Self Central Time: Alex Champion's Week 8

Week eight marks the two-thirds point of the HistoryMakers Fellowship 2012 summer institute. I knew almost since the day of acceptance that it would be taxing psychologically, with long hours in an unfamiliar city, but also taxing intellectually as I worked under a non-archivist with very particular needs and desires. Although I have experience with not-for-profit directors from my time at the Swiss Center of North America, that was for a new, developing manuscript archive in a one person shop rather than a sophisticated heritage organization with a dozen employees; it’s all the difference between a $3,000 Dr. Scholl Foundation grant and a nearly $900,000 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Executive Director Julieanna Richardson is adamant to get the grant renewed and her desires permeate in everything we do.

One symptom of this adamancy is in the demands she placed on our participation plans. Previous IMLS fellows drafted a plan via a presentation application (e.g. PowerPoint) to talk up their placement institution and what work they will perform there. Since much of the institutional information necessary for many of the second year fellows remained on the server, Julieanna decided we should gather similarly in-depth information for another repository or collection; my predecessor’s presentation file was not on the server and it took four pairs of eyes to find the footage of her actual presentation before the group. By then I already acquired most of the institutional information on my own.

Following an uncomfortable conversation just days before the scheduled date of my presentation (See my Week 4 blog) Julieanna ruled I would describe an HBCU archive instead of the March on Milwaukee digital library. I told her flat out that budgetary information would be nigh impossible to extract but I continued nevertheless; I contacted Morgan, Virginia Union, Howard, and Lincoln to varying degrees of success but still nothing that would satisfy the detail she expected.

A dry run of my presentation went pretty well. Julieanna enjoyed most of the humor but told me to get rid of a couple jokes that undermined the sobriety of a fellowship placement concerning the legacy of slavery in Maryland; she mainly wanted more details about my work patterns. I already told her on three or four occasions that the Maryland State Archives did not have a particular schedule in mind. To remedy this problem I included a calendar of the previous fellow’s activities as a sample. This was not good enough but I did not understand how to improve it; the circumstances of fellow Fellow Ardra gave me a better understanding of what Julieanna wanted.

Chaitra Powell, Ardra Whitney, and then I were supposed to give our presentations during the first month of the fellowship but were rescheduled because they did not meet the level of detail Julieanna demanded. Ardra was the first to give the actual presentation, on Tuesday, July 24. Technical problems delayed the start and caused several hiccups with her conferenced supervisor Georgette Mayo but this did not affect the content. It was rich, insightful, thoroughly researched, and well designed but agonizingly detailed. I learned a lot about Charleston, South Carolina, the Gullah/Geechee culture, and the history of the Avery Normal School that preceded the Avery Research Center—but it took well over an hour even though a majority of the slides were skipped due to time. As the anchor of The HistoryMakers, Julieanna is constantly consulted—though rarely distracted—much like Avery’s Jill of all trades, Ms. Mayo, and both were running out of time. 

In the group critique that followed, Cynthia Lovett gave the most constructive, succinct criticism of the meeting; Ardra needed to keep herself at the center. It was an obvious assessment in hindsight but nevertheless an exceedingly useful one. Thankfully my descriptions of Maryland and the Maryland State Archives were confined to a few short slides but I realized I quickly realized they removed me from the presentation. With this new found revelation, and new constructive critiques by my host institution, I left slightly early from work (7:10 is still early) and resumed revisions on my draft. Aside from the brand new slides reviewing the Blair-Caldwell African American ResearchLibrary’s black manuscript collections, the most significant revisions elaborated upon the mission and purpose of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland (LOSIM) within the Maryland State Archives and my place within that. I articulated what was special about their archives and the LOSIM program.

