Around the D – Page 6

June 25, 2014June 22, 2017

Takeaways from Data Driven: Digital Humanities in the Library Conference

This past weekend, Jan, Craig, and I attended (and presented at) Data Driven: Digital Humanities in the Library in Charleston, South Carolina. Similarly to when several team members attended the Society of North Carolina Archivists annual conference a few months ago, I thought it would be interesting to compare what the three of us thought of the conference. We each attended a different workshop, although we ended up in many of the same sessions over the course of the weekend.

Jan’s experience, in her own words:

Going to conferences with themes around things digital and archives can be dizzying. This conference had ideas galore but what struck me most was librarians and archivists deep commitment to making our collections accessible to a wide variety of users. As a group we’ve plunged into online descriptions and catalogs, charged ahead adding digital images, and now the call is to find ways to encourage creative reuse of digital materials. At Davidson, we’ve seen class reunions be very creative with photographs and old Davidsonians and are working with faculty and current students to extend their digital skills and bring new perspectives to Davidson history.

I came away energized by the wonderful projects being created at other colleges but also proud that Davidson is holding our own and that our projects – Student Letters, Under Lake Norman, Davidson Encyclopedia – energized other attendees. One area, in particular, is high on my to list –getting more access oral history collections (watch Around the D for more news on this in the future).

Like Jan, Craig expressed his satisfaction with the conference and the way that our own presentation went. The size of the conference was very manageable – Craig pointed out that roughly 85 attendees was ideal: “Enough people for lots of ideas but intimate enough to get to know people.” Craig attended the “From Theory to Action: A Pragmatic Approach to Digital Preservation Tools and Strategies” workshop, which was the result of an IMLS grant to encourage planning for digital preservation at small and medium-sized institutions. He expressed an interest in trying out the Duke Data Accessioner. Data curation and preservation was also the theme of one of Craig’s favorite presentations, Liz Milewicz from Duke University’s “Innovate and Curate? Helping Collaborative Digital Humanities Research Persist Beyond the Experiment.” Milewicz and Leslie Barnes advocate for faculty to think about preservation while creating data, and were able to boil down the data curation questions to five or six basics (Craig notes: “I should ask Liz for the questions”). Another talk that inspired the Davidson team was Thea Lindquist, Holley Long, and Alexander Watkins of the University of Colorado Boulder’s “Supporting Digital Humanists: Taking a Data-Driven Approach to Needs Assessment and Service Design,” which focused on how the Colorado Boulder team sought to discover the state of digital humanities both on their own campus, and in similar institutions by using a variety of methods (environmental scan, a campus scan, campus-wide survey, targeted in-depth interviews, and a symposium). Craig says:

Wow. This is library service/innovation planning as it should be. They really mapped out a plan, stuck to it and did it in a timely manner. Did it all in 9 months including a 50+ page report/recommendations. I really hope they post their survey instrument on DH interest and needs. I need to further investigate NVIVO coding software for quantifying data.

College of Charleston campus, June 22, 2014. — College of Charleston campus, June 21, 2014.

Like Craig, I really enjoyed the talk given by the University of Colorado Boulder team. I thought their characterization of three groups on their campus that should be reached out to – “the usual suspects,” or those already heavily engaged in DH; “the unknowns,” people working with DH, but not with the library; and “DH interested,” those who interested but not yet engaged – would translate well to similar studies on other campuses (like our own). As several of us around Davidson begin to plan this fall’s THATCamp Piedmont, hearing a bit about about Colorado Boulder’s dh+CU symposium and attending CURATEcamp at this conference gave me some ideas for possible sessions.

In addition to what’s already been mentioned, I particularly enjoyed both of Brian Rosenblum Kansas University Libraries’ talks – “The University of Kansas Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities: A Model for Library/Campus Collaboration in Supporting Digital Humanities,” and as part of the “Teaching Digital Humanities in the Library” session. I was particularly intrigued by his nice summation of DH librarians as “nodes,” whose main job duty is to centralize digital activities on campus and push them forward, and the assignment Rosenblum gave to a graduate course, to read Stephen Ramsay’s “The Hermeneutics of Screwing Around; Or What You Do With a Million Books,” and then well, screw around themselves.

Finally, like most of those following the conference hashtag on Twitter, I thoroughly enjoyed Trevor Munoz‘s keynote, “Data Driven but How Do We Steer This Thing?” The talk left me with a long reading list, but feeling excited and inspired about the possibilities (while more aware than ever of some of the pitfalls) for librarians working in and with digital humanities. Overall, all three of the Davidson attendees felt like we got a lot out of Data Driven, and would love to see the conference become an annual one.

June 4, 2014June 22, 2017

“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 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.

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?

May 14, 2014June 22, 2017

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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).

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!

May 7, 2014June 22, 2017

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.

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.

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.

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!

April 16, 2014June 22, 2017

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!

