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.