“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
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
In the fall of 2015, I had the privilege of working with students from Professor Oluwatoyin Oduntan’s History 300 class. They came to the archives to learn how to use primary sources and include them in their research. At the end of the semester, I was invited to watch them present their work. Maria Zlotescu delved into
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
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 is a bridge nearly 40 years in the making . . . When the Administration Building — now known as Enrollment Services — was constructed in 1972, it meant pedestrians coming from the main part of campus had to cross Osler Drive to reach it. Almost immediately concerns about pedestrian safety were raised. In
In the tumult and chaos of the 1960s, Loyola College student Larry Evans came up with a new philanthropy concept: raising money by breaking records and playing three days of continuous flag football. The games would be played by students from different area colleges and the money would go to Santa Claus Anonymous, a Baltimore-area charity that
Last year while processing a collection, I came upon this remarkable entry in a notebook devoted to minutes of the “Faculty Meetings” — the predecessor to our modern-day University Senate. For those of you not well-versed in 120-year-old cursive, let me transcribe it for you. Principal’s Office September 16, 1893 A special meeting of the
“Are you a Norm or are you a Pest?” Believe it or not, this isn’t really that unusual a question for students at the Maryland State Normal School, first incarnation of what is now Towson University. By 1876 — a decade after its creation — MSNS already had in place “literary societies”. There is no