Through the Eyes of P. W. Costello: Early Scranton Theatre

P. W. Costello and Family Art CollectionNote: This article is the first in a series highlighting the P. W. Costello and Family Art Collection, an online repository for digitized images of original and published artwork by master penman P. W. Costello (1866-1935) and his descendants. This digital Collection was recently donated to the Weinberg Memorial Library by Thomas W. Costello, great-grandson of the artist, and is available to the public online at www.scranton.edu/library/costello.

Scranton, Pennsylvania was at one time a thriving center for live performance – particularly theatre – and was a frequent stop for plays, musicals and vaudeville acts on their way to New York City.  A number of beautiful and often lavish theatres were built throughout the city and housed historic performances by many popular and up-and-coming talents of the day.  Some of these people and events were captured artistically in drawings by P. W. Costello (1866-1935), a talented and highly skilled master penman from the Minooka section of Scranton (shown at left in 1906). Digitized images of these theatre-related drawings are a highlight of the P. W. Costello and Family Art Collection, recently acquired by Weinberg Memorial Library through the generosity of Thomas W. Costello, great-grandson of the artist.

In the late 1890s, P. W. Costello was gaining a reputation for the high-quality engrossings, portraits, and ornamental penmanship he produced from his downtown studio. At the same time, he was a local restauranteur, serving as joint proprietor (with James Fleming) of the Arbor Café on Wyoming Avenue.  Costello used the Café walls as a gallery, displaying his sketches of local and national figures that lined the walls of this restaurant. A number of these drawings depicted actors and actresses who had performed close to the restaurant at such theatres and venues as the Lyceum, the Poli, the Majestic, and the Academy of Music.  Performers captured by Costello who made Scranton appearances included Maude Adams (well-known for her lead role in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, pictured in Costello’s drawing at right), Junius Brutus Booth (father of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth), Maclyn Arbuckle (who, although originally a stage actor, went on to start his own silent film company), Alice Brady (actress and daughter of New York producer William A. Brady) and Robert Edeson (veteran stage and silent film actor who appeared in at least four Scranton stage productions).  Most of these drawings are black and white pen and ink, although there are a few where Costello employed gray or colored shading.

Costello usually based his drawings on photographs, engravings, cabinet cards, or other promotional materials, and these were often paired with an autographed card or letter, which he purchased from a dealer or obtained from another source.  A few autographs are originals, likely acquired by the artist firsthand.  Each drawing manages to expertly convey the unique personality of the particular performer or the character they are portraying.  Costello later went on to create a similar display in the 1920s as co-owner of another Scranton restaurant which featured his work, this time on Adams Avenue, the Oak Café.

In addition to drawing portraits of actors and actresses, Costello also lettered and illustrated theatre advertisements.  One delightful example (shown at left) in the Costello Collection advertises a week-long 1904 production of Cupid and Company, a musical with a book by Scranton newspaperman Tracy Sweet and music by prolific Broadway composer A. Baldwin Sloane.  In addition to Costello’s skillful lettering, the intricate design features Cupid, a jester, a marotte, and other comic elements from the musical, as well as ribbons and acanthus leaves.

One of the interesting and important elements to note about these works by Costello is how they manage to preserve a portion of Scranton’s cultural history that – with few exceptions – has been largely undocumented.  Many of the actors and actresses captured in his drawings (as well as the splendid buildings in which they performed), while well-known in their own time, have largely been forgotten today.  And yet, all these individuals contributed much to Scranton’s arts scene during the late 1800s and early 1900s, and Scranton in turn likely made a significant impact on their careers.  The fact that many of these performers – such as May Irwin (Canadian vaudeville singer and actress), Elsie Janis (American musical comedy soprano) and Ada Rehan (Irish Shakespearean actress) – returned repeatedly to play Scranton, seems to indicate what an important stop the city was on both the national and international touring circuit.

The Weinberg Memorial Library is fortunate to present these digitized images – as well as many other digital reproductions of Costello’s artwork – in our digital collections, and we are pleased to share with the public a rare glimpse of Scranton’s early theatrical history through the eyes of a remarkable artist who lived through it – P. W. Costello.

