Archives finding aid

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Meg Miner

What is a finding aid? Basically, it’s our version of a catalog. It helps archivists and patrons find out what material we hold and where it lives.

For a number of years we’ve been trying to get an interactive, 2.0 type of finding aid online. We’re still trying to make that dream a reality, but in the interim we’ve got a pdf linked from the archives’ website and available for direct download.

Keep in mind that that we make frequent updates to this document in-house and will only update the posted version twice each semester (mid-term and after finals), so let me know if you can’t find something you expect us to have!

Selected mysteries, part one

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Meg Miner

Special Collections houses a number of mysteries some enterprising researcher may be able to mine for treasures. Here are a few items and what little information we have about them:

Five photo albums from the 19th Century, some with people identifed, some not, and only one with clues about the people’s relationship to IWU.

Barry Lennon Farm Records, 1842-52

Correspondence and photos from World War I soldiers

Correspondence from several World War II servicemen to Nell (Carmichael) Livingston

Notes, reports and ephemera of Henry Filip, physicist at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in the 1970s

A journal with some ledger-type of entries (1842-45) but mostly a beautiful, albeit dense handwriting. The name that appears the most is Thomas Storm Hubbard. Interestingly, on one page where he writes his names several times there also appears, in large letters, the word “Fearlessness.”

Conduct of Life

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Meg Miner

The collection we call “Conduct of Life” holds over 200 books from secular and religious perspectives dating from 1560. The topics include moral, social and practical considerations aimed at youth of both sexes and women. French, Latin and English seem to the the languages represented in this collection, but you can browse the entire list from our online catalog by following the directions on this guide.

Note: A few of the titles in the catalog are also held in the Main Stacks.

IWU and war-time activities

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Meg Miner

Memorial Day seems like a good time to highlight military-related documents held at IWU. Students, alumni, faculty and administrators have served in all U.S. wars since IWU’s founding. Diaries, correspondence, service records and recollections are held in both our archives and special collections.

Examples of these documents include service applications of the WWII-era Nurse’s Cadet Corps, alumni responses to a post-WWII survey of activities, correspondence from WWII soldiers to IWU student Nell Carmichael, correspondence and sketches from alumnus and Professor of Art Fred Brain to his family during WWII, index of WWI veterans plus photocopied clippings of articles related to their service, Nursing Superintendent Maude Essig’s WWI diary, and administrative meeting notes and student reporting on war-related activities on campus and abroad.

We lack significant documentation on the WWII-era S.A.T.C. and welcome donations related to this group’s purpose and activities on campus. Some dilligent researcher’s eyes may uncover details on this and other student groups’ efforts in existing documentation, and all our records are open and available for that work. Leave a reply (below) to contact me about arranging a visit!

French texts

Posted on May 12, 2009 by Meg Miner

Special Collections holds a number of volumes in French. One part of these holdings was described at the time of donation as “French Socialist Literature,” but topics vary and include literature and politics with dates ranging from the early-1800s to mid-1900s. Selected titles follow:

Clerget, Pierre. La Suisse au XXe Siecle: Etude Economique et Sociale. Paris: Colin, 1908.

Duffeyte-Dilhan, J. Aux Femmes: De La Beaute Physique et Morale. Paris: Janet, 1857.

Francis, de Sales, Saint. Lettres de Saint Francois de Sales: Addressees a des Gens du Monde. Paris: Techener, 1865.

Gide, Charles. Les Societes Cooperatives de Consommation. Paris: Colin, 1910.

Janin, Jules Gabriel. Un Hiver a Paris. Paris: Curmer, 1843.

Kern, Alfred. Le Bonheur Fragile. Paris: Gallimard, 1960.

Lesseps, Ferdinand de. Souvenirs de Quarante Ans Dedies a Mes Enfants. 2 vols. Paris: Nouvelle Revue, 1887.

Digital Commons

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Meg Miner

The Ames Library’s Digital Initiatives Team launched IWU’s electronic record storage and access system in fall 2008. Digital Commons serves as the central location for outstanding student work, faculty scholarship, University records, and campus history. It holds 3,552 works to date. To launch this repository, the archives supplied research honors theses and scores dating back to the 1960s, as well as peer-reviewed student journals.

