For our first Explore Our Campus post we thought we would focus on the history of the campus and the Art Collection

The Art Collection is mainly held in the Pathfoot Building; although there is sculpture from the Collection all around campus. We will regularly upload films of the Collection onto our YouTube channel. However, this week we thought we would start with our Curator Jane discussing the Art Collection; its history and importance to the University and the general environment for students who study at Stirling

A transcript of the film is now available

As mentioned in a previous post, the current exhibit in the Special Collections & Archives Exhibit room was uninstalled in preparation for installing a new exhibit, “Earth Day 50”. Unfortunately, Strozier Library and FSU campus closures have forced us to explore different platforms for sharing exhibits that can be viewed safely from home.

Maybe you have had to change directions on an intended presentation or exhibit as well? Here in Special Collections & Archives, we have chosen to continue with our exhibit plans by going digital and using Omeka to share the items intended for our physical exhibit.

Omeka is a free open-source web publishing platform that allows users to create and share digital collections. Special Collections & Archives maintains a research guide with helpful tips and tutorials for getting started with Omeka if you are interested in going digital as well.

Be on the lookout for a post announcing the opening of the digital exhibit, Earth Day 50, very soon!

This Tuesday, April 7, was World Health Day, and to celebrate, we’re shining a spotlight on the work of Senator Claude Pepper and his role in expanding the National Institutes of Health. Established in 1887, the primary location of the National Institute of Health is based in Bethesda, Maryland. Originally known as the Hygienic Laboratory, it was re-designated in 1930 to the NIH. Claude Pepper was elected to the United States Senate seven years later. At that time, apart from the National Institute of Health, only the National Cancer Institute functioned as national research institutions for combating infectious disease.

In 1943, the United States was in the midst of a global war against the Axis Powers. In the States, advances in medicine were needed both at home and on the battlefield. That year, the Senate Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education was formed to address the health and education challenges then facing the United States. Having a keen interest in securing healthcare for all Americans, Pepper would be appointed chair of the Health and Education Subcommittee, and he made it his mission to secure greater funding for and expand the scope of the Institute. Within the year, the National Cancer Institute would become a division of the National Institute, and in 1948, the name was changed once more to the National Institutes of Health.

By 1950, Senator Pepper would serve as the chief sponsor for 5 additional Institutes including the National Institutes of:

• Mental Health
• Heart, Lungs and Blood
• Allergy and Infectious Disease
• Neurological and Communicative Disorders
• Arthritis, Diabetes, and Digestive & Kidney Diseases

With his political career ended for a time in late 1950, Pepper would be out of politics until he ran for and won a US House seat in 1962. This brief period outside of national politics did nothing to slow him down, however. Between 1961 and 1974, there were five more institutes established:

• Child Health & Human Development
• General Medical Sciences
• Environmental Health Services
• National Eye Institute
• the National Institute on Aging

In 1967, Pepper was presented with the Albert and Mary Laskin Award. Presented to those individuals who have made major contributions to the field or medical science or to those performing great public service on behalf of medicine, Pepper was awarded for serving as the principal sponsor for all but one National Institute of Health (Dental Research) from 1950 to 1967.

The National Institutes of Health are currently made up of 27 member institutions across the United States, each with a specific research agenda, though all with the same goal of improving the lives of Americans through medical advancement. Currently NIH researchers are engaged in efforts to combat the COVID-19 virus, and their website provides up to date information and helpful tips for keeping safe.

By requiring the Secretary of Defense to implement machine readable and electronically transferable DD-214s (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) by December 31, 2023, the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY 2020) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) supports digital transformation as recommended by the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB).

The PIDB continues to recommend digital transformation along these lines for improving classification and declassification across the Executive Branch. By doing so, the FY 2020 NDAA is a very small step toward the “government-wide technology investment strategy” that PIDB advocated for in its 2016 Report to the President, The Importance of Technology in Classification and Declassification. If the Department of Defense (DOD) can transform how veterans and their families qualify for benefits by moving from a paper-based process to a digital process, then this use of technology should also be used on other historically important DOD records. This effort should serve as a springboard for developing and implementing technology for managing classified information and declassification review throughout the DOD and other Federal agencies, as recommended by PIDB’s 2014 Report to the President, Setting Priorities: An Essential Step in Transforming Declassification.

To support making the DD-214 machine readable and electronically transferable, the FY 2020 NDAA specifies that the Secretary of Defense must report to Congress:

1) The DOD information systems that still require manual entry of information from DD-214 forms;

2) The DOD activities that require veterans and former Armed Forces members to provide a physical copy of their DD-214 form;

3) The order of priority for modernizing the items in paragraphs (1) and (2); and

4) The estimated cost of automating the items identified under paragraphs (1) and (2).