The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, Denver

The presentation itself went along fairly well. The technical needs were pre-arranged with but a few minor adjustments to improve the call quality for my conferenced supervisors. I lightened the mood with some opening PowerPoint humor; animated content and slide advances were timed precisely to the tune of John Philip Sousa’s “Liberty Bell (March),” better known as the theme to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, all while I played ignorant as to what my presentation was about. Julieanna instructed us to dress formally for our presentations so—in my bow tie and corduroy evening jacket—I must have looked like an English fool as my slides claimed I was presenting on organizations with the acronym “MSA.” The Missouri Scholars Academy? No, that doesn’t sound right. How about the Mycological Society of America! No, that’s not it either… Then, following a very slow vertical blinds animation of the flag of Maryland—my favorite state flag in fact—the “The Maryland” and “State Archives” appeared twice each in alternating quadrants; black letters for the red and white portions and red letters for the yellow and black. I remained in character and pretended to be surprised and relieved to finally have my answer. I made sure to advance my slides before “Liberty Bell” went too far beyond the Monty Python snippet. Other songs included Jimi Hendrix’ “Star Spangled Banner” on the state history page, a “School House Rock!” interlude for school outreach, a somber harmonica solo from a Japanese cartoon called Azumanga Daioh, and the song “Fly Away” from the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack.  PowerPoint refused MP3s so these songs were embedded as WAVs. Together with two four megabyte TIFs these songs made my presentation too big for e-mail. I should look into a rudimentary photo and audio/visual-editing suite to reduce future presentation sizes. At the very least it won’t take over a minute to save the dang things!

During the presentation I also demonstrated the usefulness of the digitized slave runaway ads through a randomly selected sample introduced earlier but elaborated upon towards the end. It was a $150 reward for the capture of a 24 year old slave named Polly who belonged to a Louisiana family that often travelled to the Washington, D.C. area. She is described as a “dark mulatto” although her daughter, whose name appears to be a Coeleste, is “much lighter” with straight hair. The ad contends that Polly was “enticed away” given her years of faithful service and trusted place within the family. The slave owner’s stated refusal to believe that Polly, who was “raised in the house,” was simply biding her time for freedom and the unapologetic admission of her and her daughter’s white paternity also clue the modern reader into the mindset of the slaveholding culture. 

The IMLS fellows visited Columbia University’s Center for Black Music Research and toured Bronzeville with Tony Burroughs but I will write more about these next week following our visit to the National Archives regional office.  I suspect they will provide a delectable contrast.

And now, onto something completely different...

Cynthia Lovett: Week 8 @ The HistoryMakers

I continued to process special collections this week, and finished the collection of An Evening With Della Reese with IMLS fellow, Amanda Carter.  Alongside processing, this was a week of five busy days. 

On Monday, we went on a bus for the Chicago Black History tour given by Anthony Burroughs.  We drove past the homes of Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Muhammad Ali. We also passed by the Chicago Defender and Alison Saar’s sculpture dedicated to the Great Migration. 

The home of Gwendoyn Brooks.

In our African American history seminar we discussed World War II and the Freedom Movement.  We learned about how the “Golden Thirteen” received perfect scores on their exam and were asked by the pentagon to re-take the test. After the second test, they still made perfect scores. In 1987, the building for new navy recruits was named Golden Thirteen in their honor.   In Dr. Salvatore’s archives seminar we discussed donor relations and thought about how to present a collection and services to a donor even with limited resources. We also talked about codes of ethics for archivists such as privacy, trust, and authenticity of the record.

Later in the week we visited the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, founded by Sam Floyd.  We met Suzanne Flandreau, head librarian and archivist; Laurie Lee Moses, their archivist and digital librarian; Janet Harper, the catalog librarian, and executive director, Dr. Monica Hairston O’Connell.  We learned about their recent challenges involving Columbia attempting to shut down their department. Thanks to the public outcry, it seems that they will remain open for the time being.  They also showed us some of their materials and gave us a tour of their archival spaces. O’Connell explained that she has learned that activism has become a part of her role in working with this repository, and that many culturally specific archives are under siege.

CBMR Digital Archivist Laurie Lee Moses

AfriCOBRA artist, Barbara Jones-Hogu at the South Side Community Center

AfriCOBRA artist, Barbara Jones-Hogu and IMLS Fellow Skyla Hearn

IMLS Fellow Skyla Hearn gives us a tour of the archival room at South Side Community Art Center

This weekend I went with a few other colleagues to the South Side Community Art Center where our fellow, Skyla Hearn, interviewed AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) artist, Barbara Jones-Hogu.  We got the opportunity to see some of her pieces and hear her discuss her work through its various phases of printmaking, photography, and video.  Skyla has done a great deal of work with the South Side Community Art Center, including organizing the room where much of the artwork is stored.  She also showed us the archive room with the papers that were organized through Dr. Jacqueline Goldsby’s Mapping the Stacks project.

