Every Monday as part of #BeConnected we are exploring an artwork, area or feature of the University campus. This week we are looking at King and Queen by Nick Evans.

King and Queen is located just outside the Pathfoot Building (E corridor outside courtyard, halfway up the building). The sculpture was purchased by the Art Collection in 2012 with match funding from the National Fund for Acquisitions.

At the Art Collection we are always keen to inspire creativity and encourage individual responses to our artworks. In 2016 we embarked on a collaborative project with former MRes Creative Writing student (and current PhD student) Janine Mitchell, the School of Education and a variety of writers, including a previous cohort of MLitt Creative Writing Students, These writers were invited to submit creative responses to our sculptures and amongst the creative responses was the poem below aimed at young learners inspired by King and Queen,

Kings and Queens by Janine Mitchell

I’ve heard of richard and william and henry

queen anne and lizzie, victoria and mary

their carriages, servants and posh jewellery

but these aren’t the monarchs that matter to me

The King of the Herrings and King Dragonflies

The Queen Triggerfish with her blue-patterned eyes

The Winged Queen Black Ant and Queen Butterflies

The King of Saxony Bird of Paradise

King Vultures, Kingcroakers and King Cormorants

Queen Bumblebees, Dragonflies, Termites and Ants

The Dashing King Penguin dressed up for romance

The King Rail that runs with a chicken-like prance

The Queen Parrotfish with her jewels and her crown

And Kingfishers: Malachite, Pied, White and Brown

King Cobras that build a leaf nest on the ground

The Seven-Striped Queen Snake not easily found

These Kings of the Jungles and Mountains and Seas

These Queens of the Skies and the Rivers and Trees

The Scaled and the Feathered, the Giant, the Wee

Now these are the Monarchs that matter to me.

The publication below is used every year by students of the Initial Teacher Education programme to introduce young learners to the sculptures on the campus and to encourage active and creative engagement with these pieces. It is also be made available for use by educators, schools, students, families and the wider community.

We hope that you will be inspired by the poetry and short stories in the collection to produce your own works of art. We hope that you will share these works with us and with others.

The Scottish Political Archive are looking for volunteers to help with a new crowdsourcing project to fully transcribe and index their 2014 Independence Referendum Collection.

This project is jointly led by Dr Chiara Bonacchi (University of Stirling) and the Scottish Political Archive (Sarah Bromage), in collaboration with the UCL Institute of Archaeology, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, and the British Museum. The associated researcher developing and managing crowdsourcing activities is Dr Elisa Broccoli.

MicroPasts is a free and open-source, crowdsourcing platform which supports online mass creation, enhancement and analysis of open data in archaeology, history and heritage. It aims to build collaborations between heritage institutions and citizens to study the human past together. MicroPasts was established in 2013 with seed-funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and has continued running ever since with input from some of its co-founders (Prof. Andrew Bevan, UCL, Daniel Pett, Fitzwilliam Museum, Dr Chiara Bonacchi, University of Stirling, Dr Jennifer Wexler, British Museum).

Dr Chiara Bonacchi said “This is an important activity to ensure that smaller heritage organisations like the Scottish Political Archive can continue engaging audiences during this difficult period of lockdown and in the immediate aftermath. Through this digitisation project, in particular, we hope to create data that will unlock new research on the political uses of heritage in the context of the 2014 Referendum.”

Dr Elisa Broccoli said  “We developed a first crowdsourcing application to transcribe leaflets from the Scottish Political Archive. We will follow it up with a photo-tagging application to publicly index photographs from the 2014 Referendum campaign and facilitate searches for specific people, places, objects. We are asking volunteer contributors to help with these tasks”

Archivist Sarah Bromage said “The Scottish Political Archive actively collected Yes and No campaign materials for the 2014 Independence Referendum.  We wanted  to find out what was happening at grass roots level in local communities; effectively what was being put through people’s doors, distributed at campaign stalls and displayed in shop and home windows. We ended up with nearly 3,000 photographs and many, many leaflets.  This new project allows us to make this collection fully accessible to researchers around the world”

Link to the transcription application: https://crowdsourced.micropasts.org/project/leaflets2014/task/90496 

For more information on the Scottish Political Archive www.scottishpoliticalarchive.org.uk 

For more information on the Micropasts https://crowdsourced.micropasts.org/

On March 23rd, our student employees returned to work from Spring Break, but not to the library. Due to the campus shut down because of COVID-19, our staff started working from home. Remote work is an interesting conundrum to figure out when 90% of your work exists in the physical realm. Our collections management team are in charge of reshelving and paging materials, preparing books for shipment to Cataloging, rehousing new materials, and everything else in between. Since the shut down, our staff have shifted to working on projects in ArchivesSpace, metadata remediation, and lots and lots of webinars and training. This situation has been difficult for everyone to navigate, but this group of students has demonstrated tremendous resilience. As part of their work, we asked for them to write about their experiences in working from home.

Tatiana

I never imagined working from home before the pandemic started. I really enjoyed the work I did at Special Collections so I am heartbroken, but grateful. At the library, I’d probably be reshelving books with my coworkers or listening to podcasts to keep me company. Working from home doesn’t feel the same. As much as I love my roommate, being with the same person for days on end feels a tad exhausting; especially since I can’t talk to them about my work. When I’m working on ArchivesSpace, my mind starts to spiral thinking about all the things that I wasn’t able to do. 

I was supposed to graduate on Saturday. I had already picked out my outfits according to the days I’d be at work. I’ll never get to finish cataloging my stack of books. I’ll never be able to get closure of saying goodbye to my coworkers. I miss the rush of having a schedule. I miss walking up the Civic Center parking lot and hiking that mile up to the library. 

Zoom meetings became something to look forward to. Monday OPS meetings helped me remember the days of the week.  It was the bit of normalcy that I needed during this time. I’d get happy solely when people said my name. Although these meetings were short, it was nice to see people’s faces and laugh about Animal Crossing. Now that I’m graduating, I feel sad that my life will change once again. No more Zoom meetings or Teams messages. I’ll miss my life before but I’ll always remember how happy I was when I was working at Special Collections. 

Jenna

My experience working from home, while not ideal, has been nice in some ways. I am someone who prefers structure, but I really can’t complain about sitting on my couch in my pajamas and doing work (although, the world is missing out on seeing me in some seriously cute work outfits). The work I’ve been doing has also been somewhat different. I’ve been working on reorganizing collections in our ArchivesSpace database which is not too out of the ordinary, but I’ve also taken the opportunity to learn more about librarianship through various webinars and trainings. While the experience is challenging and frustrating, I truly think that we will come out of this with a better understanding of how we can use technology to enhance the library experience. Already we are coming up with creative ways to keep our patrons engaged and I think that some of the ideas that have sprung from this will continue to help us post-quarantine. Other than that, I will say that my dog is not the best coworker and my roommate can be distracting, but I’m also happy to have their company. Of course I miss everyone in SCA, but I’m glad we are all taking the proper precautions to stay safe and healthy. If we do it right, we’ll be back to the library in no time! Until then, I’ll enjoy my morning coffee and bagel from home.

Heeseo

Working from home was difficult at first, but I managed to make a structured schedule of my own. I was able to access a lot of resources that helped me understand the ArchivesSpace database, especially in top container management. There were also training resources that I was able to obtain about digital learning and other online classes to educate myself as much as I can. Zoom meetings both inside and outside of work were also something I looked forward to with the lack of human interaction I was having. This experience also made me realize how much I love working with people in person and how much I miss my co-workers!

Nevertheless, working from home still gave me more insight into technology and the best ways to utilize it while working from home. In addition to school work and Special Collections, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my family and spending time with my dog Leo! I hope we will all be back in the fall and continue with our regular routines.

Terryon

At first, I thought working from home wouldn’t be so bad but after a week or so I definitely felt the differences. Specifically, most of my routines regarding exercise and meal prepping have stalled so it has been a challenge to restart. But I’m slowly building them back up. Even though some exercise routines have slacked I have found some time to start learning the piano, drawing for fun, and trying to improve my solve time with the Rubik’s Cube. So far, my average solve time for the Rubik’s Cube is about 50 seconds but by the time the stay-at-home order is finished (whenever that happens) I’d like to have an average solve time of about 30 seconds. I’ve played the piano here and there but now I have the time to try and learn more scales and chords.

Even though working from home was a challenge at first, I’ve found it easier to optimise the work that I do have, and work on my ability to focus for longer periods of time. I’ve grown to miss in-person interactions with people but I’ve learned to settle for just hearing or seeing people through a computer screen! Hopefully, I will be able to see my co-workers in the near future!

Michaela

I’ve always been someone who loves creating a weekly schedule, but never has it been more important to do so then now. I’ve caught myself  once or twice not filling out my planner and boy, let me tell you, that was a nightmare! Additionally, while having my cat and dog with me and eating wherever and whenever I want has come as a pleasant addition to my everyday life, the hands-on, face-to-face work I did when campus was still open is something I now can’t wait to get back to.

