“For Hygienic and Other Reasons”: Looking Back at the College’s Laundry Service

Early last month, Davidson made news for the College’s decision to transition to self-service laundry. Prior to the opening of the College Laundry in 1920, students patronized African-American laundresses in the area, or paid fees to those fellow students who facilitated laundry deliveries to Charlotte. One early student who had his laundry done locally was future United States President Woodrow Wilson, as he records in a notebook used during the 1873 – 1874 academic year:

Detailed laundry charges
Detailed laundry charges for Wilson’s first few months at Davidson.

As early as 1911, the College’s Board of Trustees wanted to establish a College Laundry, in order to promote “the comfort, convenience, and health of the student body and Faculty and their families.” However, financial considerations made the project impossible until the 1920-1921 academic year.

Students holding laundry bags - possibly as part of an entrepreneurial scheme, or else as freshman hazing , 1910.
Students holding laundry bags – possibly as part of an entrepreneurial scheme, or else as freshman hazing , 1910.

The 1919-1920 College Catalogue announced the opening of the new facility: “A laundry sufficient to do all unstarched work for the students has been authorized and will be in operation at the opening of next fall. For hygienic and other reasons all students will be required to patronize this laundry. The charge will be as low as will allow for the proper conduct and care of the plant.”

Students (including future College President John W. Kuykendall, at rear) carry their "bundles" to the Laundry, 1957.
Students (including future College President John W. Kuykendall, at rear) carry their “bundles” to the Laundry, from Quips and Cranks 1957.

By the early 1960s, the College Laundry became overwhelmed by the demands of the growing student body – as enrollment rose to 1,000 students, costs and the need for new equipment rose similarly. In a December 21, 1966 letter from President Grier Martin wrote that: “we plan to meet with a cross section of the student leaders to get their feeling on laundry operations in the future. In the past, we have felt that we had alternatives to either continue the present ‘bundle’ system or go to a per piece basis for students, removing the now compulsory feature.”

Davidson College Dry Cleaning coupons, 1968.
Davidson College Dry Cleaning coupons, 1968.

This issue came up again when the College went coeducational in 1972, when the addition of female students further stressed the Laundry’s capabilities. The Special Sub-committee on Coeducation of the Student Life Committee recommended that, since “the general consensus [is] that the laundry as it stands now is not equipped to launder women’s apparel satisfactorily… no woman student shall be required to patronize the college laundry, with the possible exception of mandatory linen service [and] coin-operated washing and drying facilities be installed…” By 1980, the self-service machine charges were incorporated into the laundry fee, rather than remaining coin-operated.

"Davidson Laundry is Laundry For Students," 1972.
“Davidson Laundry is Laundry For Students,” 1972.

Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, Davidson student opinion was divided – while many valued the convenience and time saved in having their laundry done by the College, a vocal group resented paying the mandatory fees and preferred a self-service, pay-as-you-use system. Petitions and letters to the editor of the Davidsonian reflected these sentiments.

A student picks up laundry, 1980.
A student picks up his laundry, 1980.

In defense of the Laundry, information pamphlets given to new students in the 1980s featured an explanation of why the College ran a laundry service: “Because we are a small college in a small town, we operate a laundry to provide a convenient, economical, time-saving service to students.”

Davidson College Laundry pamphlet, 1986 - 1987.
Davidson College Laundry pamphlet, 1986 – 1987.

In 2004, the College Laundry building was renamed the Lula Bell Houston Laundry, in honor of the retirement of laundry worker Lula Bell Houston after 57 years of service to the College. By 2011, the College Laundry saw another change – a move to recyclable canvas bags, rather than the brown paper the clean clothes had traditionally been wrapped with.

With the transition to an entirely self-service model beginning on May 15, 2015, the Lula Bell Houston Laundry building will be vacated. Current students, alumni, and community members: what do you think the Laundry building should house next?

