Myles Brager, Max Harrison, and Max Tauber, have all been taxi drivers since the 1930s.

In honor of Homecoming Weekend, and the Amherst vs Wesleyan football game tomorrow, here are a few glimpses of past games, mostly from our Athletics Collection. Here’s hoping the score tomorrow is more like the one in 1915 or 1935, and less like 1899!

One hundred years ago this weekend, Amherst won against Wesleyan, 10-6. According to the student newspaper “Despite the fact that the deciding touchdown was scored on a fumble, the victory was deserved, the Purple and White eleven making eleven first downs to their opponents’ seven.”

November 18, 1899 – Wesleyan won, 40-0 (!)

October 22, 1927 – Wesleyan won, 20-12

October 26, 1935 – Amherst won, 26-0

October 23, 1937 – Amherst won, 12-2

October 22, 1949 – Amherst won, 14-7

In honor of Homecoming Weekend, and the Amherst vs Wesleyan football game tomorrow, here are a few glimpses of past games, mostly from our Athletics Collection. Here’s hoping the score tomorrow is more like the one in 1915 or 1935, and less like 1899!

One hundred years ago this weekend, Amherst won against Wesleyan, 10-6. According to the student newspaper “Despite the fact that the deciding touchdown was scored on a fumble, the victory was deserved, the Purple and White eleven making eleven first downs to their opponents’ seven.”

November 18, 1899 – Wesleyan won, 40-0 (!)

October 22, 1927 – Wesleyan won, 20-12

October 26, 1935 – Amherst won, 26-0

October 23, 1937 – Amherst won, 12-2

October 22, 1949 – Amherst won, 14-7

Material digitized as part of UNCG’s partnership with the Hayes-Taylor YMCA Youth Achievers program is now online!

Over the past year, we have been working with students in the Hayes-Taylor program and with community members to uncover rare and personal items that are of unique historical value and that might not have made their way into a digital collection otherwise. We encouraged community members to contribute items that they thought were significant and documented a particular aspect of Greensboro’s history with specific attention given to African-American communities in the southeastern quadrant of the city.

Greensboro residents brought in some amazing items. Here is a small sample:

• Two photos documenting Greensboro’s East Market Street business district, which was destroyed in a 1960s urban renewal project.
• A scrapbook created by Mrs. Hyla Cundiff druing her time at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte from 1944-1948.
• Material documenting the life and work of Walter Lewis McNair, the first African-American pharmacist in Greensboro. 
• A photo album containing rare photographs of Dudley High School in the late 1930s taken by a student who later became a Tuskeegee Airman.
• Several photographs showing the Caldwella nd Foushee families and their lives in Greensboro’s Terra Cotta community from the 1950s to the 2000s.

We have a specialized, custom-built freezer to provide the highest standard of care for the storage of our photographic materials. It was the first institutional freezer built to the specifications researched by the Smithsonian Institution and it was officially opened by Mayor Philip Owen on February 20, 2002.

Mayor Owen is offered scissors to cut the ribbon on the freezer in 2002.

Why a Freezer?

Some types of photographic materials are unstable and cold storage will prolong their useful lives. Storage at freezer temperatures will prolong their lives the longest.

Without cold storage, cellulose acetate negatives wrinkle and become brittle 
as they give off acetic acid (vinegar).

Deteriorated acetate negative that would get even worse if stored at room temperature.

Colour photographs will fade, even when stored in the dark. Frozen storage will stop the colours from fading further.

Faded colours: the trees and water should not be red!

Movie films can have the same problems and will also benefit from frozen storage.

Frame from a faded colour motion picture.

How big was our problem?

In 1995 and again in 1998, we surveyed our deteriorating acetate negatives using A-D (Acid-Detecting) Strips. These strips change colour to indicate how deteriorated the acetate negatives are, giving us a good idea how much time they have left before they become wrinkled. They were developed by the Image Permanence Institute for the motion picture industry and won an Academy Award in 1997.

Acetate negative being tested in a ziploc bag with an A-D strip.

We noticed that the negatives had deteriorated in the three years between tests and we counted about 113,000 negatives that should be frozen as soon as possible, with hundreds of thousands more that needed freezing eventually.

We packaged the high priority negatives in Critical Moisture Indicator packaging developed by the conservation research labs at the Smithsonian Institution and adapted by Betty Walsh of the British Columbia Archives. The packaging kept the moisture content of the negatives low by using two thick, sealed plastic bags, and pieces of dried mat board. The moisture content could be monitored using the small blue indicator square on one end.

Critical Moisture Indicator package: 2 layers of ziploc bags, absorbent mat board, identification, and a blue square to indicate the moisture content.

The packages were created, assembly-line style, in a ventilated area to protect staff from the acetic acid given off by the negatives.

Negative packaging assembly line in a photographic darkroom.

In 2000, the packages were boxed and driven to a cold storage facility in Port Kells which specialized in storing frozen food. They were secured on a pallet and stored on a high shelf in a quiet corner.

Unloading boxes of negatives at the cold storage facility.

An hour down the highway, under layers of pallet wrap, corrugated plastic and packaging, access was difficult, but the negatives were safe.

OUR OWN FREEZER

We began to plan for our own on-site facility. The Smithsonian was sponsoring research into a low-cost and energy-efficient freezer that archives could use, and we discussed the design with them while the research was underway. Once it looked like the design worked, we built one.

The Friends of the Vancouver City Archives raised funds to purchase the freezer. The freezer was built from an ordinary, modular walk-in freezer, as used by restaurants but with a couple of small changes to help keep the humidity low. It was built in 2001. After testing in early 2002, we brought our negatives back from Port Kells and put the boxed packages on shelves in the freezer in time for the opening in February 2002.

Packaged negatives in our freezer at Vanier Park.

MORE EFFICIENT STORAGE

The Critical Moisture Indicator packaging was meant for small numbers (perhaps fewer than 20,000) of photographs, as a professional photographer might have. It’s not very efficient for larger volumes, as it involves freezing many layers of packaging—bags and mat board—which take up a lot of room in the expensive freezer space. We knew this, but we had to act quickly and there was no other reliable way of packaging them at the time.