Not everything has been doom and gloom. While in quarantine, the first thing I did was finish some preservation boxes I’d pre-measured to bring home. This work was one of my favorite things to do in Special Collections, so I really can’t wait to get back into it. I’ve also worked on a number of digitization projects which is awesome as I get to see so much of the content I’m currently away from. It also serves as a decent relaxer as I can crank this work out in a decent amount of time with few hiccups. Something I’ve taken away from this experience is how important it is to have options. I have taken advantage of this time to educate myself and enrolled in an online course which is teaching me about creating a digital cultural heritage community. Learning new things is one of my favorite pastimes, so what better way than to find a course geared toward my intended career path? This course is really helping me to stay sane through this transition and I’m optimistic that it will give me additional knowledge about the field of library sciences that will help me as I graduate and move on to graduate school. I’m glad I get to see everyone’s faces at least once a week and I have hope that we’ll get back to our normal routines soon. Until then, I’ll continue to work as hard as I can to contribute to everything that is thrown at me. Cheers!

Scenes from working at home

As this year’s #Archive30 draws to a close, the final theme is #WhyArchives? What an excellent question! Earlier this month we asked some of our users to write about their favourite items from our collections for #FavouriteItem on the 2nd April and one of our users seemed to have highlighted beautifully why we think of archives as being so special and so key for research. So here is our last guest blog post for April, from Brooks Marmon, a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh who talks about the gaps that archives can fill and the treasure trove of little known primary sources archives can prove to be.

—

Over the course of my doctoral research, I’ve enjoyed making
several trips to Stirling for research in the extensive collection of Peter Mackay,
a journalist and activist who played a significant, albeit unheralded role in the
independence struggles in Malawi and Zimbabwe as well as supporting wider post-colonial
development efforts across southern Africa. 
Participation in two ‘Freedom Road
Workshops,’ hosted by Stirling celebrating Mackay’s contributions to the
region also provided welcome opportunities for networking and exchanging ideas.

The Mackay Archive is substantial and chock-full of fascinating documents and materials spanning critical events across southern Africa during the Cold War era.  I’ve only skimmed the surface of the collection, but fascinating material that I’ve encountered includes a courtroom doodle by Herbert Chitepo, Southern Rhodesia’s (colonial Zimbabwe) first black lawyer, the first letterhead of Zimbabwe’s current ruling party (ZANU-PF) after it was established in August 1963, and the behind the scenes correspondence concerning Tsopano, a newsmagazine edited by Mackay from 1959 – 1961.

However, for my research purposes, some of the most
fascinating items I’ve found in the Mackay Archive covers an earlier period.  Mackay emigrated to Rhodesia in the late
1940s and it was nearly a decade before he emerged as a committed anti-colonial
revolutionary.

In the early 1960s, a radical Mackay was jailed by the
Rhodesian authorities for refusing to register for military service.  However, a decade earlier, Mackay, as a
junior administrator and journalist, rubbed shoulders with those who soon
became his oppressors.  Mackay wrote for the
Rhodesian Farmer, the organ of the Rhodesian National Farmers’ Union,
the bedrock of the colony’s white farming community.

He became more overtly ensconced in establishment political circles in 1952 and 1953 when he joined the staff of the United Central Africa Association (UCAA).  The UCAA successfully lobbied for the federation of three British colonies – Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.  It was led by the Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister, Godfrey Huggins, and its membership included a number of Rhodesian cabinet members and MPs.  The Association disbanded after Southern Rhodesia’s overwhelmingly white electorate approved the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland at a referendum.

Mackay was so successful in organising branches for the UCAA
on a voluntary basis that he was offered paid employment with the organisation,
which he accepted.

It is the material on the UCAA in the Mackay Archive that I
most treasure from my visits to Stirling. 
The UCAA, which temporarily subsumed the better-known Capricorn Africa
Society (which also subsequently employed Mackay), has been rarely discussed in
the academic literature.  The few
academic works which do mention the UCAA, lack depth and appear to overwhelmingly
rely on newspaper accounts.

The Mackay papers add a wealth of new dimensions to the limited existing scholarly assessments of the UCAA.  It includes membership forms for enrolment in the UCAA and pamphlets issued by them such as Why Federation?, Federation or Isolation?, and If You’re Frightened of Bogies.

Perhaps most valuably, Mackay has collected documents that
provide a behind the scenes take on the activities of the UCAA.  This includes a considerable collection of
minutes of meetings of the UCAA’s Organising and Publicity Committee as well as
the Association’s monthly progress reports. 

As more scholars make use of the Mackay Archive, these documents will undoubtedly come to play a prominent role in informing our understanding of the Capricorn Africa Society, the activities of leading Rhodesian politicians and the dynamics that underpinned the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.  More specifically, via the UCAA records, I’ve acquired a better understanding of just how transformative Mackay’s embrace of African nationalism actually was.

Brooks Marmon is a PhD student in the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh.  His doctoral thesis examines the impact of African decolonisation on Southern Rhodesia during the era of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953-63).  Follow him @AfricaInDC. 

This week’s #BriginColour focuses on a Brig cover from 1971. We thought we would look at artwork by the artist Willie Rodger which was added to the Art Collection in 1971. The Art Collection holds 20 artworks by Willie in our collections. In 1971 we added three works (L-R) The Boat, Anne and Where did I go wrong into the collection.

Born in Kirkintilloch, Willie Rodger studied at Glasgow School of Art then taught art in schools for many years, all the while painting and printmaking. He was the first printmaker to be awarded Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1989, of the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1994 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Stirling in 1999.

His works are familiar to all that visit the Pathfoot Building. So much so that he was interviewed in his studio for a short film Corridor of Dreams, which included interviews with Scottish artists in the University of Stirling Art Collection in their studios. The film celebrated works of Art from the collection through the eyes of people who passed them on a daily basis

Willie was known as Scotland’s master printmaker as well as being an accomplished painter and designer of stained glass windows. His huge individual and stunning woodcuts and wood engravings are instantly recognisable with their high standard of draughtsmanship and design. He was also much loved for his direct yet witty approach of looking at the world around him.

In common with all great artists, he gave freely of his knowledge and demonstrated his techniques and thought processes with modesty and clarity. He was Principal Teacher of Art at Clydebank High School from 1968 to 1987 and his former pupils remember well the impact that he had on their lives and careers

In our day your choices when you left school were John Brown’s shipyard or the Singer sewing machine factory.  Art School was another planet, and yet with Willie’s help and encouragement this council house boy ended up at Glasgow School of Art, and the Royal College of Art, studying Jewellery.

Tom Dobbie, photographer

One of the very few teachers who never lost faith in me, Willie single-handedly took this scruffy, cheeky kid from a blinkered, depressed environment and inspired him to reach for the stars.  I owe Willie more than a lot.  I owe him everything.

Mitch Davidson, Art Director

The Art Collection hosted a major exhibition of Willie’s work in 2007, which was opened by the poet Liz Lochead. She wrote the poem below detailing her feeling’s about his work.

THE ART OF WILLIE RODGER

Is essential essentially

it’s          made by hand                  created from the heart

from the heart of this most creative family

with perfect       and perfected   economy

with nothing but

the eye                                 the cut

the dab hand

the knife              the lino, ink and roller

the perfect paper (the black and

not quite

white?)

with maybe the black on softest red?                      the black on buff?

 With the never too much             the always enough

the dab hand

the either/or

the both, the and

with       essentially

 the block and the roller                the paper

 the ink

is light, deep

funny, sad

per-

jink

who

in a print              can make Scottish haiku?

Willie

sees

and what he sees shows face to face

it’s full of grace

While the Pathfoot Building is closed, the Art Collection will each week focus on an object of interest. You can also search our entire collection online here.

Ideas (Gravity released one unit at a time)
Katie Paterson
(Micro-waterjet-cut Sterling Silver, 1/3, 2014)

In the summer of 2014, the Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh presented Katie Paterson: Ideas as part of the GENERATION nationwide programme of exhibitions. The work shown here, entitled Ideas (Gravity released one unit at a time), was acquired by the Art Collection from the exhibition (with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions).
Ideas are a series of short haiku-like sentences in solid silver that turn some of Katie Paterson’s unrealisable ideas into impossible statements of intent. These semi-poetic phrases take shape in the imagination of whoever reads the words and so become an expression of the idea itself. As the artist says: ‘the images you form are the artworks themselves’. What gradually becomes clear is that the distance between the realised and the unrealisable is not to be relied upon.

This work was loaned in Spring 2019 to the Turner Contemporary in Margate, for an exhibition entitled ‘A place that exists only in moonlight: Katie Paterson and JMW Turner’. The following film about this exhibition gives a good brief introduction to the artist’s interests and inspirations.

In 2015, the Art Collection also purchased a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ to be a participant in a new visionary project by Katie Paterson, which will last one hundred years:

A forest in Norway is growing. In 100 years from now it will become an anthology of books. Every year a writer will contribute a text that will be held in trust, unpublished, until 2114. The certificate entitles the owner to one complete set of the texts printed on the paper made from the trees after they are fully grown and cut down in 2114. It is printed on paper made from trees felled in Nordmarka in 2014.

