Ardra Whitney: Week 20 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, January 14^th - Tuesday, January 15^th:

I started off the week by continuing my survey of the Virginia Geraty Papers. On Tuesday, Assistant Director, Deborah Wright asked me to do a post on Facebook for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday using materials from Avery’s archives. She suggested that I look at the Septima P. Clark Papers for some items to highlight; so along with Graduate Assistant, Daron Calhoun II, I searched the collection’s finding aid and then went to the archival storage room on the second floor to sift through a couple of manuscript boxes. After Daron and I made our selection of materials, I digitized them and uploaded the images to Facebook. You can view the results here. During the 1950s and 60s, Dr. King worked together with Charleston civil rights leader, Septima P. Clark, as well as local activist, Esau Jenkins — and was good friends with the pair. Additionally, I posted a link to Avery’s Twitter page of the “Martin Luther King speech in Charleston, SC 1967—outtakes” from USC’s Digital Video Repository.

At lunchtime, I corresponded with Administrative Assistant of CofC’s International & Intercultural Studies Department, Lauren Saulino about publicizing Avery’s inaugural undergraduate essay contest. Ms. Saulino was kind enough to share information about the contest via e-mail, on Facebook and the College’s African American Studies Blog.

Wednesday, January 16^th:

Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo and I returned to our discussion concerning African American women’s clubs in Charleston; this time focusing specifically on the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club, and conducting oral history interviews with members of the group. Ms. Mayo discussed the history of the social club with me; showed me photos of its members and provided me with pertinent items from Avery’s archival collection, the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club Papers, to aid in my task of developing oral history questions and contacting members of the group for interviews.

At last week’s archival staff meeting, Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring suggested I contact Addlestone Library’s Digital Scholarship Librarian, Heather Gilbert to get some feedback on possible web platforms to host the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project. So later in the day I called Ms. Gilbert up to share some of my ideas for the project with her and she graciously agreed to meet with me to discuss them further. Yay!

By the afternoon I had begun work on my interview evaluation for the late Florida Yeldell, a history professor born in Georgetown, South Carolina.

Thursday, January 17^th - Friday, January 18^th:

On Thursday, I completed evaluating three out of four tapes from Florida Yeldell’s video oral history interview and concluded the day by assisting Curator, Curtis J. Franks and Education Outreach Coordinator, Shelia Harell-Roye with preparation for the “Eternal Vigilantes: The Art of Karole Turner Campbell” exhibit opening. On Friday, I continued work on the finding aid for the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records and attended Avery’s weekly all staff meeting.