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Guests are invited to explore the life works of Clifton Van Brunt Lewis, a local activist in the Tallahassee civil rights movement who championed for equality, pushed for historic preservation and founded many of Tallahassee’s beloved cultural institutions, including LeMoyne Center for the Arts, Tallahassee Museum, and the Spring House Institute.

Clifton and her husband George Lewis II supported student protestors during the lunch counter sit-ins and theatre demonstrations, as well as worked on interracial committees such as the Tallahassee Association for Good Government and the Tallahassee Council on Human Relations. Clifton established “The Little Gallery” in the lobby of the Lewis State Bank, showcasing both white and black artists in a rotating display. She stayed active until the very end, pushing for equal rights, environmental protection, and art and beauty for everyone.

Their family home, the Lewis Spring House, is the only residence designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright in Florida during his lifetime. It is operated by the Spring House Institute. Visit them at PreserveSpringHouse.net.

The opening reception is Thursday, April 12 from 5-7PM  in the Mary Lou Norwood Reading Room, second floor Strozier Library. Exhibit curator Lydia Nabors will give a short talk at 6:15PM.

The exhibit will be open 10AM-6PM Monday through Friday in the Norwood throughout Summer 2018.

You can also explore the exhibit online at CliftonInTheCapital.omeka.net.

In keeping with month’s theme, Poetry and Nature, I wanted to turn back to Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse,” a poem that delights and provokes upon each reread. In the poem we can see Burns’ tendency to find inspiration in the everyday; a brief encounter with nature gives him the opportunity to ruminate on the state of man and mouse alike. 

FSU’s Special Collections holds an incredible number of volumes of Robert Burns poetry, as well as ephemera connected to Burns fandom. A simple search for “Robert Burns” in the catalog of Special Collections items returns 149 items, including plays, music, biographies, and pamphlets, and most of these are either in the Shaw or Scottish collections.

Likely our rarest item is our copy of the Kilmarnock Burns, the earliest printing of a collection of Burns’ works; 612 copies were printed in 1786 on a subscription basis, and was immediately successful, turning Robert Burns into a national celebrity. It is in this volume that “To a Mouse” was first printed for public consumption. Here’s a video of Dawn Steele performing the work:

We learn in the poem’s subtitle, and in the lore surrounding its inception, that the titular “Mouse” was glimpsed, “On Turning up in Her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785.”

Burns laments this action, expressing dismay that he’s caused her tiny mouse-heart to race: “O, what a pannic’s in thy breastie!” Upon the poem’s closing, however, Burns has considered the differences between himself and the “wee beastie”: while both mice and men experience the roughness and instability in life, the mouse has the advantage in not being able to either dwell on the past or anxiously anticipate the future. 

Spring is here, and FSU’s campus is covered in blossoming trees, lush green leaves, and curious critters. Take some time this week to consider your relationship to the natural world around you. Do you notice the little things on your walks through campus? Do you allow, as Burns did, these external stimuli to impact your thoughts and feelings about yourself, or even to provoke poetic expression?

Today’s gallic ungovernables come from a 1930 edition of the classic Les Malheurs de Sophie, with color illustrations by Jacques Touchet.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Sophie is an adventurous little girl who lives in a castle in the French countryside. She spends her days wandering through flowery glades, capturing squirrels, hosting tea parties, bickering with her beloved and well-behaved cousin, getting underfoot in the kitchen, and generally participating in wholesome mischief.

Here you can see one of Sophie’s great passions: scaling furniture in order to put her hands into unsanctioned containers.

When she isn’t stealing bon bons, Sophie likes to join cousin Paul in fun and completely normal children’s activities such as catching flies in a paper box. Of course, being bad children of history, Sophie and Paul get in a fight over the paper box, resulting in a series of unfortunate events culminating in the release of a great swarm of flies and a single interloping bee.

“My eyes!!!!”

Apian mishaps aside, Sophie and Paul are great companions. They go for walks, they fall off a cart, they have arts and crafts time. Here’s an illustration of their creative endeavors, right after some watercolor painting and an argument wherein Sophie threw water in Paul’s face:

Yes, hello, despite their teeny waistcoasts and extravagant domicile, Sophie and Paul are just like children everywhere: sometimes sweet, sometimes curious, often plain old naughty.

Jascha Zayde seated at the piano in the WQXR studio in the 1940s.
(WQXR Archive Collections)

For seventeen years, Leonid Hambro (1920-2006) and Jascha Zayde (1911-1999) regularly entertained WQXR audiences through their show Duo Piano Classics.  Zayde was the first staff musician hired by WQXR in 1936; the pianist, composer, and conductor told Robert Sherman in a 1986 interview that he was first paired with Clifford Herzer to form the station’s first piano duo. Their weekly collaborations became one of the station’s most popular offerings, and the four-handed studio concerts continued with Hambro replacing Herzer in 1947. You can listen to their May 17, 1951 show by clicking the “Listen” button above.

Individually and as a duo, Hambro and Zayde were busy on many other fronts as well. They produced albums together and are noted for their recording of Poulenc’s Sonata for Two Pianos. Additionally, Jascha Zayde was also the staff pianist for the New York City Ballet for more than 25 years, and also conducted the Broadway premieres of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti: The Medium and The Telephone. After he stopped performing live on WQXR, Zayde directed the station’s educational activities and was a judge for its annual musical competitions.