Fortunately, the Smithsonian was also researching a storage method that could store photographic negatives safely and with minimal packaging. Storage cabinets with gasketted doors were put into the freezer. The shelves were lined with mat board and half a kilogram of dried silica gel was placed in each cabinet. The photographs could be stored on the shelves in their regular archival boxes, without extra plastic bags. We were able to get 50,000 negatives into the first cabinet we filled.

Gasketted cabinet filled with 50,000 negatives.

Traditionally, cold storage for cultural materials uses active dehumidification systems, which means they not only have an electrical system that controls temperature, but a separated electrical system that removes humidity from the cold air. Active dehumidification systems are

• expensive to purchase and install (especially at temperatures below zero)
• fussy to maintain (requiring HVAC engineers to adjust)
• require about four times the electricity to achieve the same humidity at freezer temperatures

The passive dehumidification system we use, which combines the freezer design with the gasketted cabinets, is

• inexpensive to purchase (some mat board and silica gel)
• easy to maintain (regular maintenance calls and the easy task of drying of the silica gel)
• green in its energy consumption

Two of the four rows of cabinets in the freezer today. The camping coolers are used to gently acclimatize the photographic materials to a change in environment when they are moved in or out of the freezer.

Today, the freezer holds approximately 750,000 negatives, colour slides and films. We still receive inquiries from around the world on our experience with this successful project.

Download a detailed, illustrated account of our work to provide cold storage for photographs at the Canadian Council of Archives web site.

At the National Archives, we connect with customers in a multitude of ways: face-to-face, over the phone, across the desk, in our research rooms, in the classroom and of course, online.  We serve a diverse set of customer communities, including educators, historians, genealogists, researchers, veterans and now groups such as civic hackers, Wikipedians and many more. To meet our goal of making access happen, we need to become more agile, more creative in connecting with them – whoever they are, wherever they are, to deliver what they want when they want it.

This second post in a series for American Archives Month explores the impact the National Archives is making as we strive to meet the needs and requests of our researchers, visitors, and customers, both in person and online.

As we review the numbers from the past year, we see that our researcher community is as active as ever before and the total number of researchers we serve is growing. Researchers explore our nation’s history through documents, photos, and other records in the holdings of the National Archives. During Fiscal Year 2015, the National Archives opened its doors to 84,000 researchers nationwide who visited our research facilities (a slight decrease from 104,000 in FY 2014). In terms of written reference requests (requests received through fax, letter or email), our staff across the country answered over 1.1M requests in fiscal year 2015, which is a 5% increase over last year. Our online research catalog received over 1 million views in fiscal year 2015, which is an increase of 20% from the previous year (834K). Additionally, there were over 243 million views of National Archives records on our partner websites, including Ancestry.com, Fold3 and FamilySearch. As the number of platforms we use to connect with our customers grows, so does the total number of researchers we are able to help.

Another important consideration is how information seekers are benefiting from and interacting with National Archives records online. On Wikipedia, for example, more than 7,600 National Archives images are currently being used in Wikipedia articles, and those articles have been viewed 925 million times during Fiscal Year 2015. These incredible numbers demonstrate how much online researchers, as well as Wikipedia editors, interact with our records on a daily basis.

The outstanding work NARA staff perform on a daily basis to engage with the public makes all the difference in satisfying the needs and requests of our researchers, whether in person or online. Through their many efforts and dedication to our mission, our staff will continue to honor our goal to connect with customers, understand their unique needs, and respond to their requests with professionalism and courtesy.

See my first post in this series exploring the impact the National Archives is making through our increased efforts to make access happen by maximizing value through web and social media. Stay tuned for more details on the results of our digitization and citizen engagement efforts.

It’s hard to imagine a teenage singer-songwriter today climbing the Billboard charts with a folk-rock song about a young, interracial love affair. But that’s exactly what happened in 1966 when Janis Ian, a 16-year-old from East Orange, New Jersey, released “Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking).”

This live studio recording aired on WNYC only months before Ian became a household name and “Society’s Child” became a flash point in the 1960s culture wars. The song was banned at radio stations across the country, but despite – or maybe because of – the controversy, it reached #1 in several major radio markets, and peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This performance includes five songs, four of which appear on the 1966 full-length album also called “Society’s Child”. The fifth song we’ve been unable to identify on any of Ian’s released material.  Ian calls it a “bleep bleep” song, presumably for its racy lyrics, which detail the exploitation and fears of a teenage girl on the streets of New York City.

1. Younger Generation Blues2. Society’s Child3. I’ll Give You A Stone If You’ll Throw It (Changing Thymes)4. (Too Old To) Go ‘Way Little Girl5. Bleep Bleep Song

Audio courtesy of the Dave Sear Folk Music Collection.

What do archivists do all day, anyway?  Look at old photos?  Dust yearbooks? Take papers from one file folder and put them in another?

Those are all true to some extent, but university archivists play more roles in their community than one might think.  Take a look at some of the extraordinary events during an average week in FSU Special Collections and Archives:

Thursday, October 15:

Students from the ART5928 workshop “Creating Experiences” visit the Claude Pepper Museum.  Their project this semester involves creating a public event that could be held in in a museum space.  The students have designed a Claude Pepper Pajama Party event and social media campaign, and today they’re walking through their ideas with Pepper Library Manager Rob Rubero.

FSU Special Collections has always considered local history one of its collecting strengths. In an effort to deepen community connections and learn more about the Tallahassee music industry, Rory Grennan and Katie McCormick attend a public appearance by influential songwriter and producer George Clinton.  Aside from smiles and photo opportunities, our archivists enjoy many conversations with Clinton’s family and associates about his work and his legacy.

Friday, October 16:

Today, the Special Collections Research Center reading room has the privilege of hosting the members of the Florida State University History Club.  A dozen history undergraduates attend an informational presentation by Manuscript Archivist Rory Grennan and Rare Books Librarian Kat Hoarn.  Presentations and instructional sessions for students, faculty, and the public are a core part of the Special Collections mission, and occur frequently at the beginning of the school year.  History Club members are excited to see 4000 years of human history laid out in documents from our collections including cuneiform tablets, a page from a Bible printed by Gutenberg, and artist books from the 21st century.

