Scranton Book, Wall Paper, & Variety Store

Scranton Directory 1859-1860, which is part of the Out of the Wilderness collection, contains, in addition to business and residential listings, many interesting advertisements like the one below for a "Book, Wall Paper, & Variety" store. Students would apparently go there to get their "slates" which I assume are a precursor to the iPad.

104 Years Ago

This was the 29th concert of the Scranton Symphony Orchestra was held on January 18, 1904 at the Lyceum Theater.   This concert was conducted by Louis Baker Phillips who was the conductor for other concerts as well.  There were two parts to the program. The first part included a piece by Beethoven, and in the second part there was a piece by Schubert along with some others.

Albright Reference Room 1969

In this photo, which is part of The History of the Scranton Public Library Collection, the camera is facing west. In this era, the Reference Room stacks were arranged around the perimeter of the room. In the 1990s all of the stacks were relocated to the south side of the room. They are now being removed as electronic content is replacing print materials in the library's Reference Collection.

Upcoming collection: Community Medical Center

The Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives team are super excited about the launch of a new collection this winter.  It's an archive of the Community Medical Center from its origins as Hahnemann Hospital to almost current times. There are going to be scrapbooks, photos, graduation programs, and other items relating to the history of the hospital.  We plan to have this collection available online in mid February so stay tuned for this wonderful collection.

Scranton Christmas Windows

Now is the perfect time to visit the Scranton Christmas Windows collection in the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives.In 2009 Gene Giancini was cleaning out a building on the West Side of Scranton. His family had operated a business in the building for 60 years, and he was in the process of selling it. He found, stacked in the corner, old photos of Christmas window displays from Household Outfitting Company, 306-314 Lackawanna Ave. The entire collection appears in the LVDA.

The Pennsylvania Guardsman

The Pennsylvania Guardsmen was a magazine published about the Pennsylvania National Guard. This periodical contained stories about the Guard and what they were doing at the time. This issue released in the Fall of 1955 focused on the National Guard deployed in Northeast Pennsylvania after Hurricane Diane.  The magazine features photographs of the disaster along with the story behind it.  If your interested in the National Guard the whole magazine was scanned in our digital archive.

Interview with Hurricane Diane Victim

Jim Keenan remembers Hurricane Diane vividly because his family home in East Scranton was swept away in the flood waters. This video interview is one of several in the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives where witnesses and survivors recount their personal memories of the flood.