Collection Description
This collection consists of books left to the University of Pennsylvania Libraries by Thomas G Waldman (Oct 5, 1938 – Jul 1, 2018), a noted scholar of the history of Medieval France. Waldman received a BA and MA from Columbia University in New York and a D.Phil. from Oxford University. Waldman was Associate Professor in the History Department at Penn prior to his retirement in 2007, and later served as a visiting scholar, teaching courses in medieval history. He also worked in Development for the School of the Arts and Sciences at Penn. Waldman was a co-founder of the Delaware Valley Medieval Association (DVMA) and helped secure a grant from the Lily Foundation that enables the association to flourish to this day.
The collection is largely related to the history 12th Century France, in particular the Abbey of Saint-Denis, north of Paris, and its most famous abbot, Suger. The collection includes many edited collections of primary sources relating to Capetian France and numerous French-language publications rarely present in North American libraries.
Penn Libraries also houses two archival collections related to Waldman, the Thomas G. Waldman Papers and Thomas G. Waldman Collection of Materials related to Felix Nadar, both of which are currently being processed for use at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.