Monday, October 19:

Monday morning, archivists Sandra Varry and Krystal Thomas visit the University Registrar’s office to consult on the preservation of student transcripts on microfilm.  The filmed student records see heavy use, and unfortunately enough of the film has been worn down that some records are losing information.  The group discusses modern strategies such as digitization to preserve these essential historical records that document a century of higher education.

Later, Sandra Varry and division staff prepare for a new exhibit opening today in the Special Collections Exhibit Room on the first floor of Strozier Library.  “Mittan: A Retrospective” celebrates the work of photographer Barry Mittan, and documents student life at FSU in the 1960s and 1970s.  The exhibit was curated by graduate assistant Britt Boler and runs through January 2016.

In the afternoon, Krystal Thomas carefully reviews and uploads recently-digitized cookbooks and herbals to the FSU Digital Library.  The Digital Library features digitized versions of the highlights of our collections, as chosen by Special Collections staff and our users, and new content is added regularly by archives staff.

Tuesday, October 20:

Things They Don’t Teach You In Grad School #47:  Water and vinegar makes an effective, non-abrasive cleaner for a headstone.

Former FSU faculty member Paul Dirac was a giant in the fields of mathematics and quantum mechanics, and his papers are a frequently-consulted resource by researchers at FSU Libraries.  Since no members of the Dirac family remain in Tallahassee, it has become the unofficial duty of our library and archives staff to visit Dirac’s grave once a year and see that it is kept clean.  October 20th is the anniversary of Dirac’s death, and seems an appropriate time to visit the site.  Archivists Katie McCormick, Rory Grennan, and Krystal Thomas, accompanied by library Director of Development Susan Contente and a handful of Physics Department students, scrub the headstone and plant fresh flowers this afternoon.

Wednesday, October 21:

Early this morning, archives staff notice an uncharacteristic rise in temperature in the stacks.  After confirming initial impressions with a few temperature readings, contact is quickly made with library facilities staff to take steps to correct an issue with the building’s HVAC systems.  Constant environmental monitoring is an important part of preserving our collections, as paper, film, and other substrates are vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature and humidity.  There’s no point to collecting items that can’t be made to last!  You never know what someone might need next week…

What do archivists do all day, anyway?  Look at old photos?  Dust yearbooks? Take papers from one file folder and put them in another?

Those are all true to some extent, but university archivists play more roles in their community than one might think.  Take a look at some of the extraordinary events during an average week in FSU Special Collections and Archives:

Thursday, October 15:

Students from the ART5928 workshop “Creating Experiences” visit the Claude Pepper Museum.  Their project this semester involves creating a public event that could be held in in a museum space.  The students have designed a Claude Pepper Pajama Party event and social media campaign, and today they’re walking through their ideas with Pepper Library Manager Rob Rubero.

FSU Special Collections has always considered local history one of its collecting strengths. In an effort to deepen community connections and learn more about the Tallahassee music industry, Rory Grennan and Katie McCormick attend a public appearance by influential songwriter and producer George Clinton.  Aside from smiles and photo opportunities, our archivists enjoy many conversations with Clinton’s family and associates about his work and his legacy.

Friday, October 16:

Today, the Special Collections Research Center reading room has the privilege of hosting the members of the Florida State University History Club.  A dozen history undergraduates attend an informational presentation by Manuscript Archivist Rory Grennan and Rare Books Librarian Kat Hoarn.  Presentations and instructional sessions for students, faculty, and the public are a core part of the Special Collections mission, and occur frequently at the beginning of the school year.  History Club members are excited to see 4000 years of human history laid out in documents from our collections including cuneiform tablets, a page from a Bible printed by Gutenberg, and artist books from the 21st century.

Monday, October 19:

Monday morning, archivists Sandra Varry and Krystal Thomas visit the University Registrar’s office to consult on the preservation of student transcripts on microfilm.  The filmed student records see heavy use, and unfortunately enough of the film has been worn down that some records are losing information.  The group discusses modern strategies such as digitization to preserve these essential historical records that document a century of higher education.

Later, Sandra Varry and division staff prepare for a new exhibit opening today in the Special Collections Exhibit Room on the first floor of Strozier Library.  “Mittan: A Retrospective” celebrates the work of photographer Barry Mittan, and documents student life at FSU in the 1960s and 1970s.  The exhibit was curated by graduate assistant Britt Boler and runs through January 2016.

In the afternoon, Krystal Thomas carefully reviews and uploads recently-digitized cookbooks and herbals to the FSU Digital Library.  The Digital Library features digitized versions of the highlights of our collections, as chosen by Special Collections staff and our users, and new content is added regularly by archives staff.

Tuesday, October 20:

Things They Don’t Teach You In Grad School #47:  Water and vinegar makes an effective, non-abrasive cleaner for a headstone.

Former FSU faculty member Paul Dirac was a giant in the fields of mathematics and quantum mechanics, and his papers are a frequently-consulted resource by researchers at FSU Libraries.  Since no members of the Dirac family remain in Tallahassee, it has become the unofficial duty of our library and archives staff to visit Dirac’s grave once a year and see that it is kept clean.  October 20th is the anniversary of Dirac’s death, and seems an appropriate time to visit the site.  Archivists Katie McCormick, Rory Grennan, and Krystal Thomas, accompanied by library Director of Development Susan Contente and a handful of Physics Department students, scrub the headstone and plant fresh flowers this afternoon.

Wednesday, October 21:

Early this morning, archives staff notice an uncharacteristic rise in temperature in the stacks.  After confirming initial impressions with a few temperature readings, contact is quickly made with library facilities staff to take steps to correct an issue with the building’s HVAC systems.  Constant environmental monitoring is an important part of preserving our collections, as paper, film, and other substrates are vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature and humidity.  There’s no point to collecting items that can’t be made to last!  You never know what someone might need next week…

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of Paul Dirac’s death. As has become tradition, faculty and staff from the FSU Libraries, where we hold the physicist’s papers, and students from the Physics departments visit Dirac’s grave to clean it and plant flowers. Learn more about this in a post later this week but for now, we honor Professor Dirac.

