Exhibit on Display: “Illustrating Scranton: The Drawings of Don Murray”

murray blog banner-1Now through December 9th, the Library’s fifth floor Heritage Room will feature an exhibit on the work of local artist Don Murray. Comprised mainly of pen and ink drawings, the works on view depict the historic architecture and landmark sites of Scranton and the surrounding northeast Pennsylvania landscape. Marked by a sophisticated ability to render architectural detail, Murray’s works demonstrate his technical skill in pen and ink that he acquired through professional training as a draftsman while serving in the Armed Forces in the 1940s. Through the G.I. Bill, Murray was later able to enroll in the Murray School of Art in Scranton where he further refined his artistic ability. Murray’s faithful reproductions of Scranton’s landmarks are considered by many to contribute to the preservation of the city’s architectural heritage.

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Don Murray, Municipal Building, pen and ink, 2006

Among the works on view is a pen and ink drawing of the Municipal Building, which has been the seat of municipal government in Scranton since the 1890s. Designed by local architect Edwin L. Walter in 1888, Scranton City Hall borrowed the Victorian Gothic style of the Lackawanna County Courthouse. In 1981, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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Don Murray, Scranton Cultural Center, watercolor and graphite on paper, undated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also on view is a watercolor painting of the neo-Gothic façade of the Scranton Cultural Center, formerly known as the Masonic Temple. Built in 1927, the Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral was designed by architect Raymond Hood, whose best-known works include the Tribune Tower in Chicago and Rockefeller Center in New York City.

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Don Murray, Electric City Building, pen and ink, 2009
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Don Murray, Albright Memorial Library, pen and ink, 2009

 

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Page from an International Correspondence School textbook. Pneumatics analytic geometry. Scranton, Pa: International Textbooks Co., 1950. Print.

 

For 17 years, Murray served as chief illustrator at the International Correspondence Schools (ICS) in Scranton where he produced technical drawings for instructional texts on a variety of subjects, including mechanical drawing. While unattributed, the mechanical drawing shown here serves as an example of the type of drawing Murray prepared for ICS course books. Later in his professional career, Murray worked on specification drawings for product manuals in the drafting department at Ingersoll Rand.

The exhibit will be on display during normal library hours in the fifth floor Heritage Room through Friday, December 9, 2016. On Tuesday, October 25th at 6pm the Weinberg Memorial Library will host a reception and exhibit talk. This event is free and open to the public.  For more information, please contact Special Collections Librarian, Michael Knies. michael.knies@scranton.edu, (570) 941-6341.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrate Scranton’s Charter Day with Coloring Pages!

This Saturday is Charter Day, Scranton’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of its incorporation as a city. There will be lots of events going on all day, but here’s another festive option for creative Scrantonians: Charter Day Coloring Pages!

These Coloring Pages were a collaborative effort between the Lackawanna Historical Society, the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives, the Leadership Lackawanna #HistoricScranton team, and the University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library (we had way too much fun working on our Local History Coloring Book back in February and couldn’t resist coming back for more!).

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The pages feature images of the city and its past. Leadership Lackawanna’s #HistoricScranton coloring pages, created as part of a current class project with the Historical Architectural Review Board, highlight historic buildings and architecture. The remaining pages hold digitized drawings from local history collections housed at LHS, the Scranton Public Library, and our own University Archives and Helen Gallagher McHugh Special Collections. (We also included a few images from books digitized by other libraries that are now in the public domain.) Each digitized image is accompanied by a citation describing the image and its source.

LHS will be printing out pages for coloring contests to be held throughout this week, but you can also download a digital copy and print out your own. Happy coloring, and happy birthday Scranton!

Many thanks to all our partners, and extra special thanks to our Weinberg Memorial Library students and staffers who helped with selecting images and making them coloring-friendly!

Color Our Collections: Local History

The library, archives, and museum world is abuzz this week with #ColorOurCollections, a weeklong cultural heritage coloring fest dreamed up by the New York Academy of Medicine and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

As coloring fans ourselves, we couldn’t help but toss our hat into the ring. We’ve already shared a University Archives coloring book this week, but today we turn our gaze outward to our beloved city of Scranton.

Local History Coloring Book

Local History Coloring Book (PDF)

All of the pages in the book were created using images from the Library’s digital collections, most of which were digitized from original drawings, photographs, and publications from our University Archives and Helen Gallagher McHugh Special Collections.

We hope you enjoy our book, and we can’t wait to see what colors you bring to our collections!