Paying Tribute to Fred Rogers
Pitt librarians fill three display cases with memorabilia

The University of Pittsburgh paid tribute to the late Fred Rogers by displaying memorabilia from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Archives, which is part of the University Library System’s Elizabeth Nesbitt Room. Housed in the Information Sciences Library on the third floor of the School of Information Sciences Building, the collection contains more than 900 videotapes and scripts of the popular children’s television program, as well as books, records, and other promotional materials produced by Rogers or his production company, Family Communications Inc. Rogers died Feb. 27 at his home in Pittsburgh.

By Sharon S. Blake

Like many other people young and old, Pitt librarian Elizabeth Mahoney felt a jolt of shock when she woke up Feb. 27 to the news that Fred Rogers, beloved creator and host of the long-running PBS television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, had succumbed to cancer.

Mahoney knew that an especially challenging and emotional day lay ahead.

As a University Library System bibliographer of Pitt’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Archives in the Elizabeth Nesbitt Room of the Information Science Library, she oversees an extensive collection of more than 900 videotapes and scripts of the popular children’s television program, as well as books, records, and other promotional materials produced by Rogers or his production company, Family Communications Inc.

Driving to Pitt at 7 a.m. that day, she called her office from her cell phone and suggested that staff members begin pulling from the collection materials that would most interest the public and the media. In between fielding many phone calls about Rogers that day, Mahoney and her coworker, Marilyn DiPaolo, assembled enough books, scripts, photos, pamphlets, and other memorabilia regarding Rogers to fill three display cases directly outside the School of Information Sciences (SIS) third-floor elevators. The result is a tribute to the gentle man who broke new ground in the 1960s as he spoke to the 2- to 5-year-old set with respect and dignity through a television program that focused on self-esteem, truthfulness, and creativity.

A number of people came by that Thursday as Mahoney and DiPaolo placed the brightly colored books and pamphlets on the glass shelves. “They kept saying, ‘Oh, we’re so glad you’re doing this,’” recalled Mahoney. “There were students and faculty from the School of Information Sciences, other Pitt students, the general public. Even a middle school class stopped by.”

The exhibit, which will remain in place through May (with the exception of the week of March 10-14), features photos of Fred Rogers as a child, images of his early days in television, the Mister Rogers Little Golden Books, a sound recording, photos of him on the set with baseball legend Willie Stargell, tenor Francois Clemmons, the late U. S. Senator John Heinz, and other notables, and many photos of him with children.

“No matter who you were, there was something about one of those Mister Rogers programs that each one of us took a personal interest in,” Mahoney said, referring to Neighborhood guests that ranged from actor Lou Ferrigno of The Incredible Hulk to cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Eventually, the librarians plan to add to the cases some of the national newspaper tributes to Rogers as well as editorial cartoons and op-ed pieces compiled in his honor. Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Striped Tiger, and other friends from the Land of Make Believe are absent from the display; at the moment, they’re on loan to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, available for thousands of youngsters to enjoy.

The Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Archives had been of special interest for years before this past week. Laurel Povazan-Scholnick, who has cataloged the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood programs for Pitt’s online catalog, PITTCat, takes many requests from scholars researching child development, Pitt students working on papers, or members of the public who want to see a particular program. Povazan-Scholnick recently found and arranged for a section of an episode to be copied for a man who wanted to play it for his mother. She had been on the show as a child but more recently suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. The man called back weeks later, in tears, thanking the librarians for their help. Another memorable call came from a trucker driving his rig through Pittsburgh on his way to Montana. He was hoping to obtain a copy of a show his wife had been on to give to her as an anniversary present.

As Mahoney and Library and Information Science Professor Margaret “Maggie” Kimmel granted numerous interviews that Thursday to reporters as far away as Seattle and Toronto, the attention reinforced what they already knew—the appeal of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was universal.

Reflecting about how David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely, had made himself available to the press very early that morning outside the WQED-TV studios in Oakland, Mahoney said she felt the dissemination of the sad news was done tastefully and appropriately. “It was beautiful, in a way,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “It was almost as if Fred Rogers himself had a hand in it.”