The Honor of Your Presence: Commencement Invitations and Programs Throughout the Years

This weekend, Davidson will host its 177th commencement – congratulations, class of 2014! Commencement at Davidson has certainly changed over the years, but some things have remained constant – namely, the necessity of invitations and programs detailing the event. This week, let’s a take a look at some examples of these early college publications…

This "Order of the Exercises" from 1842 is an excellent example of what early commencement ceremonies at Davidson were like. William Lee Davidson's speech, "Thoughts of a Student on leaving College" would likely hit a chord with this year's graduates as well.
This “Order of the Exercises” from 1842 is an excellent example of what early commencement ceremonies at Davidson were like. William Lee Davidson’s speech, “Thoughts of a Student on leaving College” would likely hit a chord with this year’s graduates as well.

 

The Eumenean and Philanthropic literary societies began holding oratorical exercises at commencement in 1848, and were responsible for planning all activities until 1881. This 1853 program illustrates a typical series of events from those years.
The Eumenean and Philanthropic literary societies began holding oratorical exercises at commencement in 1848, and were responsible for planning all activities until 1881. This 1853 program illustrates a typical series of events from those years.

 

The 1870s and '80s were the golden years of commencement invitation design at Davidson, as this 1875 invitation to Misses Sallie and Mary Lafferty from the two literary societies demonstrates.
The 1870s through the 1910s were the golden years of commencement invitation design at Davidson, as this 1875 invitation to Misses Sallie and Mary Lafferty from the two literary societies demonstrates.

 

One 1876 invitation in our collections featured a bookplate of sorts, most likely used to identify the sender as Archie Dalton.
One 1876 invitation in our collections featured a bookplate of sorts, most likely used to identify the sender as Archie Dalton.

 

The 1888 commencement Order of Exercises includes a number of interesting-sounding speeches - one imagines that the average Davidson student has certainly "Learn[ed] to Labor and to Wait" by graduation!
The 1880 commencement Order of Exercises includes a number of interesting-sounding speeches – one imagines that the average Davidson student has certainly “Learn[ed] to Labor and to Wait” by graduation!
This 1884 commencement invitation features versions of the state seals of North and South Carolina, as well as some recurring themes, such as palm trees, an oil lamp, and an owl.
This 1884 commencement invitation features versions of the state seals of North and South Carolina, as well as some recurring themes, such as palm trees, an oil lamp, and an owl. This was only the second year that the list of graduating students was printed in the commencement program.

 

The literary society members in 1887 appear to have had a hard time deciding on fonts for their commencement invitations, so they chose to use all of them.
The literary society members in 1887 appear to have had a hard time deciding on fonts for Davidson’s 50th anniversary commencement invitations, so they chose to use all of them.

 

A note on the commencement invitation of 1892 notes that this was "The Class of Great Preachers" - of seventeen graduates, eleven went on to enter the ministry.
A note on the commencement invitation of 1892 refers to this as “The Class of Great Preachers” – of seventeen graduates, eleven went on to enter the ministry.

 

This elaborate commencement booklet from 1903 illustrates the Davidson graduate as he left campus for the next phase of life - The Future!
This elaborate commencement booklet from 1903 illustrates the Davidson graduate as he left campus for the next phase of life – The Future.

 

From 1912 until the late 1920s, commencement programs came in a variety of formats - including some bound in leather, as this 1912 example indicates.
From 1912 until the late 1920s, commencement programs came in a variety of formats – including some bound in leather, as this 1912 example indicates.

 

By the 1890s, fraternities on campus began to plan commencement activities separate from the literary societies. The Pan-Hellenic Council of 1913 distributed a sort of "dance card" for commencement activities - this booklet belonged to Maud Vinson, who was sponsored by John Burns Jr.
By the 1890s, fraternities on campus began to plan commencement activities separate from the literary societies. The Pan-Hellenic Council of 1913 distributed a sort of “dance card” for commencement activities – this booklet belonged to Maud Vinson, who was sponsored by John Burns Jr.

 

The interior of Miss Vinson's commencement activities booklet - Davidson gentleman would sign up to squire the female visitors to the various commencement week activities.
The interior of Miss Vinson’s commencement activities booklet – Davidson gentlemen would sign up to squire the female visitors to the various commencement week activities.

