Tag Archives: primary sources

Discover Collections on Black Experiences

Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) logo

The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) Archives Portal offers access by searching or browsing content that is freely available to you in libraries, museums, archives, and other organizations in the Chicago area.

Since its founding in 2006, the BMRC has completed two major archival management projects making previously “hidden” collections available for researchers, scholars, and artists. The Consortium believes that web-based research tools provide an excellent opportunity for broadening access to unique primary source materials held in its members’ collections.

In celebration of its 15th anniversary in 2021, the BMRC created this online exhibit that documents the origins of the BMRC, its efforts to aid discoverability and access to Black historical collections, and the consortium’s flagship Summer Short-term Fellowship and Archie Motley Archival Internship programs.

Freedom in the Black Diaspora: A Resource Guide for Ayiti Reimagined

This guide is a comprehensive starting point for finding curated resources in the Library of Congress on the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), Haitian Creole (Kreyòl Ayisyen), the United States occupation of Haiti, and Black internationalism, as well as links to external websites that center important narratives in Haitian history. (“Ayiti” is the Creole spelling of Haiti.) Sections of the guide include Haitian History: Primary Resources; Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: Secondary Sources; Celebrating Black Joy: Haitian & Haitian American Stories; Haitian Creole; and External Websites.

Patrons using The Ames Library will also find almost 2000 resources listed in the online catalog and thousands more in article databases and digital collections. For help exploring this topic and others, you can schedule an appointment with a librarian or stop by during office hours. 

A black man with handlebar mustache and goatee Faces te camer but is seated in three-quarter profile, left leg crossed over right. He is wearing a three-piece suit, bowtie and holds a pair of gloves in his left hand, resting on his leg. The caption in the source reads "Cincinnatus Leconte, President of Haiti. 1911-1912. Haitian Collection,1775-1950. Library of Congress Manuscript Division."
Cincinnatus Leconte, President of Haiti. 1911-1912. Haitian Collection,1775-1950. Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

Japanese Woodblock Print Exhibition

Bamboo Quay

Bamboo Quay

Bamboo Quay by Kyobashi Bridge (Kyobashi Takegashi)

A selection of Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodblock prints are on exhibit in The School of Art’s Wakeley Gallery now through February 11, 2021. Each print is a small world to lose yourself in during these trying times.

These and other woodblock prints are part of IWU’s Campus Art Collection.

From the exhibition guide:
In Hiroshige’s groundbreaking series of woodblock prints, The 53 Stations of the Tokaido (1832-1833), he captured the journey along the Tokaido road, the highway connecting Edo to Kyoto, the imperial capital.

Hiroshige’s prints continue to convey the beauty of Japan and provide insight into the everyday life of its citizens during the Edo period. The appeal of his tender, lyrical landscapes was not restricted to the Japanese audience. Hiroshige’s work had a profound influence on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists of Europe: Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated with Hiroshige’s daring diagonal compositions and inventive use of perspective, while Van Gogh literally copied two of Hiroshige’s prints from the famous series, 100 Famous Views of Edo in oil paint.
resource: https://www.roningallery.com/artists/Hiroshige

IWU Campus Art Collection Now Online

Buscando Mi Color

Buscando Mi Color

“Buscando Mi Color” (2017) by Lucero Sanchez

The Ames Library is happy to announce the publication of the IWU Campus Art Collection, an initiative to locate, catalog, and photograph the variety of art on campus. The collection contains more than 1,000 pieces of artwork which have been created or donated by Friends of the University, alumni, faculty, and students.

The collection contains paintings, prints, sculptures, pottery, and more by famed artists including Salvadore Dali, Arrah Lee Gaul, Frederick Hart, Utagawa Hiroshige, Leroy Neiman, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Notable faculty artists are Miles Bair, Fred Brian, and Rupert Kilgore. Items in the collection date from the 12th century to the present day.

We invite you to peruse the collection, and emphasize that the collection is available for classroom use, individual students’ assignments, and research. To discuss specific needs, please contact the University Archivist, Meg Miner, at mminer@iwu.edu or phone at (309) 556-1538.

Author & Activist exhibit

Visit this exhibit at https://rosenbach.org/virtual-exhibits/

“ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON (1875–1935), poet, novelist, journalist, teacher, diarist, women’s suffrage organizer, civil rights leader, lecturer, political leader, and survivor of intimate partner violence, is a hero for our time. She combined her skills as an author and political activist to fight for social change.

“Born into the first generation of Black Americans after the end of slavery, Dunbar-Nelson represents a bridge between the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the mid-1900s. Her writings and social causes, which centered on race, gender, and power, feel as urgent today as they did during Dunbar-Nelson’s lifetime.”

As you explore the exhibition, we invite you to consider how Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s life and work can inspire residents of the United States today. How much has changed for women (especially women of color), LGBTQ+ people, Black Americans, and other people of color since Dunbar-Nelson pursued her activism in the early 20th century? How can we carry on the work she started? How can artifacts found in museums, libraries, and archives help us discover previously overlooked historical figures?

Thematic sections structure “I Am an American!,” meaning that the exhibition offers interpretive views into the life, times, and work of Alice Dunbar-Nelson.Thus, the documents and objects on view are not organized chronologically.

You can be a Citizen DJ!

citizen_dj_logo

citizen_dj_logo

The Library of Congress sponsors many kinds of residency programs. One of them involves different kinds of digital humanities projects.