April 2, 2014June 22, 2017

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

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

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

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.

February 12, 2014June 22, 2017

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:

“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.”

“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?”

“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.'”

“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!

January 29, 2014June 22, 2017

A Week in the Life of An Archivist

Astute readers may have noticed a new name join Jan (the College Archivist and Records Management Coordinator) and Sharon (the Special Collections Outreach Librarian) here on Around the D – mine, as a matter of fact! I joined the staff of E.H. Little Library as the Associate Archivist back in October, and inspired by my old graduate school colleague Stephanie Bennett‘s recent post on what archival processing is all about, I decided to write about what I do on a day-to-day basis. So, notes and highlights on what each day of the first week of classes for the Spring 2014 semester held for the Associate Archivist of Davidson College:

MONDAY (January 13)

Generally, the first thing I do when I get into the office each morning is make a cup of tea and catch up with my inbox. On Monday mornings, there’s usually several dozen unread emails – in part because I subscribe to an assortment of professional listservs.

Post-email-checking, I updated the Archives & Special Collections Twitter, and then went to a Discovery Systems departmental meeting on student workers (possible projects, how many summer students, etc.). I spent the rest of the morning preparing for a class visit to the archives later in the day (including selecting documents and setting up their display with Jan), and working on the Around the D entry to post on Wednesday morning. Sharon and I nailed down a few details related the illumination live demonstration event (set for January 28th, from 11 AM to 12 PM).

After taking a late lunch, I drafted a short news blurb related to the blog topic for the library’s homepage and updated the Archives & Special Collections Facebook. Then Jan and I hosted the first archives class visit of the semester, Dr. Anelise Shrout‘s HIS 458: American Environments to 1893.

HIS 458 students checking out campus maps.

After the class ended, Jan, Dr. Shrout, and I discussed ideas for digital exhibits, future projects, and the next archives class visit, then cleaned up and re-filed material from the class. Once back in my office, I Tweeted again, read emails, and pondered a workshop application before heading out for the day.

TUESDAY (January 14)

I started off my day with a walk to the campus coffeehouse, followed by email (both the checking of and the sending of), and reviewing rights usage statements for our institutional repository in preparation for a meeting. I dropped into Jan’s adjacent office (as is my wont) to chat about basketball schedules and how to best tie archival sports material with current events, in order to market the archives to the college community.

Jan and I then headed across the hall to our weekly Discovery Systems departmental meeting. This week’s topic: rights statements. After the shorter-than-expected meeting, I went back to work on the blog entry (editing and resizing images, background research, and transcribing notes from the interview that the blog is based on), followed by the second coffee run of the day.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I cover the Archives & Special Collections desk/ office during lunch, which means that I’m the first line of contact for any users. On this particular Tuesday, there were no visitors to the archives while I was there, so I spent most of that time working on an email reference question.

After lunch, I finished writing the blog post, delivered a draft to the subject of the blog for any factual corrections, and then scheduled the post to be published overnight. I spent the last hour of the day working on a bibliography for potential future research project.

WEDNESDAY (January 15)

This morning followed a similar pattern as Monday and Tuesday – caffeine, emails, listserv reading, preparation for a meeting followed by that meeting. In this case, the meeting was with the Library Director to discuss that potential future research project. I then hightailed it back upstairs to my office, to discuss the project with Jan (and also rehash our Monday conversation by brainstorming possible Southern Conference-related future blog posts, as Davidson is moving to the Atlantic 10 Conference in Fall 2014), and to do a bit of research for several now-ongoing projects.

After lunch, I covered the Archives & Special Collections desk, answered a reference question, and did more research. I finished off the day by beginning to process a small collection of letters from two brothers who briefly attended Davidson in the 1870s.

The "processing corner" of my office. — The “processing corner” of my office.

THURSDAY (January 16)

I began the day by posting an announcement on the internal campus news site (first time ever!), and with my standard email and listserv checking. Since I didn’t have any meetings scheduled until the afternoon, I spent most of the morning alternating between research proposal preparation (including bibliography formatting and some metadata cleanup in Zotero), catching up on professional news, and preparing for that afternoon’s meeting.

After an early lunch, I covered the Archives & Special Collections desk and made a few minor updates to the Archives & Special Collections landing page. I sent a bunch of emails, and then scheduled a phone meeting with a fellow Simmons GSLIS alum. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to a meeting with the Assistant Director for Discovery Systems, the College Archivist, and the Special Collections Outreach Librarian to discuss goals, followed by some more project research and quick email check before heading out the door at around 5:15 PM.

FRIDAY (January 17)

The morning was occupied by checking email, Twitter, and listservs, followed by an attempt to clean off my desk and a solid hour or so of research project reading. I then decided to (finally) install the driver for my desk scanner (a HP Scanjet 8200), scan the caption for a photo from next month’s Smithsonian Magazine, and then Tweet about it.