 

commencement1928001
The 1928 commencement program was one of the last to have a leather cover. This design features the columns of the Old Chambers building, left standing until 1929 after the fire that destroyed the building eight years prior.

 

The 1947 Baccalaureate Sermon, given by Professor Kenneth J. Foreman (Class of 1911) exhorted students to examine their behaviors and develop good habits now... before it's too late: "Youth is a lovely glass container with nothing in it, it is a book in which all the pages are blank, I mean the youth you have still to life, the rest of it..."
The 1947 Baccalaureate Sermon, given by Professor Kenneth J. Foreman (Class of 1911) exhorted students to examine their behaviors and develop good habits now… before it’s too late: “Youth is a lovely glass container with nothing in it, it is a book in which all the pages are blank, I mean the youth you have still to live, the rest of it…I do not need to tell you about habits and how useful good ones are and how terrible bad ones can be. What I am saying is that these next ten years are your last chance to do anything about it.”

 

Since the early 1920s, commencement invitations have maintained the same language and layout, with a few font changes, as this example from 1966 demonstrates.
Since the early 1920s, commencement invitations have maintained the same language and layout, with a few font changes, as this example from 1966 demonstrates.

 

Like commencement invitations, the cover design of the program has also remained fairly static, in this case since the late 1950s. This white-on-white embossed cover is from 1980.
Like commencement invitations, the cover design of the program has also remained fairly static, in this case since the late 1950s. This white-on-white embossed cover is from commencement 1980.

 

1987 was Davidson's sesquicentennial year, and the cover for the President's Supper evokes earlier commencement publications.
1987 was Davidson’s sesquicentennial year, and the cover for the President’s Supper evokes earlier commencement publications.

 

By the mid twentieth century, Davidson's commencement invitations included a small card with the schedule of events printed on it. This example from 1987 includes the sesquicentennial logo designed by Burkey Belser (class of 1969)
By the mid twentieth century, Davidson’s commencement invitations included a small card with the schedule of events printed on it. This example from 1987 includes the sesquicentennial logo designed by Burkey Belser (class of 1969).

 

So graduates, guests, and members of the Davidson community: as you attend commencement events this weekend, take a look at the invitations, programs, and schedules you’re being handed, and hearken back to these earlier examples of college culture!

Underneath the Carolina Inn

A few weeks ago, the archives received a donation of several mysterious items from Irvin Brawley, a longtime Davidson College employee (1971 – 2010; Brawley retired as the Associate Director for Property Management and Insurance). These items had been unearthed from beneath the Carolina Inn during restoration work, but nothing else was known about them.

Found underneath the Carolina Inn!
Found underneath the Carolina Inn!

All told, the items included Two Lucky Strike “flat fifties” cigarette tins, a bottle of castor oil from Eckard’s, and a bottle of Sloan’s Family Liniment. Before delving into details about these items, a brief history of the building they were found underneath: many Davidsonians today are familiar with the Carolina Inn, in its role as the home for the College’s Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

The Carolina Inn, May 2014.
The Carolina Inn, May 2014.

Built circa 1848, the structure first began serving as a store that same year, under the operation of Leroy Springs. In 1855, the building was sold to Hanson Pinkney Helper, giving the building its other frequently recognized name – the Helper Hotel.

Carolina Inn as the Helper Hotel, circa 1870s.
Carolina Inn as the Helper Hotel, circa 1870s.

The Helper Hotel was much more than just a hotel – the building also housed Helper’s store, and in the latter part of the 1800s, Dr. J.J. Dupuy operated a drug store on the premises. A peek at one of the pages of Helper’s 1896 store ledger gives a taste of what the Davidson community was able to purchase:

F.M. Hobbs' account for 1897.
F.M. Hobbs’ account for 1896.

Fred Marvin Hobbs, a Davidson resident and member of the class of 1900, seems fond of candy, cigars, and bay rum. Sadly, Hobbs perished in a drowning incident in the Catawba River in July 1900 along with a fellow classmate, David Yonan. Both students are buried in the Davidson College cemetery.

