RAMble, the University Libraries' blog

The Overlease Collection consists of the papers of William Roy Overlease (1925-2007), who was a professor at West Chester from 1963 to 1986. It contains a considerable amount of information on the history and development of the Darlington Herbarium, a gift to West Chester from the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science in the 1870s. To the left you can see the Cabinet's catalog of their plant specimens, dated 1834. There are also documents Overlease created to help navigate the Herbarium. There is biographical information about William Darlington (1782-1863), prominent botanist, founding member of the Cabinet, and author of Flora Cestrica, a listing of plants found in Chester County – originally published in 1837 and updated in 1853. Below, you can see both editions. 

Overlease and his wife Edith pursued many research projects together, both in the West Chester area and elsewhere, and the collection contains raw data and drafts for scholarly publications from these projects. There is correspondence and other material relating to the fight for the Gordon Natural Area, and materials relating to courses that Overlease taught at West Chester. Additionally, it contains biographical information about Overlease.

William Roy Overlease was a botanist, ornithologist, ecologist, historian, and teacher who was committed to science education throughout his career. Among many other accomplishments, he was in large part responsible for the establishment of the Robert B. Gordon Natural Area for Environmental Studies on West Chester’s South Campus, and he was Curator of the Darlington Herbarium and the College Science Museum.

Overlease was born and grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Forestry, a five year professional degree, in 1950, and an MS in Conservation in 1952. These were early days for academic programs in this field, and Overlease was required to get special permission from the graduate council of the university in order to pursue his MS. He also earned a Secondary Education Teaching Certificate in 1950, demonstrating his dedication to science education from the start of his career.

From 1952 to 1957, Overlease worked for the Interpretative Program of the Indiana Department of Conservation, Division of State Parks, as the only full-time state park naturalist in the Midwest (the rest were hired seasonally or on a part-time basis on weekends). As such, he had broad responsibilities for developing educational programming for state parks throughout Indiana.

During this time, he met Edith Dymond at Turkey Run State Park, Indiana and they married there in 1955. They were a devoted couple and collaborated on all of William’s field work and publications.

Overlease returned to Michigan State University, to pursue a PhD in Botany and Plant Pathology, which he completed in 1964.

In 1963, he began working at West Chester, becoming a full professor in 1967. Some of the courses he taught were Ecology, Plant Taxonomy, Field Botany, Human Ecology, World Ecosystems, and undergraduate and graduate seminars, as well as summer mini-courses. To the right, you can see a note which Bonnie Lauer, a former student, sent to Overlease years after she graduated, expressing her gratitude. 

One of his greatest accomplishments was to establish the Gordon Natural Area at the South Campus as a permanent natural laboratory to study plants and animals. The struggle began the year after he began working at West Chester, when he found out that the Physical Education Department wanted to develop 45 acres of forest on the South Campus: “Beginning in 1964, I began to request and negotiate with the Physical Education Department to preserve some of the forest and wild land owned by the college on South Campus for ecological studies. After several years of effort, a hearing was obtained with the board of trustees but the project was turned down. With the change in national attitude toward ecology in the early 1970s a new effort was made.” The second time the proposal went before the board of trustees, it was approved and on November 10, 1973, the Robert B. Gordon Natural Area for Environmental Studies was dedicated.

Overlease’s curation of the Darlington Herbarium was another important contribution to West Chester. The Herbarium originally belonged to the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science, but when its membership dwindled in the later nineteenth century, the Cabinet donated all of its 17,000 plant specimens to West Chester. The specimens were mostly collected between 1828 and 1850, from all over the world: throughout North America, Siberia, South Africa, Australia, Jamaica, the British Isles, the European Continent, and Egypt are all represented.

Over the years, various faculty members and students from the Science Department had ensured the preservation and organization of the specimens. In 1965, Overlease overhauled the cataloging system, rearranging the collection alphabetically by family and alphabetically be genus within each family. A card catalog reflecting this new organization system was created over five years. Overlease also replaced the wooden cabinets the specimens had been stored in for decades with metal cabinets that offered the specimens much more protection. 

