At a time when many Americans were headed west to Oregon or California, the U.S. was at war with Mexico, and Frederick Douglass was lecturing in Ireland and Great Britain about racial discrimination, a group of Baptist leaders were working to establish an institution of higher education in central Pennsylvania which was established as the University at Lewisburg in1846. This year marks the 175th anniversary of the founding of the University at Lewisburg, later named Bucknell University in 1886 to  honor William Bucknell, a trustee and generous donor to the University.  To celebrate Bucknell’s 175th anniversary, Special Collections/University Archives is presenting […]

(Photo: The three presidents: Polly Told, president of Women’s Student Government Association, Bucknell President Merle Odgers, Richard Klaber, president of Men’s Student Assembly, 1955) Bucknell boasts a low student to teacher ratio, allowing close interaction with teacher-scholars and is a place where students may explore many interests on a picturesque campus—all unique characteristics of a residential teaching institution. While the University has long had a focus on teaching, one Bucknell president deliberately guided Bucknell down the path to become what it is today. At an alumni homecoming luncheon in October 1958, President Merle Odgers announced the launching of a $1,850,000 […]

Special Collections/University Archives invites Bucknellians to contribute writings, photographs, audio, video as well as other media representing their personal experiences and perspectives about the COVID-19 pandemic. Your submissions matter. Contributions from our community document and preserve Bucknell’s history during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Your contributions will help future researchers to better understand the human perspective of this challenging time. Multiple contributions from Bucknell students, faculty, staff, retirees, alumni, parents, and friends are welcome. To contribute, go to Bucknellians Documenting COVID-19 http://covid19scua.blogs.bucknell.edu/ If you have questions, please email scua@bucknell.edu.  

The “Women’s Affirmative Action Report” was published in 1972, exposing key insights in the battle for equal rights for women on Bucknell’s campus. The Bucknellian published the Women’s Affirmative Action Report on October 27th, 1972, exposing key insights in the battle for equal rights for women. The report emphasizes that although affirmative action means “the taking of positive steps to end sex discrimination,” therefore, the “obligation of the university is to integrate women into all parts of the academic community from admission of students to faculty and staff recruitment status.” The following contains information from the official report and the […]

A year after a draft card burning on campus in 1969, and after subsequent protests during the fall 1969 semester at Bucknell, a national week of protests against the war in Vietnam were waged across the country from May 5th to May 10th of 1970. This protest was labelled as a Moratorium, as stated in the Bucknellian published on May 5th, 1970. Bucknell’s recognition of and participation in the national “strike”  was passed by a vote from the university faculty, who “approved 91 to 54 the resolution of the strike in response to the expansion of the war in Southeast […]

No matter the decade or political climate across our nation’s history there were always those who took a stand for what they believed in, regardless of the price. In looking at documents from the Bucknell SDS organization (Students for Democratic Society), I found some interesting perspectives on the student protests of the Vietnam War. This was a hugely controversial time in history, because of the moral and ethical dilemmas regarding both sides in the war zone. During the late 1960s to early 1970s, men were drafted into the military to fight in Vietnam. This draft was a source of contention […]

In my latest installment, I thought it would be interesting to focus on the physical campus: What was different? What buildings were new? What did the campus look like? Many buildings that are familiar to us today were in fact part of campus in 1920, such as the President’s House, Bucknell Hall, and the Carnegie building, among others. However, many of the buildings we are familiar with either looked very different or did not exist on campus in 1920. The Engineering building, for example, began construction in 1921. The original building itself has gone under multiple renovations, and its history […]

Looking back at life 100 years ago can be shocking, especially considering how far we have come and how much farther we have to go. This upcoming summer, for example, marks the centennial anniversary of the 19th amendment that granted women the right to vote. This was a huge step in providing equality between the sexes, and was a pivotal time for suffrage movements. Leading up to this legislature, many women across the country were striving to make their voices heard, and Bucknell graduates Lewis and Mary Theiss heard them. In writing for the Pictorial Review, a magazine of the […]

The word Freshmen, or “First Year Student” in today’s terminology, conjures up many memories, both good and bad, for anyone who was or is one. As part of the series about looking back at Bucknell 100 years ago, I found some interesting documents about rules for freshmen from the 1920’s that were created by sophomore students. It was a longstanding tradition that the upperclassmen would create these rules for the incoming class. While there were rules for all students on campus, every year the upperclassmen could enforce the freshmen’s rules at their own discretion, separate from the campus itself. Found […]

It seems hard to believe that the decade coined “The Roaring Twenties” began exactly a century ago. When one thinks of this time period, scenes of opulence from The Great Gatsby, images of flappers, bootlegging gangsters, and hallmarks of economic boom all come to mind. In the first part of a series focusing on the 100 year anniversary of a decade that still captures the imagination of filmmakers and creative minds, I will be highlighting different aspects of Bucknell life and influences during this time. One of the first questions that I thought of was: How did students live at […]