A beautiful film was commissioned by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art about how this project is developing. Watch it here

Widely regarded as one of the leading artists of her generation, collaborating with scientists and researchers across the world, Katie Paterson’s projects consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time and change. Here is the artist speaking from her home in Fife in Spring 2020, in a short film commissioned by the Ingleby Gallery for The Unseen Masterpiece – a daily exhibition of artworks that no one will see, of works that will never be together (running until 1st June 2020…see more here).

It can be challenging to find good resources that lend themselves to both virtual and in-person instruction. The Digital Public Library of America created 140 openly available Primary Source Sets that make that task easier.

What are Primary Source Sets?

• 140 “highlight reel” primary source collections
  Each set includes ten to fifteen sources and a teaching guide
• By educators, for educators and students
  Created by DPLA’s Education Advisory Committee and designed for both instructors and students.
• For secondary and higher education
  The sets are adaptable across grade levels, learning styles, and classroom environments, from middle school to higher education

Take a tour of the sets by watching the video below.

Using the Primary Source Sets
Try one of these implementation ideas or create your own!

What’s missing?
There is always room for new ideas or perspectives on a topic! Students can critically examine the sources in a set and identify an item from DPLA that they would add to that set. Students can also generate new discussion questions to add to the set’s teaching guide using the sources.

Gamify the sets
Use sources from the sets to create an educational game or challenge for students. For example, build a Digital Breakout in which answers to each question can be uncovered through primary source analysis.

Storytelling with sources
Ask students to generate a narrative using a set of sources from the sets as evidence. Follow up with a class discussion comparing the ways each student or group used the sources.

Find more implementation ideas in DPLA’s blog post, “10 Ways to Use the Primary Source Sets in Your Classroom”.

Mayor La Guardia at a WNYC mic in the 1930s.
(WNYC Archive Collections)

The notion of WNYC becoming the flagship station of a non-commercial network of cultural stations was first publicly articulated by Mayor La Guardia at the launching of the station’s new WPA-built transmitter facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on October 31, 1937. La Guardia envisioned a non-commercial/educational radio network connected via shortwave rather than expensive landlines leased by AT&T, but the FCC prohibited interstation communication by means other than wire when wire is available. At the ceremony La Guardia sharply criticized the FCC prohibition: “That is just as nonsensical and as unreasonable as to say that one isn’t permitted to fly from here to Chicago because there are railroads going from here to Chicago. Of course, all this is very good for the New York Telephone Company, but it is not so hot for us.” [1]

La Guardia’s plan for a non-commercial/educational radio network was based on the distribution of content via interstation shortwave rather than expensive landlines leased by AT&T. Agitated by the phone company’s distribution monopoly, the Mayor vowed to raise the matter again with the FCC and with Congress if necessary. FCC Commissioner George Henry Payne was expected to address those attending the WNYC transmitter dedication but called in sick. In a letter to program director Seymour N. Siegel, Payne indicated his support for such a cultural network. “There should be a chain of such non-commercial stations across the continent, free of pills and powders, laxatives, and Hollywood actors.”[2]

Less than a month later, Commissioner of Plant and Structures Frederick Kracke (whose agency oversaw WNYC) reported back to La Guardia that money was the only thing standing in the way of making WNYC into an international shortwave station. Such a facility, he noted, would promote goodwill with South America and supply the nation with news from the World’s Fair under construction at Flushing Meadows in Queens. Kracke indicated that as soon as funding was allocated, he would apply to the FCC for the proper permits.[3]

In the meantime, a world war for the hearts and minds of radio listeners was already underway via shortwave. Germany and Italy were regularly beaming broadcasts of fascist ideology to South America with the expectation of winning converts. Mayor La Guardia and then Station Director Morris Novik decided to counter this propaganda. On May 27, 1938, WNYC initiated a series of half-hour programs extending ‘goodwill greetings’ to South America through General Electric’s shortwave station (W3XAF) in Schenectady, New York. Each program ended with this statement:

This program comes from WNYC, New York City’s own station, where seven-and-a-half million people, who have come from all parts of the world, are now living in peace and enjoying the benefits of democracy.[4]

Walter S. Lemmon, founder and president of the World Wide Broadcasting Corporation.
(WNYC Archive Collections)

The relationship with GE was limited as WNYC turned toward the Boston-area station and fellow non-commercial facility, W1XAL. Also known as the World Wide Broadcasting Corporation (and later renamed WRUL), the international shortwave station was the brainchild of Walter S. Lemmon (1896-1967), a radio engineer and inventor who launched the facility to promote world understanding and education. In its formative years, the effort was bolstered by a series of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, and its schedule read like that of a college or educational station, but with the BBC’s international focus. In May 1939, WNYC began sending its World’s Fair broadcasts of foreign pavilion openings to W1XAL.[5] By the fall of that year, other shows had been relayed to Boston, and the WNYC Masterwork Bulletin touted “W1XAL has shortwaved these programs ’round the world. In the future, W1XAL is going to take even more broadcasts from us.”[6] 

The FCC appointed commissioners Norman S. Case, T.A.M. Craven, and George Henry Payne (a WNYC sympathizer), to consider the station’s case for the retransmission of W1XAL broadcasts received by shortwave rather than wire. Variety suggested a ‘liberalization’ of rules might be in the offing since others in the industry viewed the government regulator as little more than a stooge for the phone company.[7] Novik meanwhile signed up WNYC with the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB), a membership organization of some two dozen college stations, and then convinced them to endorse La Guardia’s position for the October hearing in Washington, D.C. With a ready network of stations, albeit small, WNYC could go before the FCC with some muscle.

Excerpt of letter from the NAEB Executive Secretary Frank Schooley to Mayor La Guardia, September 6, 1939.
(NAEB Collection Wisconsin Historical Society)[8]

The FCC Hearing

On the day of the hearing, one city paper headlined the news as WNYC Air Link at Hand stating that “the torch of culture which New York’s municipally-owned radio station WNYC has held aloft may soon get the support of a national network” of 25 stations across the country.[9]

Walter Lemmon, Morris Novik, NAEB executive secretary Frank Schooley, Harvard professor William Y. Elliott, and executive secretary Howard S. Evans of the National Committee on Education by Radio joined Mayor La Guardia at the October 23, 1939 Washington, D.C. hearing. The Mayor summarized his position:

The application boils itself down to the one point –to permit us to pick up programs transmitted on what is known as the international band and to rebroadcast them on our wavelength. What we have in mind is to establish relations with the station at Harvard so that we may pick from its program such parts that would be educational and of interest to the people of the City of New York.

We are free to pick up a program on an international band if it originates in a foreign country, but not if it originates in our own country. We believe that if we were permitted to experiment with this station located at Harvard, it would not only be beneficial to us, but interesting as an experiment, and an encouragement to other non-commercial and municipal stations, or stations of educational institutions.

La Guardia also maintained that the United States would not have “an ideal radio condition” until there were an equal number of commercial and non-commercial stations. The Mayor argued, “these would serve as a protection to the people at a time when our country might starve for accurate information on some given point.”[10] Station director Novik testified that the issue actually went back to 1936, when WNYC wanted to broadcast material from the Harvard tercentenary programs but was prohibited from doing so because of the FCC regulations.

FCC Commissioners in 1937. Seated (l-r) Eugene Octave Sykes, Frank R. McNinch, Chair Paul Atlee Walker Standing (l-r) T.A.M. Craven, Thad H. Brown, Norman S. Case, and George Henry Payne.
(Library of Congress)

Andrew D. Ring, an FCC assistant chief engineer, and other agency officials testified that shortwave signals were impractical and unreliable as a rebroadcast or distribution service −and that if it were possible, it would be costly. [11] The engineer also argued that the rebroadcasting of this material could not be done without detracting from the operational efficiency of international broadcasters. Walter Lemmon countered that the use of a new and improved directional antenna at W1XAL and the similar installation at other stations, at a cost of a thousand dollars each, would solve the problem. Both engineers agreed that testing would be useful.[12]

While awaiting a decision from the FCC, WNYC had moved ahead with its shortwave transmitter, beginning test broadcasts from W2XVP at 26.1 megacycles. On April 4, 1940, the three FCC commissioners released their recommendation allowing for the non-commercial use of domestic shortwave broadcasts as long as three criteria were met: (1) the application could be for non-profit purposes only, (2) reception by wire placed an undue burden on the station, and (3) there were no legal barriers to carrying the material.[13] Less than a month later, WNYC filed for an FM license and began preparing for what was frequently billed as ‘static-less’ broadcasting.

Alas, La Guardia, and Novik’s vision of a ‘cultural network’ with WNYC as its flagship station and distribution by shortwave did not come to pass in the 1940s. The advent of FM, World War II home front efforts, and the leasing of WRUL to the Office of War Information for propaganda broadcasts changed everyone’s priorities. Radio listeners would have to wait until 1950 with the launch of NAEB’s ‘bicycle network’ of tape distribution, initiated by WNYC. The Pacifica Radio Network followed in the 1960s, followed by NPR’s network, of which WNYC is a part today.