References

Holt, Jack. 2011. “William R. Overlease (1925-2007).” Bartonia 65: 115-116.

http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/gna_sp_series/10/ Accessed May 24, 2017.

Gordon, Robert B. “The William Darlington Herbarium of the West Chester State College.” [circa 1950s].

Overlease Collection, Box 1, Folder 2.

Overlease, William R. “A Short History of the William Darlington Herbarium.” 1989. Folder 1, Box 1,

Overlease. Special Collections, West Chester University Libraries.

Overlease, William R. [Curriculum Vitae]. [Circa 1983]. “Personal Data” folder, Overleaseb Collection.

Special Collections, West Chester University Libraries. 

Francis Harvey Green was born May 19, 1861 to Sharpless and Mary Booth Green in Booth’s Corner, a small town in Bethel Township, Delaware County, PA. In 1911, he married Gertrude Heritage, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. He attended West Chester Normal School, earning his BA in 1882. After spending time at Amherst College and Harvard University, he earned an MA from Dickinson College in 1893. He began his career in Juniata College’s English Department, and was head of the department from 1884 to 1888.

In 1888, Green joined the English Department at West Chester Normal School, and became head of the department in 1890, a position he held for the next thirty-three years. 

Green edited several books of quotations, and also wrote poetry himself; he once submitted an annual report of the Historical Society in verse. He wrote school songs for West Chester, one of which can be seen to the left. He was a popular lecturer on literature, with engagements all along the Eastern seaboard and in the Midwest, and continued to give lectures up to his death.

He was a devout Christian, and encouraged West Chester students in their Christianity, serving as president of the YMCA for many years. He was also active in local organizations, particularly the Historical Society of Chester County, of which he was president.

Green left West Chester in 1922 and became headmaster of the Pennington Seminary for Boys in Pennington, New Jersey. He was evidently a popular administrator, since in May 1941 a three-day tribute was held in Green’s honor at the Pennington School. In 1943, he retired from Pennington after 21 years of service there. He still had a reputation at West Chester, and in 1947 a building was dedicated to him: the Francis Harvey Green Library.

At the ground-breaking ceremony for a public school named after him in Bethel Township, Green wielded the shovel himself. He didn’t live to see the dedication of the Francis Harvey Green School, however, as he passed away January 31, 1951. He was interred at Siloam Cemetery, in his hometown Booth’s Corner.
 

References

Scrapbook. Francis Harvey Green Collection, Special Collection and Archives, West Chester University.

Serpentine, 1910. West Chester University.

“West Chester Normal School Hymn.” 1919. Series 2, Subseries 2, Folder 7. Francis Harvey Green Collection, Special Collection and Archives, West Chester University.

Another notable woman to include in West Chester University’s Women’s History Month is Dorothy Ramsey, Assistant Professor of English, West Chester State College, 1928-1961.

Miss Ramsey was born in New York City on December 29, 1896 to her parents, Rebekah Evans Roberts, and noted artist Milne Ramsey.  Miss Ramsey received her Bachelor’s degree (1919), and later her Master’s degree, from the University of Pennsylvania.

She began her teaching career at West Chester State Normal School in 1928 as an English professor.  During her 33-year distinguished career at West Chester, Miss Ramsey was the faculty advisor to the student literary magazine, ”The Purple and Gold.”  Later, she was the faculty advisor to the new student newspaper, the “Quad Angles,” which is now known as “The Quad.”

Dorothy Ramsey was also very active in the college’s dramatic programs.  She wrote, directed, designed, and made costumes for many student shows.  She was also a distinguished author, playwright, and poet.  Several of her works can be found in the stacks of the Francis Harvey Green Library.

A Shakespearean scholar, in 1952, Professor Ramsey became the curator of the college’s recently acquired Shakespeare Folios.  She wrote a very informative guide for the college’s Shakespeare Folios that is still used today.

1961, Miss Ramsey retired from the college.  She was one of the most respected and popular faculty members among colleagues and students alike.  In honor of her outstanding work and devotion to West Chester State College, Miss Ramsey was awarded the title Professor Emeritus in 1966.