For more information about the history of theatre in Scranton, check out Nancy McDonald’s book If You Can Play Scranton: A Theatrical History, 1871-2010 – available here at the Weinberg Memorial Library and at several other Pennsylvania libraries.

David Hunisch, Digital Services Assistant
Kristen Yarmey, Digital Services Librarian

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!

ICS Exhibit Reception

ICS Exhibit_Reception Flyer_2015-10

On Tuesday, November 3 at 6pm the Weinberg Memorial Library will host a reception for “We Teach Wherever the Mails Reach,” an exhibit celebrating the 125th anniversary of the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton (ICS). This event is free and open to the public.

Professor William Conlogue of Marywood University, and author of Here and There: Reading Pennsylvania’s Working Landscapes and Working in the Garden: American Writers and the Industrialization of Agriculture, will talk about the history of ICS at the reception for the exhibit in the fifth floor Heritage Room of the Weinberg Memorial Library.

Founded in 1890, ICS originally grew out of a question and answer column written by Thomas J. Foster, publisher of Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner. Foster’s column helped mine workers, many being recent immigrants with limited English, to pass required mine safety exams. The column proved so successful that Foster created a correspondence course on coal mining.

Over the years ICS expanded into a variety of technical fields as well as providing basic courses in English. The company has been a leader in career-focused distance and blended learning for over 125 years. More than 13 million people have enrolled in their programs to further their education and learn advanced skills to better position them for life success.

ICS has changed names a number of times since 1996. The ICS location is currently operated by Penn Foster Career School, which is a regionally and nationally accredited post-secondary distance education school and considers ICS to be its predecessor.

In 2002, the Weinberg Library was given a collection of ICS materials by the company. These materials, primarily from the ICS marketing department, are the focus of this exhibit celebrating the history of the company.

The exhibit will be on display in the Weinberg Library’s fifth floor Heritage Room through Friday, December 11, 2015. For more information, please contact Special Collections Librarian Michael KniesMichael.Knies@Scranton.edu (570) 941-6341.

Library Exhibit: 125th Anniversary of the International Correspondence Schools (ICS)

125th Anniversary of ICS

The International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania grew out of a question and answer column written by Thomas J. Foster, publisher of Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner. In 1885, Pennsylvania passed a Mine Safety Act, which required miners and inspectors to pass examinations on mine safety. Foster’s column helped mine workers, many being recent immigrants with limited English, to pass the exams. The column proved so successful that Foster created a correspondence course on coal mining. In 1890, Foster, who had relocated his publishing venture from Shenandoah to Scranton’s Coal Exchange Building, incorporated the “The Colliery Engineer Company,” creating the foundation for a formal school. In 1891, Foster and mining engineer Alexander Dick founded the “The Colliery Engineer School of Mines.” Until the International Textbook Company incorporated the school in late 1894, the names Colliery Engineer School of Mines, School of Mines, Correspondence Schools, and the International Correspondence School were used interchangeably. By early 1895, the school was officially known as the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania or ICS for short.

The first class enrolled 500 miners but within eight years, more than 190,000 students had enrolled in a variety of courses. Besides the initial classes related to mining, ICS expanded into a variety of technical fields as well as providing basic courses in English. By the first decade of the twentieth century, over 100,000 new students per year were enrolling in ICS courses; by 1910, a million cumulative enrollments had been achieved; and, by 1930, four million. By World War II, ICS’s reputation was such that it was given the War Department contract to develop the department’s training manuals. In 1916, ICS created The Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences in what is now the Scranton Preparatory School building. ICS was located on Wyoming Ave until 1958 when they relocated to Oak Avenue.

ICS Buildings
ICS Locations: Above- General Offices, Below- Women’s Institute (Now Scranton Prep)

ICS continued to thrive after the war but by the 1990s greater educational offerings had reduced the role of correspondence schools. ICS has changed names a number of times since 1996. The ICS location is currently operated by Penn Foster Career School, which is a regionally and nationally accredited post-secondary distance education school and considers ICS to be its predecessor.

In 2002, The University of Scranton Weinberg Library was given a collection of ICS materials by the company. These materials, primarily from the ICS marketing department, will be the focus of an exhibit celebrating the history of the company. On Tuesday, November 3 at 6:00 PM Professor William Conlogue of Marywood University, and author of Here and There: Reading Pennsylvania’s Working Landscapes and Working in the Garden: American Writers and the Industrialization of Agriculture, will talk about the history of ICS at a reception for the exhibit in the Heritage Room of Weinberg Memorial Library.