Victor Borge, Sergio Franchi and Leonid Hambro from the ABC Television sepcial Victor Borge at Carnegie Hall, December 12, 1963
(Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, Leonid Hambro made more than 100 recordings and toured worldwide, playing as a soloist with the orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and London, and was known as a gifted chamber music artist, working with Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Leonard Rose and Pierre Fournier. Though a longtime collaborator of Zayde’s, Hambro was probably best known for his partnership with Victor Borge. In the early 1960s, the Danish entertainer had been seeking a ‘straight man’ for his piano comedy routine; Hambro agreed to join with the musical funny man, and the two appeared regularly together on stage and television for ten years.

We recently acquired a lovely volume entitled Real Pen Work: Self Instructor in Penmanship, published in 1884 by Knowles & Maxim.

This book includes step-by-step instructions on everything from how to sit properly at your writing desk to the proper degree to which to slant letters. It features samples of script, promissory notes, verses for autograph albums, and these elegant business letters.

There are handwriting exercises as well as exercises for flourishing, the latter of which sounds suspiciously like something one would find on a clean eating and wellness blog.

The bulk of the book consists of illustrations made entirely through offhand flourishing, such as this graceful swan and this squiggly family (complete with curlicue guardian angel).

There’s even a small section of ornamental lettering, including some lovely color alphabets.

If you’d like to take a look at this or any of our other books on handwriting and hand-lettering, get in touch!

Happy Poetry Month!

This month begins FSU Libraries’ Year of Poetry, April 2018 – April 2019, an entire year of celebration dedicated to poetry in all of its forms and facets. Look out for events on campus that invite you to participate in exploring poetry creation and poetry enjoyment!

National Poetry Month is always in April, a reference to T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land*:

“April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.”

Listen to The Waste Land at Librivox.com

The beautiful book pictured is from Florida State’s Special Collections. It is Eliot’s Poems, 1909-1925, a first edition of the first collection of Eliot’s poetry to include The Waste Land, a disjointed and highly allusive work that is central to modernist poetry.

You can find information about National Poetry Month here, including suggestions for ways to participate. Sign up for Poem-a-Day and participate in National Poem in your Pocket Day (April 26th)! 

And come to Special Collections in Strozier Library to experience some historic poetry materials in person, like Eliot’s The Waste Land!

*Thank you, Jeff Hipsher, Service Desk Supervisor in the Scholars Commons, for this info.

The National Archives played a major role in the grand opening last week of a new exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand, at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. An international group effort, the exhibit—“Great and Good Friends: 200 Years of U.S.-Thai Friendship”—features more than 40 records and gifts loaned from the National Archives.

The items exchanged between Thai royalty and American Presidents—including ceremonial letters, head-of-state gifts, and an 11-foot facsimile of the 1833 U.S.-Siam Treaty—have never before been exhibited outside the United States. They will be featured among manuscripts, musical instruments, textiles, and other 19th-century artifacts loaned from the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.

Members of the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles exhibit loan international install team pose in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 3, 2018. National Archives representatives are Presidential Libraries museum collections officer Kim Koons (rear, third from left) and National Archives supervisory conservator Abigail Aldrich (Photo courtesy of Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, Bangkok, Thailand)

The “Great and Good Friends: 200 Years of U.S.-Thai Friendship” exhibit opened on March 21, 2018, at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles  in Bangkok, Thailand, and continues through June 30, 2018. United States Ambassador to Thailand Glyn Davies had the idea for the exhibition.

The title of the exhibit originates from the formal greeting—“Great and Good Friends”—used by U.S. Presidents in addressing the kings of Siam when contact between the two governments was limited to envoys and letters. The friendship between the nations began when an American sea captain entered the port of Bangkok and initiated an historic association between the two nations. These ceremonial gifts, on loan from the National Archives and our Presidential Libraries, reflect the continuing strong friendship of the American and Thai peoples.

We are pleased to share these and other historic treasures, and are honored to partner with the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Meridian International, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Queen Sirikit Museum on the ‘Great and Good Friends’ exhibit.

While many of the objects are in remarkable condition, particularly for their age, some items underwent conservation to improve their stability in preparation for display. Conservation staff at the National Archives provided professional oversight of the treatment services performed on the decorative objects, textiles, and textual items from the agency.

National Archives supervisory conservator Abigail Aldrich and senior conservator Lauren Varga shared several items including a silver niello bowl with gold trim given by King Prajadhipok to President Herbert Hoover in 1931. From the Collection of the U.S. National Archives, Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. (National Archives photo by Jeffrey Reed)

Other related resources within the National Archives Catalog include the daguerreotype of King Mongkut and daughter, from King Mongkut to President James Buchanan, 1861; a Siamese sword with scabbard, from King Mongkut to President James Buchanan, 1861; and a letter from King Chulalongkorn to President Theodore Roosevelt. A silver-framed photograph of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, inscribed by the King and given to President John F. Kennedy in 1963, is available to view via the online Kennedy Library catalog.

For more information on items within the exhibit from other sources, see the recent Library of Congress blog post that showcases the Library’s Thai instruments on loan. For more detailed information on the “Great and Good Friends” exhibit and a history of the relationship between the two nations, see the Great and Good Friends exhibition website.

On May 12, 1951 guitar virtuoso Carlos Montoya came to the WQXR recital studio and performed flamenco music from Granada. It was his second visit to the station in a week.