The Ghanaian Festival

Skyla S. Hearn: Week Eight@The HistoryMakers

Rallying the Troops: When I write or type 'The HistoryMakers' I wonder if I'll ever be inducted into the Hall of HistoryMaker Fame. After all, I am a multifaceted individual representative of a rich cultural identity, possess a great knowledge of family history,  and within a given amount of time will make sizable contributions to the community and eventually the society at large.  I wonder the same of all of my IMLS fellow Fellows. I feel the presence of greatness when we collaborate on projects, compassionately share ideas and face challenges associated with "breaking" into our field through the training of the IMLS Fellowship. Perhaps its the high level of optimism running through my veins but I'm convinced that in due time our collective intelligence, winning personalities and commitment to our vocation will yield solutions to guide the archival world into a cohesive, sustainable,  and successful future. 

-"The entire universe depends on everything fitting together just right..." Hush Puppy   (from the motion picture "Beasts of the Southern Wild")

Beasts of the Southern Wild

After a long and challenging week by Friday at 6:48pm I resolved the internal conflict and decided to remove myself from 'work'. You see, whether I'm in the office, walking down the street or on my way to sleep my brain remains overloaded with better ways to complete the present tasks at hand as related to the projects, exercises and expectations of my involvement with being a "budding" archivist. Fortunately, I have one of the best families on the planet, co-headed by my partner, Mohamed, who decided to treat us to dinner and a movie. He'd briefed me on the film but despite the summary my mind remained stuck on the title: Beasts of the Southern Wild. While watching the film, I began to parallel my current experiences with Hush Puppy, the lead character, who worked in unison with her father and community members to keep the society, as they knew it, in tact. The film, categorized as fantasy drama, reminded me of the complexities of running a rare objects repository and acting as the representative for the sustainability of the repository as an institution as well as its objects.

                                         

Columbia College Chicago: Center for Black Music Research 

External interventions rarely recognize the importance and significance of a 'world' they are acting on and often upset the balance rather than recognize the benefits of a cohesive relationship with the existing community. Earlier Friday, the IMLS Fellows visited the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago. Some months ago, information about the potential closing of the BMRC hit various library and archival listservs, sharing with the community the threat of the loss of such a great and monumental research repository. Letters of support, protests by constituents and the community's outcry forced Columbia College's administration to recognize the CBMR as an indispensable entity of its own college body and the world at large. To someone such as myself, its hard to fathom the administration's disregard of the gem located within Columbia College. We, the keepers of information and providers of information access, strongly support the CBMR and its initiatives to keep their doors open. 

Monument to the Great Northern
Migration

Monument to the Great Northern
Migration

Commemorative of Souls Made of Soles

The week began with a Black History Neighborhood Tour through the South Side neighborhoods of Bronzeville, Kenwood, and Hyde Park. I enjoyed the tour. It's always nice to hear about the neighborhood I grew up in and now currently reside in from a historian's perspective. While listening to Mr. Tony Burroughs share his knowledge of the historical landmarks and other highlights of these areas, I felt proud of my Bronzeville community, which was referred to as "The Black Belt" before I was born and "The Low End" when I was a youth. I found it beneficial and warming to share the experience with the IMLS Fellows and NEH Scholars, most of whom are not from Chicago. 

Week eight was extremely exciting on multiple levels from creating presentations "on the fly"to treating our fellow Fellow Chaitra Powell to Bearthday Brunch to rollocking in the fruits of my labor...I'm sure I've omitted many highlights from the week but there's always room to include more juicy deets in the weeks to follow.... 

...on to Week Nine@TheHistoryMakers....

Ardra Whitney: Week 8 @ The HistoryMakers

This week IMLS Fellows went on not one, but two wonderful field trips. On Monday, July 23^rd, fellows and the NEH Summer Scholars traveled by motor coach on a black history tour of Chicago. The tour was led by genealogist, Tony Burroughs and executive director of The HistoryMakers, Julieanna Richardson. We visited the Stephen Douglas Monument Park, the Victory Monument and the Monument to the Great Northern Migration. We also visited the homes of notable and accomplished African Americans, such as Margaret Burroughs, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Daniel Hale Williams, Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan, Barack Obama; and other sites connected to Chicago’s black heritage, i.e., Quinn Chapel, Chicago Defender, and Chess Records. I particularly enjoyed touring Bronzeville and getting to see the fifteen foot tall, Monument to the Great Northern Migration—created by sculptor, Alison Saar. It commemorates all the African-American men, women and children who migrated to the south side of Chicago after the Civil War. The figure is covered with patches depicting the worn shoe soles of African Americans that migrated from southern states in search of a northern “Promised Land”. The soles symbolize the often difficult journey they faced during their migration from the south to the north.

