Joy Radin photographs and papers
Collection 4605
circa 1920-circa 2015, undated(4.0 Linear feet ; 7 boxes, 4 volumes)
Table of Contents
Summary Information
- Repository
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- Creator
- Radin, Joy Kacher Tressan.
- Title
- Joy Radin photographs and papers
- ID
- 4605
- Date
- circa 1920-circa 2015, undated
- Extent
- 4.0 Linear feet ; 7 boxes, 4 volumes
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Randi Kamine.
- Language
- English
Preferred citation
Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], Joy Radin photographs and papers (Collection 4605), Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Background note
Joy Alynne Kacher Tressan Radin (nicknamed "Mimi") was born in Philadelphia in 1939 to Leon Kacher and Hester Ziserman. Kacher was a physician who practiced in Philadelphia.
Radin had a career as a Philadelphia school teacher. She graduated from Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion in 1957. She attended Marywood College in Scranton and St. Joseph’s University. She began teaching the 8th grade at the Henry Houston School in Mount Airy in 1973. In the early 1980s, she made local headlines with her "Week at Work" program, which she devised to help students better understand the workforce.
Radin married twice and did not have children. Her first marriage was to Elliot Robert Tressan, whom she married in June 1960 when she was 21 years old. The union ended in divorce, and Tressan moved to California. Tressan died in 2004. Her second marriage, in 1973, was to Harris Radin. Radin was an artist, photographer, and the owner of an interior design company. He died in 2013; she passed away in 2019.
Scope and content note
This collection is comprised primarily of Radin's family photographs, which date from the early to late 20th century Most are in albums, including The Radins' wedding album and albums celebrating their milestone birthdays, but many are also loose. Some photographs show works from Harris Radin’s business, and various views and landscapes, which may have been taken by Harris Radin. There are also dozens of photographs of small white dogs, the couple's preferred pets.
Making up the small portion of manuscripts in the collection are copies of family records, correspondence, Radin's school records, papers she saved from students, programs and photographs from an Akiba class reunion she attended, clippings, and other miscellaneous items. There is also Jewish a prayer book, and some documents from Akiba Academy and the Jewish summer camp “Rose Twig”.
Altogether, the collection documents the life of a middle class, suburban Jewish family. It would be of interest researchers studying family dynamics in the latter half of the 20th century.
Collection inventory
Box 1: Radin's personal records, prayer books, family papers, and correspondence
Boxes 2-4 and 7: Photographs
Boxes 5-6: Audio-visual materials
Volume 1: Family photograph album, circa 1960-1970s
Volume 2: Harris Radin 50th birthday photograph album
Volume 3: Harry Schneiderman and I. J. Carmin Karpman, eds, Who’s Who in World Jewry: A Biographical Dictionary of Outstanding Jews, 1965.
Volume 4: Elliott R. Tressan, “The effects of Amino Acid Analogue Para-Fluorophenylalanine on Culturured Mammalian Cells.” Department of Pathology, Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Ph.D Thesis.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Historical Society of Pennsylvania ; 2024.
1300 Locust StreetPhiladelphia, PA, 19107
215-732-6200
Access restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Provenance
Anonymous, 2023.
Accession numbers 2023.065, 2023.080.
Related Materials
Separated materials
Two yearbooks from the collection were transferred to HSP library's yearbook collection:
University of Pennsylvania Record (1961)
Central High School of Philadelphia The Record (1953) – inscribed to Harris William Radin
Controlled Access Headings
Corporate Name(s)
- Anonymous.
Personal Name(s)
- Radin, Harris.
Subject(s)
- Jewish families--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
- Teachers--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--20th century.
- Teachers.