Temple Ambler Honors History, Alumni with Artifact Collection

On Sunday, the sun shone brightly off balloons as they hovered around the doorway of the Hilda Justice Building on the campus of Temple Ambler. A large ribbon, tied in the middle, blocked the doorway, waiting to be cut with the symbolic scissors resting nearby.

And at 1 p.m. on an unusually sunny and warm November day, the cloth was cut, marking the opening of the Hilda Justice Artifact Collection and the finale of the 100 year celebration of Temple Ambler.

Jenny Rose Carey, Director of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, introduced the ribbon cutting.

“This has been a culmination of long hours, slugging away at boxes of artifacts. I am grateful that every single one of you is here today,” said Carey.

As the scissor blades closed, a crowd of alumnae of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women, as the college used to be called, and members of the current Temple Ambler community cheered.  

The artifacts now housed inside the Hilda Justice Building represent the years these women spent at school, learning about horticulture and agriculture.

“It was one of the happiest two years of our lives,” said Betsy Kosty Smith, class of 1948, as she looked through the collection of artifacts. “It was a different time, but it was a great time.”

Scrapbooks of notes, diaries, yearbooks and acceptance letters lay on tables around the room, now open to visitors to look through. The memorabilia was mostly donated by former members of the PA School of Horticulture. Mary Anne Fry, class of 1958, provided her old school notes and textbooks for the collection.

Talks of turning the Hilda Justice Building into a home for the artifacts had taken place for nearly two years, but Carey said that it was only in the past few months that things really came together.

“Because we have the woman history site on campus and we give tours here, we wanted a place to be able to show visitors to explain the history,” said Carey. “The Hilda Justice Building used to be the old library, built in 1951. We thought it was appropriate for it to be the home of the artifacts.”

The artifact collection, in addition to the old notes and books, includes newspaper and magazine clippings about the school, Flower Show trophies, Horse Riding trophies, old gardening tools, lists of the plants and old seeds and dozens of pictures of the women who studied at the campus.

“It feels wonderful having the artifacts debuted,” said Barbara Morris, class of 1958. “I thought a long time ago it should have been done and I think they did a beautiful job.”

After the ribbon ceremony, visitors were given a chance to look through the building and were also invited to a tea and buffet style lunch. In addition, a skit about the founders of the horticulture school was presented by Claudia Scioly and Carrie Bachman, of the Woman’s National Farm & Garden Association.

“Many of us in this room are friends or at the very least acquaintances,” said Carrie Bachman as she introduced the skit.

The statement rang true, as visitors laughed and mingled around the displays, celebrating their shared history.

“It is awesome," said Linda Lowe, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs at Temple University Ambler. "It’s electrifying and so gratifying to see so many people happy-- that we captured the history that is so important to many of these ladies."

A special thanks to James Duffy, photographer for Temple University, who provided the pictures and captions that accompany this article.