On Friday, July 27^th, fellows had a second field trip to the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College. We met with CBMR staff: Monica Hairston O'Connell, Executive Director; Suzanne Flandreau, Head Librarian and Archivist; Janet Harper, Catalog Librarian; and Laurie Lee Moses, Archivist and Digital Librarian.  We introduced ourselves to one another and each spoke about our education and archival backgrounds. The staff also spoke to the group about the history of the CBMR, its holdings and its fight to remain open this past year. Prior to the field trip we were asked to select collections from the CBMR that we wanted to get a closer look at. I selected the collection: Edmund Thornton Jenkins scores and other material. Edmund Thornton Jenkins was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and studied at Avery Institute and Morehouse College. He received his early musical training at the Jenkins Orphanage founded by his father, and toured with the Jenkins Orphanage Band during the summers. According to Ms. Flandreau, Jenkins’ orchestral rhapsody, Charlestonia, which premiered in Ostend, Belgium in July 1925, was the first large-scale piece of concert music by an African American to achieve acclaim in Europe. After looking at the various collections each fellow chose, Ms. Moses took us on a tour of the CBMR’s archival facilities, i.e. stacks, offices, and reading room and offices.

Throughout the week, I continued working on Special Collections Processing Project: "An Evening with Quincy Jones". I processed a total of five boxes in the categories of “100-Fundraising,” “200-Event,” and “300-Production”. Furthermore, I am one binder and one file drawer away from processing the collection to its completion.

At Dr. Cecilia Salvatore’s archives seminar on Tuesday, July 24^th, we discussed the topic of donor relations and outreach. As part of the seminar, she asked us to complete an exercise where we each devised a strategy or plan for convincing donors to entrust their collections to our repositories—hypothetically speaking. We also talked about the role the Society of American Archivists' Code of Ethics for Archivists and Core Values of Archivists play in establishing trust or “good faith” between an archival repository and a potential donor. 

On Wednesday, July 25^th, I completed of a PowerPoint presentation based on slides created by each IMLS Fellow; which we presented at The HistoryMakers’ Board of Directors meeting. I was very proud of the way all of us worked together in preparation for the meeting. I was also happy that we had been asked to present at such an important occasion.

The topic of this Wednesday’s African American history lecture with Dr. Christopher Reed was World War II and the Freedom Movement, 1954-1965. He discussed increased African American interest in global matters; African American participation in the Second World War; as well as racism in America and xenophobia abroad. Dr. Reed noted the March on Washington’s effectiveness in getting the president to issue an executive order for wartime employment. The president’s order had both immediate impact and a lasting one on employment opportunities for future generations. With regards to the Freedom Movement, we discussed the multidimensional phases of black protest in the 1950s and 1960s: from the boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama to demonstrations in Little Rock, Arkansas to the protests following the murder of Emmett Till and riots in Watts, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Reed also remarked on how President Harry S. Truman’s Administration (1945-1953) was able to produce changes that effected black life in an enormously positive way. Dr. Reed’s discussion of Truman's response to the needs of black Americans reminded me of the photograph Dr. Jacqueline Goldsby showed fellows during her lecture on “Mapping the Stacks”. The image featured Harry S. Truman, John H. Sengstacke and Richard J. Daley at the 1956 Bud Billiken parade. The parade was first held in 1929 and was named after the fictional editor of the Defender's children's section; and by mid-century the annual parade was one of the largest gatherings of African Americans in the United States.

