Drexel University Archives
Recently processed
Society of Women Engineers Philadelphia Section records (Collection MC 117)
1946-2003
1.67 cubic feet (5 boxes)
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international education, service, and advocacy organization for women in engineering and technology. Founded in 1950, the SWE grew out of a 1949 conference of women engineering students that took place at the Drexel Institute of Technology and was hosted by Drexel’s Society of Women Engineers, a student organization founded in 1946.
The collection consists of records of the Philadelphia SWE Section and includes by-laws, meeting minutes, reports, membership directories, financial records, photographs, conference programs and proceedings, newsletters, magazines, journals, award records, and other items. Of note are photocopies of Drexel student section records starting in 1954.
Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections, Drexel University College of Medicine
New acquisitions
Amy Brodkey papers
1950-2017
25 linear feet, unprocessed
Dr. Amy Brodkey (1949-2021) was a psychiatrist, activist, and expert in behavioral science and psychiatric education. She dedicated her career to improving women’s health services and community psychiatry in the Philadelphia area and nationally. Her papers document activism around women’s health 1950s-1970s, including the Free Clinics Project, 1968-1972, her work in behavioral health, and her role as faculty member and director of medical student education at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1985-1987.
Recently processed
Ruth Wilf, CNM papers (2019.025)
1950s-2015
70 linear feet
The Ruth Wilf papers document the extensive career and contributions of Ruth Wilf, a midwife and parent education advocate based in Philadelphia, from the 1950s to 2015. The papers provide a comprehensive overview of Wilf’s work in the midwifery field, her dedication to patient care, non-medicalized birth, and education, and her active participation in the professional and parent education community.
Recently processed
Arthur Frank, M.D. papers (2022.003)
1967-2023
71 linear feet
Arthur Frank, MD, PhD, is an authority on occupational lung diseases associated with asbestos. He has spent most of his professional activity working in occupational medicine as a physician, researcher, lecturer, medical-legal expert witness, and a professor in higher education. Dr. Frank’s papers document his personal and professional activities 1967-2023. This mixed format collection contains depositions of asbestos-related cases from around the United States and related medical legal case reports; teaching and research materials; presentations, writing; correspondence; and objects, ephemera, photographs and artwork. Research strengths include asbestos-related diseases, particularly in connection to medical- legal cases, cancer, environmental exposures, global or international health, history of public health, occupational health, agricultural safety and health, toxicology, and environmental justice.
Library & Archives, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Recently processed
Ida Kaplan Langman Papers
1.65 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 map folder)
1933-1994
Ida Kaplan Langman (1904-1991) was a botanist, bibliographer, and teacher in the department of education at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Langman began conducting botanical fieldwork in the 1930s in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, and is believed to have found Juncus greenei also known as Green’s rush for the first time in the commonwealth. Langman made two expeditions to Mexico to collect plants and conduct bibliographic work, first from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1948 to 1949. A few thousand botanical specimens collected or co-collected by Langman are held in the Academy of Natural Sciences herbarium (PH). The collection contains incoming correspondence Langman received regarding botanical collecting in Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s; plant collecting lists and notebooks, photographs, and other records related to Langman’s field work in Mexico and Monroe County, Pennsylvania; and Langman’s bibliographic work on A Selected Guide to the Literature on the Flowering Plants of Mexico (1964). The bulk of the collection is in English and Spanish with a small amount of material in Portuguese and German.