Annual Report, 2025

It’s that time of year to share an update on everything Special Collections & Archives (SCA) accomplished in 2025. We achieved a great deal this year, and the biggest news is that the Wake Forest Historical Museum (WFHM), located in Wake Forest, NC, is now affiliated with SCA. As we prepare for the Wake Forest Bicentennial in 2034, the timing could not be better. Together, SCA and the WFHM reached nearly 14,000 students, researchers, and visitors (13,745).

First and foremost, I would like to recognize the incredible SCA and WFHM teams: Alayna, Ashelee, Beth, Carolyn, Carolyn Z., Craig, Emily, Isabel, Kate, Marcia, Mary Kate, Megan, Melde, Rebecca, Sarah, and our many volunteers — including 23 volunteers at WFHM and Kevin, Nancy, and Shannon in SCA. Thank you all for your dedication and hard work.

We are also deeply grateful for the support we receive from our ZSR colleagues and our outstanding Wake Forest student employees (18), who assist with answering reference questions, digitizing materials, shifting collections, and creating buttons and magnets for our supporters.

As SCA/WFHM continue to grow — in collections, digital resources, and programming — I want to extend a special thanks to our donors and supporters. Whether through collection and financial donations, attending events, or simply championing our work, your support makes all the difference. While this report focuses on numbers, much of what we do cannot be quantified. Our work is about building community and connecting Wake Foresters of the past, present, and future.

Wake Forest Historical Museum

Registered Visitors: 1,936

Programs and Events: 5,377 (28 events)

Interpretive Plan for the Calvin Jones House Completed

Collections: 62 donors

Exhibits:

Horace Kephart & The Great Smoky Mountains (March-June 2025)

Our State Dog: North Carolina’s Plott Hound (June-October 2025)

Strolling White Street: A Photographic History of Downtown (October 2025– )

SCA Exhibits:

February 1, 2024 – January 31, 2025

Poets and Publishers of the Black Arts Movement

Curator: Megan Mulder

February 2025-January 30, 2026

Fields of Fortune: North Carolina’s Legacy in Leaf and Labor

Curators: Daisha Bunn, Craig Fansler, Erin Kye, and Tanya Zanish-Belcher

SCA Donor Supported Projects:

Expanded Wake Voices: Inclusive Student Life

Interviews/presentations completed/ingested/accessible: 55

Samuel T. Gladding Fellow: Sauda Mitchell, Archivist and Book Artist (Winston-Salem, NC)

Samuel T. Gladding Fellow: Dominique Luster, Luster Company (Richmond, VA)

SCA Collections:

Accessions: 34 accession records created (34 linear ft.; 250 gigabytes stored in ZSR_Production)

Processed or inventoried: 648.07 linear ft.; 145 gigabytes stored in ZSR_Production

Finding aids: 45 created or updated

Digital Collections:

Storage: Local (ZSR_Production): 11.4 TB, 1,654,649 files

AWS: 10 TB; 524,668 files

Patron requests: 5,079 items digitized

Digitization Projects: 26,012 items digitized

Items uploaded to Digital Collections: 8,992; Quartex (7,550), DSpace (1,442)

Metadata Records created: 8,436 created or revised

SCA Rare Books and Print Materials:

Physical title count: 57,015

Physical item count: 67,351

New purchases: 53 items

Gift fund purchases of special note:

First edition of Teodor de Bry’s illustrated edition of Bartolomé de las Casas (1598), purchased with gift fund from Hayes McNeill in honor of Richard Murdoch

To Tell her Glories with a Faithful Tongue, artist’s book by Sauda Mitchell, purchased with O.T. Smith fund

SCA Preservation:

Repairs and enclosures:

General Collections repairs: 157

Special Collections & Archives: 1,856

Preservation class visits: 31

SCA Cataloging and Database Maintenance:

MARC records (original): 58

Bib History Updated: 9,202

Items Created: 418

Items Updated: 8,061

Offsite Permanent Transfers: 365 collections boxes ; 174 books/periodical boxes

Offsite Reference Transfers: 81 items

SCA Public Outreach:

Campus Instruction: 131 sessions for 2,727 participants:

Donor Contacts: 138

Reference Requests (including Research Room visitors): 1,797

Visiting researchers (Provost’s Grant for Library Research): Dr. David Brown (Ohio University)

SCA Hosted Events Total: 1,770

CozyFest and Silent Book Club: 40

Fields of Fortune Exhibit Opening: 48

Maya Angelou Garden Party: 56

Earth Day Fair: 417

To Tell Her Glories with a Faithful Tongue, Sauda Mitchell: 37

“We Lost the House, but Not the Home” with Dominique Luster 27

Family Weekend Tours: 44

Bookmarks Festival: 447

Homecoming Tours: 34

Homecoming Events: 372

“A Gothic Romance” SCA Halloween event: 60

ZSR Board of Visitors and Divinity School Board: 152

“250 Years of Jane Austen”: 36

SCA Digital/Social Media Activities:

Blog postings: 50 posts

Facebook: 468 Followers

Instagram: 1,050 Followers

Tumblr: 117 Followers