 In 1967, a new dormitory on campus was named in her honor.  Ramsey Hall stood on the grounds where the Student Recreation Center now stands.

Dorothy Ramsey died at her home in West Chester on April 30, 1974.  Her home was just one block from the dormitory named in her honor.

Her survivors included her adopted daughter, Mary Dietrich.

Blog post written by Neal Kenney, Interlibrary Loan and Special Collections Library Assistant.

Grace Dietrich McCarthy was a member of WCU’s English Department for thirty-four years from 1910 to 1944, served as the Chairman of the English Department, and was the first Dean of Women.

Born in Calvert, Texas, in 1879, she grew up in New York City and Carthage, Missouri with two sisters. After studying at the University of Missouri, where she was elected to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, she began her teaching career in the Carthage public schools. She traveled around the US and Europe, at some point studying at the University of Geneva.

It was through her travels that she serendipitously wound up at the West Chester State Normal School, as WCU was called then. During a return trip from Europe, she decided not to head back to Missouri but to give the East a try. She disembarked at Philadelphia, and soon was hired to teach English at West Chester.

In the 1915-1916 school year, she took a leave to acquire her B.A. at the University of Michigan. By attending summer school, she earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1921. She also trained at the Columbia University’s Teachers’ College and did special work at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her dedication to her own education and to her work at West Chester led to her being appointed the first Dean of Women in 1919. She was apparently popular with the students – the class of 1923 dedicated their yearbook to her. Cora E. Everett, a member of that class, wrote a laudatory biographical article about McCarthy in the 1923 Serpentine, praising her “firm, sensible, appreciative guidance” of the women students of West Chester (pg. 9). Everett characterizes McCarthy as a person who gets things done, crediting her for obtaining for the students a “much prized lobby [and a] long-hoped-for students’ laundry” as well as enabling “the actual accomplishment of the earnestly desired student government experiment” (pg. 10).

As Dean of Women, McCarthy was also responsible for developing and upholding rules of conduct for the students, and so had a disciplinarian side as well. Everett hints at this when she describes how “a pang may pierce a guilty heart on receiving the official slip signed G.D. McC.” (pg. 10). Similarly, the Daily Local News described her as a “firm disciplinarian.”

Still, McCarthy’s dominant trait as Dean of Women seems to have been supportive and encouraging of individual students and of student organizations. In addition to being instrumental in developing the Women’s Student Government Organization, she spent several years as the faculty editor of the student publication Amulet and was the faculty advisor to the Book Club.

In 1927, she traded her position as Dean of Women for the Chairmanship of the English Department, and continued to provide leadership in that capacity until her retirement in 1944. Although she moved to Oklahoma after her retirement to be closer to her family, she remained connected to West Chester, regularly returning for Alumni Day. In 1960, a new women’s dormitory, McCarthy Hall, located on Sharples Street between High Street and Church Street, was dedicated to her. A portrait of her hung in the Hall. She passed away in 1967 at the age of 88.

References

Daily Local News. “Former Dean of Women at College Dies.” Tuesday July 11 1967

Everett, Cora C. “Grace Dietrich McCarthy, A.M.” Serpentine, 1923. Pg. 8-10.

Untitled. Serpentine, 1914. Pg. 43

Marion Farnham was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1887 to Charles and Maria Farnham. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Puerto Rico while teaching art classes there. Later she earned a Master of Arts degree from Boston University. She also studied at the Art Student League in New York City, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania.

Farnham started teaching art at West Chester University in 1923, and by 1932 she had become Head of the Art Department, a position she held until her retirement. During her years teaching, Farnham was also the art advisor for the school’s yearbook, The Serpentine; her ethereal map of West Chester State Normal School’s campus appeared on the endpaper of the 1930 Serpentine.  She also worked with the school’s theatre department to create the scenery and costumes for many of their plays. She chaperoned many of the school’s dances and events, and even led an art school field trip to notable artist Christian Brinton’s house to study Russian art styles. In addition to her work as a teacher, Farnham was a member of the Eastern Arts Association, the Pennsylvania Educational Association, and the American Federation of Art. She retired in 1952, but was named an Emeriti Professor.

