustee of Lincoln University, Director of the Honey Hollow Watershed Association, and Board Member of the Committee of Seventy. He managed Joseph Clark’s successful race for Mayor of Philadelphia in 1951, served in Clark’s cabinet as City Representative and Director of Commerce through 1955, and was the (unsuccessful) reform candidate against Mayor James Tate in the 1963 Democratic primary election.
Walter Massey Phillips during the 1963 mayoral race, May 1963. Walter Massey Phillips Papers, SCRC 136, Special Collections Research Center
After retiring, Phillips initiated an oral history project, and, between 1974 and 1980, interviewed approximately 160 of the local civic and government leaders with whom he had worked. The interviews generally discuss Philadelphia city government and history between the late 1930s and the 1970s.
The Special Collections Research Center holds Phillips’ personal papers as well as cassette tapes, transcripts (many of which are now available online), and background information from his oral history project. His papers document his life, career, and the nature of civic decision making at the policy level in mid-twentieth century Philadelphia. In addition to records from and related to the many Philadelphia organizations and networks in which Phillips was involved, there are also personal items, such as family photos and a diary of Phillips’ 1936 trip to the Yukon.
–Katy Rawdon, Coordinator of Technical Services, SCRC
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at Temple University Libraries is pleased to announce that the Franklin H. Littell collection is open and available for research.
View the finding aid on the Libraries’ website, along with portions of the papers which have been digitized. Dr. Littell’s extensive library is cataloged and is available for use along with the papers in the SCRC reading room on the Ground Floor of Paley Library.
Franklin Littell (1917-2009), emeritus professor of religion at Temple University, led a distinguished career that spanned more than seventy years. He was a pacifist and activist, proponent of the Christian Laity and an advocate for new religious movements, an historian, political commentator and supporter of the State of Israel. He devoted ten years to work with the Protestant Churches and Laity in US-occupied Germany and more than fifty years to the study and remembrance of the Holocaust and German Church Struggle. He career is marked by strong beliefs in interfaith understanding and religious liberty.
The Littell and Sachs families donated Dr. Littell’s papers and library to Temple in 2010, where they were the focus of a three-year cataloging and processing project. Processing of the collection was funded through a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc., and generous support from Norman Braman.
The Leo L. Honor Papers, a recently processed collection now open for research, is one of a few collections in the SCRC that document the growth of Jewish education in Philadelphia in the twentieth century. Dr. Leo Lazarus Honor was an educator who for much of his career taught Jewish teachers how to teach, and, in the process, mentored a generation of Jewish educators. Dr. Honor was an advocate for religious education and believed that an engaging curriculum of Jewish studies would encourage young people to identify with their heritage from an early age. Honor was well known for emphasizing religious education based on unity, rather than uniformity. His dedication to the Jewish teaching profession and his inclusive approach to religious education made Honor a leading and well-respected Jewish educator.
For more information about the Leo L. Honor Papers, view the online finding aid
-Jenna Marrone Olszak, Project Archivist and Jessica M. Lydon, Associate Archivist, Special Collections Research Center
Rabbi Pinchos J. Chazin (1914-2006) was a well-known and much admired spiritual leader in Philadelphia’s Jewish community. For forty-three years, he inspired and engaged the congregation of Temple Sholom with sermons and weekly lectures that connected scripture with contemporary culture in a way that was both meaningful and motivational. Rabbi Chazin’s sermons were invariably positive, encouraging congregants to explore their spirituality and delve deeper into Jewish tradition. He also displayed compassion for the foibles of human nature, an ability that impressed many people who heard Rabbi Chazin speak.
“Your work as the spiritual guide of Temple Sholom must be a taxing one,” wrote one correspondent in 1950, “but one can’t help feeling your sincerity of purpose….It did a lot to create and instill the desire to delve deeper into the beauties of Judaism, and what it stands for.” In 1970, another correspondent noted, “You are unquestionably the finest rabbi in terms of learning and expression and humanity that I have ever known, and one of the finest human beings I have ever known, as well.” And in 1979, a congregant succinctly wrote, “For the many years that you have acted as Rabbi in Temple Sholom you have opened the doors to ourselves and our children to the true meaning of Judaism and warm friendship.”