Due in late May 2020, this report by the Secretary of Defense to Congress has the potential to contribute information useful for transforming information management across the DOD as required by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Memorandum on Transition To Electronic Records (OMB/NARA M-19-21). With the appropriate leadership and interest by the Secretary of Defense, the required report to Congress has the potential to serve as a model for modernizing information management and citizen access to Government information at other Executive Branch agencies.

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.

Pursuit of Knowledge (Cottrell Memorial Sculpture)
by Iain McColl
(Fibre glass, 2003)

This sculpture is situated at the front of the Pathfoot Building, which is the first building you see up on the slope on your left as you enter the campus by the main entrance. Affectionately known as the ‘Blue Boy’, it was commissioned by the University in memory of Dr. Tom Cottrell, first Principal, who died suddenly in post in 1973, at the age of 49.

Selected from a shortlist of three, the sculpture, created by Iain McColl, celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and depicts a young man, seated on the edge of a plinth, looking intently into a crystal. Although the crystal represents the search for knowledge, as well as the idea of a young person looking with hope into the future, it was a particularly appropriate choice for the memorial as Cottrell’s specialism was crystallography (this was a happy accident as McColl was unaware of this when he designed the piece).
The model for the sculpture was Michael Visocchi, who is himself now a well known sculptor.

You will see from the photo that the plinth is currently wrapped in a length of brightly coloured wool. This piece was created by staff, students and visitors to the Pathfoot Building who were invited by artists Heidi and Peter Gardner to create an art installation with their Peacemakers Loom, installed for one week in the Crush Hall. Passers-by joined the artists in a repetitive, simple action of knitting and to building peace through actions and kind words. This shared action produced a single textile piece, symbolic of the conversations and the temporary community of peacemakers created around the loom.

Folklorist and librarian Elaine Lambert Lewis O’Beirne-Ranelagh (1914-1996) began producing programs for WNYC in 1943. At that time, before her marriage, she was known professionally as Elaine Lambert Lewis, assistant in charge of radio work for the Brooklyn Public Library. She also started and oversaw the organization’s folklore collection.

Lewis majored in Greek and the classics at Vassar College and took a real shine to mythology. That interest led to graduate studies in folklore at the University of Indiana under renowned folklorist Stith Thompson. In 1935 she was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to study Italian fairy tales in Rome. Upon returning to New York, Lewis landed at the Brooklyn Public Library, where she started the folklore collection.

Librarian Milton James Ferguson (1879 –1954) circa 1912.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Folk Songs For the Seven Million premiered on July 13, 1943. In announcing the program, the BPL’s Chief Librarian Dr. Milton James Ferguson called it a new effort in the field of democratic education. “It springs out of the conviction that city people need to know what they have in common with one another and how closely their traditions fit into the pattern of national tradition.”[1] After less than a year on the air, the show was considered “the best cultural program” by Ohio State University’s Institute for Education by Radio.

The weekly series provided carefully researched programs full of stories, traditions and customs, all placed in their context. It was the perfect show for New York, the city of immigrants, as it surveyed the rich ‘old world’ traditions and influences found here in rhyme, ballad, and song. The show was also keen to highlight the importance of African-American and Native American influences, as well as the nation’s earliest settlers from England, Ireland, France, and Mexico. Among the program’s many guests were folklorists Ben Botkin,  George Korson, Frank Warner, Louis C. Jones, and Harold W. Thompson and folk singers Tom Glazer, Richard Dyer Bennett, Susan Reed, Lucy and Joan Allison, Jerry Buckley, Dorothy Vander, Josef Marias, George Herzog, Mari Sandoz, Edith Allaire, Tom Scott, and Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly.

Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and his wife Martha Promise Ledbetter, in Wilton, Connecticut, February, 1935.
(Alan Lomax Collection/Library of Congress)

Leadbelly in particular was no newcomer to WNYC’s airwaves, having performed for host Ralph Berton at the WNYC American Music Festival, and been a guest on Art Hodes’ Metropolitan Review, as well as having had his own program, Folksongs of America (1940-1941). But the folksinger also had a close personal relationship with Lewis: she was the person he called for help when his wife Martha became ill and was ignored at Bellevue Hospital. Outraged, Lewis readily came to the balladeer’s aid, forcefully asking staffers if they had any idea who this sick woman was. She described Leadbelly as a great musician, and warned, “Do you want it known that this man’s wife died of neglect in your care?”[2]