Ardra Whitney
IMLS Fellow
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture

Chaitra Powell: Week 8 @ The HistoryMakers

This week at The HistoryMakers was full of tours and presentations. On Monday, we joined the NEH teachers for a black history tour of Chicago’s Southside. Our guide was Tony Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs pointed out important landmarks and told the stories of why they were significant. The statue that marks the northern border of Bronzeville is a black man with a suitcase, it is composed of discarded shoe soles and the surrounding suitcases are authentically preserved. Mr. Burroughs showed us the field near U.S. Cellular Field where the Negro leagues used to play. An interesting fact is that people used to get dressed up in their Sunday best to go to baseball games. In terms of collective memory, Jackie Robinson and the integration of baseball could be seen as a positive or a negative thing. Was the integration about bringing racial unity to the sport or absorbing the money that blacks were spending at the ballpark? The recruitment of the best black ball players without the black coaches, black club owners or black umpires fractured the culture of black baseball. A few weeks ago, I was watching parts of Ken Burn’s documentary on baseball and many black baseball players, including Jackie Robinson, have felt a sense of disenfranchisement within the major leagues from being unrepresented in the leadership of the sport. 

We also visited the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College on Friday. We met with the archivists, Laura Lee Moses and Suzanne Flandreau, and learned more about their collection Compared to our other tours, the staff at the CBMR gave a pragmatic session on how they deal with demonstrating their relevance, protecting themselves from copyright issues and migrating their collection from one medium to another. The executive director, Monica O’Connell took time to tell us about the institutional politics that are playing out at Columbia College today in terms of the existence of the CBMR. She explained how she spoke to a college administrator who essentially told her that archives are “irrelevant and dusty”. Sometimes, I feel like people really are in the Matrix, they don’t realize that their conditioning is conditioned. We need primary source documents to help us understand how the world came to be the way that it is. We need archivists that are trained to be inclusive recognize their own bias and how to minimize it. That is so rare; most professions train their recruits to promote a certain agenda or perspective. Monica concluded that working in cultural heritage institutions can easily be seen as a form of activism.

On Tuesday, we had the pleasure of listening to Ardra’s presentation to her host repository (Avery Repository) in Charleston, South Carolina. Ardra’s new supervisor will be Georgette Mayo. Ms. Mayo seemed very nice and enthusiastic about Ardra’s arrival at Avery. On Wednesday, Alex entertained us with his presentation on the Maryland State Archives which is located in Annapolis, Maryland. His new supervisor, Chris Haley was the founder of the Legacy of Slavery Project that Alex will be working on for the remainder of the fellowship. I applaud Alex and Ardra for taking the first attempts at a high stakes presentation. I have learned a lot from their efforts which will make my subsequent presentation better than it would have been. The 2012-2013 fellows also introduced ourselves to members of the HistoryMakers board of directors, presented on our progress in the program. I was pleased that as diverse as we are in style and attitude, we put together a cohesive presentation in 20 minutes, and executed it without any problems. Dr. Salvatore lectured on the importance of donor relations and outreach within the archives. Dr. Reed helped us to elaborate on our knowledge of black Chicago gleaned from Mr. Burroughs black history tour. We also talked about what was happening with African Americans during World War II. In any free time, Skyla and I continued to work on the special collections for Valerie Simpson and Eartha Kitt.   

Amanda J. Carter: Week 8 (July 23-27, 2012) @ the HistoryMakers

Bronzeville

Lots of excited this week!  We began with a Chicago Black History Tour bus ride of the Southside and Bronzeville led by genealogist Tony Burroughs.  He was very informative as we visited locations ranging from Wabash Avenue YMCA to the first office building of the Chicago Defender with stops by the homes of those such as Louis Armstrong and Gwendolyn Brooks along the way.  I love tours, site visits, and field trips, so this was a great experience. 

On Tuesday, Dr. Cecilia Salvatore helped us to better understand donor relations and outreach by role-playing scenarios where we try to convince a prospective donor to leave his or her collection with our host repository.  For me, the most difficult aspect of donor relations would be the occasional need to ask the donors for financial support along with their collection of materials.  Since we are already requesting something so personally valuable, it seems like it could be a bit presumptive, or at the least awkward, to ask for a financial contribution, as well.  However, I do see the need to move beyond that trepidation because it is imperative to be able to supply appropriate housing conditions for the materials so that the collection can be preserved for as long as possible.  