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of Paul Dirac’s death. As has become tradition, faculty and staff from the FSU Libraries, where we hold the physicist’s papers, and students from the Physics departments visit Dirac’s grave to clean it and plant flowers. Learn more about this in a post later this week but for now, we honor Professor Dirac.

Our newest exhibition, “Acting Black: Black Performing Arts in RI since the 1700s”, guest curated by Robb Dimmick, explores the roles played by Black musicians, actors and actresses, models, writers, storytellers, poets, and dancers.

This past weekend the Providence Journal published an article about the exhibit, including a series of beautiful photos.

An opening reception will be held at the library tonight, October 19th, 2015, from 5 – 6:30 p.m. Please join us if you are in the area!

October is LGBT History Month which gives us all the opportunity to learn more about the LGBTQ+ community and its history around the Tallahassee and right here at Florida State University. LGBT History Month began in 1994 when Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher who believed that a month should be dedicated to teaching the history of the gay and lesbian community. He organized teachers and community leaders where they picked the month of October because public schools were in session and existing traditions (such as National Coming Out Day on October 11th) already occurred during October.

Gay & Lesbian History Month was recognized and endorsed by a number of national organizations including: GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, National Education Association and others. By 2006 the Equality Forum took over the responsibility for providing content, promotion, and resources for LGBT History Month.

FSU Special Collections is currently processing the records of FSU’s Pride Student Union. The collection is part of FSU Special Collections Heritage Protocol & University Archives. This collection shows the rich history of members of the LGBTQ+ community in Tallahassee and at FSU fighting for their civil rights as members of this community and as students fighting to be recognized as a student organization by the Student Government Association.

This year has been an effective year for positive change though there’s still so much more work and education that needs to be done. So far 2015 has brought increased awareness to transgender visibility (though #KeishaJenkins has become the 18th transgender woman of color killed in the United States this year). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing nationwide marriage equality earlier this year. For the second time ever (EVER!) the White House held a briefing on challenges facing bisexual people.

Research shows that incorporating LGBT history into our curriculum and conversations contributes to a safer environment for LGBTQ+ students.

There are a number of events you can attend this month right here at FSU to show your support!

Now go learn some history!

October is LGBT History Month which gives us all the opportunity to learn more about the LGBTQ+ community and its history around the Tallahassee and right here at Florida State University. LGBT History Month began in 1994 when Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher who believed that a month should be dedicated to teaching the history of the gay and lesbian community. He organized teachers and community leaders where they picked the month of October because public schools were in session and existing traditions (such as National Coming Out Day on October 11th) already occurred during October.

Gay & Lesbian History Month was recognized and endorsed by a number of national organizations including: GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, National Education Association and others. By 2006 the Equality Forum took over the responsibility for providing content, promotion, and resources for LGBT History Month.

FSU Special Collections is currently processing the records of FSU’s Pride Student Union. The collection is part of FSU Special Collections Heritage Protocol & University Archives. This collection shows the rich history of members of the LGBTQ+ community in Tallahassee and at FSU fighting for their civil rights as members of this community and as students fighting to be recognized as a student organization by the Student Government Association.

This year has been an effective year for positive change though there’s still so much more work and education that needs to be done. So far 2015 has brought increased awareness to transgender visibility (though #KeishaJenkins has become the 18th transgender woman of color killed in the United States this year). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing nationwide marriage equality earlier this year. For the second time ever (EVER!) the White House held a briefing on challenges facing bisexual people.

Research shows that incorporating LGBT history into our curriculum and conversations contributes to a safer environment for LGBTQ+ students.

There are a number of events you can attend this month right here at FSU to show your support!

Now go learn some history!

An old letter is like a present.  Its handwriting is the wrapping paper: before you can see or know the present, you have to unwrap it.  The present may be lousy, something you’ll quickly forget.  Or it might be something you keep, something you take with you, maybe even something that changes your life.  But you’ll never know until you unwrap it.

Sometimes a present is for sharing, like the one-pound chocolate bar in your colleague’s desk drawer.  I recently unwrapped such a letter –a letter full of delicious nuggets — and want to share it with you because it has lingered in my mind ever since I first read it.

The letter is from William Seymour Tyler, Class of 1830, to his brother Wellington Hart Tyler, Class of 1831.  The letter is dated January 30, 1837, when both men were in their mid-twenties.  Wellington (apparently nicknamed “Edward”) was principal at an academy in Manlius, New York, while William was at Amherst College teaching Latin and Greek and heading into his glory days as the man whose tardiness inspired the founding of the Philopogonian Society. We often think of Edward Hitchcock, professor and president, as the emblem of early Amherst College, but Tyler was here just as long and served just as devotedly. His “History of Amherst College” continues to be a very valuable, reliable resource, and he was the author of other, more modest works, including the nicely named “Why Sit Ye Here Idle?”

William Tyler’s letter to Wellington hits on a number of topics, including abolition in Massachusetts; the difficulty of finding money for Amherst College; the state of religious feeling at the College, and (my favorite part) about a certain family in Hadley.  To look at it page by page:

“Dear Brother,

            Above is a new lithograph of Buildings & Grounds, which are already familiar & welcome to your mind. The principle diff. between this & the former view consists in the new & elegant house of Esq, Boltwood & the terrace in front, which will soon be finished according to Esq. Wilder’s  plan. In the Printer, you will recognize the name of a member of our senior class.”

[Transcriber’s note: the Boltwood house is off to the left, where Converse is now.  “Esq. Wilder” is trustee Samson Vryling Stoddard Wilder.  The “printer” is Henry G. Van Lennep, Class of 1837, born in Turkey and a missionary and avid amateur artist there for 30 years]. 

