Calvin H. Waller is considered the first Black graduate of Penn State. The native of Macon, Georgia, graduated in 1905 with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture. At the time, relatively few black students enrolled at state colleges and no official records indicated the racial identities of students during the time Waller was enrolled. […]
James Addams Beaver was a widely known attorney, a Civil War officer, and the governor of Pennsylvania from 1887-1891. He also played a leading role in Penn State’s early decades and served as interim president for two years; today, the football stadium bears his name. Beaver was born on October 21, 1837, in Millerstown, Perry […]
The Centre County Library, founded in 1939, serves readers with four locations and a bookmobile. The creation of what is now a county library system began with the generosity of Bellefonte resident, Ann Elmira Humes,who agreed to donate her home, the historic Miles-Humes House, for a public library.
The Palmer Museum of Art, on Curtin Road in the core of the University Park campus, is Penn State’s art museum. Founded in 1972, it is largest art museum between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. After an expansion and renovation, the museum was renamed in honor of benefactors, James and Barbara Palmer.
The Penn State Blue Band is the university’s marching band that performs at football games and other major events. The band, which is comprised of more than 300 members, is open to all students at the University Park campus.
Penn State fielded its first organized football team in 1887 — just 11 years after the rules of the sport were established — and has had a team ever since. The program has been among the most successful in the country, winning national championships in 1982 and 1986.
The Penn State All-Sports Museum honors the achievements of the young men and women who built Penn State’s rich tradition in intercollegiate athletics. Located in the southwest corner of Beaver Stadium, the museum has approximately 10,000 square feet of exhibit space spread across two floors.
Since 1887, the perennially youthful journalists of The Daily Collegian and its forebears have recorded the first draft of the history of Penn State and its students. Throughout its history, students have run both the editorial and business sides of the enterprise, aided by a small staff providing management, professional advice and technical support. In […]
The Land-Grant Frescoes in the foyer of Old Main are a Penn State landmark that commemorate the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant College Act and the promise of higher education. Commissioned as a class gift from the Penn State Class of 1932, the fresco on the northern wall of Old Main pays tribute to the university’s land-grant […]
Lincoln Hall was a rooming house for Black male students at Penn State that became a center for African-American campus life from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.The circa 1910 home at 119 North Barnard Street in State College was owned and operated by Harry and Rosa Gifford and their children, Bessie and Emanuel.