About the Archive

  • Oral histories Cooperators interviewing cooperators to create a record of the lived experience of life at Penn South.

  • Material Culture Collecting, digitizing and preserving cooperator’s photographs, documents, artworks & publications.

  • Collaboration We are committed to making our materials widely available to all for research, journalism, art making, and activism.

  • Accessibility All of our videos are captioned and transcripts are provided. Images have alt text. Please contact us if other options would be helpful.

The Penn South Archive Project was launched in Spring 2022. Our first project was to train cooperators to interview ‘The Originals’, cooperators who moved into Penn South in 1962. The response to the project was enthusiastic and the committee includes cooperators aged 15 to 92 years old. Oral history recordings of original cooperators have been expanded to include artists and multi-generational families. The collection now includes material culture, the photographs, documents and memorabilia of cooperators. The digital archive of oral histories and images continues to grow and is publicly available on our website.

The Penn South Archive Project is an initiative of the PSSS Education Committee and the PSSS Board.

Penn South Archive Project

Co-Coordinators: Tracy Gross, Trudy Rudnick
Artistic Director: Ruth Sergel

Cara Aloisio • Christiane Bird • Silvie Bird • Alice Bryant • Leah Cooper • Bea Corbett • Peggy Crull • Lisa Ellis • Olive Eng • Sonia Goldstein • Liz Greenberg • John Harris • Vita Kurland • Nancy Kurtz • Loraine Machlin • Walter Naegle • Lynne Oddo • Susan Ortega • Joan Ostroff • Bridget Robinson • Pauline Rothstein • Ellen Semel • Fiona Shuldiner • Gail Siegal • Colette Swietnicki • Abby Tannenbaum • Thelma Thomas • Rena Zager

Penn South Archive Contributors

Doug & Rick Acosta • Andrew Alpern • Bertha Bendick • Maggie Block • Bea Corbett • Keri D'Andrea • Eric Darton • Margo DePaola • Dullea Family • Judith Eisenbach • Bernie & Paulette Esrig • Ruby Vogel Fanger • Anne Foerg • Millie Glaberman • David Glasser • Ira & Trude Glasser • Tracy Gross • John Harris • Norman & Velma Hill • Susan Immergut • Katya de Kadt • Georgia Keghlian • Harriet Kriegel • Norma Langbert • Albert Machlin • Loraine Machlin • Harold Vander Malle • Ann-Marie Mellon • Walter Naegle • Lynne Oddo • Pauline Rothstein • Trudy Rudnick • Lenny & Mary Smoke • Abby Tannenbaum • Lois Weiss • Chris Wynter

The Penn South Archive Project
is made possible by the support of
Penn South Social Services

The Lily Auchincloss Foundation

Marc & Suzanne Epstein • Saralyn Esh • David & Julia Fried • Marilyn Goldstein • Michael Hanko • Kim Jessor • Linda Lowenstein • Deirdre May • Lynne Oddo • Virginia Pfeiffer • Judith Pomerantz • Trudy Rudnick • Nancy Kay Shapiro • Mary Smoke