 “While on the subject of the college, I will inform you that the application of the Trustees for an appropriation of $50,000 is now pending before the legislature. The joint Committee of the two houses have reported unanimously in favor of the grant. We have not much hope of getting the bill through the house. Better for a literary man to run the gauntlet between as many Indians, than to fall into the hands of the 200 or 250 avowed & trained Radicals in the Mass House of Representatives. The Radicals are opposed in toto to incorporated Institutions. The Demagogues must court the favor of the people by voting for a distribution of the surplus revenue among the towns, though a majority of them doubtless are fully convinced that it will only embroil the people without benefitting them. And when the surplus is thus thrown away, the Legislature will hardly venture or feel disposed to tax the people for an appropriation to Amherst College. Still the prospect is much more favorable than at any former application.”

[By the time of this letter, Amherst had its hard-won charter but was about to enter a period of financial difficulties and was seeking additional funding from the state.] 

“There have been during the past term & vacation four or five hopeful conversions among students, chiefly the freshman class. Rather more feeling, I think, now than last term.

The junior class received a valuable accession in a young man by the name of Smith from Yale College. He has more talents & is a more elegant scholar than Maynard. If he exerts himself, he will carry off the palm. You are probably impatient about the colloquia. When I wrote you last term, I had not explored the archives. On examination, I could not find either of the colloquies I wished or any other I ever heard on the stage. I found three or four, which I have not examined. If they are of any value, or will answer, I shall get a couple of them copied for you. Possibly more may be discovered, as the Archives have been thrown into confusion by the President’s moving. If not, might you not venture to write [Haven?] at the Asylum in New York, requesting him to send you a copy of his Colloquy, offering of course to remunerate him?”

[Tyler writes above about the state of religious feeling at Amherst, especially in relation to the revivals that swept through the area.  He refers as well to Class of 1838 members Charles Fuller Smith and Horace Maynard, both of whom had important careers in politics and the law.  Note too that by this time President Heman Humphrey had moved from the “first president’s house” (in the block where Mayo-Smith is now) to the house we still use as the president’s house today.  It’s also interesting that Tyler is already thinking in terms of “archives” — good man, that Tyler.  By “colloquia,” Tyler probably refers to records of religious debates or discussions.]

“The two Sisters ha! It seems I have kept you on tiptoe a month to know who they are. One of them is more likely to be wedded to the worm, than to me. She is probably near her end. She is a bright jewel. But the younger sister is brighter, sweeter still. She is perfectly enchanting tout ensemble form, features, mind, heart. Edward, if you can’t love Miss Nancy Brown of Hadley—nay, if you can help loving her on acquaintance, you are not my brother– ”

[More on this part below…]

[Letter addressed in this space to “Mr. W. H. Tyler, Manlius, Onondaga Co, N.Y.]

Baptist Church, now Human Resources offices.

We’ve had an anti-slavery fraternite [sic] meeting in the [Baptist Church] lately. In firing Cannon to disturb the Lecturer one Evening, a young man had his hand blown entirely off. That gun was a loud Lecture. Write soon. Yours, Wm. Tyler

This brief part of the letter is important for its depiction of the uncertain state of abolitionist sentiment at the time, both among students and faculty at the College and among the townspeople.  The speaker on this occasion was Rev. Nathaniel Colver, who preached against slavery for many decades and who by this time was probably inured to whatever insults the opposing side would hurl (or fire) at him.

Tyler seems to have been sympathetic to the cause, probably agreeing with the author of an op-ed in the Hampshire Gazette that describes the event:

My favorite part of Tyler’s letter, though, is where he writes about the Brown family and uses that spectacular expression, “wedded to the worm.” Did he coin that expression? Surely not, but I have yet to find it anywhere else except in a few articles and one poem (appended at end of post), all dated after Tyler’s letter. Tyler’s comments about the Browns piqued my curiosity, and if you suffer as I do from even a minor case of obsessive compulsion, you will not rest (so to speak) until you know who Nancy Brown is.  But what are the chances?  “Nancy Brown” sounds like a pretty common name.  And she probably married and changed it, so good luck to me.

To my surprise, the family turned up quickly.  And then I found a section confirming the identification in Tyler’s “History,” published more than 35 years after his letter to brother Wellington.  Tyler’s remembrance of the “beautiful and lovely family” and the “accomplished daughters” is downright sentimental, so you can tell the family meant a lot to him:

One by one the Browns died of tuberculosis: one each in 1837 and 1838, four in 1839, and one each in 1840 and 1842. Their home and worldly belongings were sold bit by bit too.

And the horrid cherry on top??  The beds and bedding went up for sale.

Who wants first dibs on the beds from a family of consumptives? You call it? Be my guest.

“La Miseria,” by Cristobal Rojas. Public domain image; accessed through Wikipedia.

If I had all the time in the world to search for answers, and maybe some magical powers too (because the evidence otherwise surely didn’t survive), I’d like to know what unsuspecting soul bought these beds and what became of the people who slept in them. But just how infectious would the beds be? Some sources I checked said that the tubercules wouldn’t survive on objects for long. A few others hedged their bets: “[Mycobacterium tuberculosis] can withstand weak disinfectants and survive in a dry state for weeks.” Certainly, this sale happened before people began to understand the nature of contagion.

“Scanning electron micrograph of M. tuberculosis.” Credit: Janice Carr Content Providers(s): CDC/ Dr. Ray Butler; Janice Carr – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL), #8438. Accessed through Wikipedia.

I went to find the Browns in nearby Hadley.  And there they were, all lined up.  I was glad to find them – glad to see them — and it felt like they were glad of company, some of them a little tipsy in excitement.  But it was also sad to see this evidence of a family wiped out in half a dozen years.

The “meek members of the Resurrection” in Old Hadley Cemetery.  Left to right, Edward (age 2.5); Sarah (age 22); son John (age 15); Rev. John (age 53); Mrs. Sarah Brown (age 43); Lucy Ann (age 22); Emilie (age 20), and Nancy (age 23).

So when Tyler referred to the Brown daughter about to be wedded to the worm, he most likely meant Lucy Ann:

Unfortunately, and as you can see from the caption in the group photograph above, the perfectly enchanting Miss Nancy Brown also succumbed to the disease.

After most of her family had died, Nancy left her sad home in Hadley to live with relatives in Vermont.  She made provisions so that when she too died, her body would be returned to Hadley to lie with her family.