Citizen DJ is a project by Brian Foo developed during his time as an Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. The application invites the public to make hip hop music using the Library’s public audio and moving image collections. By embedding these materials in hip hop music, listeners can discover items in the Library’s vast collections that they likely would never have known existed. For technical documentation and code, please see the report.

Archives for the Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote

Equality is the Sacred Law of Humanity

Equality is the Sacred Law of HumanityThis post is from a news release courtesy of the Society of American Archivists’s Committee on Public Awareness. Be sure to visit the poster exhibit on The Ames Library’s entry level, too!

Archives contain primary sources such as letters, photographs, and audio and video footage that document the work of early suffragists such as Carrie Chapman Catt, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, Angelina Weld Grimke, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. In making these materials available, archivists hope to remind the public of the long history of the battle for the right to vote and the suffragists’ roles in the fight for equality.

Here are a few archives and history organizations that are remembering the suffrage centennial via online exhibits, social media, and lesson plans. You are invited to join in the celebration!

  • The National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, created Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, a 3,000-square-foot exhibit that draws from more than 90 documents, photographs, and artifacts in its collection – including the original Nineteenth Amendment, which will be on limited display. Check out the virtual exhibit led by archivist and curator Corinne Potter. The National Archives also has created a nationwide traveling exhibit, pop-up displays for classroom use, and educational resources and lesson plans for educators to incorporate into their curriculum.
  • The Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission was established by Congress in April 2017 “to commemorate and coordinate the nationwide celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment.” The non-partisan commission has created a federal legislative tracker to note all suffrage-related congressional legislation, as well as a chronological list of press releases on suffrage news, programs, and events.
  • The National Organization of Women is highlighting past and present “sheroes” via its Sisters in Suffrage website and social media campaign. Each day in the 100 days leading up to the anniversary of the vote, NOW has released a new image and biographical sketch that illustrate the extraordinary work of these remarkable and diverse women. The public is encouraged to participate and follow along via social media with the hashtags #sistersinsuffrage#Celebrating100#righttovote.
  • The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum is celebrating the centennial via a Google Arts and Culture exhibit about Rosalynn Carter’s fight for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA); an article for The Text Message, the blog of the National Archives and Records Administration, about President Carter meeting an original suffragist prior to the Alice Paul Memorial March of 1977; and a new interview of Rosalynn Carter by her former daughter-in-law, Judy Langford Carter, about the fight for ERA.
  • The Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library at Harvard University has invited researchers, writers, and teachers to create a series of digital teaching modules for its Suffrage School. Each lesson connects to the library’s Long 19th Amendment Project, tackling the tangled history of gender and American citizenship, and includes a short video in which the instructor shares a primary source from the Schlesinger’s collections. Lessons include a link to the digitized documents, questions to guide further reflection, and additional readings.
  • The National Women’s History Museum provides a wide variety of lesson plans, modules, downloadable documents, PowerPoints, and videos for educators wanting to integrate the history of Women’s Suffrage into their educational curriculums. Each specific lesson plan is tailored to meet the requirements of students from grades 6 to 12. Additionally, a timeline of the suffrage movement and corresponding educational activities test students’ knowledge of the timeline.
  • The National Park Service, through its 20 Suffragists to Know for 2020 profiles, spotlights the biographies of diverse women of color, such as  Marie Louise Bottineau BaldwinMabel Ping-Hua LeeNina Otero-Warren, and Zitkala-Ša, whose work  contributed to the passage of the 19th Amendment even as they waged their own battles against racism and discrimination.

Additions to Special Collections

Awadagin's 1997 recital

Awadagin's 1997 recital

Awadagin Pratt’s 1997 recital poster

Over a decade ago, Dr. Mildred Pratt designated IWU as the repository for her son Awadagin’s performance materials. Several times since then, we’ve received additional primary sources related to both of Awadagin’s parents and his sister Menah. An archives blog post contains a detailed analysis of The Pratt Family Collection that is available for use in Tate Archives & Special Collections, located on the Ames Library’s fourth floor.

The Pratt family’s impact on Bloomington-Normal includes the Pratt Music Foundation, established in the memory of T.A.E.C. Pratt in 1996, that provides scholarships for lessons at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Music Preparatory Program. In addition, Dr. Mildred Pratt established the Mildred Pratt Student Assistance Fund at Illinois State University.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at IWU

View of Fieldhouse crowd from behind Dr. King

View of Fieldhouse crowd from behind Dr. King

Dr. King at IWU February 10, 1966

This image shows the kind of crowd drawn to Dr. King on his second visit to our campus. Visit the University Archives’ blog to learn more about these events, including the role IWU students played in bringing him here.

BSN exhibit opened!

Mrs. Chase with Prof. Hilton's class, Weiss Hospital, Short Term 1977

Mrs. Chase (front, center) with Prof. Hilton (top, right) and class at Weiss Hospital, Short Term 1977

The first floor of Ames Library now holds uniforms, photographs, documents and artifacts celebrating five decades of the Baccalaureate program for Nursing education at Illinois Wesleyan — one of the first of its kind in the country. This exhibit is free and open to the public and will run through the end of April.

An online collection of photos, documents and even an oral history with Dr. Mary Shanks, credited with seeing that the BSN was firmly grounded within the liberal arts tradition, are available through http://www.iwu.edu/nursing/anniversary/Photos.shtml. These are permanent collections.