While it has only been a week or two since my last blog
post, it feels like an eternity. I have
completed the summer immersion training program and am now at Franklin Library, Fisk University. To be honest, I never realized how much I
love working in a library until I arrived here last Tuesday. Fisk
University is an amazing institution and I am so grateful that I have been
chosen to spend the next nine months processing collections here.
The week before last, I was moving from Chicago to Nashville (Middle
Tennessee) which means I had to retrieve my car and my belongings from East
Tennessee. That took most of the week,
so by the time Tuesday, September 4, rolled around, I had barely made a path
through the boxes to the door so that I could leave for work. Once I arrived at Franklin Library, I met
with Dr.
Jessie Carney Smith who gave me a brief orientation and introduced me to
the staff of
the library. Everyone was so nice and
welcoming, I almost immediately felt at home.
Mr. Jason Harrison, Dr. Smith’s assistant, gave me a tour of the library
and the beautiful campus.
By Monday afternoon I was able to begin looking through the
collection I will be processing: William McKissack Papers.
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| A portion of my project |
McKissack &
McKissack is the first African American architectural and engineering firm
in the United States, so it is a great honor to have the opportunity to process
the papers of this collection. I spent
the rest of the afternoon and the next day reviewing the collection in order to
determine the best and most efficient means of processing it. On Wednesday, I had to pause a few times for
some conference calls, but I was able to look through about half of the
collection which helped me to gain a better understanding of how to approach
it. On Thursday, I went through one box
to refolder and removed staples and paperclips from the documents. This helped to give me an idea of how long
that portion of the processing will take.
This week I will be meeting with Ms. Mattie McHollin to determine a
timeline to help keep me on track as I process this collection.
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| as well as my hands (even the knuckles were black). |
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| Gloves help to protect the collection... |
I have already discovered a few interesting artifacts in
this collection. Not only are there a
plethora of blueprints of the projects they completed across the South, but I
also found a business card for Moses McKissack that is so old it only has a
5-digit telephone number (at least mid-twentieth century). Many
photographs are held in the collection, and one of them appears to be a
medium-sized tintype of a lady assumed to be the matriarch of the family. Those are my favorite finds from my brief
review. I look forward to finding more
interesting items as I process the collection in more detail.
Until next week…
Amanda J.
Carter
Franklin
Library, Fisk University
IMLS
HistoryMakers Fellow 2012-2013
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