On January 1st, 1927, Maryland State Normal School principal, McFadden Alexander Newell and staff came up with the idea to hold monthly birthday parties for their students and teachers. All the birthday boys and girls for that month would be gathered up and treated to a catered meal. Given that the school only had 750 students
On November 5th, 2017, we hosted a second reunion for students of the Lida Lee Tall School — the elementary school that had been part of Towson’s history since 1866. This blog post is a re-creation of a presentation shared by Felicity Knox at the reunion. The hallmark of the student work done at the
One of my favorite ways to learn about history is through how people eat, and in particular, how people celebrate with food. I love looking at old cookbooks and menus, trying to glean what would make a dish special enough to share. Tracing the culture of Towson through the menus for things like graduation and
Maybe you have a relative who remembers going to “The Teachers College”. Maybe you yourself think of us as “TSC” or “TSU”. In over 150 years of history, we have had 5 different names and while it may seem arbitrary, the changes have all come about for good reason. Maryland State Normal School (MSNS): 1866
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” —G. K. Chesterton The evolution of the State Teachers College at Towson to a liberal arts school in 1963 brought with it some unforeseen developments. Certainly the change in programming was expected, and the uptick and diversity in enrollment
For over 80 years, when the children who attended the campus elementary school visited the library, they worked with the college librarian. They read and were read to, learned how to find items using the catalog, and were allowed to check out books from a curated children’s collection. But in 1949, the Lida Lee Tall School
In the spring of 1992, the campus of Towson State University was rocked by a hate crime. While defending her gay professor’s right to teach, an undergraduate named Hollie Rice was struck by a fellow student and left with a black eye. The assault on Rice was one of two hate crimes reported that year, although
Adapted from a presentation given during a reunion of Lida Lee Tall school students on November 19, 2016. Much like Towson University, sometimes still called Towson State University, or even Towson State College, the school that would finally be known as the Lida Lee Tall School went through a variety of names. 1866-1879: Model
It happens like clockwork — the days get shorter, there’s a chill in the air, and people contact us here in the Special Collections and University Archives department to ask about Auburn House. We can understand why. It’s a lovely old house on the edge of campus. You only get to go there for special events.
The tradition of inaugurating a new president is a fairly new one here at Towson University given our 150 year history. Part of that may be due to the fact that our first leaders were actually considered principals while the school itself was a teachers’ training school – something more akin to a vocational school.