_____________________________

Audio of Mayor La Guardia at the October 31, 1937 transmitter dedication ceremony at top is courtesy of The New York City Municipal Archives.

[1] WNYC Broadcast, October 31, 1937.

[2] “Mayor Denounces U.S. Radio Ruling,” The New York Times, November 1, 1937, pg. 3.

[3] “Kracke Tells Cost of Expanding WNYC,” The New York Times, November 15, 1937, pg. 26.

[4] The New York Journal American, May 26, 1938.

[5] “Young Clears Up N.Y. Radio’s Fog; Locals to Carry 160 Hours Weekly,” Variety, May 10, 1939, pg. 32.

[6] WNYC Masterwork Bulletin, October-November 1939, pg. 19.

[7] “More Liberal Pickup Rules Due; Industry Has Called Commish Stooge for Telephone Company,” Variety May 3, 1939 pg. 27

[8] Schooley, Frank E., Letter to Mayor F. H. La Guardia, September 8, 1939, NAEB Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society. Part of the University of Maryland’s Unlocking the Airwaves project.

[9] “WNYC Air Link at Hand,” The New York Journal American, October 23, 1939.

[10] Gilpin, Lewie V., “Feasibility of Wireless Chain is Contested at FCC Hearing,” Broadcasting, November 1, 1939, pg. 30.

[11] Ibid.

[12] “La Guardia Urges Lifting Radio Curb,” The New York Times, October 24, 1939, pg. 21.

[13] “Rebroadcast of International Stations is Recommended to FCC by Committee,” Broadcasting, April 15, 1940, pg. 52.

From April 26th-May 2nd, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services is celebrating Preservation Week. This initiative includes events from all over the country, which includes free webinars, a Twitter conference, and more. At FSU, we’d like to celebrate Preservation Week by showing off some of the preservation rehousing work we’ve done in the past year.

Why do we rehouse collections?

• Provides physical protection and stability for the item
• Delays chemical breakdown
• Improves collections management
• Increases access to the item

What do we consider when making custom housing?

• Will this improve the item’s physical and chemical stability?
• Is it easy to remove the item from the housing?
• Is it easy to transport between storage and service spaces?
• Does it fit in our existing storage?
• Does it allow for moving parts to be demonstrated safely?
• Does it increase access? Can we use the item in an instruction session with minimal concern?

Our first rehousing example is individual binders for our Papyrus Fragments (MSS 2015-008). Prior to creating the binders, the fragments were housed between acrylic pieces, and had slid to the bottom of the frame. Moving the fragments into the new binders allowed for each piece to be stored individually, as well as increase their visibility as you can now view the fragment from both sides.

This almanac, Rider’s British Merlin (AY751 .R5 1770), is beautifully adorned with gold tooled leather and clasps that are held together by a long metal pin. Because removing and replacing the pin every time it’s used can cause wear on the book, we designed a box that would mimic the sensation of removing the stylus from the clasps.

This sculpture from an unprocessed series of the Francois Bucher Papers (MSS 2015-010) posed several problems. The ceramic bust has extremely delicate and fragile features, and is also very front-heavy. The statue never sat nicely on the shelf alone, and could be damaged by day-to-day traffic in the stacks. The new housing fully supports the weight of the sculpture, and is protected from external dangers with its new box.

These rehousing efforts are just a few examples from our ongoing work to preserve Special Collections at FSU. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out all the other events being hosted for Preservation Week.

As part of #BeConnected the Art Collection is proud to launch a new virtual tour of the Pathfoot Building. This virtual tour explores works from the permanent collection including works by J D Fergusson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Barbara Hepworth and many more.

The virtual tour is the work of final year student Pierre Engelhard as part a Digital Publishing Project for his bachelor’s in Film & Media and Journalism at the University. 

Pierre said: “My project consists in the creation of an App prototype which serves as a host to the 360°/interactive videos I created. The app encourages the viewer to watch the videos using a Virtual Reality mask which should enhance the immersive feeling of the experience and give the impression of walking through the walls of a Virtual Museum. However, the Stirling Art Collection’s has been specially designed to be viewed on a web browser.

An important feature of the videos are all the interactive options which enable the viewer to enter certain art pieces and contemplate their digital representations.

The main intention of this project is to enhance accessibility to cultural sites thanks to emerging technologies and digital media. Moreover, the project explores the educational role of traditional physical museums and how it can be implemented into Virtual Museums, as it can be seen in the art pieces’ Virtual Environments where the viewer can see digitalised art pieces and read key information about the objects.

This project helped me to develop new skills and gain new knowledge which will certainly be very useful for next year’s master’s in Digital Direction I will be attending at the Royal College of Art.

I am pleased to have been able to collaborate with the Stirling Art Collection. Recreating digital versions of their beautiful art was a lovely way to finish my academic journey at the University of Stirling”

We hope that you enjoy the tour which provides virtual access to the building whilst we are closed.

This article was written by Jeffrey Henley, a graduate student who has been working with the Florida State University Historic Photograph Collection with Heritage & University Archives since September 2018.

The FSU Historic Photograph Collection in the Heritage & University Archives at Florida State University contains in excess of 250,000 images and negatives. The collection houses a number of different types of images produced from the late nineteenth century through approximately 2010. The majority of the images were produced in the 1950s and 1960s. The challenges to processing this collection generally center on the issue of its size and diversity of photographs.  An issue with provenance exists due to the photographs having been collected without strict documentation. What is known, though, is the overwhelming majority of the photographs were produced by an entity within or associated with Florida State University. While the provenance of the collection is also a challenge, this issue is not at the forefront of dealing with the collection. Due to the way it had been collected over time as many different collections, it had not been organized as a coherent archival collection, but rather was kept in a variety of storage entities.

The collection was first processed to its current form in 2016. When I started to work on this collection in late September 2018, I spent a couple of weeks familiarizing myself with proper techniques for handling photographs and negatives, recognizing issues, and identifying proper storage. After that, I spent a fair amount of time learning the collection and becoming familiar with its organization.  I found the collection organized into five series, each representing distinctive types of photographs and subjects. Even after working with the collection for almost eighteen months, I am still learning about the content. Once I had a grasp of how to work with the collection and what I was dealing with, the time came for me to pick up the processing of the collection where Dave Rodriguez left off in April 2018.

I began working with Series 5, which was a mixture of prints and negatives. While the contents of the remaining fourteen boxes were generally in alphabetical order by subject, they still needed to be checked to make sure they were correct and I also discovered many of the subjects had additional titles for clarification. These categories then had to be organized within sub-categories. I noticed many of the prints and negatives (not all) had additional markings to indicate some sort of numerical system that was being used by the photographer to organize them. Discovering this system made the task of putting matched prints and negatives together in the boxes.  I do not know how many prints and negatives were in those fourteen boxes, however it took me about four and half to five months to reprocess them. The fourteen boxes actually expanded to fifteen boxes due to a number of prints and negatives being stuffed into storage envelopes. I rehoused each print, and occasional negative, in new storage envelopes. Series 5 was completed in late March 2019, however due to space and other pending projects, the boxes were left in place until such time I could come back to them and fully incorporate them into the collection both physically and in the finding aid. I spent the rest of the semester working on research requests and digitization projects for the Heritage & University Archives.

When I returned to Special Collections in the fall of 2019, Sandra Varry had me begin a project to assess the provenance of the collection. We knew the photographs that were already in the collection, along with those that had yet to be processed, came from a wide variety of sources, however there was no clear indication as to what sources had contributed to the entire collection. This project also included examining the provenance of the General Photograph Collection and the Alumni Association Miscellaneous Photograph Collection. The project was a precursor to the possible merging of these smaller collections into the larger FSU Historic Photograph Collection.

The Alumni Association Collection appeared to be a more unique collection than the General Photograph Collection. The decision was made to keep the Alumni Association Collection as its own entity, but Sandra decided the best course of action for the General Photograph Collection was to merge it into the Historic Photograph Collection. One issue that we had to take into consideration before moving forward was that roughly three-quarters of the photographs in the General Photograph Collection had been digitized and were part of the finding aid for the collection down to the item level.

Over the course of several weeks into October 2019, we had a number of meetings with other specialists in Special Collections to prepare to merge these collections. We received the best practices for tracking the digitized photographs as well as keeping track of updates that need to be made to the finding aid. After that, the next step was to go through the General Photograph Collection and make determinations as to where each photograph would go in the Historic Photograph Collection. This process took a bit longer than anticipated due to my misunderstanding of the numbering system used on the General Photograph Collection and the fact that I had missed over 100 photographs that were not digitized, but were still part of the collection. I then had to go back through and determine where those photographs would go. When that task was completed, it was time to begin laying out how many photographs would go into which folders and which boxes in the Historic Photograph Collection and layout a map of how the collection would look on the shelves and how much room would be needed to fit them all in, not to mention the 15 boxes that had been processed the previous spring.  Creating the map of the collection took most of the rest of the fall semester.

