When thinking about the sixties, the era reverberates brightly, like a tie-dye shirt at Woodstock, of radical events and changes across the globe. The 1960s were one of the most tumultuous and divisive decades in America history, dominated by the Vietnam War, Civil Rights movement, assassinations of President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, Cuban Missile Crisis, and truly out this world moments with Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon.
On campuses across the nation, the number of college students doubled between 1940 and 1960 to 3.6 million, creating a huge population of high-educated students-- who grew up amidst of Brown v. Board of Education and the Vietnam War-- with unprecedented motivation to fight for social change nationally and on campus steps [1].
Villanova University, like many college campuses throughout the country, were challenged by student reactions to a variety of political and cultural changes, yet Villanova was also confronted with the conflict between tradition and change from the Catholic Church and the student rejection of old restrictive student administration policies.
This digital exhibit is a compilation of photographs, news articles, audio-recordings, and programs that show a few stories of student life and the evolution of the campus during 1960s.
The following images included in exhibit are a small, representative group of photographs, articles, and documents from the University Archives which houses the life and times of the university from the 1850s to the present.
Pee Chee Images from Villanova University 1960s Yearbooks
[1]"The 1960s: A Decade of Promise and Heartbreak." U.S. News & World Report. Accessed March 1, 2019. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/03/09/the-1960s-a-decade-of-promise-and-heartbreak.
Questions or comments about the exhibit can be sent to Beaudry Allen, beaudry.allen@villanova.edu
Have Villanova material from the 1960s? Donate to the University Archives today!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Curator: Beaudry Rae Allen, Digital and Preservation Archivist
Graphic Design: Joanne Quinn, Director of Communication and Marketing, Graphic Designer
Assistant Audio Technician: Thomas Dorrance
Sports Recording: Taras "The Legend" Ortynsky
Student Recordings by:
Shannon Murray Tariere Tebepah
Lilly Sullivan Nasir Dowling
Matthew Fagerstrom Samantha Palazzolo
Norman Williams
Special thanks to Rebecca Oviedo and her team digitizing images for the exhibit.