Coming to Terms

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been slightly avoiding making my final post. Not just because it's the last post of this school year, but also because that means that this internship is actually over. And I really don't feel like accepting that.

I learned a lot from working in my school archives - not just about my school, but about the craft. I've learned valuable skills about preserving the past that I can take on with me into the future. And I've also learned more about my school's past, which makes me even more proud of my institution.

And this doesn't even begin to touch on all of the things I learned about Greek life this semester. Not only did I immerse myself in Spring Hill's traditions, but I learned more about the fraternities that were on campus as I found them, and about how they organized themselves. It was fascinating to see how things changed as years passed, and how many people stayed in their organizations as time went on. It was also really neat for me to see that some things never change - Greek students in the past were just as involved with campus life as Greek students are now, something that was heartwarming to see.

I'm sad to be leaving the Archives, and to no longer be working alongside such wonderful people, but I'm excited to move on to my summer job - working at another internship, doing similar work, but at a museum.

Which leaves me to wonder what to do with this blog in the interim.

I think that I might continue to blog here, but instead of posting what I'm doing - after all, there are only so many times I can post that I scanned a photograph - I might blog book reviews of what I'm reading this summer. It's a mix of history and fiction - I'm quite excited. So if you're interested in that, feel free to keep reading.

To the road ahead.

Beginning the Final Week

It's my final week on the internship, and I'm getting kind of teary-eyed. I'm going to miss this job, actually....But I'll save that for my final post. I can't afford to get sad yet.

Today, I spent more time working on typing up records for the fraternities. I've made it to 1950, which is quite a feat - when I started this, I thought I might make it to 1941 (if I got there at all). But to see the long list of names - no longer forgotten, but having their efforts recognized - makes me immensely proud of what I do. Hopefully, one day, either I or someone else will get the chance to finish the lists.

My final day at this internship is Wednesday - two days from now. I'm hoping that it will be exactly the kind of denouement that this job deserves - peaceful, quiet, and respectful.

I really am going to miss this job.

Music today was provided by Panic! at the Disco's Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!. It's a nice mix of upbeat sound and thought-provoking music.

Kind of like Fall Out Boy.

A Week in Review

So much has happened in the past week that I haven't been able to get to my computer and post exactly what has happened in the archives.... Here's a brief attempt at a summary.

Last Wednesday, nothing much different than usual happened: I spent all my time typing out student council members and members of Greek life up until the year 1941.

On Monday, I walked into the archives, and was confronted with the offer to go on what the Archivist termed as "an adventure:" we were going to photograph the school's old pool area, fondly called the "Pooleteria" by former students. While our current student center was being built, the school covered over the pool and used it as a cafeteria - thus the name "Pooleteria." Not only does the archives not have photographs of the pool area on file, but rumors have been swirling about changes possibly being made to the space - so we obviously needed to save it for posterity.

As soon as we got there, however, we discovered that the pool area was locked. It took us several minutes to discover that the only person on campus who had a key to unlock it was the Assistant Athletics Director, who kindly let us in. As we walked down and took photographs of the area, he talked to us about what the space might be used for in the future and asked us questions about Spring Hill's sports history. At one point, he and the Archivist disappeared into the boiler room next door (with many admonishments to me to "Keep the door open!") and returned with a 2004 Newsweek sent to a John Bender - how it arrived in the boiler room of the old pool I will never know.

As we left, the AD asked us to look into a specific person for him, a former AD named Billy Gardiner. When we returned to the archives, we immediately began searching, and found that William "Bill" Gardiner was probably the most influential basketball coach that Spring Hill ever had. His team beat not only LSU in their time, but also both Georgia and FSU to take the Gator Bowl. Needless to say, the AD was thrilled to find out more about him.

Today's activities were less exciting - I spent the day typing up records once again, but I did manage to find a third fraternity to add to my records. Sigma Alpha Kappa has now joined the ranks of Spring Hill College fraternities. I look forward to continuing with my work on Monday!

Sigma Alpha Kappa Crest

I spent my week listening to music by Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco.

Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! by Panic! at the Disco

An Unusual Monday

Today, when I walked into the archives for my internship, I was confronted with a massive search party. Our head librarian had arrived within the archives, desperately searching for items pertaining to the school's study abroad program in Venice (sadly, a program that has since been discontinued since her time at the school - from her descriptions, it sounds pretty awesome) for the Homecoming on the Hill event this coming weekend. In her searching, she found a box containing our information on two Cuban students at Spring Hill who helped to bring baseball to the island. She, along with our archivist, asked me to look through a stack of boxes for any other possible documents relating to the Venice Program, and also for any possible notes in our files about the program, which might have been filed under the buildings. 

