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Penn Reading Days in photos
A student studying in book stacks during Reading Days.

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

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  • Photo Essay

    • Penn Reading Days in photos

    From the sixth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library with its view of College Hall, to tucked-away areas in bloom outdoors, students spent Reading Days putting the finishing touches on their studies, notes review, and final projects before Final Exam period begins.

    Penn Today Staff

    1 min. read

    History course brings Philadelphia’s ‘Revolutionary Stories’ to life
    David Sun

    Second-year David Sun examines primary source documents at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for his Revolutionary Stories project.

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    History course brings Philadelphia’s ‘Revolutionary Stories’ to life

    In a partnership with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania expanding students access to primary source documents, undergraduates examine the lives of regular Revolutionary-era Philadelphians.

    4 min. read

    The art of retelling ancient stories: A Q&A with Steven Weitzman
    Steven Weitzman standing upright and smiling, facing forward, in the Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, next to a wall with books on display

    Steven Weitzman is the Ella Darivoff Director of the Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies.

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  • Q&A

    • The art of retelling ancient stories: A Q&A with Steven Weitzman

    In his new book, the Penn professor and scholar of religion examines how the biblical story of the 10 plagues has been reshaped by people across time and culture to make sense of their experiences and find meaning in disasters.

    3 min. read

    How a postwar research push changed Penn
    Three men and one woman look at an item through a microscope in a HUP laboratory.

    Researchers look through a microscope in a lab at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania around 1940.

    (Image: Courtesy of University Archives)

    How a postwar research push changed Penn

    In the second of a limited series, “Chapters of Change” showcases another transformational moment in Penn’s past shaped by changes in society—World War II—during which the U.S.’s drive for knowledge sparked massive investments in research.

    5 min. read

    Who, What, Why: Alicia Meyer on the wonders of the Kislak Center
    Alicia Meyer talks to students in Technology and Society course.

    In February 2025, Alicia Meyer showed students in Elly Truitt’s Technology & Society course a rare 19th-century book of hours woven from silk on a Jacquard loom, an Egyptian clay tablet from 400 BCE, an astronomical rotula used to predict the movement of heavenly bodies, posters from Central America made on sugarcane paper, and more.

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  • Who, What, Why

    • Who, What, Why: Alicia Meyer on the wonders of the Kislak Center

    As curator of research services, Meyer wants students from every discipline to visit the Kislak Center and to find new insights from old materials.

    2 min. read

    Exploring ‘One Thousand and One Nights’
    Students and faculty look at rare books in the Lea Library.

    Dr. Paul Cobb, center, looks on as students and library staff examine rare versions of “One Thousand and One Nights” in the Lea Library.

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    Exploring ‘One Thousand and One Nights’

    A seminar from Middle Eastern medievalist Paul Cobb gets students talking and thinking about the “disorienting” storytelling in “One Thousand and One Nights.”

    3 min. read

    Exploring the Declaration through ink and type
    A hand preparing letterpress off a small paper with text.

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    Exploring the Declaration through ink and type

    A typesetting workshop at Penn’s Common Press invited participants to reinterpret lines from the Declaration of Independence as part of the Typography of Independence project and Penn’s America 250 programming.

    3 min. read

    An inside look at the history of television
    Handwritten notes and paper relics from TV shows in the past.

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    An inside look at the history of television

    Materials in the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives include thousands of TV scripts, the first issue of TV Guide, and interviews about the early days of HBO—which help to chronicle TV’s 100-year story.

    3 min. read

    Exploring Philadelphia’s petrochemical past
    An illustration of the Philadelphia Gas works complex in 1890

    Philadelphia Gas Works in an 1890 illustration. It sat on the east side of the Schuylkill River, between Market and Filbert streets.

    (Image: David J. Kennedy. Courtesy of Historical Society of Philadelphia, via petrodelphia.org.)

    Exploring Philadelphia’s petrochemical past

    Penn historian Jared Farmer recently launched a website about Philadelphia’s fossil fuel economy to help students and residents learn about the local past in larger context.

    2 min. read