Trout Library Blog

We’re excited to announce that Harcum College’s alumni magazine collection has been fully digitized and is now available online through our digital archive — free and accessible 24/7.

Spanning over 70 years, this collection traces the evolution of our alumni publications: from The Alumnae Bulletin (1950–1959), to The Harcum Junior College Bulletin (1969–1974), and Patches (1974–2024). Each issue captures a vivid snapshot of life at Harcum— stories of students, faculty, alumni, and the many milestones that have shaped our community.

Whether you’re an alum seeking a familiar name or a researcher exploring the College’s legacy, this digitized collection offers a powerful lens into Harcum’s past. While a few gaps in the collection remain, it's unclear whether these resulted from paused publication or lost issues.

We invite you to explore this resource and reconnect with decades of shared history. Visit our digital archive to browse the full collection.
 

Eagle-eyed observers around campus may have noticed recent construction activity at the Bryn Mawr Substation. This work, undertaken by Amtrak, is more than just a facelift; it's part of a significant three-year project to upgrade the train line stretching from the Philadelphia Zoo to Paoli. Interestingly, this isn't the first major transformation for the Bryn Mawr Substation, a structure which has been a backdrop to our community, intertwined with the story of Harcum College.

Built in 1915, the same year Harcum College first opened its doors in Melville Hall, the Bryn Mawr Substation stands as a silent witness to the college's growth. Constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of the electrification of their line, the substation's early construction would have coincided with Harcum's initial upgrades to Melville Hall, marking the beginning of a shared history within the Bryn Mawr landscape.

While the Bryn Mawr Substation has become an unassuming part of the local scenery, the Harcum College Archive Collection offers glimpses into its past. The few photographs featuring the substation often capture it in the background.

The earliest visual record of the substation in the Harcum College Archive appears in a photograph of Bedford Hall. Although undated, we know this image cannot predate 1947, the year Harcum acquired the building. Even in the background of this image, the Bryn Mawr Substation is visible, its structure remarkably similar to its present-day form, offering a tangible link between the college's mid-20th century and today.
 

Decades later, in 1974, the Bryn Mawr Substation made another appearance in Harcum's history, captured in two photographs within The Harlequin, the college yearbook. These images, documenting the dedication of Harcum's new tennis courts, feature the substation in the distance. Local sportscaster Joe Pellegrino joined students for a game, watched by two hundred members of the Harcum community. The steadfast presence of the substation in the backdrop underscores its enduring place within the college's physical environment.

Though the familiar presence of the Bryn Mawr Substation will be missed, its legacy remains embedded in the visual and historical fabric of the campus. The arrival of the new substation signals progress, a continuation of the ever-evolving relationship between the college and the infrastructure surrounding it. Just as Harcum has grown and changed over the years, so too will this space, shaping the future while carrying echoes of the past.

Recently, I was asked for records from our archive relating to Elizabeth "Libbie" Hall Wilis. What we found was a new piece of Harcum College history I think is worth documenting.

Willis was the Head of the Academic Department and Prinicpal from approximately 1921 to 1929 and later an advisor to Edith Harcum until approximately 1934. Elizabeth Hall Willis, who went by Libbie, obtained a degree in painting from Syracuse University. Before coming to the Harcum School, she had a career as an art teacher at the University of Arkansas and at Chatham Hall. It was while teaching art at Chatham Hall she met a student, Georgia O'Keefe. You can read about this encounter and the on-going professional relationship between Willis and O'Keefe in Linda Grasso's book Equal under the Sky: Georgia O'Keefe & Twentieth Century Feminism. 

Willis came to the Harcum School to lead the academics and college preparation program. Her title in 1921 was “Head of the Academic Department” but it was later changed to Principal. Throughout her time at Harcum, she was mentioned in the yearbook, Purple Patches, especially in association with her work with college preparation studies. In the "Class Will" in 1922 the students express fond appreciation and love for her. The 1923 yearbook was dedicated to Mrs. Willis. This is quite a show of support by the student body. Her portrait finally appears in the 1929 yearbook. She left Harcum School after 1929, although she was mentioned as an advisor in the 1934 academic calendar, perhaps she stayed in touch to advise Edith Harcum.  

The biggest surprise of all is that we found her on video. In those years, Edith Harcum’s son Bill Harcum was given a silent film camera and he took silent moving images around the school. The films were digitized and Bill Harcum gave commentary on the films. You can see Elizabeth Willis briefly at 0:12 seconds, right at the beginning of the film. Bill Harcum mentions Mrs. Willis by name and calls her the head mistress. 

Libbie Hall Willis had a interesting life as an artist and academic before and after her time at Harcum College. Harcum is fortunate to be able to claim her as one of our own.  