After our archival discussion, we attended Ardra Whitney’s participation plan presentation.  I did not know the history of the Avery Research Center, so I found that interesting.  We then went into a long meeting with Julieanna Richardson about the expectations and standards to which we Fellows are being held.  Finally, at the end of the day we discovered that we had a group presentation the next day so the IMLS Fellows came together and developed a powerpoint presentation that reviewed our progress over the last two months.  Wednesday was extremely busy and exciting since we had Alex’s entertaining and informative participation plan presentation followed by Dr. Christopher Reed’s African American History lecture on World War II and the Civil Rights Movement followed by the group presentation to the Board of Directors at The HistoryMakers. 

Friday presented another wonderful field trip to Columbia College Center for Black Music Research.  I really appreciate the archivists’ frank discussion of the recent dangers of budget-cuts which is an unfortunate yet prevalent issue in academic archives in this day and age.  Sharing their backgrounds and the history of the CBMR was fascinating, as well.  I really admire these women and their efforts to sustain such an imperative archive of materials.  The collections they hold are so valuable for any research studying music or even spoken word.  They even had a redacted copy of Paul Robeson’s FBI record which demonstrates the depth and breathe of their collections.  How often we forget that archives can contain materials far and beyond what the imagination considers. 

Just a few of the interesting artifacts at the Center for Black Music Research.

In between the tours, meetings, lectures, discussions, and impromptu meetings (i.e. all day Thursday and a few hours each of the other days), Cynthia and I continued to work on our special collections.  Early Monday I was able to finish An Evening With Colin Powell.  We easily moved on to An Evening With Della Reese, but her collection proved quite expansive and included other records pertaining to Atlanta, where the event was held, but not necessarily to the event itself.  To distinguish the event among many papers of hopeful events and a Coca-Cola Luncheon proved extremely difficult and time-consuming.  However, we finished it by the end of the week and prepared some of the extraneous materials for a Coca-Cola Luncheon collection. 

Week 8 was a very exciting week filled with tours, field trips, meetings, and presentations while special collections work seemed to fill in the gaps.  On Saturday, a few of the Fellows and one of the teachers from the NEH summer program met up at the Southside Community Arts Center to watch IMLS Fellow Skyla Hearn interview Barbara Jones-Hogu during the last session of Art of a Community Speaks Across Generations.  Skyla did a fabulous job and I really enjoyed being a part of that experience.  Chaitra, Cynthia, and I then went to Ghanafest 2012 at George Washington Park.  It was great fun!

Art of Community Speaks Across Generations at SCAC

Next week we will visit the Chicago branch of the National Archives and Records Administration.  I have visited the one in Washington, D.C., previously, so I look forward to the ability to compare and contrast.  The rest of the week will also have the normal lectures and a meeting about our SAA conference trip, but it appears that we will have much more time to work on our special collections and to complete my presentation.  I still have a few tweaks to my own participation plan presentation but at least I have been able to set my presentation date for August 16. 

Until next week…

Amanda J. Carter
Franklin Library, Fisk University
2012-2013 The HistoryMakers IMLS Fellow

Cynthia Lovett: Week 7 @ The HistoryMakers

On Monday, after receiving evaluation corrections, I completed several finding aids.  For the remainder week, I worked with IMLS fellow, Amanda Carter, on processing special collections.  We processed the papers for An Evening With Richard Parsons and An Evening With Colin Powell.  It is interesting how much can be learned about what it takes to create these events by examining and organizing these papers.

In our archival seminar, we discussed library science information theories such as Brenda Dervin’s Sensemaking, Elfreda Chatman’s Information Poverty, and Mark Granovetter’s Theory of Weak Ties.  Professor Salvatore asked us to think about how these theories can relate to information seekers within the context of archives.

In Dr. Christopher Reed’s African American history seminar, we talked about artists of the Harlem Renaissance, the Chicago Renaissance, Jazz and Bebop, and the WPA.

We also had a session with Yale University Professor, Jaqueline Goldsby, who gave us a presentation on the Mapping the Stacks project.  Goldsby emphasized that the challenges we face are an opportunity, because many of the problems being solved for African American archives will become pioneering methods for all archives.

