Jenny R. Puckett and her new book, Thine Ancient Days: A WFU History, 1818-1956 (In partnership with the Wake Forest Historical Museum) Jenny Robinson Puckett graduated from Wake Forest University in 1971. After completing the Master of Arts degree at Middlebury College, she taught Spanish for many years at the high school and college levels. ... Continue reading “Jenny R. Puckett and Her New Book, Thine Ancient Days: A WFU History, 1818-1956” ›
It seems like everyone’s favorite quarantine activity is genealogy. Since we were sequestered by Mother Nature in March, Special Collections & Archives has answered around 100 research questions. We typically don’t do research for our patrons, so at the beginning, our mantra was, “Please hold until the world returns to normal.” Most patrons were happy... Continue reading “Genealogy in the Time of COVID” ›
Earlier this year, we began compiling a list of our LGBTQ+ collections for the Society of American Archivists (SAA) “Lavender Legacies” page. This guide provides the “first formal and comprehensive guide to primary source material relating to the history and culture of lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender (LBGT) people held by repositories in North America.”... Continue reading “LGBTQ+ Collections” ›
The following is a report submitted for the annual meeting (July 2020) of the Association for Librarians and Archivists at Baptist Institutions (ALABI). The North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection had another productive year for 2019. Among its activities were the following: Access: Wake Forest recently became a contributing institution to the American Theological Library Association... Continue reading “North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection Report, 2019” ›
ZSR contributed its first digital collection to JSTOR’s Open Community Collections. Our World War I Posters collection now joins over 30 other institutions’ unique primary resources collections on the JSTOR platform. The ZSR collection contains 134 propaganda posters pertaining to World War I. The posters publicize efforts of organizations including the United States Food Administration,... Continue reading “ZSR Joins JSTOR Open Community Collections” ›
Special Collections and Archives does not need to tell you about these “unprecedented times,” a phrase working overtime these days. But we want to share our efforts to capture what is happening during the pandemic, both collecting records of the University’s efforts and administration as well as snapshots of life outside the boundaries of campus.... Continue reading “Behind the Scenes of Our Coronavirus Collection” ›
It’s been just over two years since we redesigned our Digital Collections homepage. Since that time, we have continued to add new collections. As a result, an update was completed this month to enhance browsability. Each digital collection is now sorted into one of the seven Collection Groups on the homepage: Manuscript Collections, NC Baptist... Continue reading “Digital Collections Homepage Update” ›
We have talked about the complicated and sometimes contradictory histories that we find in the archives before, and we will again. I wanted to share today how the Special Collections staff and our descriptive practices continue to evolve as we work with artifacts of trauma and suffering. As purveyors of primary documents, the archives are... Continue reading “Describing Sensitive Materials at SCA” ›
Maya Angelou was an author, poet, singer, screen director, playwright, and dancer. In 1969 she published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of her autobiographical works, for which she is best known. Angelou went on to publish four more books of memoirs, as well as many volumes of poetry. In 1993 she... Continue reading “The Life of Maya Angelou: Special Collections & Archives Resources” ›
As we live through historic times, this is a good reminder about the value of the archives in chronicling recorded history. Archives are often thought of as old and dusty, when they are actually the representation of a current moment long past. We all “participate” in history, but we usually don’t think about our experience... Continue reading “Deacon Experiences: COVID-19” ›