The PIDB welcomes a new member, Alissa M. Starzak.  U. S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) has appointed Ms. Starzak to  a three-year term on the PIDB.  The PIDB looks forward to Ms. Starzak’s participation in continuing  work on transforming and modernizing the security classification system.  

Ms. Starzak joins PIDB from her current position at Cloudflare, a company providing web-security and optimization services.  In this position she is responsible for public policy.  Prior to joining Cloudflare, Ms. Starzak worked for the U.S government in a variety of national security positions.  Most recently, she served as the 21st General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Army, after confirmation by the Senate. As General Counsel of the Army, she was the primary legal counsel to the Secretary of the Army and the Army’s chief legal officer.  Her appointment as Army General Counsel followed service as the Deputy General Counsel for Legislation at the U.S. Department of Defense.  As Deputy General Counsel she advised on legal issues with a legislative or congressional component, and managed an office of attorneys responsible for developing the Department of Defense legislative program.

Prior to moving to the Department of Defense, Ms. Starzak served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, focusing on legal issues relating to intelligence collection and covert action, and as an Assistant General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel. She also worked in private practice in Washington, D.C., and clerked for The Honorable E. Grady Jolly, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  She graduated from Amherst College and the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review.  Ms. Starzak is serving her first term on the PIDB.

Morgan Library in “Ballou’s,” 1855

In early 2017 I posted about 25 individual daguerreotypes from the Amherst College Class of 1850 that are part of the Archives and Special Collections. I provided new glass for each daguerreotype, reassembled each unit, and attempted to identify the members of the class. The daguerreotypes were in envelopes, having been removed in the 1980s from a grouping in an old wooden frame, which was apparently discarded. With only two exceptions – Austin Dickinson and George Gould – there were no names attached to the daguerreotypes from a class well known to Emily Dickinson, who often mentioned Austin’s classmates in her letters.  The identifications I proposed in the 2017 post were based in particular on things like a visible fraternity pin in a daguerreotype that could be compared against a list of known fraternity members, or later images of the students that could be compared with their youthful ones. In this way, it was possible to identify everyone at least tentatively. And there the matter rested.

A few months later I needed to write a thank-you note to someone who gave us a collection of daguerreotypes by Professor Ebenezer Snell’s brother William Ward Snell (the subject of a future post). For my thank-you, I looked through a collection of note cards in the department and chose my favorite, a photograph showing the interior of Morgan Library in the late 19th century.  I’ve looked at this photograph many times, but this time – with daguerreotypes on the brain – I noticed something I’d never noticed before. Can you see it?

Look closer:

I knew at once that there was a framed group of daguerreotypes on the wall.  Furthermore, it was reasonable to think it was a group of people somehow connected to each other (faculty or students) rather than a bunch of random daguerreotypes framed together (if anyone ever did that anyway). I went to a good scan of the photograph and examined it. The one on the left in the second row caught my eye — I yelped– surely that was Austin Dickinson…  I wasn’t looking for him — he just stuck out in some way, perhaps because I’ve seen his big, doughy face a million times already and I have its template impressed on my brain.

My more levelheaded and therefore initially skeptical colleague Chris examined it – and agreed. It then occurred to me that if this daguerreotype showed Austin, was he where he ought to be if the daguerreotypes were in alphabetical order? I counted. He was. The next thing to do was to place the ones with solid identifications in their proper place and then to work down through the list of students. Chris and I had a lot of fun with this part.

In order to do the work, we looked at the daguerreotypes that had some physical aspect that made them stand out – those that showed solarization in the whites that made them glow (like Faunce in the middle of the second row), or that were especially dark; those in which the direction the sitters were facing was a factor; or those that were framed in ovals, which seemed especially visible. These variables allowed us to put the images in place and recreate the framed group that you can see in the library photograph above. So here’s the Class of 1850 in alphabetical order, from left to right, top to bottom. If you want to be a smarty-pants, you could compare them with the identifications in the previous post and see where I was wrong.

Left to right, top to bottom:
Avery, Beebe, Bishop, Cory, Crosby, Dickinson, Ellery, Faunce, Fenn, Garrette, Gay, Gilbert, Gould, Gregory, Hodge, Howland, Manning, Newton, Nickerson, Packard, Sawyer, Shipley, Stimpson, Thompson, Williston (see list of full names at end of post). Daguerreotypist undocumented but most likely J.D. Wells of Northampton.

But  – oh no…!

Are you familiar with the expression “sacrifice your darlings”? I remember exactly when I first heard that expression and who said it to me. It’s usually employed (everywhere…tiresomely) as a helpful reminder to edit your writing (good advice, and I attempt to abide by it–I swear), but I also think of it in broader terms to mean giving up something one treasures.  In this case, it meant that my heart must be broken and a darling sacrificed, for it revealed that the photograph below — the same photograph that is my computer’s background– is not Henry Shipley, known to his mates as “Ship,” the brilliant bad-boy of his class who couldn’t stay out of trouble and whose tragic story (see second half of earlier post) has become linked in my mind with this particular photograph:

Instead, it’s Minott Sherman Crosby, a schoolteacher and principal of two schools, the Hartford Female Seminary and then Waterbury High School, and later superintendent of schools in Waterbury.  He lived to 1897 and had three children with Margaret Maltby Crosby.