This exhibit will be on display in the Weinberg Library’s fifth floor Heritage Room through Friday, December 11, 2015. For more information, please contact Special Collections Librarian Michael Knies Michael.Knies@Scranton.edu (570) 941-6341.

 

Happy Birthday, Scranton: Kickoff to the 150th Anniversary Celebration

Scranton150Tomorrow morning at 9:15 am, the City of Scranton will kick off its year-long Sesquicentennial Anniversary Celebration. Scranton was incorporated as a city on April 23, 1866, so next spring (April 23, 2016) will be the city’s 150th birthday.

While the University of Scranton itself wasn’t around back at the very beginning (founded in 1888, we just celebrated our 125th anniversary in 2013-2014), we’re proud of the close ‘town and gown’ relationship we’ve had with the city of Scranton throughout our shared history.

Here at the Weinberg Memorial Library, we’re looking forward to joining in the fun throughout the anniversary year. Beginning in May, each month of the City celebration will highlight a decade (or two) in the city’s history, and here on our Library blog we’ll be highlighting how the University grew alongside the city during that time.

Our University Archives and Helen Gallagher McHugh Special Collections include many rare and unique resources related to the history of the City of Scranton, its residents, and its major institutions.  For example, the Library holds the records of the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton – and in the fall, we’ll be exhibiting materials from this collection in celebration of the 125th anniversary of ICS (now known as Penn Foster), which was founded in 1891.

We’ve been working on digitizing archival and special collections materials and making them publicly available for searching and browsing in our digital collections, but there’s always more to do. We’re currently tossing around new ideas for increasing public, digital access to local history materials with some of our friends on campus (the History and Communication Departments, Royals’ Historical Society, Hope Horn Gallery, and Community Relations) and in the community (the Lackawanna Historical Society, the Everhart Museum, Scranton Public Library/Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives, and Marywood University). More to come on this as our plans develop!

At the state level, we’re collaborating with other academic and public libraries on a broad initiative to establish a Pennsylvania service hub for the Digital Public Library of America, which will make Pennsylvania history and cultural heritage more accessible and discoverable to students, teachers, genealogists, historians, scholars, and others in our communities and around the world.

So happy birthday, Scranton! Let’s get this party started.

Celebrating Our Towns: Lackawanna County Centennial Books and Community Histories

Our friends over at the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives (LVDA) have just announced a new digital collection of local history materials:

Celebrating Our Towns—Lackawanna County Centennial Books and Community Histories is a collection of books honoring Lackawanna county towns, townships, boroughs, cities and areas.  These books were published by local authors and centennial groups to celebrate their towns.  This wonderful collection was made possible by a grant from the Willary Foundation.

One of our favorites is the Historical Booklet and Guide from Scranton’s Diamond Jubilee and Centennial celebration in 1941. Nearby towns represented in the collection include Archbald, Carbondale, Clarks Summit, Dunmore, Olyphant, and Throop, among several others.

Nay Aug Park photos

We’ve just added some old photographs of the amusement park at Nay Aug Park in Scranton to our Flickr collection.  Please take a look and either help us date/describe them, or just post some of your memories of Nay Aug!

The photos were contributed by Weinberg Memorial Library Associate Director Bonnie Strohl, whose father and uncle owned the park (called Nay Aug Amuseument Company).

U of Scranton yearbooks online, from Aquinas to Windhover

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January, named after the Roman god of gates and doorways, is not only a great month to celebrate the new year, but also to remember the past. The Weinberg Memorial Library has just made it even easier to reminisce by digitizing all of the University of Scranton’s yearbooks, from the 1916 Aquinas to the 2007 Windhover.

The Weinberg Memorial Library’s Digital Services department is proud to present the University of Scranton Digital Yearbook Collection, a 74 volume set of almost 20,000 digitized pages – all available to the public. You can browse the books to get a feel for each year’s unique student culture, or search the books to find photographs of your favorite University faculty, staff, and alumni!

Questions or comments? Contact the WML Digital Services department!