Upon my return for the spring semester 2020, I reviewed the floor plan for the collection and received approval from Sandra to proceed with the actual merging of the collections. Over the course of the next six or seven weeks, I meticulously merged the General Photograph Collection into the Historic Photograph Collection, over 800 photographs, and accounted for each one on at least three different spreadsheets. One spreadsheet was reserved for tracking the digitized photographs, one was used to update the finding aid, and the other was a back up, in essence, to the finding aid tracker. Doing it this way slowed the process down significantly, however I thought the time was worth avoiding a serious mistake that could undo months of work.

By the second week in March 2020, the physical collection merger was complete. All that remained to be done was final review of the new finding aid and upload, turning over the new locations for the digitized photographs to the DLC team for review, and to print the new labels for the collection. It was all ready to go. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis intervened. The final few steps of the process to complete the merger and reopen the collection will have to wait until the crisis abates and campus is open once again.

As the crew in the Archives and all of Frost Library has shifted gears to work remotely, we want to offer more information about how to use the resources we have put online over the past 5+ years. One of the most frequently used resources in the Archives is the collection of past college catalogs, all of which can be found in Amherst College Digital Collections. Here are some examples of how we use these in our daily work.

The first catalog issued by the “Collegiate Institution” appears in March 1822 and is very bare-bones.

First Amherst College Catalogue, 1822

This document provides a lot of information: we know the names of the faculty and their subjects, we also know the names of the students in each class, their home town, and their campus address. Since there was only one building at this time (South College) the addresses are just room numbers in a single building.

That simple student-directory information is extremely useful when researching life at the college. In 1850 Amherst student George Gould (AC 1850) invited his classmate’s sister — Emily Dickinson — to attend a Valentine’s Eve candy pulling at “Miss Montague’s”:

George Gould to Emily Dickinson, 1850

In the period when Amherst had limited dormitory space for a growing student body, many students lived in boarding houses instead of on campus. We can turn to the catalog for the 1849-50 academic year to find James Buckland of St. Louis, MO living at “Miss Montague’s” boarding house:

A glance at this list of the Freshmen who entered college in the fall of 1849 shows the majority are from Massachusetts, but we have students from as far away as New Orleans and St. Louis. Gould lived in 8 Middle College while his friend Austin Dickinson lived in 31 South College, even though the family home was mere blocks from campus.

Catalogs often end the list of students with a brief statistical summary as in this example from 1885:

Although this summary includes nine students from “Other Countries,” those students are likely the children of American missionaries working abroad and not students native to those places. In this instance, the two students from China were the Woodin brothers, Edwin (Class of 1885) and Herbert (Class of 1888), whose parents, Rev. Simeon and Sarah Woodin, worked as missionaries in “Foo-Chow, China.”

Notice the appearance of Greek letters to indicate students’ residence in their fraternity house. By the 1920s, the dominance of fraternities at Amherst is apparent at a glance:

Catalogs are also an excellent resource for tracing changes in the Amherst curriculum over time. There have been many notable changes, such as the introduction of the “New Curriculum” in fall 1947. The changes to requirements were so significant that the catalog has different rules for “the class of 1950 and preceding classes” and “the class of 1951 and succeeding classes.” It also still includes instructions for pursuing a Master of Arts degree.

In addition to the way these changes are presented to the students, scholars can now dive into the faculty meeting minutes to see the behind the scenes work by the faculty to shape and revise the curriculum.

This sample course of study from 1829-30 shows the prescriptive nature of the curriculum in the early years — no electives whatsoever:

By the time we reach the 1966-67 academic year, electives and options are plentiful but there are still some core course requirements. Note that, as in the 1947-48 catalog, changes in the curriculum meant different requirements for different graduating classes.

The summary of enrollment for 1966-67 reveals the further growth and geographical spread of the student body.

This quick look at catalogs merely scratches the surface of what they can tell us. You can track the arrivals and departures of individual faculty members, track the introduction and revision of individual courses, trace the growth and development of academic departments (such as this brief history of Black Studies at Amherst), and review changes in admission requirements and tuition. Calendar information is also easily found in the catalog if you want to know when classes started or when commencement was scheduled for a particular year.

One of our goals for the upcoming Bicentennial celebrations is to make as much material about college history available as widely as possible. Rather than creating a monolithic new history of the school, we encourage our community to explore that history for themselves.

With thanks to funding from the British Columbia History Digitization Program we are pleased to announce that we have recently completed a project to digitize over 830 audio tapes and four video tapes from the Co-op Radio fonds. The audio and video files have been uploaded to the Archives online database with accompanying descriptions and are available to be viewed and listened to freely.

In 1974 Vancouver Co-operative Radio (Co-op Radio) received their first license from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and proceeded to set up a station at 399 Carrall Street beside Vancouver’s Pigeon Park. The station aired its first show on April 14, 1975 and has been on the air ever since. In the mid-1990s, Co-op Radio moved locations to 337 Carrall Street and then again to 370 Columbia in 2001. In 2014 the station temporarily relocated to 2014 Wall Street due to building renovations but returned to 370 Columbia Street in 2017. A non-commercial, co-operatively-owned and listener-supported station, its mandate has been to provide space for under-represented and marginalized communities in the media. Additionally, the station has offered an alternative to conventional media and challenges mainstream media coverage.

The Co-op Radio fonds consists primarily of recordings of Vancouver Co-op Radio spoken word programs including The Lesbian Show, Woman Vision, Brown Bagger, Redeye, Union Made, Soundwalking, Airlift and various other shows covering diverse content such as local and international news, politics, activism, war and peace, environmental work, grassroots and Indigenous organizing, arts and culture, and literary readings.  For example, one episode of The Lesbian Show looks at some of the challenges and systemic issues around parenting and includes interviews with lesbian mothers and children.

Another example of the kind of content that can be found in the Co-op Radio fonds is an episode of Union Made hosted by Sharon Nap. The episode features interviews with Sue Harris and Al Anderson (Downtown Eastside Residents Association); reports by Mark McGuire on unemployment and health, and unemployment and women with Ida [Nishaka] (Douglas College); and John Carter with the Union Made news.

The fonds also contains recordings of lectures and conferences. Many of these recordings can be found in the Brown Bagger file. The In Visible Colours conference, an international women of colour and third world women film/video festival and symposium, was hosted in Vancouver in November of 1989. There are quite a few recordings from panels during this conference. One interesting example is a recording from a panel entitled “Celebrating Our Cinema.” Panelists include: Pratibha Parmar, Loretta Todd and Ayoka Chenzira.

Also included in the fonds are published program guides containing show schedules and articles, and four video recordings showing news segments about Co-op Radio and Co-op Radio events and happenings.

The recordings provide a unique record of subversive media practices and social/cultural/political work in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland since 1975. This rich resource may be of interest to researchers, artists, radio producers, academics, activists, Indigenous organizers and communities, LGBTQ2+ communities, historians, politicians, educators and Vancouverites who are interested in the political, social and cultural landscape of Vancouver and British Columbia.

This week’s #BriginColour focuses on a Brig cover from 1977. We thought we would look at one artwork which was added to the Art Collection in 1977.

Locomotive Descending a Staircase is the work of George Wyllie and was purchased for the Art Collection from the Macrobert Gallery in 1977. Glasgow’s industrial past is a recurring theme in Wyllie’s work, and this sculpture is a nod to the city’s status as the engine room of the British Empire.

Known for his commitment to art for everyone, Wyllie was a social sculptor whose most famous works include Straw Locomotive and Paper Boat, both of which strived to ask questions about the decline of industrial Clydeside.

In May 1987 the Straw Locomotive hung over the empty Clyde, suspended for just a few weeks, waiting for a ship that never came. It was taken to Springburn on June twenty-second and burned there in a Viking ceremony, marking the loss of the locomotive industry which had once flourished there. As a piper played a lament, the burnt-out chasis revealed a steel question mark, raising the question: why was Springburn’s industry, and eventually the district itself, destroyed? The event was witnessed by a crowd which included those who had worked in Springburn’s locomotive industry.

In 1989 George Wyllie built his 78 foot long Paper Boat, ‘QM’ as a celebration – and memorial – to the city’s shipbuilding industry. Launched from the Finnieston Crane – like his Straw Locomotive of 1987 – the Paper Boat sailed the Clyde, the Thames and eventually the Hudson river in New York. It berthed outside the World Financial Centre in 1990 and made front-page news in the Wall Street Journal. The Paper Boat focused on the decline of Glasgow’s shipbuilding industry.

Locomotive Descending a Staircase is on permanent display in Gallery One of the Pathfoot Building and artworks by George Wyllie are held in the collections of museums and galleries including the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Smith Art Gallery, Whitworth in Manchester and the Scottish Maritime Museum amongst others.