An inconvenient truth. At right, Minott Crosby in “History of Waterbury”

This identification continues to disorder my mind and send up a bristling resistance. I still associate that face with Ship, though sadly now. Instead, the real Shipley is — according to the group order — this fellow:

So I put this guy – this Shipley – as the background on a second computer, where he duels across the room with his alter-ego (aka Crosby) for my affection. But I continue to struggle to accept the truth, which is a strange lesson in sacrificing a darling, and in how hard it is to give up a cherished belief in the face of better evidence — a lesson for every era.

So for now, at least, this should be it for the Class of 1850. Unless something else comes up….

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

Full list of the graduates of the Class of 1850:

William Fisher Avery (1826-1903)
Albert Graham Beebe (1826-1899)
Henry Walker Bishop (1829-1913)
John Edwin Cory (1825-1865)
Minott Sherman Crosby (1829-1897)
William Austin Dickinson (1829-1895)
John Graeme Ellery (1824-1855)
Daniel Worcester Faunce (1829-1911)
Thomas Legare Fenn (1830-1912)
Edmund Young Garrette (1823-1902)
Augustine Milton Gay (1827-1876)
Archibald Falconer Gilbert (1825-1866)
George Henry Gould (1827-1899)
James John Howard Gregory (1827-1910)
Leicester Porter Hodge (1828-1851)
George Howland (1824-1892)
Jacob Merrill Manning (1824-1882)
Jeremiah Lemuel Newton (1824-1883)
Joseph Nickerson (1828-1882)
David Temple Packard (1824-1880)
Sylvester John Sawyer (1823-1884)
Henry Shipley (1825-1859)
Thomas Morrill Stimpson (1827-1898)
John Howland Thompson (1827-1891)
Lyman Richards Williston (1830-1897)

There were also 15 non-graduates in the class, all of whom departed Amherst long before the daguerreotypes were made.

Recently, while engaging in a record survey project involving the Claude Pepper papers,  I discovered Pepper’s influential work in lowering hearing aid costs to improve affordability and strengthen precise hearing loss screenings among seniors.

Senator Claude Pepper was perhaps the first politician to grasp the burdens of older Americans owning hearing aids. In fact, many people that were 65 and older during his congressional service either couldn’t afford hearing aids, because their insurance didn’t cover the cost, or they were exposed to fraudulent tactics to purchase them. As sellers created the illusion that hearing aids could either physically cure hearing loss or prosthetically correct hearing loss to a state of normalcy. And, in some cases, older adults fell victim to purchasing two hearing aids for both ears when only one was necessary due to a faulty diagnosis. As a result, Claude Pepper took great pride in building awareness about hearing aids and affordability by introducing the H.R. 646 Bill on January 15, 1979, to propose a supplementary medical insurance program to aid in covering hearing aid costs and safeguard consumer abuse. The bill also pushed for hearing aid manufacturers to advertise that hearing aids could not cure or impede hearing impairments. The bill demanded that the Food and Drug Administration mandate the requirement of an audiologist examination before purchasing hearing aids under the Medicare program to secure accurate treatment. Senator Pepper fought hard for this great cause, even though Congress later decided to reject the bill.

If you would like to learn more about Claude Pepper’s work regarding hearing aid legislation, please visit the Claude Pepper Library & Museum. Materials are available for researchers and can be discovered online through the collection’s finding aid.

The University of Stirling Archives is delighted to be presenting Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions, our specially curated display looking at the history of Scotland’s participation in the four previous Commonwealth Games held in Australia, at Scotland House, Team Scotland’s HQ during the 2018 Gold Coast Games. The exhibition will be on display daily from Monday 2 to Friday 6 April at the Mantra On View Hotel, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast. Our exhibition team will be on site to provide further information about the exhibition and our work with the Commonwealth Games Scotland Archive. For more information, or to arrange a visit, please contact Karl Magee, our University Archivist, at karl.magee@stir.ac.uk

There will also be a number of events related to the exhibition during the week.

Tuesday 3 April, 11.00-12.00:

Tour and talk for members of the Australian Society of Archivists

The University of Stirling Archives invites members of the Australian Society of Archivists to a private view of the exhibition Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions. This Australian-themed version of our touring Hosts and Champions exhibition was specially commissioned for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games for display at Scotland House, the headquarters for Team Scotland during the competition. Karl Magee, the University of Stirling Archivist, will provide a tour of the exhibits and a talk on the development of the touring exhibition and the challenges of bringing it to Gold Coast. For further information, or to book a place, please contact Denise Stephenson, Secretary, Queensland Branch, ASA, at Denise.Stephenson@calvarycc.qld.edu.au

Wednesday 4 April, 12.30-13.30:

Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions: a look at Scotland’s proud Games history ‘Down Under’

With Gold Coast 2018 Australia’s fifth time hosting the Commonwealth Games, Jon Doig (CEO Commonwealth Games Scotland) will turn back the clock to Perth 1962, Brisbane 1982 and Melbourne 2006 with a panel of past athletes as they share their experiences and explore the similarities and differences of competing for Team Scotland over a 40 year span. Further information can be found on Team Scotland’s Scotland House page.

Wednesday 4 April, 18.30-: 

Live coverage of 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony (with free Irn-Bru and Tunnocks tea cakes!)

Friday 6 April, 18.00-20.00:

Stirling University Alumni event

Join Karl Magee (University Archivist) and Prof Richard Haynes (Arts & Humanities) for a private view of Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions and find out more about how the university is working with Commonwealth Games Scotland to protect and preserve its sporting heritage. If you would like to book a place at this event please email: Jennifer.Forman@stir.ac.uk

Our University Archivist Karl Magee & Prof Richard Haynes (Arts & Humanities) will be at Scotland House to provide tours of the exhibition.