Nancy Brown died on April 30, 1842.

Nancy’s obituary mentions one last daughter. It took a while to find her, but I finally learned that little Helen A. Brown, born in 1834, went to live with a colleague of her father’s, Rev. Joseph Day Condit.  Helen too eventually died of tuberculosis in 1855 at the age of 21.  This last daughter of Rev. John Brown lies with her adopted family in South Hadley, Mass.

William Tyler must’ve known Nancy Brown was doomed because he didn’t marry her when he could’ve. Instead, he married the bonny Amelia Whiting, who lived to be 85 and with whom he had five children.

William S. Tyler’s letter has a lot of useful information about early Amherst College, but the unfortunate Browns of Hadley continue to rattle around in my thoughts and to visit me in quiet times.

*************************************************

“Oh Where are the Spirits,” from the “New York Mirror,” September 23, 1837.

An old letter is like a present.  Its handwriting is the wrapping paper: before you can see or know the present, you have to unwrap it.  The present may be lousy, something you’ll quickly forget.  Or it might be something you keep, something you take with you, maybe even something that changes your life.  But you’ll never know until you unwrap it.

Sometimes a present is for sharing, like the one-pound chocolate bar in your colleague’s desk drawer.  I recently unwrapped such a present –a letter full of delicious nuggets — and want to share it with you because it has lingered in my mind ever since I first read it.

The letter is from William Seymour Tyler, Class of 1830, to his brother Wellington Hart Tyler, Class of 1831.  The letter is dated January 30, 1837, when both men were in their mid-twenties.  Wellington (apparently nicknamed “Edward”) was principal at an academy in Manlius, New York, while William was at Amherst College teaching Latin and Greek and heading into his glory days as the man whose tardiness inspired the founding of the Philopogonian Society. We often think of Edward Hitchcock, professor and president, as the emblem of early Amherst College, but Tyler was here just as long and served just as devotedly. His “History of Amherst College” continues to be a very valuable, reliable resource, and he was the author of other, more modest works, including the nicely named “Why Sit Ye Here Idle?”

William Tyler’s letter to Wellington hits on a number of topics, including abolition in Massachusetts; the difficulty of finding money for Amherst College; the state of religious feeling at the College, and (my favorite part) about a certain family in Hadley.  To look at it page by page:

“Dear Brother,

            Above is a new lithograph of Buildings & Grounds, which are already familiar & welcome to your mind. The principle diff. between this & the former view consists in the new & elegant house of Esq, Boltwood & the terrace in front, which will soon be finished according to Esq. Wilder’s  plan. In the Printer, you will recognize the name of a member of our senior class.”

[Transcriber’s note: the Boltwood house is off to the left, where Converse is now.  “Esq. Wilder” is trustee Samson Vryling Stoddard Wilder.  The “printer” is Henry G. Van Lennep, Class of 1837, born in Turkey and a missionary and avid amateur artist there for 30 years]. 

 “While on the subject of the college, I will inform you that the application of the Trustees for an appropriation of $50,000 is now pending before the legislature. The joint Committee of the two houses have reported unanimously in favor of the grant. We have not much hope of getting the bill through the house. Better for a literary man to run the gauntlet between as many Indians, than to fall into the hands of the 200 or 250 avowed & trained Radicals in the Mass House of Representatives. The Radicals are opposed in toto to incorporated Institutions. The Demagogues must court the favor of the people by voting for a distribution of the surplus revenue among the towns, though a majority of them doubtless are fully convinced that it will only embroil the people without benefitting them. And when the surplus is thus thrown away, the Legislature will hardly venture or feel disposed to tax the people for an appropriation to Amherst College. Still the prospect is much more favorable than at any former application.”

[By the time of this letter, Amherst had its hard-won charter but was about to enter a period of financial difficulties and was seeking additional funding from the state.] 

“There have been during the past term & vacation four or five hopeful conversions among students, chiefly the freshman class. Rather more feeling, I think, now than last term.

The junior class received a valuable accession in a young man by the name of Smith from Yale College. He has more talents & is a more elegant scholar than Maynard. If he exerts himself, he will carry off the palm. You are probably impatient about the colloquia. When I wrote you last term, I had not explored the archives. On examination, I could not find either of the colloquies I wished or any other I ever heard on the stage. I found three or four, which I have not examined. If they are of any value, or will answer, I shall get a couple of them copied for you. Possibly more may be discovered, as the Archives have been thrown into confusion by the President’s moving. If not, might you not venture to write [Haven?] at the Asylum in New York, requesting him to send you a copy of his Colloquy, offering of course to remunerate him?”

[Tyler writes above about the state of religious feeling at Amherst, especially in relation to the revivals that swept through the area.  He refers as well to Class of 1838 members Charles Fuller Smith and Horace Maynard, both of whom had important careers in politics and the law.  Note too that by this time President Heman Humphrey had moved from the “first president’s house” (in the block where Mayo-Smith is now) to the house we still use as the president’s house today.  It’s also interesting that Tyler is already thinking in terms of “archives” — good man, that Tyler.  By “colloquia,” Tyler probably refers to records of religious debates or discussions.]

“The two Sisters ha! It seems I have kept you on tiptoe a month to know who they are. One of them is more likely to be wedded to the worm, than to me. She is probably near her end. She is a bright jewel. But the younger sister is brighter, sweeter still. She is perfectly enchanting tout ensemble form, features, mind, heart. Edward, if you can’t love Miss Nancy Brown of Hadley—nay, if you can help loving her on acquaintance, you are not my brother– ”

[More on this part below…]

[Letter addressed in this space to “Mr. W. H. Tyler, Manlius, Onondaga Co, N.Y.]

Baptist Church, now Human Resources offices.

We’ve had an anti-slavery fraternite [sic] meeting in the [Baptist Church] lately. In firing Cannon to disturb the Lecturer one Evening, a young man had his hand blown entirely off. That gun was a loud Lecture. Write soon. Yours, Wm. Tyler

This brief part of the letter is important for its depiction of the uncertain state of abolitionist sentiment at the time, both among students and faculty at the College and among the townspeople.  The speaker on this occasion was Rev. Nathaniel Colver, who preached against slavery for many decades and who by this time was probably inured to whatever insults the opposing side would hurl (or fire) at him.