Folk Songs for the Seven Million also served as outreach for Lewis’ research, allowing her to appeal to listeners for contributions to her collection of thousands of folk songs, lore, and customs. A 1946 Brooklyn Eagle profile said she had received a song from a 90-year-old man who had been taught the tune as a boy by his 85-year-old grandfather. The reporter quoted Lewis as saying, “The supply is endless.”[3] Elsewhere Lewis wrote:

Retired shipmasters have mailed in bushranger ballads; emigrant small-towners, now living in New York, have written down the customs of their childhood; native New Yorkers have come in person to tell of the games and rhymes of their youth, and of local feuds and gangsters; Irish people have provided rich links with American history in recalling the originals of many of our ballads and songs…Much of the material collected is presented on the air, the songs by way of the contributor himself or by a homemade recording of his singing.[4]

Toward the end of World War II, Lewis started collaborating with one of her contributors, James O’Beirne, an engineer and veteran of the 1916 rising. O’Beirne was known as a man with a “good repertoire of Irish songs”[5], and he joined her on the show. They wed the following year and are heard in this November 15, 1946 broadcast titled, “Early European Influence on American Folk Music.”

It appears that Lewis did most, if not all, of the program recordings herself on the family disc cutter.[6] The show at the top of this article on railroad songs was broadcast on March 9, 1944 and a recording, unfortunately incomplete, was located in the Municipal Archives WNYC Collection. The original lacquer discs of the program with O’Beirne immediately above are located with Lewis’ papers at University College Dublin.

Lewis produced two other Brooklyn Public Library programs for WNYC. Library Time, airing October 1944-May 1945, was a fifteen-minute program broadcast twice a month highlighting the various facilities and services provided by the BPL.  Lewis also hosted Poets Are People from December 1944 to March 1945. The fifteen-minute Tuesday evening poetry program’s guest list featured the bards Langston Hughes, Oliver St. John Gogarty, William Rose Benet, Padraic Colum, Alfred Kreymborg, and Marianne Moore. Moore, when asked on the January 30 program what she dislikes most in contemporary American poetry, is said to have replied, “I detest our tendency to glorify American virility.”[7] Sadly, we’ve not yet discovered any recordings of Poets Are People.

From the February 1945 New York Folklore Quarterly
(WNYC Archive Collections)

But Lewis’ heart was in folk music and folklore. In 1945-1946 she wrote a series of 36 folklore broadcasts for the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) called “The American Scene.” The series was intended for national distribution, but it is not clear if the programs were ever produced. In 1947 she was awarded a second Guggenheim fellowship to complete two books. One was a volume of New York City folk songs, and a survey of Irish folk songs. Her WNYC program Folk Songs for the Seven Million continued to air into 1947.

Lewis and O’Beirne moved permanently from Brooklyn to Ireland in 1953 and changed the family name from O’Beirne to O’Beirne-Ranelagh. The couple had four children, and she continued her folklore research and writing while appearing on some broadcasts for Radio Éireann. She later moved to Cambridge, England, where she worked as the Educational Director of the University of Maryland’s European extension.[8]

Elaine Lambert Lewis O’Beirne-Ranelagh’s tenure at WNYC was significant on two pioneering counts. In the areas of folklore and folk music, she more than picked up where ethnomusicologist Henrietta Yurchenco (Leadbelly’s original producer), left off in 1941; and, as a wartime and postwar broadcaster, she was among a small group of women in a field dominated by men. Both of these achievements have some reflection in her work. Years later, writing as E. L. Ranelagh, she authored two books: The Past We Share: The Near Eastern Ancestry of Western Folk Literature (1979) and Men on Women (1986), a study of male hostility and stereotypes toward women from five thousand years of literature. But it is the conclusion of Lewis’ second Guggenheim application that perhaps gives her the best parting words. 

Folklore is my pleasure. I’m afraid that even if it did not illustrate the unity of man, I should be equally devoted. But since it does, collecting and writing in folklore means sharing with and joining with my neighbor. [9]

_________________________________ 

[1] “Boro Library on First Radio Program Tonight,” The Brooklyn Citizen, July 13, 1943, pg.2.

[2] O’Beirne-Ranelagh, Bawn, email correspondence. 

[3] Mara, Margaret, “Collector of Folk Songs Finds Higher Interest in Xmas Carols,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 23, 1946, pg.11. 

[4] Lewis, Elaine Lambert, “Folk Songs For the Seven Million,” New York Folklore Quarterly, February 1945, pgs. 57-59. Lewis was one of the organizers of the New York Folklore Society and served as its first vice president as well as a contributing editor for its quarterly for which she wrote City Billet: Folklore News and Notes for New York City, a regular column in the quarterly reviewing books, records, and concerts of folklore interest. She also contributed to Library Journal, New York History and The Journal of American Folklore. 

[5] McMahon, Deidre, “Ranelagh, Elaine Lambert Lewis O’Beirne-,” Dictionary Irish Biography,     https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a7581

[6] Juengst, William, “Radio,” The Brooklyn Eagle, February 14, 1945, pg. 8. 

[7] Schultz, Robin R., The Web of Friendship: Marianne Moore and Wallace Stevens, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1995, pg. 162.

[8] McMahon, ibid.

[9] Lewis, Elaine Lambert, “Application to the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,” 1946.

The audio at the top of this article is courtesy of The New York City Municipal Archives.

Special thanks to the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin.

The Art Collection is supporting the University’s #BeConnected programme.

Every Monday we will post films discussing areas of interest on the campus and the Art Collection. We hope this will help people to learn more about our stunning landscape and virtually explore it whilst the University is closed.

For those who are still living on campus or live within walking distance you can explore the campus whilst observing the Government’s advice on social distancing.

Films of campus so far can be viewed through our You Tube Channel

Heritage & University Archives is launching a campus-wide project to encourage FSU students, staff, and faculty to document their personal experiences during the coronavirus outbreak and contribute them to the University Archives. In accordance with FSU’s University Archives Policy, we are already collecting records related to FSU’s official response.

We want to also ensure that personal experiences and reactions to this challenging and historic situation are included in FSU’s permanent archives. All members of the campus community are invited and encouraged to participate. For more information or to start sharing your story, visit the project’s website for all the details.

As we adjust to our new realities in the time of coronavirus, and we’re going stir-crazy and already bored with the books in the house, maybe it’s time for a deep dive into the children’s books of yesteryear for some new material. So, on today, International Children’s Book Day, celebrated on or near the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen each year, I would like to highlight some of the children’s literature we have in the digital library (DL) from the John Mackay Shaw Childhood in Poetry Collection.

Fairy tales abound in the Shaw Collection but Cinderella has always been a personal favorite. We have several digitized but my favorite version is a hand colored Cinderella from the 1800s.

The story of Cock Robin is in many of the books of the Shaw Collection. This particular spread is from a children’s book titled Cock Robin: a pretty painted toy for either girl or boy : suited to children of all ages, published in 1840.

Alphabet, or ABC, books are also plentiful in our digital collection. This one, Goode’s instructive alphabet for children from the 1800s, uses many professions and expressions that children today would probably not recognize (a reading and history lesson in one!)

And lastly, in case you are in need of some new songs (possibly the Disney tunes are already wearing on the nerves), Silver carols: a collection of new music for district schools, high schools, seminaries, academies, colleges, juvenile conventions and the home circle from 1874 may have a new set of songs for you and your children to explore.

These are just a few of the hundreds of titles we’ve digitized and made available in the digital library from the Shaw collection. Happy reading on this International Children’s Book Day!

Throughout April @ARAScot are running the #Archive30 promotional campaign on Twitter. Like many other services across the UK and internationally we are delighted to join in and meet the challenge of tweeting all 30 daily topics throughout the month! Today’s theme is #FavouriteItem. Last year our Archives & Special Collections team shared their selection. This year we’ve handed over to our users who have chosen their personal favourites from our fantastic collections!

Having spent time volunteering in the University Archives I have worked on many of the documents and artefacts in the collections held there. Perhaps my favourite item is one contained in the papers of the Fife born and Stirling University educated author Iain Banks (aka Iain M. Banks when writing his sci fi works). As well as correspondence with publishers and publicists, annotated cover artwork drafts, and press cuttings the collection features several letters from fans to the author. In one instance an admirer of Banks’ compliments the writer on his previous work. However, the letter quickly changes tone and they express in very certain terms their disappointment in what they see as severe flaws in one of his latest novels. The admonishment ends in the hope (or instruction) that Banks does not repeat this error again. Unintentionally humorous this letter made me laugh while exhibiting the sometimes complex relationship between author and reader. Unfazed, Banks replies with grace and good humour.

David Findlay, Archive Volunteer

Sometimes items you come across in archives just stand out for their rarity and cultural value. The Scottish humpty dumpty is one of the prized assets Stirling University holds in its Commonwealth Games Scotland collections. As an item locked away in a cupboard for half a century it is well preserved: from the blue and white attire, the ‘Scottish Humpty’ was also decorated with thistle-like arms, a neatly sewn Saltire hat, and the crest and chain of the Commonwealth on its chest. Why is it significant? The very personalised mascot was the property of Isobel Burnett, whose father Willie Carmichael was a well-known sports administrator and Director of the 1970 Commonwealth Games. Its value to Scottish sports fans was emphasised when the rare mascot gained national media coverage in six Scottish newspapers when first exhibited as part of Hosts & Champions exhibition in 2015. Humpty is, without doubt, a star of the university’s special collections!

Prof. Richard Haynes, Professor of Media Sport, University of Stirling

The case books of hand-written patient notes are my favourite items from the Stirling District Asylum archives. The patient stories are fascinating – sometimes sad, always touching. The case notes include a photograph of the patient on admission to and discharge from the asylum; being able to put a face to the person you are reading about really enriches the research experience for a writer. The case notes also sometimes have attached to them things like newspaper clippings and letters, including ‘thank-you’ letters which show that some asylum stays were characterised by kindness and care. Such personal contributions are invaluable in providing a rounded picture of what life both inside and outside the asylum might have been like in the early twentieth century.

Elaine Whiteford, author and archive user

Beneath the sometimes dry writing style and seriousness of a trade union journal, The Musician is an invaluable and unique account of what it was like to be a musician working in the UK during the second half of the twentieth century. It covers all the big social and political issues of the period from a singular – but otherwise under documented perspective – that of the musician. Crucially for researchers it does this to a level of detail that is unavailable elsewhere, allowing for the creation of new and more compelling histories of the profession and industries surrounding it. 

John Williamson, author of Players’ Work Time, A History of the British Musicians’ Union

It is the material on the United Central Africa Association in the Mackay Archive that I most treasure from my visits to Stirling.  The UCAA has been rarely discussed in 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.  Perhaps most valuably, Mackay has collected documents that provide a behind the scenes take on the activities of the UCAA.  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 … dynamics that underpinned the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. 

Brooks Marmon, PhD researcher, University of Edinburgh

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.

Wall Construction
Mary Martin
(Aluminium, 1968-9)

The tradition of collecting art at the University of Stirling goes back to its beginnings in 1967 when one of its founding principals was that art and culture should be part of the everyday experience on campus. In these early days, site-specific works were commissioned and an excellent example of this is the wall-mounted sculptural panel by Mary Martin. The original plan was to commission Martin to create more works – just as the Pathfoot Building was described as the ‘parent cell’ of the University, so this work was seen as the first of a potential series of works throughout the developing campus – but in fact it turned out to be Mary Martin’s last public commission and she sadly died before it was installed.

The Wall Construction, or ‘Mural’ as it is usually now known, received very favourable reviews. Cordelia Oliver spoke of it as possessing a ‘spiritual dimension’, stating that most who see it would find:

‘an infinitely variable world of inner tensions, light and shadow, stresses and reliefs; a world that is not only unbelievably rich in spatial suggestion, but that promises as many moods as the day itself ‘.

The Guardian, 29th November, 1969

Very large, at sixty feet long, the Mural was designed to be move-able and modular, so that different parts could be displayed in various locations (although this has apparently not so far happened). The construction has however been moved as a whole at least twice. Its first location was quite low on the south-facing wall of the original Dining Room, and contemporary reviews speak of the ‘light, colour and movement that it takes from its surroundings’. Coloured reflections are clearly seen in the photo below of an early graduation ceremony.

Unfortunately this low position proved too vulnerable a spot – especially in a dining room, where social functions also took place at night. Damage to the work was already being noted by 1971, it was renovated in 1974, and in 1977 a full restoration was necessary. After this date, it was moved further up the same wall, and it can be seen in that position in the video at the end of this piece. When alterations were carried out to the Dining Hall, the Mural was moved again, sometime during the 1990s, this time to its current position in the Crush Hall.

Although at first glance it seems to consist of a random arrangement of surfaces, the Mural is in fact very far from that. Mary Martin developed complex sequences: for each plane, there are four possible directions – down, up, left or right (which can be numbered 1,2,3, and 4), and the artist organised these planes in a sliding system, without repetition, so that the left-facing planes (or number 3s) descend diagonally from left to right 6 times in the first series of 24 vertical rows.

342131423214312434123241
431423214342134123241312
123214342131423241312434
214342131423241312434123

This is repeated in the last 24, with each plane in the middle section inverting this system.

Moving on from previous works of the early 1960s, in which she employed solid cubes sliced diagonally through at 45 degrees, Martin here expands on an idea used in her work ‘Inversions’ (1966 – now in the Tate) which replaces the solidity of the cubes with polished aluminium ‘floating’ diagonal planes. These introduce a lightness and modularity, reflecting the design of the Pathfoot Building itself, therefore making the work feel very much part of its environment.

Although the higher position on the wall, and its north facing aspect, now prevent us from enjoying to quite the same extent the multiple reflections and plays of light and colour mentioned in those early reviews, there is still much in the Mural to examine and appreciate.

Click below to see John Martyn playing ‘Rock Goes to College’ in 1981.
The venue is the original Pathfoot Dining Hall and the Mural is clearly visible as a backdrop.

We are very much obliged to Sam Gathercole’s (1998?) draft article ‘Mary Martin’s Construction for Stirling University, 1969’ which provides a fascinating insight into this work. If you would like to read this in full, please contact us.

N-95 masks, nitrile gloves, gowns, Tyvek suits–these supplies are in high demand across the United States right now as hospital teams struggle to provide adequate protection for their staff responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The same equipment that is in short supply at hospitals is used by National Archives employees, preservation and conservation specialists, to deal with records damaged by floods, fires, or mold. Thanks to our dedicated staff, our agency’s supplies are now making their way to healthcare workers.

In March, the National Archives transferred supplies to Washington, DC’s Emergency Management Response Team, which in turn is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to distribute and reallocate the donated supplies.

We are fighting a war against this virus and need to do what we can. I was moved by staffers’ suggestions to donate surplus protective supplies. Continuing support from agencies, organizations, and individuals is essential to getting frontline health workers the protection needed to help those who are sick. We are humbled to play a small role in helping at this difficult time.

Employees at several of the National Archives’ 44 locations across the country are assessing their inventory to make additional donations. We plan to keep a minimal amount for our own use, but we are committed to providing what we don’t need into the hands of those working hard to save lives and keep our communities safe. As a service organization, the National Archives is dedicated to helping internal and external customers, and Americans.

For the month of April, the Scottish Political Archive is, along with our colleagues in the University Archives, taking part in ARA Scotland’s #Archive30 Twitter campaign which will see us tweeting about a daily theme for the whole month – or giving it our best, anyway!

The 2^nd April gives us an opportunity to look at some of our treasures with the theme #FavouriteItem and what a good opportunity to cast our eyes over the weird and wonderful things our collections contain!

After some deliberation, we’ve gone for one of the more random items in our care which we love for its utter uniqueness and the vastness of what it represents. We’ve chosen a bottle of ashes.

These ashes were taken from a brazier which was lit by Democracy for Scotland in April 1992. Democracy for Scotland was a non party political organisation that kept a constant vigil on Regent Road in Edinburgh – which they considered to be the natural home of a Scottish Parliament, should one come into being – from the time of the victory of the Conservative Party in the 1992 General Election onwards.

This vigil was kept for over five years, with the brazier burning that whole time, until the Yes vote in the devolution referendum of 11th September 1997. The brazier was seen as a flame for democracy and an important part of the vigil. The ashes in this bottle are from the brazier’s 1,000th day of burning on 4th January 1995.

This little bottle is something physical and marvellously representative of our wonderful collection of photographs that document the Vigil.

We can all use a good laugh these days, so here is a post from April 1, 2019 that should do the trick.

Every so often there seems to be a rush of interest in bringing back old Amherst traditions. Perhaps alumni wish that students of today could experience gathering as a class to sing at the senior fence. Or students wonder if they are missing out on quirky old traditions that could build school spirit.

Well, today I’d like to share with you some of the lesser known student traditions and activities from the past, all candidates for reintroduction into the Amherst traditions of today!

Amherst College Competitive Napping Team, 1882

Let’s start with athletics – while competitive napping was only a recognized intercollegiate sport for 7 years, Amherst had 5 champion teams during that time. This is the team from 1882; Alfred Humbrey, at left, won the final tournament round with a record breaking nap of 6 hours and 43 minutes.

Amherst Air Flute Octet, 1886

In the musical realm, Amherst’s well known Air Flute Octet charmed campus and area concert goers for decades before dissolving during the economic depression of 1893 when air flute prices became exorbitant.

Amherst On-Campus Rock Climbing Society, date unknown

The short-lived On-Campus Rock Climbing Society was dedicated to finding and climbing every rock on the Amherst campus.

The Puritan Cosplay Club, 1952

The Puritan Cosplay Club was a wildly popular student activity in the early 1950s. The group attended both Puritan Con and Colonizers Con annually along with groups from Williams, Wesleyan, Yale and many other New England colleges.

Amherst Extreme Pipe Club, 1883

Amherst’s Extreme Pipe Club was a selective group that existed from 1882-1885. Members of the club competed fiercely to have the longest pipe, by 1885 the pipes were observed to be nearing 8 feet long. The club was disbanded by the faculty after numerous custodian complaints of puncture marks in the hallways caused by students struggling to navigate their pipes around corners and through doorways.

Summer School for Fashion Modeling, 1888

Amherst also hosted a number of summer schools in the late 1800s. In a addition to the better know Summer School for Library Economy and Sauveur Language School, there was also the Amherst Summer School for Fashion Modeling which graduated dozens of young men who went on to renown in the Paris fashion plate scene. Appearing in this image (second from left in the back row) is Ellery Huntington, Class of 1888, who was later pictured in hundreds of fashion plates out of New York.

Annual Student Brawl, 1925

Annual Student Brawl, 1928

The Annual Student Brawl was a beloved tradition that began in 1899 and extended into the early 1930s. On a fine spring Saturday, the president would declare it “Brawl Day” and the student body would gather on the quad or the playing fields. The president would shoot a ceremonial pistol to start the brawl; after 30 minutes, any student left standing would be declared a superior specimen of Amherst manhood and given a purple striped ribbon to be worn on his hat for the remainder of the year. The faculty and citizens of the town of Amherst would bring their families and picnic on the lawn after the brawl.

The Ax, Rope, Club, Paddle, and Broom Society, 1893

The Ax, Rope, Club, Paddle and Broom Society was a secret society that rivaled the many fraternities at Amherst in the 1890s. Each of the implements in the society name was central to one of the society’s rituals. Unfortunately, the details of their rituals have been lost to time so modern researchers are left guessing. We do know that the club was kicked out of seven rooming housing in the span of three years between 1892 and 1894.

Amherst Varsity Guinea Pig Breeding Team presenting their winning guinea pig, 1951.

Last, but not least, is the Amherst Varsity Guinea Pig Breeding Team. The team competed in division 3 guinea pig breeding from 1949 to 1957. Pictured here is the guinea pig that took the team to the national championship in 1951. Numerous alumni guinea pig breeders hoped that the school’s mascot would be officially changed to the guinea pig in 2016, but were, alas, disappointed.

Happy April Fools Day!

(All of the photographs in this post are, in fact, real photographs of Amherst College students, the interpretations however… are not. For more information about Brawl Day, please see the Chapel Rush and the Flag Rush. All the other photographs are unidentified.)

The National Archives is committed to the health and safety of our visitors and staff, and we continue to do our part to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While our museums and facilities are closed to the public, we are continuing to perform mission essential emergency services to support our nation and citizens. These mission essential functions include: providing access to records needed to support emergency shelter, medical procedures, and funeral services for America’s veterans, the publication of the Federal Register, and providing emergency records loan services to the U.S. Congress. 

National Personnel Records Center
Like all other NARA facilities across our nation, I approved the temporary closure of the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to support stay-at-home orders issued for St. Louis City and County and to protect our staff from the potential transmission of COVID-19. However, a select group of NARA staff continue providing mission-critical services. For the NPRC, this means providing access to records needed to support emergency shelter, medical procedures, and funeral services for America’s veterans.

NPRC’s holdings include medical records and patient clinical records from military hospitals across the world. These collections are often referenced to support emergency medical treatments for veterans. The Center also provides prompt access to military service records needed to help homeless veterans obtain shelter and to support funeral honors and burials in national cemeteries for deceased veterans. Working in concert with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration and private sector funeral homes across the country, our staff responds to more than 1,000 burial-related requests each week.

The national pandemic emergency has temporarily disrupted many of the services we provide, including routine access to military records. However, the critical requests described above continue to be promptly serviced. If you have an urgent need for access to military service records, you may fax your request to 314 801-0764. This is a dedicated line for emergencies only. If your request is not urgent, I ask that you consider delaying it until we are past this national emergency.

Federal Register
The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) provides access to the official text of federal Laws, presidential documents, administrative regulations and notices, and descriptions of federal organizations, programs and activities. While the majority of Federal Register staff are working remotely, a very small crew remains on site in the GPO Building to receive documents from agencies, the White House and Congress. 

Despite the disruption, the Federal Register with GPO has published over 1,100 documents in 12 daily issues of the Federal Register, including emergency documents concerning the pandemic from CDC, HHS, FDA, and DHS and other agencies. You may view the significant pandemic-related documents published on the Federal Register website.

The online version of the Code of Federal Regulations is up to date, and the Federal Register team is working with its GPO partners to minimize the effect of the operating constraints on the next update to the hardbound editions.

As a measure to enable more flexible work, the Federal Register added nine additional agencies to the digital submission program and began accepting digitally signed documents from them. This brings the total number of agencies using the digital portal to 205 – accounting for 85 percent of the documents filed in the last two weeks.  

Congressional Records 
Another mission critical service is providing emergency records loan services to the U.S. Congress. NARA’s Center for Legislative Archives serves as the repository and custodial unit for the official records of the House of Representatives and Senate. Congressional holdings span the history of the nation under the Constitution, beginning in 1789 and running through recent congresses, and document the history of representative government at the Federal level.

Although the records of the most recent congresses are closed to public access under House and Senate access rules, they are subject to the recall of congressional committee chairs, and their designated representatives, to support the current business of Congress. These requests for records are sent to the House and Senate Archivists, who forward the requests to the Center for processing. Under normal operating conditions, Center staff locate and pull the relevant records, prepare the associated paperwork and data entries, and deliver the records to the Hill, where they are accepted and signed for by authorized staff. Typically, the Center sends between one to two million pages of textual records and electronic records back to committees each year.  

Under emergency situations such as the current pandemic, designated Center staff currently teleworking are called in to process and deliver the loans. Although the number of emergency loan requests is often limited, the value of the service during a crisis is crucial to the work of Congress and the national interest.

This is an unprecedented and very difficult time for everyone. I am grateful to our staff for their continued dedication and commitment to serve the American people and our nation.

Headline announcing RCA’s production of the theremin; Courier-Post, Camden, NJ, 23 September 1929.
(NYPR Archive Collections)

This year marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the invention of the theremin, the world’s first electronic musical instrument. Still in production today, the theremin’s original release set off a revolution in music making, giving rise to a whole family of new, influential 20th century instruments, including the Moog synthesizer and the Hammond organ.

Léon Theremin; 3 May 1928.
(Genthe photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.)

With its ethereal sound, and the almost magical non-contact method of playing it, the theremin quickly captured the attention of European audiences as its 24-year-old inventor, Russian engineer and physicist Léon Theremin, toured the continent debuting his new instrument in demonstrations and recitals.  In 1928, Theremin obtained patent protection for his invention and licensed the technology to the Radio-Victor Corporation of America (RCA), which began manufacturing the instrument in 1929.  Over the course of the century, the theremin gained a passionate, world-wide following among both amateur and professional players, as well as composers – notably Bohuslav Martinů, Percy Grainger, Dmitri Shostakovich, Miklós Rózsa, Elmer Bernstein, Anis Fuleihan, and Bernard Herrmann.

Clara Rockmore and Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Léon Theremin) in NYC, c. 1929.
(Photo: © courtesy of the Nadia Reisenberg-Clara Rockmore Foundation)

After a 50-year absence, Léon Theremin returned to the United States in the summer of 1991.  As part of that trip, on January 4th, 1992, 95-year-old Theremin was an in-studio guest on WQXR’s The Listening Room with Robert Sherman.  Joining Professor Theremin on the broadcast was his dear friend, and the best-known and the most accomplished player of the instrument: Clara Rockmore. With host Robert Sherman (who also happens to be Mrs. Rockmore’s nephew) the inventor and the virtuoso discussed their earliest collaborations in the 1920s —including their first meeting in New York, Rockmore’s influence on the technical evolution of the instrument, and their last meeting in Russia: a brief, surreptitious 1962 reunion on a Moscow subway platform, the location chosen to avoid being overheard by Soviet authorities.

The interview includes two brief musical excerpts from a 1977 studio recording that thereminist Clara Rockmore made with her sister, the celebrated pianist Nadia Reisenberg; also included is the rebroadcast of a complete performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Song of Grusia, which was recorded before a studio audience at WQXR on January 26th, 1979, with Clara Rockmore, Nadia Reisenberg, and the violinist Erick Friedman.

Clara Rockmore and Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Léon Theremin) reunited in NYC, October 6, 1991.
(Photo: © Steve J. Sherman)

                                                    *       *       *

Two of the musical selections presented in this archival broadcast recording, available in the media player at the top of this page, have been edited down to brief excerpts to respect copyright protection of the holder; the interview is presented in its entirety.

Related links:

Romeo Records recently released Music and Memories, a set of rare and never before available recordings of Clara Rockmore; it is available for streaming and as a two-cd boxed set.  More information is available at Romeo Records, the Nadia Reisenberg-Clara Rockmore Foundation website and in the foundation’s March 2020 Newsletter.

From the New York Public Radio Archive:

The Listening Room: January 4th, 1992 episode

Fishko Files: Theremin

The Leonard Lopate Show: Getting to know the Theremin

Studio 360: Theremin 101 

The photo at the top of this article is of Clara Rockmore at the theremin in 1932. (Photo: © Renato Toppo, courtesy of the Nadia Reisenberg-Clara Rockmore Foundation)