Penn State Engineering Students on Parade, ca. 1910s

A parades photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park.

A photo of engineering students from the Pennsylvania State College (now Penn State University) participating in a parade, probably sometime in the 1910s,

The sign above the horse-drawn wagon that's carrying the first parade float (on the right-hand side of the photo) identifies it as belonging to the "Department of Mechanics and Materials of Construction," which was established in 1906. Today it's known as the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics within the University's College of Engineering. Students on the wagon appear to be operating some sort of machinery (a lathe, perhaps?).

The next float (in the middle of the photo) is mounted on an automobile. A student marching in front of it is carrying a sign proclaiming, "I Can Travel 30 Miles in 10 Hours." The sign on the side of the automobile says, "Railway Mechanical Engineering," and then--as far as I can tell--repeats the student's sign: "I Can Travel 30 Miles in 10 Hours." A model of a locomotive is barely visible at the back of the float, but I'm not sure whether railway travel at 3 miles per hour for 10 hours was an engineering achievement worthy of a parade float in the early twentieth century.

Finally, almost hidden in the shadows in the upper left-hand corner of the photo is another horse-drawn float with a sign for "The Thespians."