The last three weeks at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library/Vivian G. Harsh Research Center have been really good to me. As you know by now, the Fellows including myself have all began to work at our host repositories. We have all assumed the roles as archivists and officially began our vocations. My role at the Woodson/Harsh is dual. I work as an Archivist with the Harsh Archival Processing Project and as a Reference Archivist or more familiarly, Reference Librarian for the Woodson Regional Library. As an archivist, I am processing the photograph collection of Reverend Claude and Reverence Addie L. Wyatt, the Dempsey Travis Manuscript Collection and the Clementine Skinner Papers. In addition, I will cover the Reference desk two hours daily in addition to other archival reference duties and responsibilities.
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| Week One: Warm Welcome |
Week One: The first day on the job began with a warm welcome from one of my supervisors over the next nine months, Ms. Beverly Cook, Archivist and Reference Librarian, when I arrived at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library at 8:30am Tuesday morning. When I walked through the front doors I immediately felt that I was walking amongst greatness. The Carter G. Woodson Regional Library houses the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American Literature and History, which is also referred to as the Harsh Research Center. The Harsh holds the largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest and contains a wealth of precious documentation of the black experience, which places a strong focus on African American history in Illinois. To peruse the list of finding aids please visit our site: http://www.chipublib.org/branch/details/library/woodson-regional/p/FeatHarsh/.
After my brief meeting with Ms. Cook, I joined the Harsh Archival Processing Project Team (Jeanie, Kai, Tracey and Michael) in the Processing Room where I received warm welcomes and exchanged morning pleasantries. Mr. Michael Flug, retired Head Archivist now Harsh Archival Processing Project Director directed me to my tables, which were labeled with name (!) and held a copy of SAA's "Arrangement and Description" manual. He then pulled up two chairs placed one on each side of the table, grabbed the book, looked me in the eyes and told me to digest it. We then discussed my responsibilities and roles for the next nine months of the fellowship. Over the next few days I toured the facility, met staff in other departments, familiarized myself with the stacks and most importantly conducted a "Test-the-Sort" of my three collections.
Week Two: After "Testing-the-Sort", which means to check the preliminary sort previously conducted on a collection by an archivist or intern, for the Reverend Claude and Reverend Addie L. Wyatt Photograph Collection I created categories, which would fall into three main series, to organize the photos. The collection is immense, consisting of about 2,500 images, and has no provenance and little identification. I decided to sort the photographs according to relationship and era. The first set of images would show family and friendship photos from the 1940s through the 2000s. When possible, I would attribute information to answer (1)Who, (2)What, (3)Where and (4)When. Since the majority of the photos do not have written information, I have derived a list of criteria based on the content within the image and the photograph (as an object), which sometimes provides the location (Where), the subjects (Who), the type of photo and material: Portrait, postcard, snapshot, professional, Polaroid, black & white, color, etc. (When, What). The combination has helped me to partially and in some cases fully identify hundreds of photographs. In addition to the arrangement of the photographs, we, Mr. Flug and I, are in the process of organizing a photo identification team of family, church members and friends of the Wyatts to aid in the identification process. I am processing this collection of photographs, which will have an accompanying finding aid in addition to being the subject of a photo exhibition on the lives of the Wyatt's.
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| The Arrangement Begins! |
Week Two: After "Testing-the-Sort", which means to check the preliminary sort previously conducted on a collection by an archivist or intern, for the Reverend Claude and Reverend Addie L. Wyatt Photograph Collection I created categories, which would fall into three main series, to organize the photos. The collection is immense, consisting of about 2,500 images, and has no provenance and little identification. I decided to sort the photographs according to relationship and era. The first set of images would show family and friendship photos from the 1940s through the 2000s. When possible, I would attribute information to answer (1)Who, (2)What, (3)Where and (4)When. Since the majority of the photos do not have written information, I have derived a list of criteria based on the content within the image and the photograph (as an object), which sometimes provides the location (Where), the subjects (Who), the type of photo and material: Portrait, postcard, snapshot, professional, Polaroid, black & white, color, etc. (When, What). The combination has helped me to partially and in some cases fully identify hundreds of photographs. In addition to the arrangement of the photographs, we, Mr. Flug and I, are in the process of organizing a photo identification team of family, church members and friends of the Wyatts to aid in the identification process. I am processing this collection of photographs, which will have an accompanying finding aid in addition to being the subject of a photo exhibition on the lives of the Wyatt's.
After a few days of sorting photographs I made a discovery! I ran across a picture of a woman surrounded by a group of children on the Vernon Park Church of God front steps. (The Wyatt's began the Vernon Park Church of God (VPCOG) in 1955. I am proud to admit that I am very familiar with the family, the family home and church---all from making connections with the content of the photographs!) One of the children closest to the woman looked like an elementary school classmate of mine. I thought to myself how cute the little boy was and stored the idea that he might be my classmate in the back of my mind. After looking at about a hundred or so photos and getting no where I decided to take a trip to the stacks. Guided by the finding aid, which was processed by Marcia Walker of Mapping the Stacks, I pulled a box with numerous obituaries. What a treasure! I made many family connections and discovered in my research that the little boy was actually my classmate and that his grandfather was Reverend Claude Wyatt's brother!!! I immediately got on Facebook (smh/lol) and put out an S.O.S. for the little boy now grown man. Within moments mutual friends responded to my request, mainly questioning my reason for wanting to contact the guy, i.e. being "nosey" but within the day a friend responded with his contact information. I eagerly waited a few days for "the little boy" to call me back. I couldn't wait to tell him that I'd "discovered" him in his family's archive and to ask his assistance with id-ing the photos from his generation. By Thursday I'd almost forgotten about him when the phone rang...I was so excited to hear from him only to be slightly disappointed when he informed me that he wouldn't be of much help but I was perked up again when he told me his mom would LOVE to help out. He put me in contact with her. She and I scheduled a date...
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| Week 3: Established Groove |
Week Three: Its Working! I love my job! Its like my ministry. I didn't come up with that last line. A friend responded with that comment when I "checked for attentiveness" during our conversation. Its really easy to get carried away talking about my work, talking about my work all the time and building connections between the importance of archives and everyday life, etc. I have to approach conversations about my work with 30 second intros, another 30 second follow-up, followed by another 30 seconds to insure that my "captive" audience is interested and attentive. He assured me that he loved listening to me talk about my work and that it was like my ministry, which I found quite comical (and true).
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| End of Week 3: 10 Family Photo Boxes Processed |
As a result of possessing the skill to "read" photographs and my trip through the Wyatt Papers, I have partially labeled approximately 500 "personal" photographs (10 archival boxes) with dates ranging from the 1940s through the 2000s. I'll be ready for the upcoming photo id session with my classmate's mother. The more I make connections with findings within the archives the more I realize the importance of my role as an archivist, which is to bring people's "stuff" aka precious archival materials to life!
Maybe one day I'll find my "missing link" but until then I'll keep processing so that others can find theirs.
Glimpse Into Week Four: My partner shared a story with my daughter, which he'd previously shared with me. Hearing the recount energized me as I thought about my upcoming week at work and the possible discoveries I'll make. He shared with her how his good friend found information on his family, who were indentured servants sent to the West Indies from India. From his research, my partner's friend was able to locate the village in India where his family had been sent from. He then visited the village, met distant relatives and later permanently moved to India, his original homeland.
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| The aMAHzing Fatoumata Diawara |
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| Fatoumata et I |
The incessant need to address those thoughts and questions may be the path that lead me to become an archivist...
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