The University of Stirling Archives is delighted to be presenting Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions, our specially curated display looking at the history of Scotland’s participation in the four previous Commonwealth Games held in Australia, at Scotland House, Team Scotland’s HQ during the 2018 Gold Coast Games. The exhibition will be on display daily from Monday 2 to Friday 6 April at the Mantra On View Hotel, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast. Our exhibition team will be on site to provide further information about the exhibition and our work with the Commonwealth Games Scotland Archive. For more information, or to arrange a visit, please contact Karl Magee, our University Archivist, at karl.magee@stir.ac.uk

There will also be a number of events related to the exhibition during the week.

Tuesday 3 April, 11.00-12.00:

Tour and talk for members of the Australian Society of Archivists

The University of Stirling Archives invites members of the Australian Society of Archivists to a private view of the exhibition Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions. This Australian-themed version of our touring Hosts and Champions exhibition was specially commissioned for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games for display at Scotland House, the headquarters for Team Scotland during the competition. Karl Magee, the University of Stirling Archivist, will provide a tour of the exhibits and a talk on the development of the touring exhibition and the challenges of bringing it to Gold Coast. For further information, or to book a place, please contact Denise Stephenson, Secretary, Queensland Branch, ASA, at Denise.Stephenson@calvarycc.qld.edu.au

Wednesday 4 April, 12.30-13.30:

Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions: a look at Scotland’s proud Games history ‘Down Under’

With Gold Coast 2018 Australia’s fifth time hosting the Commonwealth Games, Jon Doig (CEO Commonwealth Games Scotland) will turn back the clock to Perth 1962, Brisbane 1982 and Melbourne 2006 with a panel of past athletes as they share their experiences and explore the similarities and differences of competing for Team Scotland over a 40 year span. Further information can be found on Team Scotland’s Scotland House page.

Wednesday 4 April, 18.30-: 

Live coverage of 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony (with free Irn-Bru and Tunnocks tea cakes!)

Friday 6 April, 18.00-20.00:

Stirling University Alumni event

Join Karl Magee (University Archivist) and Prof Richard Haynes (Arts & Humanities) for a private view of Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions and find out more about how the university is working with Commonwealth Games Scotland to protect and preserve its sporting heritage. If you would like to book a place at this event please email: Jennifer.Forman@stir.ac.uk

Our University Archivist Karl Magee & Prof Richard Haynes (Arts & Humanities) will be at Scotland House to provide tours of the exhibition.

We recently added a small new set of materials to the digital collection for theSt. John’s Episcopal Church Records. Two items detail the history of the Church further. The other three are journals kept by the Reverend Doctor W.H. Carter. They document his travels and ministry in New York, Florida, and places in-between from 1855-1907. Dr. Carter was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Yale University. Before his time in Tallahassee, Carter was rector of Episcopal congregations in Warwick, New York, and Daytona Beach. After some time spent traveling as a missionary, Carter was installed at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tallahassee in June 1879. In his journal entry from June 9th, Carter noted: “wonder how I will like it.” He apparently liked it well enough, as he remained in Tallahassee until his death in 1907.

During his time in Tallahassee, Carter oversaw the construction of a new church building in 1880 and continued to take his clerical work on the road to worshippers in many small towns in North Florida, asylums, and the Leon County Jail. In the 1880s he was instrumental in establishing a church building and school for the black congregation of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Tallahassee, often performing services there. Carter’s work and demeanor left a significant impression on the congregation of St. John’s; his obituary notes that “Doctor Carter’s life was an object lesson of cheerful and patient serenity. In 1950 the church annex was extensively renovated and renamed the Carter Chapel in his honor. You may see all the journals here in the digital collection as well as the other materials digitized from the St. John’s Episcopal Church Records collection.

St. John’s is the mother church of the Diocese of Florida. It was founded as a mission parish in 1829, and the church’s first building was erected in 1837. The Diocese was organized at St. John’s in 1838 and Francis Huger Rutledge, who became rector of St. John’s in 1845, was consecrated the first Bishop of Florida in 1851. The original church burned in 1879; a new church was built on the same site and consecrated in 1888, and it is still the parish’s principal place of worship.

The physical collection includes administrative records; member registries; meeting minutes of the Vestry and church circles; Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, hymnals, and other liturgical works; documentation of the history of St. John’s Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Florida; service bulletins and other periodicals; sermon transcripts; photographs; and motion pictures.

For more information about the collection, visit its finding aid.

Sources:
W.H. Carter Journal, 1874-1897, St. John’s Episcopal Church Records, Special Collections and Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/MSS_2016-006
Stauffer, Carl. (1984). God willing: A history of St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1829-1979. Tallahassee, FL. http://fsu.catalog.fcla.edu/permalink.jsp?23FS021651363

The PIDB continues its role advising the President, Executive Branch officials, and Congress on ways to bring sunshine to the security classification system in the interest of our national security.  During Sunshine Week, we want to share our plans for a new report and series of recommendations we believe will transform the security classification system from its antiquated, overburdened state to a modernized system capable of functioning in the digital age.

The PIDB, forming a Declassification Technology Working Group in 2015, began conversations with government technology and information officers and experts to hear of concerns and needs in the classification and declassification frontlines. Through these exchanges and findings, we reiterate our long-held recommendation that modernization of the classification system is a critical imperative.  Earnest and real attempts must be made to ensure a transparent and credible security classification system by reducing over-classification and improving declassification to sustain our democratic values and citizenry from an antiquated, overburdened system.

