First Day on the Job: Picking a Project

Today was my first day working in the archives, and, right off the bat, I was asked by our archivist if I had any project ideas. I told him that I was interested in the Civil War, and maybe focusing on the Civil War in Mobile. After being (politely) informed that our Civil War collections were probably not large enough to support a project, we wandered the archives, where he suggested projects for me to work on.

Of the multiple suggestions (and, believe me, there were several - there is always something to do in the archives), the one that seemed most interesting to me was digging into the history of Greek life on my campus. As a member of a newly established sorority on my campus, I found the idea of looking at past fraternities and sororities on campus somewhat intriguing, especially as many of them are no longer on campus any more.

The first box I opened today contained scrapbooks from fraternities on campus from the 1950s and 1960s. On top was a scrapbook from Spring Hill's chapter of Kappa Sigma dating to 1967-68. The scrapbook contained Polaroid photographs of the brothers and their girlfriends or dates at each of their social events, with careful labels of event titles, locations, and dates, and clever captions next to many of the photographs. Also tucked into the back pages were several more Polaroids in their packaging, a copy of the newsletter, and some newspaper clippings. I'm looking forward to going back soon to read more and find out more about what happened in 1967.

I plan to digitize these scrapbooks, so hopefully in the future I will be able to include photographs. I am also going to attempt to keep a running record of Greek organizations that were present on my campus, along with a little bit of information about them. If you know anything about the chapter of Kappa Sigma at Spring Hill College, please comment below! I'd love to know more.

Kappa Sigma Crest