F.M. Hobbs, a frequenter of Helper's store during his days at Davidson.
F.M. Hobbs, a frequenter of Helper’s store during his days at Davidson.

In 1901, the Sloan family purchased the building and continued running both an inn and a store on the premises. The Sloan’s daughter, Sadie Sloan Bohannan, ran the building as a weekend rooming house for young women visiting Davidson in the 1920s and ’30s – former Library Director and first College Archivist, Dr. Chalmers G. Davidson (class of 1928), recalled that period as:

“…the day of the ‘great belle’ in the South, and ‘prom-trotters,’ as they were called, who made the rounds from Princeton to Tulane stayed at Mrs. Bohannan’s during their Davidson weekends. Mrs. Bohannan had beautiful antiques (she sometimes put as many as four girls in one four poster bed – for a dollar which was high pay) and she ran a highly reputable house. Davidson students could go only to the top of the stair to deposit suitcases and no farther.” (from Mary D. Beaty’s Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937)

The College purchased the Carolina Inn from the Sloan family in 1946, and the building has been used as student housing, community gathering space (the town’s “Teen Canteen”), and as office and classroom space. Renovated in 1971 and designated as a Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Site in 1977, the Carolina Inn still serves as a meeting place for the College community.

Returning to the four items found beneath the Inn, not much is known about them. The Lucky Strike tins could date from anytime in between the 1930s through the 1950s – this design was used throughout those years. Both of these tins have some loose tobacco remaining inside, and are a bit dented. The back of the tins list that these cigarettes were manufactured at “Factory No. 30 District of N.C.”

Lucky Strike "flat fifties" tin.
Lucky Strike “flat fifties” tin.

The bottle of castor oil from Eckerd’s is equally difficult to date – the label lists a Tryon Street address in Charlotte, as well as a recommended dosage of one to two tablespoons for adults or one to two teaspoons for children. Eckard’s expanded into North Carolina, including Charlotte, in the 1920s, and the store operated in the area until the company went defunct in 2006-2007. The slogan “Creators of Reasonable Drug Prices” appears to have been used by the chain for several decades, however, and no other markings on the bottle give further clues.

Eckerd's of Charlotte, N.C., castor oil.
Eckerd’s of Charlotte, N.C., castor oil.

 

Finally, Sloan’s Family Liniment – Earl Sloan began marketing his father’s horse liniment for use on people by the late 1800s, and Sloan’s Liniment can still be purchased today. This bottle, like the one of Eckerd’s castor oil, does not have any date information but does include instructions for use.

Sloan's Family Liniment: good for both animals and people!
Sloan’s Family Liniment: good for both animals and people!

If you have any information on our mysterious finds (or more finds of your own) from underneath the Carolina Inn, please get in touch with the archives!

Takeaways from SNCA

Note: this post was originally posted on Davidson College’s Archives & Special Collections blog. I also wrote about my experience at SNCA 2014 in my Day of DH 2014 blog.

Professional development is integral to all of the library staff here at Davidson College, so with that in mind, the Discovery Systems team sent three of its members to the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) annual conference last week – myself, Jan Blodgett, and Susan Kerr. While we all often attend meetings, conferences, and other trainings, we usually reserve our discussion of takeways, thoughts, and interesting ideas to in-person weekly departmental meetings. We thought that my first SNCA meeting would be a great opportunity to compare and contrast what the Davidson attendees got out of the meeting. So, first up: my takeaways!

To start off the morning, Jan moderated the “Publishing and Managing Digital Collections without CONTENTdm” session, which I presented at. The session was a great opportunity to talk about our ongoing development and roll-out of our institutional repository, as well as to hear about how two other institutions are dealing with increasingly larger and larger digital collections.