We know the new era must be met with a bold vision, a vision that clearly and systematically surveys the future of classification and declassification for the twenty-first century. In the next few weeks we will engage with our public and government stakeholders to share a draft report titled:  A Vision for the Digital Age: Modernization of the U.S. National Security Classification and Declassification System.  We will seek comments and feedback on the draft Report from our stakeholders before finalizing the recommendations and presenting to the President.

The vision we provide is for a uniform, integrated and modernized security classification system sustainable in the digital environment that appropriately protects national security interests and instills confidence in the American people. The declassification business model for the future centers on (1) organizing for success via a more unified and federated enterprise-level system-of-systems approach to records declassification and (2) the acquisition and adoption of technologies and processes that leverage information age IT and telecommunications innovation and systems development.

Our draft Report will be open to thoughtful appraisal from our stakeholders. Please remain engaged with the PIDB blog to hear more about the PIDB’s newest recommendations and to participate in the finalization of our next Report to the President.

The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games begin on 4 April with a spectacular opening ceremony at Carrara Stadium, the 5^th time Australia has hosted the competition. To coincide with this fortnight of sporting competition our touring Hosts and Champions exhibition is going back on the road, celebrating the history of Scotland’s participation and achievement in the Commonwealth Games.

In a first for the University Archives we will be presenting two simultaneous versions of the exhibition 10,000 miles apart during the Games, visiting Hawick Museum in the Scottish Borders and Scotland House, the headquarters for Team Scotland, in the Gold Coast.

In April 2018 two versions of our Hosts & Champions exhibition will be on display in Hawick in the Scottish Borders and at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

The exhibition at Hawick Museum opens on Thursday 29 March and will focus on the Games hosted by Scotland in Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986, and Glasgow in 2014. A new display entitled Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions has been created for the Gold Coast Games which looks at Scotland’s previous visits to compete in Australia in Sydney in 1938, Perth in 1962, Brisbane in 1982 and Melbourne in 2006. It will be on display at Scotland House (located in the Mantra On View Hotel, Surfers Paradise) from Monday 2 to Friday 6 April.

A range of tours, talks and events are being planned to coincide with the exhibitions with regular updates being posted on Twitter using #HostsandChampions.

The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games begin on 4 April with a spectacular opening ceremony at Carrara Stadium, the 5^th time Australia has hosted the competition. To coincide with this fortnight of sporting competition our touring Hosts and Champions exhibition is going back on the road, celebrating the history of Scotland’s participation and achievement in the Commonwealth Games.

In a first for the University Archives we will be presenting two simultaneous versions of the exhibition 10,000 miles apart during the Games, visiting Hawick Museum in the Scottish Borders and Scotland House, the headquarters for Team Scotland, in the Gold Coast.

In April 2018 two versions of our Hosts & Champions exhibition will be on display in Hawick in the Scottish Borders and at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

The exhibition at Hawick Museum opens on Thursday 29 March and will focus on the Games hosted by Scotland in Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986, and Glasgow in 2014. A new display entitled Aussie Hosts and Tartan Champions has been created for the Gold Coast Games which looks at Scotland’s previous visits to compete in Australia in Sydney in 1938, Perth in 1962, Brisbane in 1982 and Melbourne in 2006. It will be on display at Scotland House (located in the Mantra On View Hotel, Surfers Paradise) from Monday 2 to Friday 6 April.

A range of tours, talks and events are being planned to coincide with the exhibitions with regular updates being posted on Twitter using #HostsandChampions.

Thanks to all who attended the HairBrained opening party on February 28th; it was a delightful evening! Remember to check the Library’s website for up-to-date information about upcoming hair-themed programming, and to pass through the Rhode Island Room on your next visit to PPL to view our exhibition.

Speaking of programming, we want to share information about two upcoming events in Providence that may be of interest to our fair blog readers:

Latinos in Heritage Conservation/ Rhode Island Statewide Historic Preservation Conference
Thursday-Saturday, April 26-28, 2018
Various locations throughout Providence
Registration required; register here before April 17.

Latinos in Heritage Conservation, Rhode Island Latino Arts, and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission are proud to present Encuentro 2018. Spanning three full days of programs in Providence and the Blackstone Valley, this groundbreaking event brings together the 3rd National Convening of Latinos in Heritage Conservation and the 33rd Annual Statewide Rhode Island Historic Preservation Conference.

Featuring guest speakers from across the country and opportunities to meet and exchange ideas with fellow practitioners and advocates for Latino historic preservation, this is a not to be missed opportunity. Rhode Island Latino Arts, RIHPHC, and local partners have planned an engaging program of tours and special events to round out the schedule.

RISD unbound Art Book Fair
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design
15 Westminster Street, Providence, RI
Free and open to the public

This day-long event celebrates artists’ books, zines, and experimental printed matter created by RISD students and local artists, designers, and publishers. Through exhibits, sales, and discussions, RISD unbound seeks to inspire unbound conversations around cultural publishing in the Providence community.

I have spent a lot of time digging a little deeper into our Native American Literature Collections in preparation for the Rare Book School course I will be co-teaching this summer: A History of Native American Books & Indigenous Sovereignty. I was already aware of Angel de Cora(Winnebago) and her work as a book designer and illustrator, and I knew she went to school at Smith, but not much more than that.

