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| Chicago Skyline on Lake Michigan |
After the first few weeks
of trying to climb the mountain of knowledge made available to us, I think this
week at The HistoryMakers I have found a small plateau. As of Tuesday, our special collection
projects were postponed so that we could catch up on the evaluations of the
oral history interviews. I still have
not completely caught up, but I have definitely found a rhythm. My next goal is to increase the pace of that
rhythm, but that can be difficult because there is so much information found in
these oral histories that it always seems such a struggle to determine how to concisely
include it all.
On Monday, we worked
on evaluations before spending the afternoon arranging special collection
records. We were able to complete all
but four boxes of the An
Evening With Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee collection. Tuesday we received feedback on our completed
evaluations, so I was able to create my first two EAD and EAC-CPF finding aids
for Norma
White and Kenneth
Crooks, Jr. It took a few tries
because I discovered I had incorrectly added the subject headings to FileMaker,
but the end result of a printed finding aid is extremely satisfying.
We did pause our evaluations briefly on
Tuesday to meet with Dr.
Cecilia Salvatore, our archival sciences instructor. This week we discussed arranging and
describing of archival collections with special attention paid to Mark A.
Greene and Dennis Meissner’s “More Product, Less Process.” We also discussed the benefits and issues of certification
through the Academy of Certified Archivists and how librarians and archivists do
not always see themselves similarly. I
think the latter would be a great topic to continue at a later date. On Wednesday, Dr.
Christopher Reed was back to discuss abolitionism in the United States
during the early to mid-nineteenth century.
This is the era I studied most rigorously for my minor in Women’s
Studies when I was an undergraduate but it is always interesting to see how different
textbooks demonstrate alternate perceptions.
The rest of the week
I was busy evaluating HistoryMaker interviews.
After completing the Norma White and Kenneth Crooks finding aids, I
moved on to complete evaluations for Louis
Dinwiddie, Myrtis
Dightman, Charlene
Jordan, and Evangeline
Hall. I think I completed (or at least began) Dinwiddie the previous week, but it is all starting to meld together. While I learned something from
every interview, I was most enamored by Mr. Dightman being the first African
American rodeo cowboy. What a story he
has to tell!
During the rare
extra few minutes here and there, I also contacted Dr. Smith
at my host institution, Franklin
Library at Fisk
University, and she gave me the contact information for the Meharry Medical School Special
Collections librarian. I am looking
forward to learning what is held in the archives of the first southern medical
school for African Americans. Next
Monday, I also hope to be able to find out more about my host institution’s
plan for my fellowship.
On Friday evening, our office went next door for dinner. It was great being able to socialize with everyone outside of work. It even led to Julieanna giving a few of us a fabulous tour of Chicago the next day. I learned that I am staying very close to the location where many African Americans disembarked from their train during the Great Migration. I will definitely be checking that out soon!
Until next week…
Amanda J. Carter
Franklin Library, Fisk University
2012-2013 The
HistoryMakers IMLS Fellow
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