Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.
One of my favorite summertime activities is berry picking. Every year beginning around July 4 there is an abundance of blackberries on the hill behind my house. The thickets and brambles line an old well road. For a few weeks, I spend my free time gathering the berries, then making jams, cobblers and pies. I look forward to the season every year. Picking blackberries brings back good memories and makes me feel like a young kid again. Read the rest of this entry »
The WVU Libraries Resident Librarian Program will provide a unique training and educational experience for underrepresented graduates of professional library degree programs who are either early career librarians or new to research libraries.
“We are excited to promote diversity at WVU while helping new academic librarians lay strong foundations for their careers,” Dean of Libraries Jon E. Cawthorne said. “We also anticipate positive benefits for the entire campus community when our resident librarians begin working with students and faculty.”
Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.
Lucy Shuttleworth’s scrapbook. Also included in this picture is Lucy’s red diary, which had been previously acquired by the History Center.
The West Virginia and Regional History Center recently acquired the scrapbook of WVU student Lucy Shuttleworth, later Shuttleworth Dunlap. Through this acquisition Lucy’s scrapbook is now home with her diary, and together they are complementary, the diary giving context to the artifacts in the scrapbook. Read the rest of this entry »
Summer is the time when a gardener’s hopes and dreams come to fruition. Sunny days and spring rains combine to bring forth the beauty of buds and blooms in a garden, for as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The earth laughs in flowers.” Here are some photos of West Virginians enjoying their gardens. Read the rest of this entry »
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
West Virginia University Libraries and the WVRHC marked the 150th anniversary of the origins of Storer College with a celebration and the opening of a new exhibit in the WVRHC galleries. Stewart has written a great blog post on the importance of Storer College, Storer College, Celebrating 150 Years of Education, 1865 to 1955. Today, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite pieces of the exhibit: Read the rest of this entry »
West Virginia UniversityLibraries is working with Wikipedia to address the gender gap in its encyclopedia articles through a new grant-funded position.
The Wikimedia Foundation has awarded the WVU Libraries a $27,100 grant to support a Wikipedian in Residence for Gender Equity. A Wikipedian in residence is an editor placed at an institution to facilitate the creation and improvement of Wikipedia articles related to that institution’s mission.
“We’re excited to partner with WVU to create the first gender-focused Wikipedian in Residence. This role will help us get significantly closer to Wikimedia’s vision of sharing the sum of all human knowledge,” said Siko Bouterse, director of Community Resources for the Wikimedia Foundation.
Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.
The West Virginia and Regional History Center recently acquired many photographs documenting the beginnings of agricultural and other extension work in the state from around 1910 to 1920. The University’s extension service grew out of its inception under the Morrill Act of 1862. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the first institutions of higher learning open to African Americans south of the Mason-Dixon line, Storer College in Harpers Ferry played a key role in providing minority education from its origins as a mission school in 1865 to its close in 1955. The school also made significant contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. A particularly notable occasion in Storer history occurred in 1906 when the college hosted the second meeting (and the first on U.S. soil) of the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP.
“It is almost impossible for us to comprehend today how revolutionary the establishment of an African American school was at the close of the Civil War,” West Virginia and Regional History Center Director John Cuthbert said. “Just a few years earlier, education of slaves was potentially a capital offense in Virginia. The education of even free blacks was forbidden by law.”
From its humble beginnings as a mission school founded in 1865 by the Reverend Nathan Cook Brackett to educate former slaves, to its development as a fully fledged college granting degrees to African American men and women, Storer College became the first institution of higher learning for African Americans in the state of West Virginia. Located in Harpers Ferry near the site of John Brown’s 1859 attack on the Federal Armory, Storer College represented the freedom Civil War African Americans hoped to achieve. Read the rest of this entry »
The WVU Library Staff Association (LSA) has presented Thea Browne with the Library Staff Association Staff Person of the Year Award and Joe Morasco with the Library Staff Association Continuing Excellence Award.
Associate Dean of Libraries Myra N. Lowe and LSA Chair Jennifer Dubetz presented the honors during a ceremony Monday in the Robinson Reading Room.
Thea Browne, Library Staff Association Staff Person of the Year, and Joe Morasco, Library Staff Association Continuing Excellence Award winner, pose with Associate Dean of Libraries Myra N. Lowe and LSA Chair Jennifer Dubetz.
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
The variety of styles of dress, hair, and facial hair that we see in the WVRHC’s online photographs database, West Virginia History OnView, never fails to surprise me. Today, I’d like to focus on a few of the many ways men expressed themselves thru facial hair in the late 1800s. Read the rest of this entry »
Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.