Wyllie’s sense of humour, his mischievous persona and his insistence that art was a public rather than private matter had a subtle but enduring influence on subsequent generations of artists in Scotland. The Scottish Political Archive at the University has a photograph in its collections of a George Wyllie sculpture. Taken in 1993 the photograph shows a sculpture in the shape of a cannon located outside the Democracy for Scotland vigil on Calton Hill. It was pointed at St Andrews House, the home of the Scottish Office.

When there is change and progress, what’s left? The answer is a treasure trove of documents and artefacts. Archives are a hidden resource in universities, libraries, museums, grand houses and company offices accessed perhaps over the internet but in my case, like many others, by personal visits to the establishment. Pencil and paper is the order of the day when reviewing and documenting the requested items although with permission, photographs can be taken of artefacts. Many hours transcribing information from the pencilled notes to a computer are needed before any meaning and significance can be extracted from the data.

While researching an aspect of 20^th century nursing I accessed a selection of nurses’ badges donated to the archive which tell the story of nursing and midwifery training within what is now Forth Valley Health Board. Badges, no longer allowed, were worn on the old style uniform at collar level. There were two distinct types of badges, one for registration or enrolment within whatever field had been studied and the other was the hospital badge. The design and makeup of badges changed throughout the 20^th century.

The national badges had the holder’s name and number inscribed on the back. If lost the bearer had to report the loss of the national badge to the police and the nursing or midwifery registration body as a finder could have used it to fraudulently obtain work as a nurse or midwife as it was in effect a legal document.

Hospital badges were – and still are – prized possessions, awarded with certificates on successful completion of a course and identifying the nursing training hospital. But they did not, in themselves, legally identify the wearer as a nurse or midwife. The badges for registered training often had a blue background whereas these awarded for enrolment often had a green background.

In the early 20^th century, hospitals trained their own nurses on site within the hospital and staff often worked there for the rest of their career. Within what is now Forth Valley Health Board, nurse training took place at The Royal Scottish National Hospital, Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary, Bellsdyke Hospital and Stirling Royal Infirmary. Midwifery training took place at Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary and Stirling Royal Infirmary.

After the Second World War, to meet the national shortage of staff, a two year training for enrolment to the nursing register was planned and implemented. This meant there were two grades of trained staff: registered nurses and enrolled nurses.  With advances in medical and nursing care, the different hospitals within Forth Valley – in a similar way to other hospitals throughout Great Britain – started grouping their nurse training courses together with neighbouring hospitals, offering those who trained a wider knowledge base. Meetings to plan these changes were documented in paperwork contained within the archive. It was decided to bring all the courses on offer under one roof. Starting in 1976 nursing and midwifery training was conducted at the Forth Valley College of Nursing and Midwifery with a suitable badge being designed and awarded, thus making the badges for the individual hospitals redundant. Training and education of nursing continued to change to keep pace with progress in healthcare and Forth Valley College of Nursing was integrated with the University of Stirling in 1997. The move to university education nationally and a change in uniform criteria spelt the death knell in the use of national or local badges. Many badges (and certificates) languish in the drawers of former and current nurses. Hopefully, their relevance will be remembered so their stories can be told and they can be donated to swell the archives, allowing people like me to stitch history together.

This blog post was contributed by Claire Brough Shearer. After a rewarding career in various nursing and midwifery roles, Claire is now a part time Research Post Graduate, reading for a PhD in an aspect of 20th Century Scottish nursing. Claire is the 2016 winner of the Monica Baly Bursary.

While the Pathfoot Building is closed, the Art Collection will each week focus on an object of interest. You can also search our entire collection online here.

Figure (Archaean)
Barbara Hepworth DBE
(Bronze, 1/7, 1959)

The acquisition of this work in 1967 – by an internationally significant artist – shows how seriously the establishment of this important collection of contemporary art was taken by the brand new University of Stirling. Writing to the University Principal Tom Cottrell in August of that year, Barbara Hepworth expressed delight that Figure (Archaean) had been chosen for the University. She said she thought it would make a “marvellous foil to the beautiful architecture and the wonderful landscape”.
The landscape is indeed a central feature of life at Stirling, and this sculpture fits perfectly in its surroundings. It cuts an imposing figure in the first courtyard as you enter the Pathfoot Building.

Barbara Hepworth’s career spanned five decades. She was born in Wakefield, attended Leeds School of Art (1920-21) then studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London (1921-24). She became one of the leading practitioners of the avant-garde method of Direct Carving, avoiding the more traditional process of making preparatory models and maquettes from which a craftsman would produce the finished work.  Hepworth worked with stone, wood and marble (see film links below). During the 1950s she worked increasingly in bronze, which led to the creation of works on a much larger scale such as Figure (Archaean). The original plaster cast used for this sculpture has been preserved at The Hepworth Wakefield. Read more about it here.

Hepworth’s art was primarily about relationships, and in particular the relationship between the human figure and the landscape, colour and texture.  She said that she always imagined “perfect settings for sculpture… mostly envisaged outside and related to the landscape”. Figure( Archaean) is a standing object representing the human form standing in a landscape.  The name relates to the earlier of two divisions of the Precambrian era, a period of time that extends from about 4.6 billion years ago. During this period the earliest forms of life are assumed to have appeared on earth.

A short extract of a 1953 film, ‘Figures in a Landscape’, narrated by poet Cecil Day Lewis, can be viewed here. It provides an interesting five-minute snapshot into the physicality of Barbara Hepworth’s art.

Another, longer film, made by the BBC in 1961, gives a deeper insight into the influences that the Yorkshire and Cornish landscapes had on Hepworth, and she talks about her creative process. Click here (28 minutes long – Figure, Archaean can be glimpsed at around 26 mins)

Today, April 22 2020, is the 50th anniversary of the first celebration of Earth Day. The first Earth Day in 1970 was a major mobilizing event of inestimable historical significance. The event was such a success because it came at the right time as awareness of human effects on the balance of nature was growing. Rachel Carson’s 1962 best-selling book, Silent Spring, laid the groundwork for a growing concern over man’s negative impact on the environment. 1969 was a year rife with high-profile environmental disasters; there was a major oil spill off the coast of southern California and Ohio’s Cuyahoga river caught fire. At the end of the year, concern for the environment rivaled concern for the Vietnam War.

Senator Gaylord Nelson (Wisconsin) announced his intentions for an Earth Day event six months prior to April 1970, which was enough time for the excitement to spread and for countless groups to become involved. A wide range of participants helped to organize Earth Day events and the offerings varied from speeches, teach-ins, movies, workshops, and more. The event inspired lifelong environmentalists and lead to the formation of many new environmental groups, lobbies, and services.

Florida State University participated in the first Earth day with a series of events on Landis Green including speeches, information booths, music, and movies. The theme was “Do Not Ask For Whom the Bell Tolls, It Tolls For Thee.”

The immediate effects of Earth Day were significant: the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, the passing of the Clean Air Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. The power of Earth Day extends beyond the day itself, the momentum gained by the event leant credibility to events that followed and engendered a generation of activists.

The twentieth anniversary celebration of Earth Day in 1990 united people in countries on all seven continents in unprecedented numbers to voice their concerns for environmental issues. Whereas the 1970 celebration was a grassroots effort, the 1990 celebration was run like a political campaign with advisors and consultants and a budget 15 times larger than the original event. The worldwide turnout for Earth Day 1990 was double what the organizers expected, the event united the most participants ever concerned about a single cause. The greatest success of Earth Day 1990 was the worldwide participation and attention it brought to the environmental issues plaguing the entire world. Environmental troubles were no longer simply viewed as the problem of white Americans but as a growing global concern.

Florida State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives and FSU Sustainable Campus are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with the launch of a digital exhibit, Earth Day 50: Environmental Activism at FSU and Beyond. This exhibit was originally curated to be installed as a physical exhibit in Strozier library, but installation was postponed due to covid-19. Changing to a digital platform allows the story of Earth Day and environmental activism at FSU to continue to be shared. Please visit https://fsuearthday50.omeka.net/to learn more about the celebration of Earth Day at FSU, in Florida, and beyond.

Sources:

Cahn, Robert, and Patricia Cahn. “Did Earth Day Change the World?” Environment 32, no. 7 (September 1990): 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.1990.9929039.

Rome, A. “The Genius of Earth Day.” Environmental History 15, no. 2 (2010): 194–205. doi:10.1093/envhis/emq036.

The Scottish Political Archive are collecting photographs which document the world around us at this important time. We are inviting people to send us photographs which show the impact of the coronavirus on communities all around Scotland.

We are collecting photographs including public infomation signs, markings in supermarkets showing social distancing rules, pictures of rainbows and teddy bears in house windows,

If you are able to take photographs in your area whilst observing social distancing regulations we would be very grateful. Please email any photographs to scottishpoliticalarchive@stir.ac.uk

Please note that any photographs relating to the Forth Valley will also be added to the Forth valley Health Board Archives which is held by the University of Stirling. The Archive are also asking residents of the Forth Valley to complete a coronavirus diary during the pandemic.