Special Collections: Alex Champion's Hard 7

The Society of American Archivists conference, which titillates a part of my brain devoted to professional development, is just a few weeks away however I felt the familiar sensation weeks earlier than usual. The regular archival processing of the “The HistoryMakers Presents an Evening With…” special collections—a term I’ve yet to make peace with—was the cause this excitement, albeit indirectly. The entire processing project was harmed by the absence of Executive Director Julieanna Richardson and Digital Archivist Dan Johnson. The collections were very well filed, perhaps even too well, and the IMLS fellows compiled, refilled, and labeled folders according an enumerative code based on existing filing practices. This code emphasizes subject or content first and format second but the exceptions to these rules often seem arbitrary; The Fundraising series for example has significant granularity for the Sponsors subseries and covers Fundraising-Sponsors… Acceptances, Declines, Comp Tickets, Thank-Yous, and other pertinent sub-series

Chaitra and Skyla debate the virtues of placement

Problems arise between these neatly identified units because said records were maintained in subject files then stapled; frequently thank-yous for one sponsor are attached their acceptance acceptance letters or printed e-mails. Another problem is that acceptance letters frequently do not exist and sponsorship mailings must be verified against the program book. One intriguing Fundraising category is the newly enlarged Sponsor, Trade subseries; this category was originally created by Dan Johnson to differentiate big game corporate sponsorship that comped airfare, limousine service, or food and drink totaling in the thousands of dollars from the smaller fish to donated sandwiches for the volunteers. The former received a plug in the program book, naturally. It was a logical separation that is reflected in the original order. From Boston, Via iPhone, Julieanna lumped the latter into the former and, through a series of conversational e-mails, decided the folders will receive item level arrangement to separate all sponsors by donor category. We must now examine all sponsor donations at the item level and separate them based on dollar amount of donation. We have a half dozen other often contradictory instructions pertaining to item level processing. What can you expect when the first person you would consult is taking a well deserved vacation and the other works remotely from Boston as she attends a non-profit management workshop? The entire special collections project is still in its toddlerhood and was not prepared for the brunt of six recent MLS graduates to discuss the merits of every placement.  It would be unfair to complain about the sonorous Mississippi accent of my peer Amanda and the quietly pleasant tone of Cynthia but their conversations on the merits of one arrangement or another is like a conversation on a bus or a cellphone call in a restaurant. I occasionally tune it out but it’s always on the back of my mind. An entire week of such debate deadened my receptors. I needed stimulus. 

Our Wednesday meeting with Jacqui Goldsby awoke me from my processing delirium and carried me over until Friday. Although not an archivist by profession, Professor Goldsby discussed her eight year experience creating and administering the Mapping the Stacks project, which  sought to expose underdescribed manuscripts and corporate records concerning black Chicago. Funded by a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, the project focused black cultural contributions of black Chicagoans from the 1930s to 1970s. Over those years, Goldsby and a team of University of Chicago Ph.D. candidates received archival training and processed and electronically encoded finding aids for over 30 archival collections on their project’s database Website; “Uncovering the Chicago Archives” or “UnCap” allows researchers to browse collection finding aids by institution or keyword search. Normally such a site would be just another research project that is created and then immediately neglected but UnCap is sustained by the University of Chicago and even gained another participating repository.

Dr. Goldsby, in her awesome glory

The passion Dr. Goldsby has for black Chicago’s history is evident. Every unique experience at the Du Sable Museum, the Vivian Harsh Collection, the Chicago Defender, and the South Side Community Art Center challenged her in new and exciting ways. The Du Sable, being a museum, did not have significant control over its manuscripts and The Chicago Defender wished to use its collection of images for licensing. The Du Sable allowed her free reign in their chaotic records but the Defender archive posed different problems. Contrary to what you might expect from an academic, Goldsby approved of their for profit goals on principle; she simply did not want her project’s mission to be undermined and obfuscated by exclusionary behavior. She repeatedly claimed, almost in frustration, that there had to be a for profit model for black archives to sustain themselves.  

 I was very impressed by her fair criticism and commentary on the project’s development. She frequently highlighted managerial topics pertaining to the administration of the project. She emphasized the importance of transparency and recognition of self interest; as an arts historian, MTS was Goldsby’s labor of love that relied on support from persons with less enthusiasm than she. The participating institutions and repositories were eager to have people make sense of their records and the Ph.D. students themselves often used the project simply to find research topics.

Dr. Goldsby from a different perspective

Goldsby’s acceptance of these frank admissions and was startling to say the least. Throughout our four hour session she emphasized the importance of the The HistoryMakers IMLS fellowship in training, mentoring, and placing talented archivists interested in black collections; she was like our Julieanna Richardson in archivist form. She recoiled at the memories of poorly described, deteriorating, but culturally valuable materials in a manner I’ve only seen archives students perform. She took their poor condition almost as a personal affront! Like Julieanna Richardson, Professor Goldsby did not need to be an archivist to understand the tragedy of this destruction-by-negligence.    