Tyler seems to have been sympathetic to the cause, probably agreeing with the author of an op-ed in the Hampshire Gazette that describes the event:

My favorite part of Tyler’s letter, though, is where he writes about the Brown family and uses that spectacular expression, “wedded to the worm.” Did he coin that expression? Surely not, but I have yet to find it anywhere else except in a few articles and one poem (appended at end of post), all dated after Tyler’s letter. Tyler’s comments about the Browns piqued my curiosity, and if you suffer as I do from even a minor case of obsessive compulsion, you will not rest (so to speak) until you know who Nancy Brown is.  But what are the chances?  “Nancy Brown” sounds like a pretty common name.  And she probably married and changed it, so good luck to me.

To my surprise, the family turned up quickly.  And then I found a section confirming the identification in Tyler’s “History,” published more than 35 years after his letter to brother Wellington.  Tyler’s remembrance of the “beautiful and lovely family” and the “accomplished daughters” is downright sentimental, so you can tell the family meant a lot to him:

One by one the Browns died of tuberculosis: one each in 1837 and 1838, four in 1839, and one each in 1840 and 1842. Their home and worldly belongings were sold bit by bit too.

And the horrid cherry on top??  The beds and bedding went up for sale.

Who wants first dibs on the beds from a family of consumptives? You call it? Be my guest.

“La Miseria,” by Cristobal Rojas. Public domain image; accessed through Wikipedia.

If I had all the time in the world to search for answers, and maybe some magical powers too (because the evidence otherwise surely didn’t survive), I’d like to know what unsuspecting soul bought these beds and what became of the people who slept in them. But just how infectious would the beds be? Some sources I checked said that the tubercules wouldn’t survive on objects for long. A few others hedged their bets: “[Mycobacterium tuberculosis] can withstand weak disinfectants and survive in a dry state for weeks.” Certainly, this sale happened before people began to understand the nature of contagion.

“Scanning electron micrograph of M. tuberculosis.” Credit: Janice Carr Content Providers(s): CDC/ Dr. Ray Butler; Janice Carr – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL), #8438. Accessed through Wikipedia.

I went to find the Browns in nearby Hadley.  And there they were, all lined up.  I was glad to find them – glad to see them — and it felt like they were glad of company, some of them a little tipsy in excitement.  But it was also sad to see this evidence of a family wiped out in half a dozen years.

The “meek members of the Resurrection” in Old Hadley Cemetery.  Left to right, Edward (age 2.5); Sarah (age 22); son John (age 15); Rev. John (age 53); Mrs. Sarah Brown (age 43); Lucy Ann (age 22); Emilie (age 20), and Nancy (age 23).

So when Tyler referred to the Brown daughter about to be wedded to the worm, he most likely meant Lucy Ann, who died on February 2, only a few days after Tyler wrote his letter:

Unfortunately, and as you can see from the caption in the group photograph above, the perfectly enchanting Miss Nancy Brown also succumbed to the disease.

After most of her family had died, Nancy left her sad home in Hadley to live with relatives in Vermont.  She made provisions so that when she too died, her body would be returned to Hadley to lie with her family.

Nancy Brown died on April 30, 1842.

Nancy’s obituary mentions one last daughter. It took a while to find her, but I finally learned that little Helen A. Brown, born in 1834, went to live with a colleague of her father’s, Rev. Joseph Day Condit.  Helen too eventually died of tuberculosis in 1855 at the age of 21.  This last daughter of Rev. John Brown lies with her adopted family in South Hadley, Mass.

William Tyler must’ve known Nancy Brown was doomed because he didn’t marry her when he could’ve. Instead, he married the bonny Amelia Whiting, who lived to be 85 and with whom he had five children.

William S. Tyler’s letter has a lot of useful information about early Amherst College, but the unfortunate Browns of Hadley continue to rattle around in my thoughts and to visit me in quiet times.

*************************************************

“Oh Where are the Spirits,” from the “New York Mirror,” September 23, 1837.

A new exhibit about Midnite Madness at the University of North Carolina Wilmington is now on display in the library during operating hours. Check out "Seahawks After Dark" in an exhibit case adjacent to University Archives, Randall Library Room 2008, in between Honors College and University Archives.

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Yesterday we had a great visit from a group of artists, arts professionals, and directors of artists’ residencies, all of whom are participating in the 2015 Alliance of Artists Communities conference.

Visitors got a tour of the library’s grand architecture and secret corners, interacted with Special Collections materials and historic magazines, went on a scavenger hunt through the nonfiction stacks, and used reproductions of collections materials to make magnets and buttons.

Here you can see some folks using an adhesive magnetic sheet and color photocopies to make refrigerator magnets:

And here you can see our button-maker in action:

We’re so excited to bring more artists, designers, and creative professionals in to the library to interact with our collections and use them in new ways!

There’s something uniquely charming about this traffic report from 1967.  Maybe it’s the announcer’s accent (something all but lost in today’s New York) or perhaps it’s just the comfort in knowing that subway delays have always been a part of city life. The highlight, however, may be the sounds we hardly ever hear today: phones ringing off the hook and a cacophony of reporters’ voices in that busy New York City newsroom.

During the 1960s, much of WNYC news broadcast tapes were either recorded over or bulk erased for reuse. This traffic clip recently and unexpectedly surfaced at the end of another WNYC taped show from 1967 called Around New York.

American Archives Month is when archivists often take the time to tell the public what it is we do all day and why they should care. However, we’ve never much talked about how it must be for the collections themselves. Here’s a collection-level view of what an archivist does when new materials arrive.

When I arrived in the Special Collections & Archives Division at Florida State University, I was a real mess. Parts in cardboard boxes, others in plastic bags; I heard the folks who brought me in say more than once that it was hard to tell which end was which. Since then I’ve discovered that it isn’t always the same with other new arrivals.

