Archives and Special Collections

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Items representing Purdue University’s contributions to flight and space history were to fly onboard this week’s first test of Orion from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex. Purdue is the alma mater of 23 NASA astronauts. The Orion flight test, a two-orbit, four-hour flight that will test many of […]

Indiana’s first female firefighter retired on Tuesday with a crowd of friends and coworkers surrounding her as she gave her final speech. Diana Hardy left behind 36 years of firefighting – 32 of them with Purdue – on Tuesday afternoon.  Hardy paved the way for women in a traditionally male-dominated profession as the first female […]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Eugene Cernan, the most recent person to walk on the moon, was recognized Thursday evening (April 10) during an invitation-only reception at Purdue’s Mackey Arena for donating an Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle mapbook to the university. The event was part of a reunion of some of Purdue’s 23 astronaut alumni […]

University Records Project to discover undocumented history The Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center is attempting to track down undocumented Purdue history through the University Records Project. Started in March 2013, the University Records Project, a university-wide initiative supported by the provost’s office, seeks to identify records from all academic units on […]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University’s Libraries and Special Collections is commemorating 100 years of hosting the Purdue Road School with a special exhibit focusing on Indiana transportation. “The Crossroads of America: Indiana Transportation in the Early 20th Century,” is on display through March 13 in the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research […]

Alumna and Former Purdue University Trustee Susan Bulkeley Butler Honored at Event with ‘Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Archives Award’ WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University’s Division of Archives and Special Collections will celebrate Purdue women who helped pave the way for future generations of female engineers with an archival exhibit. “Women at Work: Celebrating the [...]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University’s first full-time dean of women who went on to become the first female commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard will be celebrated with an archival exhibit at Purdue.Purdue Libraries’ Division of Archives and Special Collections will feature “Behind the Mast of Women’s Leadership: Celebrating the Legacy of [...]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue Libraries will receive a $2 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to endow an archivist for the Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan archives and special collections at the university. Conrad Hilton’s son, Barron Hilton, is the retired chairman, president and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corp. An avid pilot [...]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – An archives exhibit and a book chronicling its history are part of the celebration for the 125th anniversary of the Purdue University Bands. The “Heartbeat of the University: 125 Years of Purdue Bands” exhibit is on display in the Purdue Libraries’ Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center through [...]

Over the past few years, the efforts of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Women’s Archives have allowed Archives and Special Collections (ASC) to take in intriguing collections pertaining to female aviators at Purdue. Archives and Special Collections’ newest exhibit, “Soaring to New Heights, Women in Aviation at Purdue” highlights these aviators. The exhibit runs June 11-August [...]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Division of Archives and Special Collections in Purdue Libraries has developed a permanent digital timeline to document significant dates of African-American history at the university. The collection, available at http://oldsite.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/orthefirenexttime/index.html, is the result of a collaboration among Archives and Special Collections, Digital Initiatives, and Purdue’s Black Cultural Center, and is [...]

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University Libraries will save 13 films in its archives that were produced by early 20th-century motion study pioneers Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, thanks to two grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation. “These unique Gilbreth materials are only available at Purdue” says Elizabeth M. Wilkinson, processing and public services archivist [...]

What was Amelia Earhart’s mother doing on Thanksgiving of 1943? View her letter to George Palmer Putnam here.