Chazin’s personal papers including his weekly sermons, book review lectures, eulogies, cantatas and related materials are now open for research in the Special Collections Research Center. To learn more about this collection, review the online finding aid http://library.temple.edu/scrc/pinchos-j-chazin-papers
The dynamic Morris and Robert B. Wolf were a father and son known for their dedication to the law and human services. In 1903, Morris Wolf co-founded Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, a law firm well-known for hiring Jewish lawyers in spite of city-wide discrimination. Robert, a partner in his father’s firm, was likewise committed to creating positive change in Philadelphia, particularly in the field of juvenile justice.
Their papers are now open and available for research in the Special Collections Research Center. Although this collection includes Morris’ personal papers, much of it is a testament to Robert’s juvenile justice advocacy efforts. From the 1970s to the 1990, he served as Director and Vice President of the Citizens Crime Commission of Philadelphia and as chairman of Philadelphia’s Youth Services Coordinating Commission, and was appointed to the Juvenile Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Robert helped draft criminal justice legislation and served on a number of Pennsylvania state juvenile justice committees and task forces. Most notably, perhaps, Wolf was appointed as a master by the United States District Court to oversee the city’s Youth Study Center following allegations of abuse and overcrowding.
Robert B. Wolf (far left) at a meeting to establish the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), circa 1970s
In addition to juvenile justice, Robert Wolf’s interests also included local government reform and mid-century urban housing issues. In the early 1950s, he was a draftsman on the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, and served as the chairman of the city’s Coordinated Housing Improvement Program (CHIP). He also taught urban studies courses at Haverford College and Temple University.
The Pennsylvania Ballet’s 50th anniversary season opens in October, and they are using their archives, housed in the Temple Libraries Special Collections Research Center, to highlight their history. A few years ago, SCRC used Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Collections project grant money to prepare the first 40 years of the ballet’s records for research use. Totaling 91 linear feet (think eleven 4-drawer filing cabinets), the collection includes clippings, correspondence, financial records, photographs, posters, playbills, souvenir programs, and other materials documenting the ballet’s history as a vibrant presence in Philadelphia’s cultural life. For more information about the archival materials and the history of the company, see http://library.temple.edu/collections/scrc/pennsylvania-ballet-records-0
Taking advantage of digitization of images and poster in the collection for the anniversary celebration, we have been building digital content for our Philadelphia Dance collections. Digitized materials will soon appear on the Libraries website as well.
To join in the Ballet’s anniversary celebration, please visit www.paballet.org
Scott Ellencrig, four years old, demonstrates traditional blowing of the ram’s horn, September 21, 1960 Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Photograph Collection
The ritual blasts of the shofar marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year on Rosh Hashanah, a time of personal reflection and examination of the events of the previous year. A shofar is an instrument made from the naturally hollow horn of a ram or other kosher animal such as an antelope, gazelle, or goat. These horns are not solid bone, but contain cartilage which can be removed. The ram’s horn is traditionally used because it acts as a reminder of the Binding of Isaac in the Book of Genesis in which Abraham sacrifices a ram in place of his son. The shofar is sounded up to 100 times during synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah. The ten days of Rosh Hashanah culminate in the celebration of Yom Kippur, a day of fasting, prayer, and repentance. To mark the end of the fast on Yom Kippur, the shofar is sounded once more. The sounding of the shofar is not limited to Jewish religious services. Secular, humanist observance of the Jewish High Holidays often time includes the blowing of the shofar to signify bringing the community together and a reaffirmation of Jewish cultural values.
Sholom Aleichem Club News & Comment, September 1988 Sholom Aleichem Club Records
The First Jewish Catalog, a do-it yourself guide to Jewish life first published by the Jewish Publication Society in 1973, offers step-by-step instructions for making your own shofar: Step 1: Boil the shofar in water for 2-5 hours. The cartilage can be pulled out with the aid of a pick. If the horn is small, this should only take half an hour. Step 2: After the horn is completely dry, measure the length of the hollow of the shofar, cutting 1 inch further with a coping saw or hacksaw Step 3: Drill a 1/8” hole with an electric drill from the sawed-off end until it reaches the hollow of the horn. Step 4: With an electric modeling tool, carve a bell shaped mouthpiece similar to that of a standard trumpet. The modeling tool may also be used to carve designs on the outer edge or the body of the shofar.
Illustration by Stu Copans in The First Jewish Catalog: a Do-It-Yourself Kit Jewish Publication Society Records