Henry Mouzon's "An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina..." (1775), as featured in February 2014's issue of Smithsonian Magazine ("Courtesy of the Davidson College Archives," naturally!) — Henry Mouzon’s “An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina…” (1775), as featured in February 2014’s issue of Smithsonian Magazine (“Courtesy of the Davidson College Archives,” naturally!)

After lunch, I answered a reference question and sent several emails, before diving back into processing the student letter collection I began to work with on Wednesday.

So, that’s it: a week in the life of this archivist! As you can see from this sample, the majority of my time isn’t taken up with what many consider the heart of the archival profession – processing collections. Rather, I spend quite a bit of time on outreach (both on social media and face-to-face on campus), research, and reference. Some of these foci change from day to day or week to week, and I expect that my processing time will increase (particularly during times when much of the community is off the campus). For now though, if you’d like to know what this archivist is up to, poke your head into my office on the second floor of E.H. Little Library!

January 15, 2014June 22, 2017

The Art of Illumination: Interview with Clara Nguyen

The latest display in the Smith Rare Book Room is “The Art of Illumination: Past and Present,” which will be on view from today (January 15) through February 14. The display focuses on illuminations throughout time, illustrated by examples from the library’s special collections and two new pieces by Clara Nguyen, the Collections Assistant for Government Information here at E.H. Little Library. Clara previously served as the Interim Assistant Curator of the Van Every/ Smith Galleries, and holds a B.A. in Art History (with a studio concentration) from East Carolina University and a M.A. in Art History from the George Washington University.

Clara first became interested in illuminations through an internship at the Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation (EFIAF), where she worked on the Book of Judith. Formed in 2004, EFIAF aims to “revitalize passion for and public awareness of the art of illumination, in part through education and training at the unique Illumination Atelier.” Similarly, when I interviewed Clara last week, she emphasized both the ancient and modern aspects of illumination: “I try to use natural materials because I’m trying to keep in the tradition of illumination.” She uses many of the same materials as the older works on display, such as: papyrus (typically used for practice pieces), vellum (reserved exclusively for final pieces), 23 K leaf, egg tempera, Indian ink, fish glue, bole (Armenian red clay and water), rabbit glue, and garlic glue. Don’t expect Clara’s work to look like a medieval manuscript, though – she says that she “likes taking physical images and then making them abstract;” much of her work is inspired by nature, including one of her pieces in the Rare Book Room display, which is based on an outing on the Davidson cross country trail.

Two views of, “The Vines” “Amongst the birds they writhe breathing with the clouds but on the ground they lie - forgotten” — Two views of “The Vines”
“Amongst the birds
they writhe
breathing with the clouds
but on the ground
they lie –
forgotten”

Part of what drew Clara to illuminations was how the materials used force the artistic process: “It’s a fickle medium. You can mold it to where you want it to go… to a degree.” When asked about the creative process, she cited an example her mentor, Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear, gave when describing how ideas are developed: “A man (or woman) is walking and thinking. He waits at the bus stop for his bus to come along, still contemplating but not fully focused on his thoughts. The bus arrives and it is when he takes his first step onto the bus that the ‘idea/inspiration’ strikes him. It is in this in-between state of things that all the pieces finally click and solidify. I feel that my initial creative process occurs in this way. In other words, my mind is quietly thinking with all these ideas and one final element usually ties it all together. In my pieces, the tying element is usually based in nature and occasionally, a man-made element.” One idea formed in such a way inspired a piece in our display: “I was driving one day and saw a smokestack and thought, “Huh… I want that in there, I just don’t know how I want it yet.”

The piece inspired by the smokestack: “The wheels spin and like smoke obliterate the -” — The piece inspired by the smokestack:
“The wheels
spin
and like smoke
obliterate
the -”

After the seed for the idea has been planted, Clara can then turn to implementing and shaping it: “Once I have an idea, I make a few sketches to lay out the general shapes. I transfer these shapes onto the papyrus/vellum using a very light pencil. Thereafter follows the fun part of the process: I begin an additive process of painting, drawing with quill and Indian ink, and leafing. Like most contemporary illuminators, I work using a 5-diopter glass lens which increases the viewed object size to 225%.”

For those interested in seeing Clara’s process in person, she will be giving an informal live demonstration of illumination techniques on January 28th, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM, in the Library’s Davidsoniana Room (second floor of E.H. Little Library). Feel free to stay for the hour, or stop by for a few minutes. Light refreshments will be served, and questions and comments are welcomed! As Clara said during our interview, “It’s a lot of fun seeing the connections people make and what they see.”

December 25, 2013June 22, 2017

The Twelve Days of Davidson

For this Christmas Day edition of Around the D, we offer a play on “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – The Twelve Days of Davidson, collapsed into a single post:

On the first day of Christmas

Davidson College Archives & Special Collections sent to me

12 Original Houses on Patterson Court