After the frantic last days of the semester end and all the exams are graded, diplomas are delivered, and the dorms are packed up and cleared out, campus becomes amazingly quiet. Parking suddenly becomes a breeze. The grounds are all dressed up with gorgeous flowers but sometimes it seems the only people around to enjoy
During the 2015-2016 academic year Towson University is celebrating its 150th anniversary. In this blog article the Towson University Archives and Special Collections department explores the circumstances and events that led up to the school’s founding as the Maryland State Normal School and laid the foundation for its future transformation into a comprehensive liberal arts
Calling all student groups AND history lovers! The Albert S. Cook Library is extremely excited to announce a new initiative to promote student group success while preserving Towson University’s unique and extensive history. Housed in Cook Library’s Special Collections Department, the University Archives is currently reaching out to student groups in an effort to gather
“The First Annual Faculty Follies will be presented on Tuesday evening”, announced the November 1941 issue of the Towerlight. Faculty members were to present a two-part program, the first of which was a kind of music hall performance with “all the members of the faculty who can be crowded on the stage”. “The second act,” the
One question we often get in the archives is “When did Towson start letting men attend?” and the answer is “Always.” Many people think that in our early days, we were a women-only institution, but that’s isn’t true. In 1866, when we had 48 students, 8 of them were male. The reality is that teaching
It’s not unusual for many generations of the same family to be graduates of Towson. We meet students every semester who tell us that their great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents are alums. Often we’ll search for those alums in our yearbooks, newspapers, and commencement programs, and are rewarded with a result. What I find striking about
For about 50 years, Towson celebrated a now little-known anniversary, the very first day of classes at the Maryland State Normal School in January of 1866. The celebration, called Founders’ Day, is first in evidence in the school calendar for 1919/1920 when the Maryland State Normal School principal was Henry Skinner West. By that time,
As we celebrate the anniversaries of both the founding of Towson University in 1866, and its move to this campus in 1915, the Towson University Archives and Special Collections department is taking time to look back over the school’s history and some of the important but lesser-known people who have influenced it. This is one
This history of student government at Towson University has been compiled using documents in the recently processed Student Government Association Records, 1921-2005 at Towson University Special Collections and Archives. If you would like to view the documents in this collection, or if you would like to contribute documents that would enhance our understanding of student
As we celebrate the anniversaries of both the founding of Towson University in 1866, and its move to this campus in 1915, the Towson University Archives and Special Collections department is taking time to look back over the school’s history and some of the important but lesser-known people who have influenced it. In 1922 as