Francis LaFlesche. The Middle Five. Cover design by Angel de Cora.

My Rare Book School co-conspirator, Amherst Professor Kiara Vigil, told me to read this book, which includes a whole chapter on de Cora:

Elizabeth Hutchinson. The Indian Craze

Hutchinson’s book fleshes out the broader context in which de Cora was working, and she identifies other examples of de Cora’s commercial illustration work. Learning that de Cora attended The Drexel Institute of Art in Philadelphia where she studied under famed American illustrator Howard Pyle helped to place de Cora within the mainstream of commercial illustration work in the 1890s. Two of her earliest known published works fit neatly within the pages of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, which was aimed at the rising American middle class consumer. Her first story, “The Sick Child,” appeared in the February 1899 issue:

A second illustrated story appeared in the November 1899 issue of the same title: “Gray Wolf’s Daughter”:

Chronologically, de Cora’s illustrations and designs for The Middle Five followed in 1900. In addition to the cover shown above, de Cora produced a color image for the frontispiece, with her signature clearly visible at the bottom:

Before reading Hutchinson’s book, I was not aware that de Cora took a job at the Carlisle Indian School — a boarding school for Native American students in Pennsylvania — where she taught art for several years. While at Carlisle, she also helped launch a new magazine called The Indian Craftsman, a reference to Gustav Stickley’s arts and crafts movement magazine, The Craftsman. Although Amherst College does not hold any original issues of The Indian Craftsman, there are several available through the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center:

As soon as I learned of this magazine, and others produced at Carlisle, I began searching for more information about printing projects at Carlisle and other Native boarding schools. As luck would have it, a book appeared last year on that very subject: Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press (Edited by Jacqueline Emery).

More than simply a working artist who incorporated her Native heritage into her work, de Cora was attempting to develop a pan-Indian aesthetic that blended her formal training and Native traditions.

Over the past several years, five video wall shows centering on various themes have been created at the Archives. Titles include Vancouver Vignettes, Games in the City, Edifice, Forces Shaping a City, and Parks. The video wall shows highlight the diverse nature of our photograph, video, and textual holdings.

One of the photographs included in the video wall show. Fishing on Greer’s (now Kitsilano) Beach, 1890s. Reference code: AM54-S4-: Be P142

It has been a few years since the last video wall show, Parks, was created, so we felt it was time to add another one to our rotating shows. We are happy to announce the latest show: Food and Drink: Growing, making, buying and consuming.

The inspiration for this latest installation was two-fold. As an undergraduate, I studied horticulture and agriculture, and therefore the production and consumption of food and beverages are never far from my mind. Secondly, in my daily work at the Archives, I constantly come across a wealth of materials relating to the production and consumption of food and beverages in and around Vancouver throughout the last 150 or so years.

A photograph included under the Making and Processing Food section of the new video wall. Interior of the National Biscuit Company, 1931. Reference code: AM1535-: CVA 99-3983

The creation of a video wall show is a lengthy process which requires a fair amount of researching materials and refining the theme’s framework. However, it is a very satisfying process that has provided me with an opportunity to be creative all the while increasing my knowledge of our collection and the history of Vancouver, something that always comes in handy when assisting our researchers.

Another image featured in the new video wall show. Children drinking milk in classroom at Open Air School, ca.1926. Reference code: AM1376-: CVA 96-2

The video wall show starts with the raising and growing of food, then transitions to the making and processing of food and beverages, the buying of food, and finishes with photographs related to the consumption of food and beverages. The video wall shows can be viewed at the Archives in our gallery space, or in the City Hall rotunda across from the elevators. You can also view it on YouTube.

Sunshine Week is an annual nationwide celebration of access to public information. It was  launched more than a decade ago by the American Society of News Editors, and is embraced by journalists, librarians, concerned citizens, civil society organizations, elected officials, and government employees as an opportunity to discuss the importance of open government and its impact.

The National Archives and Records Administration will host several events in observance of Sunshine Week. Events include an educational symposium, a week-long transcription challenge engaging citizen archivists, and a panel discussion. Sunshine Week allows the National Archives to highlight how it is a leader in open government.

Sunshine Week 2018 at the National Archives will begin with a special program on Monday, March 12, 2018, at 1 p.m. in the William G. McGowan Theater in Washington, DC. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont will offer the keynote address entitled “Championing The Public’s Right to Know.”  Several breakout sessions featuring government leaders and experts will focus on innovation in the Federal Government, congressional digital engagement, and open data.

Throughout Sunshine Week, the National Archives will also sponsor a special citizen archivist mission focusing on transcription of the Pentagon Papers, starting on March 12. The Citizen Archivist Dashboard offers more information on how to engage in the transcription challenge.    

To round out the Sunshine Week events, the National Archives will host a panel discussion entitled “Access and Transparency—Records Held at the National Archives” on March 14, 2018, at 2 p.m. in the William G. McGowan Theater in Washington, DC. The program focuses on how to request and access the restricted and non-restricted Federal records held at the National Archives. The panel of staff experts will discuss and answer questions about their work in making records available from our executive, legislative, and Presidential holdings.

The National Archives Sunshine Week events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for the March 12 event. The program will also be available via livestream from the National Archives YouTube Channel.

Learn more and find the full program of events on the FOIA Ombudsman blog.

