The National Endowment for the Humanities as part of their Preservation Assessment Grant for Small Institutions recently funded a visit to Special Collections & Archives by nationally known Facilities Consultant, Tom Wilsted. Tom’s goals for his consultancy included the following: Review existing building plans and collection documents including preservation and emergency plans Travel to Winston-Salem,... Continue reading “Special Collections & Archives 2015 NEH Grant for Visiting Consultant” ›
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) was a French scholar and philosopher who spent most of his adult life as a Huguenot exile in the Netherlands. His most famous work was the Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, a multi-volume biographical encyclopedia that encompassed Bayle’s wide-ranging and often unorthodox ideas. His arguments, carried out largely in the footnotes of the... Continue reading “Repairing Mr. Bayle’s Dictionary” ›
This Religion in North Carolina blog post was written by Caroline Green, Religion in NC student assistant. In 1867, Pleasant Daniel Gold (1833-1920), a pastor of Wilson Primitive Baptist Church, began publishing the semi-monthly newsletter, Zion’s Landmark. The periodical served as a hub of information for subscribers who paid one dollar per year, including sermons,... Continue reading “Zion’s Landmark” ›
Special Collections will host a unique art exhibit in the Reading Room, entitled Bags of America by Wake Forest Art Professor, Leigh Ann Hallberg, which begins on August 17, 2015. This installation features an “artist’s book” of cereal bag drawings titled, Bags of America and an installation of actual cereal bags in the Rare Book... Continue reading “Bags of America Exhibit by Leigh Ann Hallberg in Special Collections” ›
Special Collections & Archives (SCA), in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, recently completed a very successful year, 2014-2015. Here is a brief listing of accomplishments and activities. For further information, please contact Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Director: zanisht@wfu.edu Departmental Accomplishments: Stephanie Bennett joined SCA as the Department’s new Collections Archivist. Her responsibilities focus on collections management, accessioning,... Continue reading “Special Collections & Archives Annual Report, 2014-2015” ›
Visitors to Special Collections often ask whether we add materials to our collections, and if so, how we acquire them. The answer is yes, Special Collections is an active and growing collection! We acquire new-to-us materials every year, through both purchases and gifts. Read on for a description of a few of the books that... Continue reading “New Old Books: Special Collections Acquisitions for 2014-15” ›
The Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University is home to a famous collection of over 250 confederate broadsides, popular poetry from the American Civil War era, nearly all of which were digitized in 1995. The legacy metadata for these materials has now been carefully revised so that the collection is easier to explore... Continue reading “Confederate Broadsides Collection Updated” ›
Z. Smith Reynolds Library has received an EZ Digitization LSTA Grant from the State Library of North Carolina for $15,235. This project will provide funds for the description and digitizing of archival material that is part of the North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection at Wake Forest University. Nearly 100 linear ft. of original archival records... Continue reading “Grant Announcement for the NC Baptist Historical Collection” ›
Teaching ZSR’s History of the Book (LIB260) class is always more fun–and more work– than I anticipate. The undergraduate elective class gives students the opportunity to interact with 800 years’ worth of texts from the Rare Books Collection, and it draws participants from a wide variety of disciplines. The spring 2015 class included majors from... Continue reading “Wake Forest Students Delve into Book History” ›
Special Collections & Archives (SCA) recently sponsored a visit from textile conservator Claudia Walpole, who reviewed a historic banner, which was tentatively identified as belonging to the Philomathesian Literary Society of Wake Forest College. The banner was painted on silk and is rapidly deteriorating. The banner was named an Endangered Artifact for the State of... Continue reading “Philomathesian Banner Reviewed by Professional Textiles Conservator” ›