Election Day is Tuesday, November 7. Polls are open in Pennsylvania from 7am until 8pm.

Although 2023 is not a federal election year, there are still many important judicial and municipal races on the ballot. If you live in Philadelphia, for example, you will be electing a mayor. The right to vote is sacred, and we encourage everyone to exercise it. While off-year elections do not receive the same level of attention as presidential races, the outcome of elections for local offices and judgeships also can have a significant impact on your life -- sometimes a greater impact than higher-level offices. In addition, your vote is more likely to make a difference in municipal races since the constituency is smaller and races therefore can be decided by a handful of votes. Note as well that people who occupy local elected positions sometimes will run for higher office at a later date. So there are many reasons to go to the polls and vote!

The race at the top of the Pennsylvania ballot is for a vacant seat on the seven-member state Supreme Court. Click the hyperlinks below for information about the candidates:

• Daniel McCaffery (Democrat)
• Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio (Republican)

A good site to use for election information is Vote 411 from the League of Women Voters. It provides links that will allow you to verify your voter registration and to create a sample ballot for your precinct. The most efficient way to use the site is to enter your home address (the address at which you are registered to vote) into the box where you are given the opportunity to create "Personalized Voting Information." Click the Submit button, and you will see a list of the races on the ballot in your precinct. Click on individual races to see the candidates, information about them, and links to their websites. In some cases, appearing here are answers to interview questions that the candidates have submitted. Scroll down further to find the address of your polling place along with a map to help you locate where it is.

In addition to the source mentioned above, you can also find your polling location on the site of the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Ballotpedia, an online encyclopedia of American politics, is another good source for finding candidate information. The site also allows you to generate a sample ballot for your precinct by entering your home address.

Students living on campus may register to vote either at their campus address or their home address. For students who are registered at their campus address, type Harcum's address (750 Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA, 19010) into either Vote 411 or Ballotpedia to see the races on the ballot in Harcum's precinct. The polling place for Harcum's precinct is:

First Presbyterian Church of Ardmore
5 West Montgomery Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003

To keep up with the latest news related to the election, remember to consult the extensive number of sources that I have included in my News, Politics, & Current Events library guide. 

EBSCOhost has just released a browser extension that makes it easier than ever to connect to full-text materials.  EBSCOhost Passport browser extension shows you when the material is available in full text when you are searching on virtually any web page where DOIs are present. This means when you are searching on PubMed or Google Scholar, you'll see an icon that will allow you to click through to the full text if it is available via the Charles H. Trout Library. 

The browser extension is currently only available for Chrome but more browser extensions are coming soon. To install the browser extension, visit the Chrome web store listing. Click Add to Chrome. Search for Harcum College when prompted to select your institution. If prompted for a password, see our one-minute video on how to access passwords.  

Once the extension is installed, just search PubMed, Google Scholar, or the web as you normally would. When an article is available in our EBSCOhost databases, you'll see an icon alerting you that the material is available. Simply click on the icon and the full text will open in a new tab. 

When searching in PubMed and Google Scholar there will be an additional more results icon near the search box that will show additional results available in EBSCOhost 

To learn more about EBSCOhost Passport and how to install it, click here.

Happy searching! If you need assistance with your research, please reach out to us!

With Earth Day coming up on April 22, I invite you to peruse my Climate Change, Energy & Sustainability library guide and also have a look at our book display on the slatwall just inside the Library entrance. A link to the guide can be found by Clicking on Research Guides on the Library's homepage and then clicking on the Special Topics tab.

The guide contains tabs for relevant websites, databases, videos and podcasts, books, articles, reports, and more. The website tab is broken down into the following categories: Climate Change Research & Data, Climate Change News, Weather, and Sustainability & Renewable Energy. Among the many interesting and informative websites that you will find are: Climate Central, which provides research and reporting by leading scientists and journalists about climate change and its impact on the public; Skeptical Science, which explains climate change science and rebuts misinformation; World Weather Attribution, which details studies that examine the extent to which climate change is responsible for individual weather events; and a link to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Below are some highlights from the book display. All books on the display are available to be checked out:

As April is National Autism Awareness Month, I would like to detail some of the resources that Trout Library has to offer on the topic. I have created an Autism library guide, the link to which can be found by clicking on Research Guides on the Library's homepage and then selecting Special Topics. The guide contains a tab that lists autism related websites, such as the Autism Society and Autism Speaks as well as information about the condition from organizations such as the CDC and the WHO. A video tab will lead you to Kanopy films, Ted Talks, and a number of useful YouTube videos. Other tabs in the guide provide you with articles on the topic, print books in our collection, eBooks from EBSCO eBooks Academic Collection, open access books, and podcasts.

I have also put together a book display, which is located on the slatwall just inside the Library entrance. The following are some books on the display, which are available to be checked out: