Adelphi Women Take Flight

On the morning of November 16, 1939, ten students from Adelphi College—then an all-female institution—made their way over to Roosevelt Field on Long Island to begin flight school. Among them was twenty-one-year-old Sally Elizabeth Knapp ’40 who, enamored of flying, would go on to become a licensed commercial pilot, a civilian flight instructor, and, during WWII, a trainer of pilots for the famed Women Airforce Service Pilots organization (WASP). She would also later teach instrument flying to pilots at Pan Am Airways.

Sally Knapp Oracle Yearbook
photograph, 1940

Cover of New Wings for
Women (Loening Collection)

In 1946, Sally Knapp wrote New Wings for Women, a book which told the stories of a group of pioneering women WWII aviators. She also published books for young adults and articles in aviation magazines and teenage publications such as The American Girl. Later in her career, she worked as an educator and administrator at numerous hospitals and universities around the country until her retirement in 1975.  Sally Knapp earned her B.A. in English from Adelphi in 1940, her M.A. in Hospital Administration from Columbia University in 1952,and her doctoral degree in Adult Education from Columbia University Teachers College in 1970.  She died in 2010.

The instruction which first took Sally Knapp, and her fellow Adelphi students, to Roosevelt Field was part of an experimental program, first conceived by Civil Aeronautics Authority head Robert Hinckley, to increase the number of American pilots.  On December 27, 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the establishment of the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) and in 1939 Adelphi was selected as one of four women’s colleges to participate.

Roosevelt Field, ca. 1938 (Loening Collection)

Intended to train 20,000 college students as civilian pilots, the CPTP was designed as a cooperative program run by colleges in conjunction with local flying field operators. As part of the program Adelphi provided ground school instruction (with CAA-approved teachers) in aerodynamics, meteorology, navigation, parachutes, air regulations, basic mechanics and aviation history. Roosevelt Field was designated as the cooperating flying field for Adelphi, with the flight instructors from Safair Flying School providing the elementary flying course which included 35 to 55 hours of dual instruction and controlled solo flying. Famed aviation pioneer, Ruth Nichols (1901-1960), travelled to Garden City to help inaugurate the program.

By 1942, under this very successful program, more than 75,000 college and non-college young people nationwide were given ground school and flight training.  The program was phased out by 1944.

References

“Air-Minded Boys and Girls Will Test Wings Tomorrow,” Brooklyn Eagle, November 15, 1939, 10.

Deborah G. Douglas, American Women and Flight Since 1940 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 21-22.

Sally Knapp, New Wings for Women (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1946).

Ernest K. Lindley, “Notable Progress in Hinckley’s Program for Air-Conditioning America,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 29, 1942, 12.

"F. D. to Train 20,000 Fliers In U.S. Schools: Courses Under NYA Impetus Will Start Early Next Month,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 28, 1938, 2.

Natalie A. Naylor, Women in Long Island's Past: A History of Eminent Ladies and Everyday Lives (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012), 136.

“Obituary,” The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesargus/obituary.aspx?n=sally-e-knapp&pid=142587128.

Ruth Nichols, Wings for Life: The Life Story of the First Lady of the Air (Philadelphia: L. B. Lippincott, 1957), 267.

Roosevelt Aviation School, Catalog no. 12 (Mineola, NY: Roosevelt Field, Inc., ca. 1938), 2.

--by David Ranzan

Happy 150th Birthday Alice

“All in the golden afternoon…Thus grew the tale of Wonderland”

The 150th anniversary this year of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which first appeared in print in 1865, is a literary occasion being celebrated around the world with special events, performances, conferences and exhibitions. Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson (1832-1898), first conceived the story told in this immensely influential and much loved children’s book for his dean’s daughter, Alice Liddell. In honor of this anniversary, we would like to highlight three books from our Children’s Illustrated Literature Collection.

Adelphi holds a copy of the 1869 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published by Macmillan and Company four years after the first edition. Its original red cloth binding has images of Alice and the Cheshire Cat, and this edition includes 42 illustrations by John Tenniel (1820-1914). Tenniel was Punch magazine’s head caricaturist, and his drawings for Carroll’s text capture the essence of the tale. Among the scenes illustrated by Tenniel is the famous “Mad Tea-Party” attended by Alice, the March Hare, the Hatter and a sleeping Dormouse.
 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll; with forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. London : Macmillan, 1869.

Archives and Special Collections also has a 1907 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which includes an introductory verse by Austin Dobson announcing “a fresh Costumier” for the illustrations. The English fantasy artist Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) created 13 color plates and 15 line drawings for this edition. Rackham’s rendition of the tea party has a mysterious air, colored in soft hues of mauve, gray, brown and ivory. His art typifies the golden age of children’s book illustration from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll; illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London:  W. Heinemann; New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1907.

Also in our collection is an unusual, illustrated music book, Songs from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, published in 1921. Lucy E. Broadwood created music for voice and piano to accompany Lewis Carroll’s lyrics. Each song comes alive through whimsical sepia tone drawings and a dozen color plates by the English cartoonist and children's book illustrator Charles Folkard (1878-1963). On the book's cover, Alice is surrounded by her Wonderland friends and is depicted as a modern child of the 1920s.

Songs from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, words by Lewis Carroll ; music by Lucy E. Broadwood ; illustrations by Charles Folkard. London : A. & C. Black, 1921.

--by Elayne Gardstein

Happy 20th Anniversary Adelphi Honors College

Adelphi Honors College promotional poster

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the Adelphi Honors College which opened in the fall of 1995 during a turbulent period in the history of the university.

Brochure for Honors College
 Day

Program booklet for

"25 Years of Honors"

anniversary (2003)

Modeled on the Oxbridge collegiate system, the Honors College was, as Dr. Jennifer Fleischner describes it in her recent book, A History of Adelphi University, “[s]uccessful (and controversial) from the start.” Throughout its 20 years, the Honors College has offered a group of specially admitted students majoring in a variety of fields the opportunity to supplement their studies at Adelphi with a liberal arts based curriculum delivered in small honors specific courses and seminars.  

With a dedicated facility in Earle Hall, and an emphasis on shared academic and cultural experiences, Honors College students constitute a smaller academic community within the larger university.

Among the records and ephemera in the Adelphi University Archives documenting the history of the Honors College are a range of promotional items such as pamphlets, brochures, and posters; the letter circulated to students and faculty announcing the appointment of its founding and current dean, Dr. Richard Garner; copies of Symposium, the journal produced by Honors College students; and architectural plans for the Earle Hall Honors College renovation. The University Archives also holds copies of senior theses completed by Honors College students.

Segment of the architectural plans for the Earle Hall
Honors College renovation

A program booklet produced for an earlier anniversary celebration, held in 2003, of “25 Years of Honors” at Adelphi is a reminder that the Honors College was established as an expansion of an existing honors program at Adelphi, the Honors Program in Liberal Studies, which had opened in 1978. 

Spanish Civil War Postcards

As part of my MLIS program at Queens College, I recently completed a 150 hour internship at Adelphi University Archives and Special Collections. 

Postcard from Sandor Voros Spanish
Civil War Collection

One of my tasks during my internship was to locate, in response to a request from a Spanish professor, manuscripts or documents in Spanish and English from the Sandor Voros Spanish Civil War Collection. The professor was planning to incorporate a translation exercise using such material into a class to be held in UASC, while at the same time highlighting for her students the value of the special collections as a research source. 

While mainly composed of military orders, photographs and International Brigade records, the Spanish Civil War Collection also contains significant correspondence from Sandor Voros, who in 1937 was asked by the Communist Party to go to Spain to help investigate the Lincoln Brigade mutiny, including letters written to colleagues, scholars and his girlfriend, Myrtle.

This collection is of particular interest to me as both my parents experienced the war, though on opposite sides. My father was unwillingly drafted to serve in Franco’s nationalist army; while my mother, a staunch Republican, fled with her immediate family across the border into Portugal and eventually to America in 1936. My father rarely spoke about his reluctant service although I do recall his moving remembrance of subsisting on carob beans during a particularly severe food shortage while in Cadiz. In sharp contrast to my father, my mother regularly spoke about the traumatic events leading to her flight, including my grandfather's disappearance for ten days at the hands of Franco’s local Falange. 

Postcard from Sandor Voros Spanish
Civil War Collection

The Spanish Civil War Collection provides researchers with a stark examination of the personal and political conflicts Voros struggled with while in Spain: the separation from his beloved Myrtle and the heartbreaking letter in which he “releases” her from the relationship; the testimony of soldiers against a comrade accused of incompetency leading to the death of fellow soldiers; and Voros’ slow disillusionment with the Communist Party.

While scanning the collection to fulfill the Spanish professor’s request, I came across a trove of postcards from the war. The 63 postcards contained in the collection are fascinating as they reflect the efforts of the Republicans to rally the populace behind their cause. They include several satirical cards that depict Franco as an overweight bumbling general, a few charcoal illustrations of elongated war victims, and colorful Marxist inspired calls to arms exemplifying the brotherhood of soldiers and farmers.  By far the most distressing postcards are pencil sketches by adolescent children under the title “What I have Seen of the War.” Each of these twelve cards meticulously details a child’s personal experience of the war, most showing bleeding victims of bombings, children crying and war planes overhead. The majority of these are signed and the child’s age is noted, with some from children as young as eight years old.