Farnham’s apparent love of travel, along with her passion for studying art, led her to travel all over the world. She visited many art galleries across Europe, including the Mediterranean islands and Greece to focus on Ancient Greek architecture. She also travelled to the Virgin Islands, Canada, Central America, Mexico, Asia, and Northern Africa to study the cultural art there.

After her retirement, Farnham remained in West Chester until her death in March 1983, at the age of 95.

Blog post written by Melissa Mulreany, Class of 2017.  Melissa is an Intern in Special Collections and English Major.

A woman as influential as Madeline Wing Adler is a perfect candidate to recognize during Women’s History Month. Adler has numerous accomplishments under her belt, beginning with her academic career. She received her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Northwestern University where she was the only female in most of her classes. She moved on to earn both her master’s and doctorate degrees in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madeleine Wing Adler has always been a wholehearted feminist. She was a founding member of the Chester County Fund for Women and Girls Board of Directors and a member of the Forum of Executive Women in Philadelphia. Additionally, she was named a Woman of Distinction by the Philadelphia Business Journal, “Citizen of the Year” by the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry in 1998 along with the county’s March of Dimes’ Woman of Achievement, and Philadelphia’s Business Journal named her a “Woman of Distinction” in 2002.

In August of 1992, Dr. Adler was named the 13^th president of West Chester University, making her the first and only female president in WCU’s history. During her time serving as president, Dr. Adler’s distributive style leadership left quite an impact. The annual number of applications to West Chester University doubled, enrollment increased by 12 percent, and by attracting students of many different backgrounds, WCU became the most diverse school in the PASSHE system.

Over the years, Dr. Adler’s achievements received well-deserved attention as she was offered many different positions at various schools across the country. Fortunately, Dr. Adler always remained loyal to WCU. “I knew this was the best place for me—and it has been” (Pirro mainlinetoday.com).

On June 30^th of 2008, Madeleine Wing Adler retired with an emeritus status. In honor of Dr. Adler’s influence on West Chester University, Swope Music Building opened the Madeleine Adler Theatre arts venue in 2008. Dr. Adler is now on the Emeriti Board of the Chester County Community Foundation working as a community volunteer.

Blog post written by Katherine Mash, Class of 2019, she is a student worker in FHG’s Special Collections Department and a Communications Major. 

Bibliography:

AASCU-Penson Center for Professional Development - Our Consultants. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2017, from http://www.aascupenson.org/adler_bio.html

Marshall, K. (n.d.). Press Releases - Dr. Madeleine Wing Adler named President... Retrieved March 08, 2017, from http://www.passhe.edu/inside/ne/press/Lists/Press%20Releases/pressup.aspx?ID=37&ContentTypeId=0x01006B3D98C5084ABB47927D422E92C00C3300058DFAF00E84824A8F87467AD4FF8E26

Pirro, J. F. (n.d.). The Adler Advantage. Retrieved March 08, 2017, from http://www.mainlinetoday.com/core/pagetools.php?pageid=6576&url=%2FMain-Line-Today%2FJune-2008%2FFRONTLINE-Profile-2%2F&mode=print

Ruby Johnson Jones (1912-1976)

Assistant Professor of Education (1961-1973), she was the first African American Professor in West Chester’s history.

Ruby Johnson Jones was born in Evergreen, Alabama in 1912 to Elizabeth and Rufus Johnson.  She graduated from Langley High School in Pittsburgh in 1928.  She earned her bachelor’s degree from West Chester University in 1940 and a master’s of education degree from Temple University.  She joined the West Chester State College faculty in 1961 as a teacher in the campus’ Demonstration School, an elementary school for local West Chester students on the college’s campus.  Jones became an Assistant Professor of Education and supervisor of Student Teachers in 1968.  She retired in 1973.

Ruby Jones passed away in the summer of 1976.  After her passing, the former Demonstration School Building was formally dedicated Ruby Jones Hall in the fall of 1977.