History of Texts and Popular Media

As someone who studies the history of texts, I try to avoid commenting on the portrayal of textual history or librarianship in popular media (don’t get me started on Jocasta Nu in Attack of the Clones) in casual settings. What good does it do to point out that a manuscript’s hand doesn’t match the era, or that a particular text wouldn’t be in the vernacular, or that rare books should NEVER be perused while consuming an apple or burning incense? Probably not much, though you better believe textual historians have these conversations all the time!

This is why I am delighted when they get it right. I’ve spent some time over the past few weeks playing Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (ACO), an epic adventure game set in the year 431 BCE. In the game, you play as a mercenary (in my case, Kassandra) navigating the political and military landscape of Greece during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. The map is seemingly endless, the vistas beautiful, and my time sailing and attacking pirate ships has almost made me forget about the COVID-19 quarantine and my cancelled travel. 

From the beginning of the game you are encouraged to find something referred to as Ainigmata Ostraka – these are stone tablets hidden in various locations that contain riddles that guide you to “engravings” that level up your weapons. (Here is a brief clip of me finding one.) Huzzah, a real text technology from the time, and — I am happy to report — ostraka make another appearance crucial to the main mission of the game that is true to their historical importance (more on this later). 

What are Ostraka?

The word ostraka (plural) or ostrakon (singular) refers to a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a larger vessel (a potsherd), that has been reused as a writing surface. Ostraka were plentiful in the ancient world and were typically inscribed in Greek, Latin, Arabic, or Hieratic script (Ancient Egyptian). While papyrus was also available, it was expensive and usually reserved for documents that needed to last; ostraka recorded more ephemeral notes, letters, and (as you’ll soon see) ballots. 

FSU Special Collections and Archives have a collection of 32 ostraka from circa 150 CE, much later than the time period of the game, but they match physical descriptions of ostraka across these centuries. Here’s how Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’s portrayal of ostraka aligns with the historical record: 

Almost, but Not Quite…

Most ostraka were small. 

When my character discovers ostraka, they are usually all about the same size. They are very regular in shape, rectangular, and about the length of Kassandra’s forearm. Ostraka of that size have existed in history, but they were exceptional and, it seems, rare. Based on real ostraka that survive, it appears that a majority were very small pieces, about the size of one’s hand or even smaller, and their shapes are extremely irregular. 

Ostraka were not usually flat.

The ostraka stored under “Documents” in your ACO inventory appear to be flat. Usually, real ostraka give an indication of the shape of the pot or clay item that the shard was originally a part of. They will frequently have a curve to them; I’ve often thought that the shape might rather conveniently conform to the writer’s leg during the inscription process. 

Ostraka were usually written in ink or scratched into paint, rather than carved.

We don’t get to see very close, detailed depictions of the ostraka in ACO, but they do appear to be engraved, almost like a cuneiform tablet, rather than written. Writers sometimes used the same tools they used for writing on papyrus — a small brush or reed pen — to compose in ink on their ostrakon. If the pottery was painted, or had a dark glaze on it, the writing could be etched into the painted surface – the effect looked less like a stone tablet and more like words scratched into paint, like bathroom stall graffiti. 

Absolutely Correct

Ostraka were plentiful.

Consider them the post-it note of the ancient world! Ostraka were used for many different purposes. Pottery was the primary means of storing, preserving, and transporting goods, so shards of pottery were nearly unlimited in supply. 

Ostraka are found in strange places.

Archaeologists  find groupings of ostraka in places you might not expect: in trash heaps, at the bottom of wells or fountains, under the foundations of houses. This relates to the purposes they usually served. Either they were ephemeral notes that were discarded, or they were inscribed as a means of imbuing some sort of metaphysical power into the description, and tossed into a well or buried under a house to complete the ritual. FSU Special Collections and Archives’ ostraka were discovered in an archaeological dig of a trash heap next to a Roman military outpost in Edfu, Egypt. 

Ostraka can vary in color.

I was happy to see that the ACO designers created ostraka that come in a variety of colors. As ostraka come from broken pottery that would have been crafted in various places, the components of the clay would differ according to geography. Additionally, some pottery was painted or treated, and would have color differentiation accordingly. 

Ostraka can tell a full story.

While most ostraka contain very brief inscriptions, some give us a glimpse into the lives of the people who wrote them. We even have a pretty explicit love poem. Here’s a different example that illustrates this in FSU’s ostraka collection: 

“Sentis to Proclus her brother, greeting. You did well, brother, in giving the two kolophoia to Anchoubis; also write to me about the passage-money and I will send it to you at once. I did not send you meat, brother, so that I might not bid farewell to you. Therefore I ask you, sir, show respect (?) to me and come this the Ethiopoan, Let us be happy. Farewell. (At the side) Do not do otherwise, then, but if you love me come. Let us be happy.”

Ostraka were used to vote people out of Athenian society, and the etymological source for the word “ostracism.”

You might not know that the word “ostracism” derives from a practice in fifth-century Athens that relied upon ostraka: ostrakismos. The process is succinctly described here: 

The procedure was as follows: Every winter, the full assembly of Athenian citizens (i.e. free adult males) was asked  whether it wanted to hold an ostrakismos. If a majority – not counting less than 6,000 – agreed, the event was held two months later. For this purpose, a large area within the Agora was corralled off. Every citizen could enter. On doing so, he handed a potsherd (ostrakon) to an official, inscribed with the name of the individual he wished to see ostracised, further identified by his father’s name and the deme (district) he came from. To prevent multiple votes, the citizens had to wait within until the vote was complete. The sherds were then counted and the person most frequently chosen, again subject to a minimum of 6,000 votes, was ostracised.

The ostracised citizen was given ten days to settle his affairs and leave Athens. His citizenship was not affected, nor was his property touched, and he retained access to its proceeds. He was not to return to the city for ten years – on penalty of death – unless a public vote recalled him at an earlier date. Ostracism was not considered per se dishonourable; status and rights were fully reinstated on return. (https://www.petersommer.com/blog/archaeology-history/ostraka)

In Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Kassandra is introduced to this practice when she is asked to sneak into the location where the ostraka are being counted and rig the votes by switching out the ostraka with fake ones. In this case, the ostraka appear to be small, dark round pieces, which perfectly matches the piece of pottery that was typically used in the process – the disc-shaped bottom of a stemmed drinking vessel. 

Many thanks to Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, for the excellent portrayal of ostraka as a historical text technology. One caveat: I’m currently only at level 24 in the game, so it’s possible that ostraka make more appearances that would change my perspective. If that’s the case, please let me know! 

And as always, FSU Special Collections and Archives materials are open to the public. While our reading rooms are currently closed due to the pandemic, our ostraka collections (and other awesome pre-print materials) are available in our digital library, DigiNole. I encourage you to browse them at your leisure! 

This week Explore Our Campus focuses on the Pursuit of Knowledge or the Blue Boy as it is more often affectionately known. This sculpture is the work of artist Iain McColl.

In the film above one of our Curators Sarah discusses the sculpture and in particular the recent wool installation at the artwork by artists Gardner and Gardner. This installation Peace Be With You- The Blue Boy was the result of wool created on the peacemakers loom – a ten day residency, split between October 2019 and February 2020.   A temporary community was created as students and staff joined Gardner & Gardner in the repetitive, contemplative action of knitting on the loom.

The Pursuit of Knowledge was our featured Object of the Week earlier this month.

Recently, one of our community partners, the First Baptist Church (FBC) of Tallahassee, gave us an audio CD with digitized recordings from Dr. C.A. Roberts, the pastor for the church in the 1960s. Tallahassee, as you can imagine, was undergoing a lot of social and cultural change in the 1960s as the Civil Rights Movement started to challenge and change the way of life for the country but particularly, for southern cities.

At the 1965 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Roberts addressed the attendees and gave a rousing speech about his efforts to integrate FBC at that time. Dr. Roberts was a fiery speaker and he clearly felt strongly about his duty to help the Church welcoming all parishioners to worship at the Church. At a time when attitudes about such a decision were filled with anger, fear and prejudice, Dr. Roberts shared his story about why it was important to him and how the congregation came to agree with him.

The other recording is a sermon given at some point during Dr. Roberts’ tenure at the First Baptist Church between 1962-1967. It is titled “Ethics of Sex” and is a fascinating glimpse into Dr. Roberts’ and the Church’s feelings about the changing sexual environment of the 1960s. It was especially interesting to us at FSU as Dr. Roberts particularly calls out a recent PowWow he attended at FSU and the behavior displayed by fraternities and sororities at the event as being against the teachings of the Church as regards sex. Many FSU students have attended FBC over the years so I can imagine some students in the audience at this sermon being either very embarrassed or perhaps angered at the sermon and what might have been seen as the Church not keeping up with the times.

Both recordings are a window into a very different time in Tallahassee and the challenges the Church and the community faced as society altered quickly and drastically throughout the 1960s. Please browse all of our materials from the First Baptist Church in DigiNole: FSU’s Digital Repository.

We have had a very unusual Easter this year. Many of us would normally have been out and about enjoying longer lighter spring days. As this has been much more difficult recently, our blog post this week focuses on some of the landscape pictures in the permanent collection.
We hope you enjoy this vicarious trip into the great outdoors.