As I began to work on this project, one of the Jesuits on campus sent an emailed request to the archivist asking for the dates on one of the old buildings on campus (the former Jesuit residence, Assumption Hall). I got to look up the dates within the files, and then turn to sorting through boxes. 

The first box that I opened contained a treasure trove. While it was not about the Venice Program, it did pertain to African Americans and their first years on Spring Hill's campus, and so the archivist and I set it aside within the Archives (with a special sticky note that I wrote on it - I'm looking forward to going through and cataloging everything in the box at some point in the future, if I get the chance!). The other boxes were fairly unproductive, although I did find some old editions of The Motley, our creative writing magazine, and several unbound Springhilians, our school newspaper. Otherwise, there was nothing much of interest in the boxes. The file folders also turned up nothing much of interest, so I turned to the archivist.

In the time that I had gone through boxes, the Jesuit who we had been helping with information on Assumption Hall had emailed us back, asking for more specific information. None of the documents on file had the dates requested, and so we had to turn to the books of the former archivist to find the information he was looking for. 

After this very exciting hour of work, I turned to entering more names into my list of Greek Life.

Needless to say, it was a very exciting day in the archives today. I'm looking forward to more work on the list on Wednesday, and possibly planning out some Civil War artifacts for a student group coming in on Thursday and Friday. 

Continuing to Record

Last week was Spring Break, so I was not in for my internship (and that's why there hasn't been a post in so long!). But before break, I managed to make quite a bit of headway into the yearbooks from the 1930s. The staff of the Torch during the 1930s (unlike the staff during 1927 and 1928) have favored me with lists of the students' last names to make finding them easier. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to get into the Archives today due to a mishap with the key (neither I nor the people at the library's front desk were able to find it - until after I had left for the afternoon and had been gone for a good hour). Needless to say, I was slightly upset about that, but I will be working twice as hard once I get back in on Monday. 

Onward!

Turning Yearbooks into Lists

This past week, I finished up the list of students from Spring Hill's yearbooks up through 1928. From 1926 - 1927, this was a relatively easy task - the staff of The Corsair thoughtfully left a list of each member next to the composite pictures, and listed the officers' positions on a separate list. Beginning with the 1928 Corsair, however, things became much more difficult.

Apparently, the staff of the 1928 and 1929 Corsair did not feel the need to list members, but simply provide a composite and a history of the fraternity. While the history of the fraternity is extremely helpful (I knew absolutely nothing about Omicron Sigma's presence on campus before reading it), I'm really missing those lists - especially since I'm now finding every member of the fraternity by flipping through the yearbook and matching composite photos with yearbook photos (conveniently the same images, with the exception of the senior class).

The one nice thing is that, starting with 1929, Phi Omega has begun to make an appearance on campus! So if anyone knows anything about Phi Omega and their time on campus at Spring Hill, please feel free to let me know in the comments below!

Otherwise, I will continue to match faces and names, one face at a time.

Starting the Lists

Yesterday, I began typing out lists of Greek organization membership on campus. I'm using our campus' old yearbooks, The Torch and The Corsair, which start in 1925, to get a list of all members.

At this point, the only organization that I've found is Omicron Sigma, but I am only in 1927, so hopefully there will be more organizations soon! I also discovered that our yearbooks do not go back far enough to cover the arrival of Omicron Sigma, nor do they list the chapter name. If anyone has any information about either of those, please let me know in the comments below!

The one exciting thing that I've discovered so far is that one of our 1926 yearbooks was owned by a member of Omicron Sigma - it's even signed by members of the fraternity!

I am also compiling a list of student government members from 1925 to present. As soon as both lists have been compiled, they will be put up on the Archives website.

My music this week has, so far, been Fall Out Boy. It's kind of addicting - what can I say?

Fall Out Boy

Cut, Print, Moving On: Starting Part Two

This week, I had the chance to wrap up the first part of my project: I scanned the last pages of the Phi Kappa Theta scrapbook into the computer and completed the digital book.

I don't know how I feel about this, honestly. I kind of enjoyed the tangible feeling of knowing that I was holding the past within my fingers. But I suppose that it is time for me to work on the second half of my project, and learn about the other dimensions of archival work.

Starting next week, I will begin compiling a list of every Greek organization on Spring Hill's campus and its list of members, beginning with our first fraternity on campus, Omicron Sigma. I'm looking forward to this, since it will (possibly?) give me my first chance to work with sorority life on campus. I'm also excited to see just how much of the student body actually participated in Greek life. The current numbers are around 30% - I'm interested in seeing if this remains steady from the beginning of Greek life's introduction on campus to the present day.

This week's music was an eclectic blend of Fall Out Boy (I still can't shake the fact that all of their songs are extremely catchy) and Rascal Flatts' Rewind. I really love this album - it's super upbeat and great for a mid-afternoon pep talk.

A Quick Break from Scrapbooks: Scanning the Morris Gates Notebook

This week, I was given a brief interlude from scanning fraternity scrapbooks when the archivist told me that there was a priority project that needed work - and involved the scanner. One of the Jesuits on campus had requested a digital copy of a notebook in the archives owned by a former student, Morris Gates. The notebook is the oldest item in our archives, dating to the early 1830s.

Needless to say, I've been insanely careful all week with this notebook.

Most of what is written inside is Latin translations, especially from Cicero's In Catilinam. The handwriting is fairly neat for script, and most of the book is in black ink, with the exception of a penciled in signature on one of the back pages. I was also somewhat excited to see ink sketches of birds made completely out of flourishes on the first page - it's a craft that is rarely practiced anymore, and I thought it was really cool to see.

Scanning wise, this book wasn't much different than the scrapbooks. Because it is older than 1950, I did handle it with gloves (as per protocol), and made sure to be gentle while flipping pages to prevent any further damage from coming to it. But, despite its age, the notebook was relatively easy to scan, and was actually a little easier than the scrapbooks have been, mainly because I didn't have to worry about glare on photographs.

I've really enjoyed working with Gates' notebook this week, and I'm excited to wrap up the fraternity scrapbooks next week.

This week's playlist has been more Fall Out Boy - I'm really hooked on American Beauty/American Psycho. It's also really good for an energy boost just when scanning gets to be tedious.

Fall Out Boy

Below are some images (finally!) of the scrapbooks that I've been working with. Eventually, I will get them up on a website and you will be able to see them in their entirety.

Kappa Sigma Crest

Kappa Sigma Scrapbook

Phi Kappa Transition, Phi Kappa Theta 1959 Scrapbook

Phi Kappa Theta 1962-63 Scrapbook

Phi Kappa Theta 1964-65 Scrapbook

Still Scrapbooking Away

What a wild and crazy week it's been for me! In between writing papers and trying to get sleep, the most relaxing thing that I think has happened this week has been my time in the archives.

I'm still scanning scrapbooks, which, while it may seem repetitive (and believe me, some days it can be), I've gotten into the rhythm of scan, crop, repeat. It's almost second nature to me now. I only have one more scrapbook to finish scanning - it's almost completely done, in fact, and I haven't finished it only because there are pages stuck together that I cannot pull apart by myself without fear of ripping the pictures. Once I'm finished with these scrapbooks, I don't know what I will do with my time. There are things that I can look up from the scrapbooks, for sure, but there's also more to scan. So after next Monday, I might be posting about something else.

This week's scrapbooks were Phi Kappa Theta, again (there are three of them, after all). I have really enjoyed looking through these pictures and learning more about Spring Hill's past.

I can't wait to see what comes up next.

This week's playlist has been the newest Fall Out Boy album, American Beauty/American Psycho. I'm not normally a fan of Fall Out Boy, but this album is really, really good - I cannot find a single song on it that I do not like.

All On My Own: Completing My First Solo Scrapbook

Yesterday, I completed my first solo scrapbook scanning. I worked on the Phi Kappa/ Phi Kappa Theta scrapbook from 1957 - 1959, which covers their early years on campus and national merger with Theta Kappa Phi. It was in better condition than the Kappa Sigma scrapbook, which made scanning it into the computer much easier for me. I also pulled the images into a digital scrapbook without help from the archivist, which made me feel very proud of my abilities. Finally, I think I'm getting the hang of all the technology!

Phi Kappa Theta Crest

Coming up next: the other two Phi Kappa Theta scrapbooks, and then hopefully some sororities!

My playlist yesterday was the soundtrack to Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby. It has a lot of upbeat, peppy music, which is great when you're going a lot of repetitive actions (like scanning a book into the computer?).

Finishing the First Scrapbook

Today, after a brief reminder of the computer passcode (apparently I added some extra parts that don't go), I managed to complete scanning of the Kappa Sigma scrapbook. The book also included a collection of photographs that had not been pasted into the scrapbook and a few newspaper clippings from the Springhillian about brothers and their activities on campus. A newsletter was also included, but due to the creases in the paper, it did not scan well, and so was not included.

After I had scanned all 89 images, the archivist and I sat down and pulled them into a single book, which we can later put onto a website or use for a digital collection. Readers can flip through the scrapbook and look at pictures and captions from the different events held by Kappa Sigma. 

