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Bringing the US Navy’s 250-year history to life
J.J. Ahern stands in a storage area in the University Archives.

Penn archivist J.J. Ahern.

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Bringing the US Navy’s 250-year history to life

Penn archivist J.J. Ahern has been putting his professional experience and personal passion for the past to work as a volunteer for the Navy’s 250th anniversary curating an exhibition about the human side of the service’s history.

3 min. read

X-ray plates from 1896 give a snapshot of Penn’s place in history
An X-ray plate from 1896.

Two X-ray plates from Arthur Goodspeed, believed to have created the world’s first X-ray image, were donated by his family to Penn’s University Archives.

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X-ray plates from 1896 give a snapshot of Penn’s place in history

A gift from the family of Penn physicist Arthur Goodspeed represents the beginning of a revolution in medicine that began at Penn.

From Penn Medicine News

5 min. read

Penn’s Benjamin Nathans reflects on his work and Pulitzer Prize win
Benjamin Nathans sits at a table in his office.

Benjamin Nathans has been studying Soviet and Russian history for four decades.

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Penn’s Benjamin Nathans reflects on his work and Pulitzer Prize win

Historian Benjamin Nathans’ huge volume on the stories and lives of Soviet dissidents has gotten renewed attention after winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Nathan’s research and insights span a four-decade-long career studying Russia and the USSR, modern Jewish history, and the history of human rights.

5 min. read

From the Archives: Photograph of Penn’s first female law graduate
43 people sitting and standing on the steps of College Hall

University of Pennsylvania Law School Class of 1883 group portrait on the steps of College Hall in 1883. Caroline Burnham Kilgore, the first female graduate of Penn Law is top row, center. The photo is a gift of Peter Conn of Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences.

(Image: Broadbent and Taylor, courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center)

From the Archives: Photograph of Penn’s first female law graduate

A photo in the University Archives pictures 43 members of the Penn Law School graduating class of 1883 on the steps of College Hall. Among them is Caroline Burnham Kilgore, the first woman to enter the law school, to receive a law degree, and to be admitted to the Pennsylvania bar.

Louisa Shepard

3 min. read

From the Archives: Raymond and Sadie Alexander family home movies
Sadie and Raymond Alexander with a film projector in a room with books on bookshelves and framed photos behind them.

Penn alumni Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander and Raymond Pace Alexander in their North Philadelphia home, 1708 W. Jefferson St., in 1952, looking at some of their home movies, which are in the University Archives and Records Center.

(Image: University Archives and Records Center)

From the Archives: Raymond and Sadie Alexander family home movies

The University Archives’ Alexander Family Papers document the professional and personal lives of Penn trailblazers Raymond and Sadie Alexander, as well as some of their family members. Included are more than 100 home movies, dating from 1930 to 1961.

Louisa Shepard

From the Archives: 1915 film of Penn-Cornell football game
Archival footage of a Penn vs Cornell football game in 1915.

An image from the film of the 1915 Penn-Cornell football game at Franklin Field.

(Image: Courtesy of University Archives & Records Center)

From the Archives: 1915 film of Penn-Cornell football game

The oldest film in Penn’s University Archives & Records Center documents the 1915 football game featuring Penn versus Cornell, played on Thanksgiving Day in front of a packed crowd at Franklin Field. Penn plays Cornell Nov. 9 in their 130th meeting.

Louisa Shepard

John Bence named University Archivist
(name) Bence.

John Bence will oversee all operations of the University Archives and Records Center beginning August 1.

(Image: Courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Libraries)

John Bence named University Archivist

Bence will assume the role on Aug. 1 as the chief administrator responsible for the University Archives and Records Center program to collect, manage, and preserve Archives materials.
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries acquires archives of The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Academy of Music
worker reviewing orchestra archives

Dillalogue views photographs by Adrian Siegel at the archives at the Academy of Music ahead of the material being moved to Penn. Siegel served as the unofficial photographer at The Philadelphia Orchestra while a cellist from 1922-1959, and then official Orchestra photographer during his retirement, from 1959 to the mid-1970s.

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries acquires archives of The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Academy of Music

The historic partnership provides the public access to nearly 175 years of Philadelphia’s rich musical history.