PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2022

125th anniversary theme into their programs, said Linda Aylward, special collections assistant at the Virginius H. Chase Special Collections Center. Work began there this past summer to develop a digital exhibit, “125 Years of Bradley History in Objects,” which offers a snapshot of the university’s history through news clippings, photos, artifacts and documents. Special Collections Director Libby Tronnes, Ph.D., emphasized that the pieces selected do not necessarily represent themost important moments of theuniversity’s history, nor do they tell a complete story of the people, places and events that make up the fabric of Bradley. However, they do highlight the social, political and economic changes experienced across campus and the nation during the past century. Items range from a sample of a 1902 Domestic Science book that highlights the gender expectations of women at the time to a pride flag raised in 2021 honoring National Coming Out Week and celebrating LGBTQIA+ History

Month. There is a program from the first Founder’s Day in 1898, as well as a link to the BU COVID-19 Oral History Project and Archive. Special Collections Center officials want to add to the digital exhibit, and they are encouraging donors to contribute physical items, images and stories. Learn more about that at https://bradleyspecialcollections. omeka.net/exhibits/show/bradley university-125-anniv. For informationonBradleyUniversity’s founder Lydia Moss Bradley check out WTVP’s original historical documentary, Lydia: Ahead of Her Time

legacy by focusing on the needs and interests of today’s students. Students should choose us because we’ll help them build the futures they want and meet the challenges of tomorrow." Numerous events are planned over the course of the 2022-23 school year to celebrate this milestone anniversary. The public was invited to participate in the Founder’s Day Convocation in September. Homecoming and Late Night Bradley are incorporating the

Amy Geier Edgar is the Youth Services librarian at the Dunlap Public Library District, following a career in journalism that included working for the Associated Press in Ohio, Connecticut and

South Carolina, where she covered the Statehouse. She lives in Peoria with her husband, Rik, and two daughters

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