Moderator and presenters at the “Publishing and Managing Digital Collections without CONTENTdm” session. From left to right: Jan Blodgett, Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Chelcie Rowell (Wake Forest University), and Molly Bragg (Duke University). Photo via Craig Fansler (Wake Forest University); see his post on SNCA here. Molly Bragg also wrote a post about this session – read that here.
Moderator and presenters at the “Publishing and Managing Digital Collections without CONTENTdm” session. From left to right: Jan Blodgett, Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Chelcie Rowell (Wake Forest University), and Molly Bragg (Duke University). Photo via Craig Fansler (Wake Forest University); see his post on SNCA here. Molly Bragg also wrote a post about this session – read that here.

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Takeaways from the Society of North Carolina Archivists Annual Conference

Professional development is integral to all of the library staff here at Davidson College, so with that in mind, the Discovery Systems team sent three of its members to the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) annual conference last week – myself, Jan Blodgett, and Susan Kerr. While we all often attend meetings, conferences, and other trainings, we usually reserve our discussion of takeways, thoughts, and interesting ideas to in-person weekly departmental meetings. We thought that my first SNCA meeting would be a great opportunity to compare and contrast what the Davidson attendees got out of the meeting. So, first up: my takeaways!

To start off the morning, Jan moderated the “Publishing and Managing Digital Collections without CONTENTdm” session, which I presented at. The session was a great opportunity to talk about our ongoing development and roll-out of our institutional repository, as well as to hear about how two other institutions are dealing with increasingly larger and larger digital collections.

Moderator and presenters at the "Publishing and Managing Digital Collections without CONTENTdm" session. From left to right: Jan Blodgett, Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Chelcie Rowell (Wake Forest University), and Molly Bragg (Duke University).
Moderator and presenters at the “Publishing and Managing Digital Collections without CONTENTdm” session. From left to right: Jan Blodgett, Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Chelcie Rowell (Wake Forest University), and Molly Bragg (Duke University). Photo via Craig Fansler (Wake Forest University); see his post on SNCA here. Molly Bragg also wrote a post about this session – read that here.

One of the sessions that made the biggest impact on me was “North Carolina and the Digital Public Library of America.” I’ve long been fascinated by the DPLA, and hearing about contributing to the DPLA from the point of view of the staff of a service hub (the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center) and from a contributing institution (Wake Forest University) definitely inspired me to think about whether an agile development cycle like the one employed at Wake Forest might work for Davidson. We currently have contributed 404 items to the DPLA, but this is a great time to plan what our next contributions and digitization projects will be.

Another one of my favorite parts of the day was the plenary luncheon presentation by Sarah E. Koonts, Director of the North Carolina Division of Archives and Records. Koonts filled in SNCA members on trends from archives around the U.S., with a focus on advocacy and outreach. Throughout the day of the SNCA conference, I was liveblogging as part of my participation in Day of DH, a digital humanities community-building project. I wrote a bit more on my blog there about what I got out of the plenary, but my main takeaway is that archival advocacy is incredibly important to the field, yet often hard to teach in graduate programs.

When I asked Susan about what she felt the biggest takeaways from SNCA were, she emphasized the serendipitous nature of discovering new tools and methods when at professional gatherings. In particular, she’s been playing around with Jason Ronallo’s (North Carolina State University) CSV-to-EAD conversion application, Stead, and freeformatter.com‘s CSV-to-XML convertor since SNCA.

Jan also got a lot out of attending SNCA this year – in her own words:

I’ve never stopped to count but I’ve probably been to 30+ SNCA meetings during my time at Davidson. Over these years I’ve gained much support, information, professional growth and new ideas from SNCA and this meeting was no exception. My official duties in relation to this springs’ SNCA meeting included being a part of the nominating committee and moderating a panel. Unofficially, it was a time to reconnect with colleagues, chat at poster sessions, and gather ideas for new projects.

After a presentation by archivists at UNC Greensboro, highest on my “let’s do” list is getting our scrapbooks digitized. We have scanned individual images but have yet to tackle the trickier process of scanning whole pages. My first thoughts were of our student scrapbooks – and following UNC-G’s example, I began mentally counting all the scrapbooks from student organizations and campus departments.  The numbers could be a bit daunting but bringing Davidson history online through the scrapbooks is an exciting prospect.