Some show up completely tidy and ready to help people find the answers to their most pressing questions. Not so with me. I started life out in the College of Communications at Florida State University in 1972 in the office of a young professor named Thomas Hoffer. I wasn’t much at first, but as the years kept piling up, as is the tendency with things, I grew. Exams, course syllabi, professional correspondence and some non-important bits like old blank warehouse club membership applications were just a few of the things that came to represent me after the thirty years I was with Professor Hoffer. Being quite substantial at this point and with the Professor retiring, I needed a place to go. After getting boxed, and bagged up, I was taken to a storage facility not far from the university.

Settling into my new home wasn’t too bad once I got over being constantly lifted up and put down again, though I must say it was a little warmer than I was used to. After a few years had passed, it was decided that I would be donated to the Special Collections & Archives at Florida State University and I became acquainted with some folks that called themselves archivists. That’s when things got interesting. At first they made some initial visits to my storage space to go through my contents, making notes and doing a lot of talking about how much of me there was.

After several of these visits, instead of bringing note pads and pencils with them, the archivists showed up with hand trucks, push carts and a van which they used to bring me back to the university. It was a little confusing at first and I’d wondered if there had been a mistake, but eventually, piece by piece I was moved from my storage room back to campus. To be specific, I was moved to an archives.

My skepticism started to fade when the archivists and student workers began to remove my essential parts from the musky boxes and plastic bags, and started putting me into fresh new folders and boxes that, by the looks of them, were made specifically for archives. According to the folks who were shifting me around, these new folders and boxes would help in keeping me around for a good while longer. As all of this was going on, all of the non-important bits that I mentioned earlier, like the blank forms and random accumulations such as a bit of reptile skin were removed and disposed of. After about a year and half of this celebrity treatment, my “physical processing,” as the archivists called it, was finished and I found myself in a new home on the shelves of the Claude Pepper Library.

Since then an electronic finding aid, which as I have gathered, is like a road map for my makeup and contents, has been put online by the good archivists and can be found on the FSU Special Collections & Archives homepage (the internet wasn’t around when I got my start, but I highly recommend it!). The finding aid helps researchers like yourself find what you’d need quickly and easily like Dr. Hoffer’s work with his film indexing project or classes he taught on documentary film making. I hope you’ve enjoyed my story and will come visit the Florida State University Libraries Division of Special Collections & Archives to see what our collections are made of. Whether it’s for a project or personal enrichment, I guarantee you’ll find something interesting to learn about and enjoy.

American Archives Month is when archivists often take the time to tell the public what it is we do all day and why they should care. However, we’ve never much talked about how it must be for the collections themselves. Here’s a collection-level view of what an archivist does when new materials arrive.

When I arrived in the Special Collections & Archives Division at Florida State University, I was a real mess. Parts in cardboard boxes, others in plastic bags; I heard the folks who brought me in say more than once that it was hard to tell which end was which. Since then I’ve discovered that it isn’t always the same with other new arrivals.

Some show up completely tidy and ready to help people find the answers to their most pressing questions. Not so with me. I started life out in the College of Communications at Florida State University in 1972 in the office of a young professor named Thomas Hoffer. I wasn’t much at first, but as the years kept piling up, as is the tendency with things, I grew. Exams, course syllabi, professional correspondence and some non-important bits like old blank warehouse club membership applications were just a few of the things that came to represent me after the thirty years I was with Professor Hoffer. Being quite substantial at this point and with the Professor retiring, I needed a place to go. After getting boxed, and bagged up, I was taken to a storage facility not far from the university.

Settling into my new home wasn’t too bad once I got over being constantly lifted up and put down again, though I must say it was a little warmer than I was used to. After a few years had passed, it was decided that I would be donated to the Special Collections & Archives at Florida State University and I became acquainted with some folks that called themselves archivists. That’s when things got interesting. At first they made some initial visits to my storage space to go through my contents, making notes and doing a lot of talking about how much of me there was.

After several of these visits, instead of bringing note pads and pencils with them, the archivists showed up with hand trucks, push carts and a van which they used to bring me back to the university. It was a little confusing at first and I’d wondered if there had been a mistake, but eventually, piece by piece I was moved from my storage room back to campus. To be specific, I was moved to an archives.

My skepticism started to fade when the archivists and student workers began to remove my essential parts from the musky boxes and plastic bags, and started putting me into fresh new folders and boxes that, by the looks of them, were made specifically for archives. According to the folks who were shifting me around, these new folders and boxes would help in keeping me around for a good while longer. As all of this was going on, all of the non-important bits that I mentioned earlier, like the blank forms and random accumulations such as a bit of reptile skin were removed and disposed of. After about a year and half of this celebrity treatment, my “physical processing,” as the archivists called it, was finished and I found myself in a new home on the shelves of the Claude Pepper Library.

Since then an electronic finding aid, which as I have gathered, is like a road map for my makeup and contents, has been put online by the good archivists and can be found on the FSU Special Collections & Archives homepage (the internet wasn’t around when I got my start, but I highly recommend it!). The finding aid helps researchers like yourself find what you’d need quickly and easily like Dr. Hoffer’s work with his film indexing project or classes he taught on documentary film making. I hope you’ve enjoyed my story and will come visit the Florida State University Libraries Division of Special Collections & Archives to see what our collections are made of. Whether it’s for a project or personal enrichment, I guarantee you’ll find something interesting to learn about and enjoy.

This is just a quick note to help you plan your calendar for the upcoming year, especially if you’re someone who plans way ahead. We just crowned our first Updike Prize winner this past February (congrats, Sandra!), and it was a great event, with a terrific lecture by Tobias Frere-Jones. But one thing we learned in the process is that February in New England is a month best left to hunkering down with warm beverages and hoping for spring.

That’s why we’re moving the Updike celebration to October from now on. Not this October, though: October 2016 will be our next date. That also means that students working on their typefaces have a bit of extra time to do their work. The new deadline is now September 16th.

And there’s one more change: We’re now doubling the size of first prize to $500! So get to work and plan your visits to use the collection. (As a reminder, we have open hours, no appointment needed, on Tuesdays from 10-1pm and Wednesdays from 3-7pm.)

And now, for no particular reason, here’s a picture of some folks from an 1886 German type specimen book: