Special Collections & Archives Blog

This past summer (remember when it was hot)? we received a request from a researcher who wanted to see our collection of old football programs, especially the ones from the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s. He said he wanted to make a calendar of some of the covers, and he spent several days looking through and photographing our collection. We thought that was a nice idea, but didn’t realize what a great final product would result! Lo and behold, one day a few weeks ago, I received a box of the new calendars and they look GREAT. We are excited that part of our collection made this publication possible, and we hope that lots of folks will want one for themselves. No, we don’t get any money from the sales of the calendars, but it’s a great tool for showcasing the unique materials that are in the Archives and letting people know that we are here. If you know a Wake alum, current student, or anyone who loves WFU, this would be a great gift for Christmas or any time. Check out this link to get more info and to order one for yourself.

Asgard Press

Finding aids for collections from the Department of Special Collections & Archives are now fully search- and browse-able through a new interface!

Check out zsr.wfu.edu/findingaids to see features including:

• A look and feel like the ZSR website
• Fully searchable contents, including container lists
• Browse by keyword and title
• Collection summary at the top of each finding aid
• Linked finding aid sections
• Linked keyword index
• Expand/collapse container lists
• Complete box and folder information

Kevin Gilbertson pushed the limits of the traditional finding aid by incorporating his sense of design and prioritizing user needs, creating a new interface for the finding aids on Dspace with XMLUI (the rest of our collections currently use JSPUI). Kevin’s creativity and willingness to understand the priorities of archival description helped him use XML to develop a finding aid interface that is one of a kind.

We invite you to experiment with the search, browse, and container list features. The search box is also featured on the Special Collections & Archives homepage. We are so proud to create greater access to the outstanding archival resources of ZSR!

The new Documentary Film program at WFU has proved to be a natural match for our archival collections. Students from Dr. Cara Pilson’s graduate research seminar and first year seminar have frequented Special Collections for instruction and research this semester.

The FYS: History Through the Lens of Documentary Film students, pictured above, are working on a short documentary film on the WFU class of 1964.

Using archival copies of the Old Gold and Black, The Howler, photographs, and other materials from the University Archives, the students researched issues of importance to their counterparts in the early 1960s.

They then selected visual materials to put on film for their documentary project. The students were fascinated by both the similarities and differences between campus life now and that of fifty years ago. My favorite quote from a 2010 student (upon reading an OGB editorial): “I can’t believe how sarcastic they were back then!”

Working with the documentary film students this semester was a great experience for the Special Collections staff as well. Every class teaches us something new about our stuff! Seeing our materials from the perspective of documentary filmmakers is making us think about how we can improve discovery tools for the visual aspects of our collections. We look forward to many more collaborations with our new Documentary Film students.

According to the May 7, 1927 Old Gold and Black, available in DSpace, the incoming Freshman class of 1927 was the largest class to date, with 118 men. They expected respect. What they got was the traditional treatment by the upperclassmen, including hazing and freshman rules. The “Freshman-Sophomore Smoker” was a men’s meeting group where ideas were exchanged in a civil way, resulting in the abolition of the freshman beanies and other class rules.

This ticket was located in a box in the University Archives and is a glimpse into the lives of student organizations of the past.

Yesterday, Rebecca and I pawed through the hundreds of documents in the four records cartons left behind by a former university archivist. We found lots of additions to university archives record groups and created piles all around my office. Now that we’ve sorted everything, we are going to accession these materials into Archivist’s Toolkit for later processing.

Our students continue with rehousing and adding instances in Archivists’ Toolkit. We discard at least two recycle bins full of acidic boxes and folders every day!

This rehousing work is paying off in our stacks, where shelves of neatly labeled and newly-rehoused collections have begun to appear:

I have made a very interesting discovery while accessioning the 1937 Howler “markup” from Charlotte Engraving Company, Charlotte, NC. Perusing the hairstyles and facial expressions of the male graduates of the senior class of 1937, I came across the angelic face of a young woman, Ruth Pritchard of Wake Forest, North Carolina. According to the Wake Forest website, women were not admitted until 1942, but as can be seen in the recently digitized 1937 Howler pg. 41, women (including a Junior named Helen Bryan, pg. 49) were showing up in yearbooks before the shortage of men during World War II. Can anyone shed more light on the appearance of women in pre-1942 yearbooks?

While re-housing the William Gaston Simmons Papers, one of our students discovered this small piece of Wake Forest’s past:

This receipt from Simmons, the former Bursar, notes payment for tuition, room rent, and servant hire for Spring Term, 1872. Total cost: $3.00.

Wake Forest founder, Samuel Wait’s wood and leather traveling chest and his wooden walking stick-just a small part of the ZSR Library, Special Collections and Archives.