By the time this is posted, most readers will be back to work after a long weekend. Although the holiday has passed, the purpose and practice of observing Memorial Day is worthy of reflection every day of the year.
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a Union veteran’s organization, established Decoration Day to honor the veterans who lost their life in service during the Civil War. On May 30, 1868, 5000 people attended a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and decorated the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. Read the rest of this entry »
Blog post by Michael Ridderbusch, Associate Curator, WVRHC.
Recently, during the course of work on the Harrison County Court Records collection (at the West Virginia and Regional History Center), a document was discovered that gives tangible evidence of the frontier war between native Americans and the United States in the Ohio country, a region west of the Appalachian Mountains between the northern Ohio River and Lake Erie. Described as a “pay abstract,” it documents the names of seven scouts “ordered into service” in 1795 by General Benjamin Biggs (ca. 1752-1823), a militia commander with responsibility for defending the Virginia frontier.
WVU Libraries did not let March winter storm Thor set us back permanently on the Wikipedia Initiative. Though we had to cancel part two of the program planned for March 5, we came back strong on April 30 with an online webinar called “Tackling the Gender Gap in Wikipedia.” Over 100 online and in person registrants joined Cindy Liberatore and Carroll Wilkinson for the session featuring Jami Mathewson of the Wiki Education Foundation and Dr. Adeline Koh of Stockton University.
In addition to a thorough overview of the Wikipedia’s gender gap problem, ideas for teaching with Wikipedia, assignment examples, links to resources for instructors, and many useful techniques for effective instruction were provided.
The West Virginia UniversityLibraries selected Jordan Lovejoy and Matthew Trickett as 2015 Robert F. Munn Undergraduate Library Scholars for their research at the Libraries as part of their undergraduate theses.
“All of us at the WVU Libraries are pleased to name Jordan Lovejoy and Matthew Trickett as Munn Scholars,” Dean of Libraries Dr. Jon E. Cawthorne said. “Jordan and Matthew produced impressive works of scholarship. Both did a tremendous job researching their topics and presenting their findings.”
Munn Award winners Matthew Trickett and Jordan Lovejoy pose with Dr. Jon E. Cawthorne, dean of the WVU Libraries.
Charley Harper saw shapes. He didn’t see birds, or trees, bear, or fish. He saw shapes. And shapes in the natural world are what he painted. His art was minimalistic, modern, and playful; a style Harper called “minimal realism.” It was a style that was perfectly suited to the Mad Men era when his work was at its peak of popularity, the ‘50’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Read the rest of this entry »
Blog post by Jane Metters LaBarbara, Assistant Curator, WVRHC.
We have a photo of George S. Patton, but none of his wife Sue
I intended to write a very different sort of blog post, but Susan Thornton Glassell Patton’s letter to her first husband, George (grandfather of the George Patton of WWII fame) was so interesting that I transcribed it. Sue’s letter reveals a lot about her life and the world she lived in. She talks about the “irregularity” of mail delivery, visits from relatives, and trying to keep her spirits up in difficult times. In a turn of phrase that may have been less alarming in 1863 than it may be today, she writes “This strain [?] however does not become one who is endeavoring to cultivate a cheerful or [?] thankful frame of mind, but you must remember my dearest that to all complicated and useful machinery as woman, there must be a safety valve, or else an explosion.” She also talks about the financial hardships she faces, and the reality that she may not be able to afford living where she currently does if George is sent south. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jane Metters LaBarbara.
April 28th, 2015
Blog post by Lori Hostuttler, Digital Projects and Outreach Archivist, WVRHC.
At the West Virginia & Regional History Center, a critical part of our mission is to preserve the treasures of the state and region. We are actively working to make sure our collections will be available to future generations. Preservation Week, sponsored by the American Library Association’s Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, encourages everyone to think about the preservation of their personal, family, and community collections and also seeks to provide educational information and resources. Do you have a plan for preserving your old photos, scrapbooks, diaries, letters, or home movies? Does your neighborhood association, church, or social group have records that need to be organized and cared for so others can use them?
Basic preservation doesn’t have to be scary or hard. There are some simple ways you can extend the life of materials. Here are some easy and quick preservation tips compiled by ALCTS that can help you preserve your personal collections: Read the rest of this entry »
The University community gathered on Wednesday (April 22) to dedicate the planting of the Newton apple tree, a direct descendent of the one that inspired Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity. The tree was awarded to retired Sen. Jay Rockefeller by the National Institute of Standards and Technology earlier this month in honor of his science policy leadership and his strong commitment during a 30-year career in the United States Senate. Rockefeller has bestowed the tree upon the University to inspire future generations to pursue scientific and technological discovery.