A few of the scrapbooks that Jan referred to - plenty of material to work with!
A few of the scrapbooks that Jan referred to – plenty of material to work with!

We each left the SNCA conference with a different set of takeaways… now to get to work figuring out what we can implement!

Day of DH & SNCA 2014

Yesterday was both my first time participating in a Day in the Life of Digital Humanities (Day of DH) and in an annual meeting of the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA).

Day of DH seeks to help define what digital humanists DO, since that’s an oft-asked question, by having people who work in DH document one day of their work-lives. I had meant to participate in the 2013 iteration of Day of DH, but last April 8th I was stuck deep into a full thesis draft hole (plus working on a deadline for my digital libraries class, and ended up feeling sick that day to boot), so the thought of blogging about how stressed I was didn’t appeal to me at all.

One year later, I realized that Day of DH would fall on the same day as the SNCA meeting, which was definitely a day I anticipated being very busy – attending a conference takes up a good deal of attention, plus I knew I was presenting on a panel first thing in the morning and was up for election to SNCA’s exceutive board (as member at large), which would be voted on during the lunch-time business meeting. Add driving across the state and back to all that, and I thought I had a pretty full plate – but that’s exactly what made it an interesting day to document, in my opinion. DH-ers do a lot of different things, and some us happen to be conference-ing while liveblogging, as it turns out!

Read my Day of DH blog here, complete with SNCA takeaways and pictures!

The Davidsonian at 100

The speed with which mason jars and cupcakes disappeared at the Davidsonian Centennial Celebration yesterday suggests that the college’s student-run newspaper holds an important place in the campus culture. Since its inception, the paper has served as both “the flagship student publication” and as an important historical resource on campus, national, and international events.

The front page of the first issue of The Davidsonian - April 1, 1914
The front page of the first issue of The Davidsonian – April 1, 1914

The inaugural Editor-in-Chief, Frank W. Price (class of 1915), touched on the central role the student newspaper can play in the first editorial:

“[The Davidsonian] should be in close touch with every phase of college life and the life of the community about it. Even in a small college, life becomes more and more complex, and as the students are broken up into an increasing number of groups, there is a tendency not to look beyond the questions and the matter in which one man is directly interested. The college newspaper should give live information about every group and department of college activity, keep them acquainted with each other, and thus promote a feeling of mutual interest and encouragement. In addition, these are the things which vitally concern every student, and yet which are not well know or misunderstood.”

It is this “close touch” with the college and community that makes The Davidsonian such a valuable archival resource, in addition to its more immediate value as a news source and teaching tool. The Archives & Special Collections team frequently digs into both the print and digitized issues of The Davidsonian (and starting this year, The Davidsonian staff have been digging through these archives too – for a running feature where an archival article is re-published in each issue), and in celebration of this momentous occasion, we’d like to share a few lesser-viewed archival gems.

Ever wondered how The Davidsonian gets written? Well, in 1961, Editor-in-Chief Wallace B. Millner compiled “The Davidsonian Style Book and Short Course for Freshman Reporters,” in “a long overdue effort to catalog and standardize some style points” for the paper. In addition to setting parameters as to grammar and style, this guide included helpful tips on how to conduct interviews and write news stories, including how to construct a lead:

How to Write a Lead for The Davidsonian in 1961
“Earl Jones, Davidson economics professor, was apprehended by police last night while attempting to force entry into Charlotte’s Wachovia Bank.”

