The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College

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  Iota of Pennsylvania Phi Beta Kappa Gettysburg College: 1923-2023

  Michael Birkner and Charles H. Glatfelter

  In observance of one hundred years as a Phi Beta Kappa chapter sheltered at Gettysburg College, the Iota of Pennsylvania chapter has published a concise historical overview of the chapter’s history.

  Updating previous publications authored by Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter, longtime Iota chapter member and professor of history, for the fiftieth and seventy-fifth anniversaries, Dr. Michael Birkner, chapter historian and professor of history, has written an introductory essay that provides a new understanding of Gettysburg College’s nearly two-decade long effort to secure a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

  Since its formal installation in 1923, the Iota chapter has inducted 3,337 members into its ranks. This updated history include an appendix with chapter officers from 1923-2023, as well as a full list of chapter members through October 2023 based upon membership records held at the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

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  George M. Leader, 1918-2013

  Michael J. Birkner and Charles H. Glatfelter

  George M. Leader (1918-2013), a native of York, Pennsylvania, rose from the anonymous status of chicken farmer's son and Gettysburg College undergraduate to become, first a State Senator, and then the 36th governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A steadfast liberal in a traditionally conservative state, Leader spent his brief time in the governor's office (1955-1959) fighting uphill battles and blazing courageous trails. He overhauled the state's corrupt patronage system; streamlined and humanized its mental health apparatus; and, when a black family moved into the white enclave of Levittown, took a brave stand in favor of integration.

  After politics, Leader became a pioneer in the area of assisted living, with a chain of Lutheran nursing homes in central Pennsylvania. He multiplied his philanthropies, endowing a nursing center, funding education and reintegration programs for prisoners, and providing supplies and expertise to impoverished Ghana. By the time of his death, George M. Leader had lived as vigorous, productive, and - to use a word he might have appreciated - useful a life as any Pennsylvanian of his time.

  On three occasions in 2006 and 2007, Gettysburg College history professors Michael J. Birkner and Charles H. Glatfelter engaged the former governor in interviews about his life and times. Leader talked expansively and candidly about his wins and losses, his prides and regrets; the excitement and bitterness of politics, the satisfactions of philanthropy, and the sustenance of family. These interviews, ranging over nearly a century of political and state history, tell the story of one of Pennsylvania's most remarkable sons.

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  Thirty Treasures, Thirty Years: Stories from the Musselman Library Collection

  Robin Wagner and Sunni DeNicola

  What is a Treasure? Is it something rare like a Shakespeare folio or is it something dazzling like pieces from the Asian Art collection? Is it simply old, like a 17th century copy of Euclid's Geometry? Or, is it neither costly nor ornate, but valuable in the classroom, as a teaching tool? In this volume, 30 faculty, alumni and friends write about their favorite "treasures" from the Gettysburg College Library. Enjoy their stories of discovery and surprise. You'll find everything from art and literature to sports - with a murder mystery tossed in.

  Contents

  Introduction Robin Wagner

  Ancient Chinese Ritual Objects Yan Sun

  Samurai Armor and Katana Dina Lowy

  Portrait of Martin Luther Baird Tipson

  The John H. W. Stuckenberg Map Collection Barbara A. Sommer

  Shakespeare Folio Christopher Kauffman

  Euclidis Elementorum Darren Glass

  The Book of Martyrs Charles "Buz" Myers

  Gulliver’s Travels Joanne Myers

  German Broadside of the Declaration of Independence Daniel R. DeNicola

  New-England Primer Timothy J. Shannon

  A Manual of Chemistry Michael Wedlock

  Samuel Simon Schmucker’s Letters to His Wife Catherine Anna Jane Moyer

  Architectural Drawings of Old Dorm Charles Glatfelter

  Portrait of Thaddeus Stevens Janet Morgan Riggs

  Gettysburg from McLean’s Hill Peter S. Carmichael

  Jacobs’ Account of the Rebel Invasion Allen C. Guelzo

  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Catherine Quinn Perry

  Alexander von Humboldt’s Secretary William D. Bowman

  Portrait of Jeremiah Zimmerman Christopher J. Zappe

  Eddie Plank’s Baseball Dave Powell

  Spirit of Gettysburg Timothy Sestrick

  A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way Larry Marschall

  Movie Posters James Udden

  Photographs of the College Playing Fields Daniel R. Gilbert, Jr.