All of the pictures featured here are part of one of our current exhibitions. In keeping with the Art Collection’s environmental theme, we this year decided to ‘liberate’ from our store a range of landscape paintings and prints to exhibit in the Crush Hall (shown above). Entitled ‘Liberating Landscapes’, it shows a great variety of artists, major and minor, all collected by the Art Collection over the past 50 years. The exhibition represents a diverse assortment, but what they all have in common is a celebration of our natural surroundings.

‘In Glenisla’ by WG Gillies (above) was one of the first works acquired by the brand new Art Collection in 1967. Gillies’s work portrays changing skies and Scottish landscapes and was painted outdoors. It shows the influence of Edvard Munch and Emil Nolde.

‘East Coast Harbour’ (below) was purchased in the same year. It is by David McClure who taught in the Summer School at Hospitalfield House in the mid 1960s, and this painting is based on a drawing from a sketchbook from that time, with depictions of the fishing port of Arbroath, with its harbour, fishermen’s houses and the fish-smoking sheds that still produce the well-known Arbroath Smokie.

Hetty Haxworth‘s screenprint ‘Grey fields and yellow flowers’ shown below was one of two purchased for the Collection in 2019. The artist says she is inspired by the everchanging colours and shapes of the Aberdeenshire landscape. ‘As the countryside alters with the seasons, the work responds to transient shifts of light, capturing moments in colour. Regular furrows and pylon lines provide stripes, ploughed fields provide a colourful patchwork, and framing this scene are the man-made structures, the rigid lines of fences and the cattle barns, turning the landscape into a geometric study’.

Two of the works in this display are known to have been painted views from the artist’s window. ‘Shore line’ by Kirkland Main was apparently lucky enough to have had this view of the Firth of Forth from his house at Cramond.

David Michie said “…most of my work is autobiographical and is akin to keeping a diary. I like the triviality of ordinary things and the potential they have to become extraordinary and to mean something”, and this work below is most likely from a series of works executed by David Michie c.1967-69 in which the front room of his house in Edinburgh, as well as the view from the window, features prominently.

Another of David Michie’s works in the collection however transports us far from home. ‘Black cockatoo’ (below) has an exotic feel that gets us dreaming of travel to faraway places.

Similarly ‘Corfu Cliffs’ allows us to escape from our living rooms and imagine future holidays in warmer climes. It was painted by Alison McKenzie.

In recent years there has been increased discussion regarding access to art collections. Much of the art in public ownership in the UK is hidden away in storerooms. Lack of wall space, and past collecting policies which might not chime with current taste, mean that many works remain tucked away in the dark.

This exhibition was curated with these thoughts in mind, and we hope that very soon Pathfoot will reopen and you will be able to come and enjoy these ‘liberated’ works once again. Meanwhile however, you can discover much more on the Art Collection’s recently launched online catalogue.
Visit collections.stir.ac.uk to find out more.

This week’s #BriginColour focuses on a Brig cover from 1970. We thought we would look at some of the paintings added to the Art Collection in 1970.

In total 25 works of art were collected for the new University in 1970. The University Court Minutes of 27th April note that the Court approved that a first instalment of up to £4,000 from the Appeal Fund be used for the purchase of works of art in 1970.

Notable works include Woman in Fun Fur by Pat Douthwaite.

Black and Red on Blue by Terry Frost

Also collected was Mh10 by Colin Cina which now hangs permanently on stairwell of the Pathfoot Building.

When you think of Miami, you think of the beaches, the art, the South Beach area, a tourist paradise, and the rich Cuban culture. Miami is one of Florida’s most influential cities that produces many stars, politicians, and field leaders. Great things come out of Miami, however, there is one thing within the history of the city that is not so great — the Ku Klux Klan. Many people would not believe that a city like Miami had a klavern of the Ku Klux Klan, but that does not erase the history.

The Ku Klux Klan in Miami operated just as any other klavern of the Ku Klux Klan would. It thrived off of hatred, white supremacy, and oppression of others. In Miami, the klavern steadily enacted violence and fear—including lynchings, bombings and parades— starting in the early 1900s. Activities documented in the Miami-Dade Public Library digital collection on the Ku Klux Klan included baby baptism ceremonies, marches in white robes, church at The White Temple Methodist Church, going on parades, and funeral services. The collection does not include the terrorism that this klavern perpetuated in Miami.

One infamous act of terrorism that the Ku Klux Klan of Miami carried out was a raid on a gay club in Miami. On Nov. 15, 1937, nearly 200 klansmen and klanswomen stormed the club La Paloma in Miami-Dade county. While wearing their Ku Klux Klan robes, they struck fear into the community by showing up in mass, assaulting staff and performers, and demanding the club shutdown. The klan claimed that by attacking this nightclub, they were saving white, traditional families from intruding ethnic, gender, and sexuality challenges.

Often times the klavern was blamed for fragmenting the community of Miami. Marjory Stoneman Douglas reflected on the impact of the Ku Klux Klan in Miami by saying, “How could you be a community with people like that?” In her interview with the Douglas House, she recounted her encounters with seeing people lynched, tarred and feathered, and face to face altercations with the Ku Klux Klan. Though, she never wavered in her belief that the Ku Klux Klan did belong in the community. She said she liked the Coconut Grove area better than Miami because “it was a community of people who had backgrounds other than [Ku Klux Klan], and I’m quite sure there was no Ku Klux Klan in Coconut Grove.”

As Krystal Thomas at FSU Libraries notes, “libraries, archives and museums always think long and hard about how, or even if, to present this type of history in an online environment where it is hard to maintain its context and to ensure that people interacting with it understand its place in history and won’t potentially misappropriate it. However, there is no guarantee any of that would not also happen with researchers in our reading rooms or exhibit spaces. Ultimately, if they choose to, cultural heritage organizations share this information so that an accurate representation of our history is also online, however problematic that history may be to modern users. We try to use description to make sure digital objects are accurately represented and, where appropriate, include disclaimers to warn users about graphic or potentially triggering content.”

Overall, the state of Florida has a rich history, but sadly some of the history includes terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Luckily, the activity of the Ku Klux Klan in Miami dwindled with the rise of the civil rights movement in the United States of America.  Learn more about civil rights related content in the Civil and Human Rights search on SSDN.DP.LA.

I recently walked the perimeter of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC as a reminder of the subtle and not so subtle ways the building’s architecture emphasizes NARA’s mission. 

The National Archives Building was designed as a temple to American history. The four monumental statues placed at the entrances to the building reflect its mission.

The message of the “Past” statue, designed by Robert Aitken and chiseled by the Piccirilli Brothers, reinforces the importance of learning our history. 

I invite you to watch the video of my walk:  

For more information about the National Archives statues, visit: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2018/05/22/the-national-archives-larger-than-life-statues  

On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by the US Senate and sent to the states for ratification. The central idea behind the amendment is simple: all American citizens, regardless of gender, have equal rights before the law. Almost fifty years later, the amendment has still not passed, as only 35 of the 38 states necessary ratified the amendment. In 1923, the initial version of the Equal Rights Amendment was brought before the United States Congress by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. On January 21,  1943, Senator Claude Pepper spoke before the 78^th Congress on behalf of the E.R.A:

            “…I feel, therefore, that the trend toward women enjoying equal rights has progressed until today they are entitled to enjoy all rights equally with all human beings, and that sex is not a sufficient line of demarcation for different rights. There may be instances where there would be a difference in duties, but that will depend upon the ability of the person or persons affected to perform the obligation required, not to their rights equally to share and to enjoy the benefits which are derived from citizenship and equality due to all.

            When the Declaration of Independence was written, and those moving words that “all men are created equal” were incorporated therein, to lift the hopes and the hearts of the oppressed everywhere in the world. I do not believe that Thomas Jefferson was thinking only of mankind which happened to be masculine in sex. I think he spoke about human beings, and therefore that it is in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Independence to say that women are born equal with men in the rights of citizenship and civil prerogatives.

            I hope, therefore, that this may be the last hurdle which it will be necessary to surmount; that the race to bring equality, complete freedom, independence, and liberty for women shall at long last be won.” – Claude Pepper Papers MSS 1979-01 S. 303A B. 2 F. 8

The hurdles unfortunately continue. Since the introduction of the E.R.A, Senator Pepper’s speech, and the passage of the amendment in the Senate in March of 1972, individuals, and civic action groups such as the National Organization for Women, and the League of Women Voters, and many others have continued to champion the E.R.A.

Letter writing campaigns, marches and public awareness raising activities for the E.R.A. are well documented in the Tallahassee N.O.W. and Tallahassee League of Women Voters chapter records. The digitized newsletters of each organization provide week to week updates on the key developments with the E.R.A during the 1970s and 1980s.  On January 15, 2020, Virginia’s General Assembly ratified the amendment, moving the conversation forward once more. While the future remains deeply uncertain, researchers can look to the past for inspiration.