“Dobrý den!” Or, as we in the Czech Republic say, “hello!” Over the past few months, I have been working on creating a container list for the Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte Collection. Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, a Tallahassee native, is a lawyer, professor, and former President of FSU. A former President of the American Bar Association, Sandy is well known throughout the legal world and has made important contributions in promoting equality and democracy. Special Collections & Archives received these materials recently, and it has been my job to help organize and categorize all of the materials in the collection. Despite the preponderance of legal files, case briefs, and writs of certiorari, there have been a few interesting finds in the collection.

In particular, I am intrigued by Sandy’s connections with the American Friends of the Czech Republic, a group designed to increase relations between the United States and the Czech Republic. Sandy was a board member of the group and oversaw the erection of a statue of T.G. Masaryk, who was the first president of the now extant country of Czechoslovakia. Most of the materials pertaining to Sandy in this part of the collection are site proposal documents and information on the Resource Development Committee of the American Friends of the Czech Republic. I find this particular part of the collection interesting for two reasons: first, given that my family heritage stems from Slovakia in a tiny town near the Czech Republic, it is always wonderful to pour over and analyze information from my ancestral homeland; second, and more importantly, Sandy’s work with the American Friends of the Czech Republic reifies his overall drive to be amicable, and most of all, helpful. This notion is further peppered throughout the entirety of the collection, particularly in his extensive and lengthy list of Pro Bono hours and in his service in and on multiple commissions, organizations, and commissions designed to improve access to education and to basic, fundamental resources.

Further, I believe that this part of the collection comments on a common undercurrent of the D’Alemberte Collection, that is, that despite our differences, we, as a human race, are profoundly more similar than we might believe. Ultimately, I am quite honored to be working on this collection and to have come to know, vicariously, such a reputable member of the FSU community.

Post by David Advent. Advent,  a native of Western North Carolina, is a junior English Literature and International Affairs double major at FSU. He is currently conducting his Honors in the Major Thesis and holds numerous campus positions that promote the visibility of undergraduate research at FSU.

The National Archives and Records Administration has been able to accomplish some incredible digitization and outreach work over the years due in part to contributions and support by anonymous donors and the National Archives Foundation. Two examples of this are the World War I Wartime Films project, and the Ratified Indian Treaties vault digitization project.

Wartime Films: World War I
The digitization of WWI-era material, much of it never-before-seen by the public, was made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor. This digitization effort included over 100,000 photographs and several hundred reels of film originally shot by the US Signal Corps on behalf of various armed forces units in the 1914–1920 timeframe. All material digitized is now available online in electronic format the National Archives Catalog.

Women’s machine gun squad police reserves, New York City. National Archives Identifier 31474833

To better engage and connect our audiences to this extensive collection of World War I resources, NARA developed the Remembering WWI mobile app. This app provides users with a way to interact with the content and was designed for a target user group of teachers, museum professionals, and digital humanities scholars. We wanted to reach teachers in hopes that the app could enhance lessons on WWI in the classroom, museums to reuse NARA’s WWI materials to enrich the narrative around their own local WWI collections and exhibits, and humanities scholars so they can utilize and reuse the metadata that were generated from this content.

We were recently informed by James Theres (Filmmaker, Producer, and Director) that he helped to produce new documentary called “The Hello Girls” which reuses much of our still images and silent films for his documentary.

NARA was fortunate to lead this national collaborative effort with participation from the Library of Congress and National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution – National Museum of American History, the WWI Centennial Commission, the American Association of State and Local History, and the National WWI Museum and Memorial. This collaboration will ensure our audiences are connected to an extensive collection of resources to further provide an enriched experience with the app.

Vault Digitization: Ratified Indian Treaties
Some NARA holdings are so historically significant and valuable that they are separated from our normal holdings and stored in vaults to increase security and limit physical access. Vault materials at our Washington DC location are among the most sensitive records in NARA’s collection: these records are not served to the public. Many of these records have not been digitized and are therefore effectively closed to the public.

With support from an anonymous donor and the National Archives Foundation, NARA is embarking on an effort to digitize the set of Ratified Indian Treaties from our vault holdings (377 treaties in all). NARA will perform much needed conservation work on these materials and digitize the entire contents of the file for each treaty. This will include scanning the Treaties themselves along with accompanying papers: the Presidential Proclamations, and the Resolutions of Ratification by Senate. We will finally be able to provide public access electronically to these materials on our National Archives Catalog. Having this content available publically further compliments NARA’s existing education efforts around the treaties and other Native American records.

Sample image from the Ratified Indian Treaty 133: Arikara (Ricara) – Arikara Village, July 18, 1825. National Archives Identifier 57698865

Sample image from the Ratified Indian Treaty 360: Sioux (Sisseton [Sissiton], Wahpeton [Warpeton]) – Washington, DC, 1867. National Archives Identifier 58234673

We are also working closely with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in support of their Nation to Nation exhibit. Starting in 2014 and rotating every 6 months, NMAI is displaying a new treaty to be exhibited to the public. Most recently, the Treaty of 1868 with the Navajo was installed on February 20th and will be on display at NMAI until May. It will then be on loan to the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock Arizona in time to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its signing.

Sample Image from the Treaty between the United States Government and the Navajo Indians Signed at Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory on June 1, 1868. National Archives Identifier 6173067

Our efforts in digitization are an important piece in achieving our strategic goal to Make Access Happen. Through these generous gifts, we are able to expand our digitization and online access efforts to make these public domain records more accessible for everyone to use, from teachers and local community groups, to museums and filmmakers.