Our goals are to:

Promote and disseminate academic and creative achievements of students and faculty
Ensure preservation of and persistent access to said work
Increase discovery of IWU scholarship and artistic expressions
Foster scholarly collaborations with colleagues
Document and record IWU’s history and progress

If you create or control documents related to University history and have been wondering how to store them electronically, leave me a comment below and I will walk you through what DC @ IWU can do for you. If you are interested in getting faculty or staff members’ scholarly or creative works into DC, or wish to recommend outstanding student scholarship from your department, contact our Scholarly Communications Librarians Stephanie Davis-Kahl: sdaviska {at} iwu.edu.

Poetry

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Meg Miner

April is National Poetry Month, and I thought I’d mention a few places where poetry can be found in our vaults.

Special Collections

We have a growing collection of Beat Generation material. This is primarily poetry in book and magazine/journal review format but biographies and some criticism is held here, too. More of the primary and secondary source material is available in the main library stacks. A title list is available, but each title is also cataloged and so they’ll turn up if you search in our online holdings, too.

Individual titles in special collections are usually accompanied by an inscription or autograph of an author such as 39 Poems by John Ciardi; The Unicorn and Other Sonnets by Thomas S. Jones, jr.; For My People by Margaret Walker, Threads by Dorothy Quick.

Archives

We hold various incarnations of IWU student-compiled journals containing poetry from the literary societies of the late 19th century through to today’s Tributaries and material on the Tounge & Ink conferences.

Timeline images

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Meg Miner

a post for making images accessible to the timeline created by the archivist in March 2019

Argus_Afro-American Culture Center

Unidentified African-American player in 1895 Baseball team photo

Unidentified African-American Baseball player

Lori DeLaCruz, ca. 1986
Norma Dionne Phillips, 1958 Wesleyana
LeRoy Williams, Class of 1909
South Asian Student Association event
February 1, 1883 (p. 10) Wesleyan Bee
IWU’s first female faculty member Jennifer Fowler Willing in her later years.
Black Student Association, ca. 1967
Illinois University was the name proposed in 1850 with Wesleyan added later
Hannah Ida (Weatherby) Shur, Class of 1872

African Student Association’s African Culture Night
Gays and Lesbians of Wesleyan statement, 1992 Wesleyana
Ruth Hayes and Marjorie Benson Preston, from the 1919 Wesleyana
Sisters Actively Visualizing Vitality through Intellect, Harlem Nights event
June 15, 1870 the Board of Trustees resolves to admit students regardless of sex
In 1851, the Board of Trustees resolves it is “inexpedient” to admit Ladies
Old North was erected in 1856
International Parent Reception, date unknown. An I-Society Event
James Robert Lincoln Diggs, Ph.D., 1906
Mildred Hunt, Professor of Mathematics (1924-54) and Registrar (1943-54)
Earliest known photo of Alpha Deuteron, Phi Gamma Delta members, 1895
Kate B. Ross, 1874

Political Science

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Meg Miner

Special Collections has two manuscript collections related to state and national politics: The Leslie Arends Congressional Collection and the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention papers of IWU PoliSci professor and Con-Con delegate John Wenum. The 1970 Con Con resulted in a first-ever state Constitution that explicitly guaranteed citizens the right to a healthy environment.

The Arends Collection is well organized and largely unused. The Wenum Collection has not been examined since acquired and awaits some eager researcher’s eyes to tell us what treasures it may hold!

Subscribe to this blog!

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Meg Miner

I will add content to this blog a couple of times a week, and an archives student assistant is taking on the task of scanning and adding photos. We created the “Help ID Photos!” page as a place viewers can see and comment on images we have little or no information about.

In summary, the content on all these pages will build over time but at irregular intervals. If you want to keep up with new additions but don’t want to bother checking the site regularly, there is a way to be notified of changes here just when we add things. Click on the word “posts” with the orange button next to it at the top of the blog pages for ways to get notified via RSS feeds.

If you’re not sure what RSS is or what it can do for you, check out this YouTube video describing RSS (Really Simple Syndication): RSS in Plain English or consult Rick Lindquist’s Technology at IWU blog post on the subject!

Archives & Special Collections

Collection highlights and information about IWU's Tate Archives & Special Collections