--By Jazmine Mooney

Modern American Children’s Books: Volland Books

The Illustrated Children’s Literature Collection at Adelphi includes almost two dozen Volland books. While some are a century old, they have a contemporary look that remains enticing to young readers.

Buddy Jim by Elizabeth Gordon;
illustrated by John Rae (1922)

In 1908, Paul Frederick Volland (1874-1919) founded the Volland Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois.  The company began by producing greeting cards and calendars but eventually became widely known as a book publisher of high quality, modern children’s books. Titles were often produced in series, with such delightful names as Sunny Book, Happy Children Book, Fairy Children Book and Nature Children Book.

Bib Ballads by Ring Lardner;
illustrated by Fontaine Fox (1915)

An early example, published in 1915, was a collection of poems by the well-known sports journalist Ring Lardner (1885-1933). His Bib Ballads was illustrated by Fontaine Fox (1884-1964), creator of the popular Toonerville Folks comic strip.

Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was the most famous of Volland’s authors/illustrators and his Raggedy Ann Stories and sequels brought success to Volland until the company’s demise during the Great Depression. Originally handmade, Raggedy Ann dolls were manufactured by Volland to coordinate with the stories.

The Gigglequicks by Miram Clark Potter;
illustrated by Tony Sarg (1918)

Tony Sarg (1880-1942), illustrator of The Gigglequicks, was also a master puppeteer and creator of the first hot air parade balloons for Macy’s. Katharine Sturges Dodge (1890-1979) illustrated Tales of Little Dogs and was the mother of Hilary Knight, the illustrator of the Eloise books. M. T. “Penny” Ross (1881-1937) created adorable Flower Children pictures and was also a cartoonist who worked with Walt Disney. John Rae (1882-1963), who studied with the artist Howard Pyle (1853-1911), produced soft, impressionist illustrations for Elizabeth Gordon’s Buddy Jim. Janet Laura Scott (1888-1968) created pictures for Gordon’s Wild Flower Children and was also known as an illustrator of the popular Bobbsey Twins book series.

Originally, many Volland books were sold in illustrated cardboard gift boxes. A wonderful variety of stories and pictures awaited each child as the lid was opened. 

--By Elayne Gardstein 

Welcome

Welcome to Upright and Acid Free: the Adelphi University Archives and Special Collections blog.

It seems appropriate that the first post of our newly launched blog should speak to the roots of the department and acknowledge some of the foundational figures central to the development of UASC and its collections—figures such as Owen and Marion Groves, the dedicated husband and wife who served as Adelphi’s first University Archivists.

1926 Oracle yearbook portrait of Owen Groves

A veteran of the Army Ambulance Corps in World War I, and graduate of Hamilton College (A.B., 1916) and Columbia University (MA, 1917), Owen G. Groves (1893-1972) taught in the English department at Adelphi from 1924 (beginning when Adelphi was still located in Brooklyn) to 1963, including 23 years as the departmental chair. Following his retirement from full-time teaching in 1963, Dr. Groves took on the role of University Archivist, a part-time volunteer position but one that reflected his deep affection for Adelphi and long-standing interest in its institutional history.

Marion Groves (1896-1976), who also taught in the English Department at Adelphi, succeeded her husband as University Archivist after his death in 1972. With years of experience as a New York City high school teacher/ librarian, and master’s degrees in Latin from Mount Holyoke and Library Science from C.W. Post (which she completed at age 72), Mrs. Groves brought a professional perspective to what became a paid, but still part-time, position. 

The Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine
by William Cobbett, Philadelphia, 1796

As University Archivist she worked to help form a University Archives Committee and implement archival standards of preservation and access. She was also a founder and active member of the Friends of the Adelphi Library, serving as the group’s president for many years.  Reading her letters, and the many warm tributes occasioned by her death in 1976, one gets a sense of a curious, committed, and exceptionally energetic women held in great esteem by her colleagues and former students.

The enduring legacy of the Groves includes their essential contribution to the establishment and development of the William Cobbett Collection—one of the jewels of Adelphi Special Collections.  It was Owen Groves who had the initial idea for Adelphi to collect Cobbett’s work; a felicitous undertaking, he believed, considering Cobbett’s association with Long Island [1]. Marion Groves, in her capacity as president of the Friends of the Adelphi Library, played an instrumental role in the expansion of the collection, beginning with the Friends’ purchase, in 1948, of Cobbett’s The Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine and building over subsequent decades, including a major Friends’ purchase, in 1964, of more than thirty Cobbett letters. Today the collection consists of roughly 500 volumes and significant holdings of manuscripts, pamphlets and anti-Cobbett literature.

[1] In 1817, fearing arrest on sedition charges, Cobbett (1763-1835) fled to the United States and for two years lived and wrote on a rented farm on Long Island.

--by Brian McDonald