Another look behind the scenes of newspaper production can be provided through reporters’ assignment sheets or cards, such as the ones found in the scrapbooks of Hugh H. Smith (class of 1923) and Thomas T. Jones (class of 1928):

Smith's assignment sheet
Smith’s assignment sheet
A sample of Jones' assignment cards
Two of Jones’ assignment cards

The college archives holds the page layouts for the 75th anniversary edition of The Davidsonian:

Front page layout for the April 1989 75th anniversary
Front page layout for the April 1989 75th anniversary

Although many things have changed at Davidson (and elsewhere!) over the past 100 years, as Jan Blodgett pointed out, some issues have remained consistent, as the program from The Davidsonian banquet in 1920 makes clear:

Timely issues, and and interesting look at 1920s cuisine
Timely issues, and and interesting look at 1920s cuisine

As a counterpoint, the 1966 banquet featured a less detailed program and menu:

The 1966 Davidsonian banquet
The 1966 Davidsonian banquet featured less punch, at least on the menu

The Davidsonian has served as the campus news source for a century, including providing much-needed comic relief – a role currently filled by The Yowl. A glance through our archival holdings reveals issues of The David’s Onion, The Davidphonian, and The Devoidsonian, among others:

This column appeared in The Devoidsonian, vol. 666, no. ∞, published "Post-Trustee" (based on the content of the articles, this was most likely sometime between 1978 and 1983)
This column appeared in The Devoidsonian, vol. 666, no. ∞, published “Post-Trustee” (though undated, based on the content of the articles, this was most likely during the 1981-82 academic year)
Front page of The Davidphonian, "The Nation's Third Worst College Weekly," published May 5, 1998
Front page of The Davidphonian, “The Nation’s Third Worst College Weekly,” published May 5, 1998

If this week’s Centennial activities have piqued your interest in the past, present, or future of the college’s newspaper, check out the Davidsonian Reunion on April 12. As Marcus Bailey pointed out in his February 2013 editorial, “Why I write for the Davidsonian and you should too,” The Davidsonian is an excellent gateway to getting involved, both on the campus and with the world – just as it has been for the past 100 years.

Year’s End

This is going to sound odd, but I just realized it’s a new year. As in, now that it’s 2014, I guess I can accurately reflect on what happened in 2013, which as it turns out, was quite a lot…

GRADUATION. I completed my MSLIS and MA in May of 2013, after three years of study at Simmons College. Grad school was one of the most simultaneously difficult and rewarding things I’ve ever done, and graduation was definitely bittersweet. My last semester was the only one that took place during 2013, and it was also without a doubt one of the hardest for me – I was working on my thesis, taking a demanding digital libraries class, and working at two amazing-but-time-consuming jobs (Adams Papers & metaLAB). I constantly miss taking classes with amazing professors, writing papers, seeing my old grad pals, and getting student discounts on everything. Of course, finishing my degrees means I also finished my…

THESIS. Completing MA History thesis was similarly a challenging and rewarding experience. “Going Down in History: The Collective Memory of the Titanic” ended up netting me a travel grant and a departmental award, and allowed me to (almost) fully explore a topic I’d casually thought about for years. I wouldn’t trade all those tortuously long reading and editing hours for anything (except perhaps for more reading/writing/editing hours – I’m still playing around with ideas of how I can delve further into Titanica…).

IMG_2115

WORK. Perhaps the biggest change of my year was accepting a position at Davidson College and moving in North Carolina in October. It’s my first salaried, full-time gig and changing jobs and moving to an entirely new region has been a bit of a challenge, but overall, I’m very happy with my professional home and the things I get to work on there.

welcome

TRAVEL. I went to the UK (London, Southampton, Belfast), Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Cobh), and Canada (Halifax, Vancouver, Victoria). Stateside, I made lots of trips to Providence, NYC, DC, and Philly. I spent a weekend hiking in the Catskills, and a weekend work-ish trip on Cape Cod (Provincetown & Truro). Since moving to North Carolina, I’ve made weekends trips to Asheville, NC; Atlanta & Athens, GA; and Richmond, VA. I went to conferences/ workshops in: College Park, MD; Victoria, BC; Atlantic City, NJ; Cambridge, MA; and Durham, NC. I feel like I’ve gotten to travel plenty throughout 2013, and I’m hoping for similar/ new travels in 2014.