 It was a very exciting session that carried me over throughout the week. It gave me high hopes of completing a project that I could present to SAA 2013. My initial feelers do not bode well for the outcome but I will keep trying until all options and cajoling are exhausted.

Skyla S. Hearn: Week Seven at The HistoryMakers

Bobby Broom
Performance at the Jazz Showcase on Printer's Row
Skylah.Sensahrae2012

I am of the profound belief that nothing is for its own sake. For example, art is not for art's sake. I also like to practice exercises to prove various theories to myself such as at times I feel I can hear better with my eyes closed so I sit and listen to live music with my eyes closed. Saturday night I attended the CD release party for Bobby Broom at the Jazz Showcase and enjoyed the show quite a lot---with opened eyes. At times I was mesmerized by distractions. The piano bench sat inanimate, as it is, but especially since the band didn't have a piano player. The last time I remember being at the Jazz Showcase the bench was illuminated along with the piano by a captivating pianist, ChrisRob, who sat on it and played along with the other members of the Maurice Brown Quintet. As I mentioned, I actively engage in participating in activities with my eyes closed but what of the activities that rely on ones eyes being opened and accompanied by ones mind being open and active as well. For example, when a researcher is scouring for information in the archives they rely on the Archivist's expertise of the plethora of knowledge within the research institution. But what if the expertise of the Archivist doesn't extend enough or expose enough of the knowledge held within the collections to include knowledge of all the well-known persons nestled within the collections of their colleagues, adversaries, etc.? What if the Archivists are unyielding to exercise objectivity? What if they just simply aren't aware? Is that even possible...hmmm....

Professor Goldsby discussing Mapping the Stacks

Readings for Professor Goldsby's Lecture

Professor Goldsby, Project Director of the Mapping the Stacks: A Guide to Black Chicago's Hidden Archives Initiative, exclaimed during her lecture on Wednesday "Oh, the histories we could tell..." when we discussed all the unprocessed African Diaspora or Africanesque (as she referred to them) collections that are sitting idly waiting to be touched by well-trained and 'loving' fingers---the latter romantic spill was my own exaggeration of the vocation although on many levels I feel we love what we do therefore we love the content we organize, preserve and provide public access to. For example, if during an expedition to uncover an unsolicited find I discover that a well known author, artist, etc. who is nestled within the papers of another well known author, artist, etc. is buried---as in the action applied to something that once bred life--a body, ideology, entity of life. Buried in the collection of a colleague or a loosely related or relative subject matter, awaiting the opportunity of happenstance.  The diversification of archives by archivists with varied backgrounds who represent various ethnicities and cultures collectively provide access to a world of information previously unknown and unfortunately unfamiliar to many. Fortunately, the amount of collections awaiting the magic moment of happenstance will become incorporated into the world of known, celebrated and familiar information. Yes, yes Professor Goldsby, there ARE stories we will aid in the telling of! And yes, I was in awe, sitting in the first row and extremely attentive with chin in palm the entire time she sat and discussed Mapping the Stacks! What brilliance! 

In regular news, I was told in so many words that I was long-winded during the African American lecture on The Harlem Renaissance and The Great Depression with Dr. Reed. I couldn't help myself not that I would if I could--never been able to contain myself when Marcus Garvey is a part of the discussion. The latter part of the name of The HistoryMakers Fellowship, Mentoring, Training and Placement Institute... has spoken volumes to me in that the guest lecturers have been mentors and provided training as a part of the institute. It keeps getting better and I'm sure it'll get better yet! 

In exciting office-related news, Chaitra Powell, a fellow Fellow and I processed three An Evening With... collections for Diahann Carroll, Dionne Warwick and Valerie Simpson (In Honor of Nick Ashford). The change of pace is duly noted and well appreciated in that we are able to partner up and work together to hash out questions and to make suggestions about the process for developing the records management system for The HistoryMakers Special Collection archive. Although we are partnered, we engage in opportunities for group discussions about our separate processes. So wonderful to be engaged in the learning, teaching, and growing taking place within the fellowship of my fellow Fellows.