In order to create this scrapbook, we had to pull all of our .jpeg images into Adobe Pro and reorganize them (Adobe likes to put everything in numeric order by the first digit, so it placed the pages as 1, 10, 11, 12, and so forth, instead of 1, 2, 3, 4). Once that was completed, I simply had to click a button and every file was converted into a .pdf, forming the book before my eyes. The book has been saved for future use, and I am preparing to create the first of the Phi Kappa Theta digital scrapbooks next.

I'm really excited that I've got one scrapbook down - there's a nice sense of accomplishment that goes along with finishing a part of the project.

I forgot to add this last week, but my playlist today was two different albums: The House that Dirt Built by The Heavy, and PTX Vol. II by Pentatonix. Both albums are very upbeat, although the album by The Heavy has a jazzy feel to it. 

Even More Scrapbooks: Phi Kappa Theta

Today's plan was (originally) to walk into the Archives, log into the computer, and scan the rest of the Kappa Sigma scrapbook. 

Unfortunately, that was not the case (mainly due to my not remembering what the password was for the computer). 

Instead, I turned to the box of scrapbooks that I had yet to go through, and worked my way through those.

The remaining three scrapbooks in the box were all from a social fraternity called Phi Kappa Theta. The first scrapbook, from 1957, covers their merger with another national social fraternity to form Phi Kappa Theta - until that date, the organization was known as Phi Kappa. The group was founded on Spring Hill's campus in 1955, and played a major role in the foundation of the campus's Fr. William D. O'Leary Memorial Award, which they financed and designed. 

I found Phi Kappa Theta's scrapbooks extremely interesting, in part because they covered such a wide swath of time (the first scrapbook started in 1957, and the last one ended in 1965), and also because they provided so much information about campus life and their brothers. Every single achievement of a brother received recognition in the scrapbook, and the little sisters and the sweethearts also had their major events noticed, too. Everyone's name was underlined diligently in blue ink, and their articles were carefully pasted into the scrapbook's pages. Whoever created these scrapbooks, I am extremely grateful - they are a researcher's dream. Sadly, the later scrapbooks are in somewhat bad condition,  with pages sticking together and the covers almost falling off. I'm glad that I'm scanning these into the computer, so that they'll be preserved for the future, but I hope that I can find a way to save the actual book, too.

I also discovered two other fraternities in my readings today, Phi Omega and Omicron Sigma. Hopefully, their scrapbooks or mementos are somewhere in the Archives waiting for me to find them. 

If you know anything about any of these fraternities and their time on the Hill, please feel free to comment below! I'd love to learn more.

An Introduction to Photoshop: Or, a Lesson in Online Preservation

Today was my first day digitizing the Kappa Sigma scrapbook. The archivist brought me over to our digitization machine, called the BookEye, and showed me how to scan in the pages of the scrapbook. After the pages are scanned in, the images go into Adobe Photoshop, where we cut them to size and clean up the edges so that they aren't awkward to page through. Eventually, these will be saved as PDF files and .jpegs and turned into an online book that looks identical to the physical scrapbook held in the archives on campus.

BookEye Scanner - similar to what I'm using now

Scanning images in, I have now learned, is somewhat tedious. So I have decided that I need to come up with a playlist for scanning, to make passing the time more interesting. Today's playlist was the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy, because its eclectic mix of music from the late 1960s and the 1970s encompasses the feeling of many of the images that I was scanning today. Hopefully, next time I'm in the archives, I will be able to post some of the images that I've scanned! Until then, I'll keep looking into Greek life on campus, and learning more about the tools of the trade. 

Quite literally an awesome mix of music

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

Back from Hiatus! Now New and Improved with Internship!

I can't believe that it's been over a month since I lasted posted! To anyone who's been following me and eagerly hoping for more posts, I'm now back on and posting regularly (apologies for the hiatus - at least it wasn't as long as Sherlock). 

But why am I back, you ask?

I'm interning this semester!

This semester, in addition to classes, I'm interning in my school's archives. I'm super excited about this (and not just because we have lots of really cool things hiding in all the books and crannies...although that's a big part of it). Working this internship allows me to experience one of the possible positions in my field, which is really exciting for me. 

The internship works like this: under the supervision of our head librarian and our archivist, and with advising from the head of my department, I will be devising a project based on the collection within the school archives. I will be chronicling the experience (complete, hopefully, with photographs and other information) here on this blog. 

That doesn't mean that this blog will change format, though. I will do my best to maintain a continuous flow of random history posts, including book reviews and occasional favorites lists. 

I'm super excited for this semester, and I can't wait to get started!