  A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain Mike Hobor

  Address Unknown George Muschamp

  Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Presidential Correspondence Michael J. Birkner

  The Photographs of Stephen Warner Roger Stemen

  The Papers of Jerry Spinelli, Class of 1963 Sunni DeNicola

  Confucius Pendant Deborah Sommer

  The Library at Gettysburg College: Past and Present Christine Ameduri

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  To Waken Fond Memory: Moments in the History of Gettysburg College

  Anna Jane Moyer

  Between 1975 and 1989 Anna Jane Moyer produced a series of essays for the Gettysburg College alumni magazine capturing “moments” on campus and in the town of Gettysburg since 1832. Treating people, places, and notable events over the course of the College’s first 150 years, Moyer’s sketches reached an appreciative audience at the time. But with the Gettysburg College 175th anniversary approaching, it seemed appropriate to make her writing more readily available to alumni, friends of the College, students, and scholars.

  The sketches now republished in To Waken Fond Memory remind readers that the culture of a liberal arts college is never static, yet that certain elements remain important through the generations—among them a strong sense of community and growing readiness among students to influence the world beyond the Gettysburg campus. The longest of Moyer’s collected pieces, “Mandolins in the Moonlight,” was originally published under a different title, as part of a series of pamphlets marking the College’s sesquicentennial. Like the shorter vignettes featured in this book, “Mandolins in the Moonlight” evokes most charmingly the ways students have interacted with their professors and their peers and in small ways and larger ones, made their mark. Taken together, the essays in To Waken Fond Memory will evoke a Gettysburg past that still resonates and informs its present identity.

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  A Salutary Influence: Gettysburg College, 1832-1985

  Charles H. Glatfelter

  Written by Professor and Alumnus Dr. Charles H. Glatfelter '46, A Salutary Influence was published in 1987 in commemoration of Gettysburg College’s 150th anniversary. The two-volume set includes a detailed index at the end of the second volume.

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  The Way We Were: A History of Student Life at Gettysburg College 1832-1982

  Anna Jane Moyer

  In writing The Way We Were: A History of Student Life at Gettysburg College, 1832-1982, it has been my purpose to capture what it was like to be a student at Gettysburg as the changing patterns of that life evolved and shifted with the growth of the College and events in the world outside the campus. Space confines impose perimeters. No attempt has been made to detail the history of organizations or to include many of the names of persons involved in campus leadership. The role of athletics has been mentioned only briefly as two monographs in the History Series have been devoted to its development.

  As I chose to write from the student point of view as much as possible, I researched the complete files of the following publications: Pennsylvania College Monthly, Mercury, Gettysburgian, Spectrum. Additional sources included Cannon Bawl, The Blister, the G-Books, Junto, and the underground publications of the sixties and seventies. A study of the College catalogs and the minutes of the Board of Trustees and the Faculty proved to be helpful, especially prior to the existence of student publications. [excerpt]

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  Intercollegiate Athletics at Gettysburg College, 1920-1975

  Robert L. Bloom

  Some historians suggest that despite markings on the calendar the Twentieth Century did not begin in America, culturally speaking, until after the 1917-1918 war. Until that time, they assert, Americans thought and behaved as they had in a prior and more innocent age. After 1918 Americans adopted the more frenetic life-style of what has become known as "the Roaring Twenties," the "Jazz Age," or the "Mad Decade," a period which ended with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

  The era saw the emergence of such athletic titans as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Harold "Red" Grange, Bobby Jones, Bill Tilden, and others. An indication of the new place of women during the period was the fame won by Gertrude Ederle in swimming, Helen Wills Moody in tennis, and Glenna Collett in golf. [excerpt]