Valentine’s Day with Scripts N’ Pranks

Davidson students have a long history of extracurricular writing during their time “around the D,” and one example of that tradition is Scripts N’ Pranks, which focused on “literature (scripts) and humor (pranks) as well as a horrible parody, for which we have already apologized.” (Quips and Cranks, 1936) The magazine ran from 1936 to 1965, and its more “serious” features often appear to spoof women’s magazines or crime fiction of the era. In celebration of Valentine’s Day later this week, we present a sample of both the literary and humorous takes on love found in the earliest few years of Scripts N’ Pranks:

frances003

“Fullback and Frances” by Charles Crane, December 1936. Tagline: “Romance Comes to the Small College Campus… Brawn vs. Brain Trust…”. Summary: dumb football player falls for “dreamy, theatrical” girl, who he attempts to save from a fire, only to learn that she was not in her dormitory because she had eloped with the campus “brain” instead. “She liked to study and build air castles, and seemed to have intellectual curiosity, something that was scarce in a cheap little educational mill like Lennox-Smith. Professor Patton would have diagnosed the whole affair as a psychological mis-adjustment, but Bill, being a freshman, with an IQ of 88, didn’t go in for diagnoses, even of his own problems.”

sorrow1

“Spring Sorrow” by Hugh Stone, March 1937. Tagline: “A Story of Growing Things – Pale Pink and Yellow – And of Blonde Hair Like a Halo.” Summary: college junior embittered about the “romance of spring” after being jilted by hometown sweetheart. “That was last year, but now that it’s spring again and the shrubs are blooming just the same way they did last year, is it any wonder that Bill turns away with a cold laugh when love is mentioned?”

hiscoming001

“His Coming,” The Yowl, November 1937. Summary: a woman gets exactly what she wants. “If he would only come and say that single, longed for, hoped for, little word!”

“Chapter in Chivalry” by Bob Ramsey, November 1937. Tagline: “Dreckney’s hero was a sucker for two things – middle-aged chivalry and a girl.” Summary: college football hero is engaged to a student at another school, who ditches him in favor of the rival school’s football captain. “Of course, he realized now, she hadn’t answered his telegram, for why should she encourage him in his fight against her new fiance, the captain of Grendel’s football team?”

“May Storm” by Erle Austin, May 1938. Tagline: “Michael thought, ‘Can Heaven be as gorgeous as this?'” Summary: college student goes home on a whim to visit his girlfriend and witnesses her being fatally struck by lightning. “He had not noticed a threatening black cloud which had suddenly come over the horizon. It had begun to rain. At the clap of thunder the olive green canoe with his own beautiful Anne had vanished.”

“Late Date” by Erle Austin, March 1939. Frat brother asks a beautiful, mysterious girl to a dance and falls in love, but when he attempts to give her his pin, he finds that she already has one. “… he unclasped his pin from his vest and was about to pin it on her when she said ‘Please Wycliffe, don’t do that… Let’s always be the best of friends though. Look here. I want to show you something.’ Becky had opened her evening bag and he gazed in amazement at a gorgeous Beta pin clasped to the silken lining. Wyc stammered out a very weak ‘Congratulations.'”

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“True Love” by John McKinnon, December 1940. Summary: college boy is frantic to see the woman he loves most… his mother. “He ran to her, gathered her in his arms, and smothered her with kisses. ‘Mother dear,’ he cried, ‘I’ve missed you so much. Why don’t you give up teaching and move to Davidson where I can be with you every day?'”

To read the full versions of these tales or to search for more love stories, visit the archives!

SNAP Student Experience Series

The Society of American Archivists (SAA)‘s Students and New Professionals (SNAP) Roundtable is a very active group that seeks to fill a void in SAA – namely, to provide a forum for those newly entering the field. One of the ways SNAP does that is by running a blog, including their Year in the Life, SAA 2014 Election Candidate Interviews, and Student Experience blogseries. As a new professional, I definitely appreciate both the SNAP blog and having an official group within SAA to advocate for my needs.

My reflections on the grad school experience was actually the first post in their Student Experience series (and the second was an old colleague of mine from my intern days at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sami Norling) – check it out here!