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  Intercollegiate Athletics at Gettysburg College, 1879-1919

  Robert L. Bloom

  In 1932, as a part of Gettysburg College's Centennial observance, Dr. Samuel G. Hefelbower '91, a quondam member of the faculty and from 1904 to 1910 President of the College, wrote and edited a largely filiopietistic volume entitled A History of Gettysburg College, 1832-1932. In this 446-page narrative. Dr. Hefelbower devoted considerable space to the development of extracurricular life on the campus. He allotted forty pages to the rise of Greek letter fraternities. eight pages to the Woman's League. and nine additional pages to such now-defunct student pursuits as the Bible Society, the Linnaean Society, and the Y.M.C.A. Honorary fraternities and departmental societies took up eleven more pages. Yet he made only three references to athletics. and together they totaled but fifteen lines of print or less than half a page.

  One might conclude from the good doctor's treatment that sports had attracted, up to 1932 at least, but minuscule interest on the part of Gettysburg undergraduates. That this was not the case is made clear by perusing the columns of student publications, the minutes of innumerable faculty meetings, and certainly in consulting the recollections of old grads. The fortunes of the College's intercollegiate athletic teams played a much larger part in life on the campus. Moreover, if the athletic program then, or now, served any viable educational purpose, a claim often advanced for it. surely it deserves more attention than Dr. Hefelbower gave it.

  Some members of the campus community cherish the notion that competitive athletics have no place in institutions of higher learning. In their view, intercollegiate sports programs. particularly in our own day, constitute a supine surrender by academia to anti-intellectualism and commercialism. Such distractions, contend these critics, represent an aberration, if not a perversion, in the educational process - an obstacle in the long struggle of Western Man to liberate himself from ignorance. [excerpt]

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  Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Connection: An Open-Ended Story of a Proud Relationship

  Harold A. Dunkelberger

  "The oldest Lutheran College in America" is a mark of distinction credited to Gettysburg. Just what Lutheran has meant to this institution throughout its century and a half is the subject of this historical essay. This is an open-ended story because the Lutheran connection of Gettysburg College is a live relationship today and gives promise of being a mutually supportive association in the future.

  Gettysburg represents not only a high water mark in the history of this nation, but also a place of landmark developments for Lutheranism in America. The College and the Seminary were center stage for these developments, and they continue to show marks of their Lutheran heritage. In tracing the nature of the Lutheran identity of the College, focus will be on the part played by its founder, its supporting synods, its faculty, its trustees, and its students. [excerpt]

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  Engineering at Gettysburg College

  William C. Darrah

  This little volume narrates the story of engineering instruction at Gettysburg College, particularly of the Engineering Department that functioned from 1912 to 1940. It includes also an account of the apparently first venture in engineering by an American liberal arts college, undertaken during the brief association of the renowned Herman Haupt with Gettysburg College between 1837 and 1847.

  Time dims our memories. Although there are more than fifty living alumni who were graduated from the Engineering Department, many Gettysburgians are unaware of its existence and accomplishments. The purpose of this story is to place on record a significant aspect of our tradition. [excerpt]

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  Yonder Beautiful and Stately College Edifice : A History of Pennsylvania Hall (Old Dorm), Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

  Charles H. Glatfelter and Michael J. Birkner

  On January 21, 1834 Thaddeus Stevens, a freshman member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Adams County, rose in that body to speak in favor of a bill appropriating a sum of money to the new college at Gettysburg in whose fortunes he had become deeply interested. After answering the arguments of his colleague from Adams County, who had just spoken against the bill, Stevens undertook to explain in a few words the predicament in which the fledgling college found itself: It has been chartered two years ; and organized about eighteen months. It has now ninety-eight students, without a house to put them in ; a library or an apparatus.

  Thanks to the efforts of Thaddeus Stevens, and many others, the bill was passed, and the house that was needed was soon built. It is still standing and in use today. Its story over more than 130 years is the central theme of the account which follows. [excerpt]