The statement "All good collections don't make good exhibits" agitatedly escaped the lips of my self appointed curmudgeonly comrade. I understood what he meant but was somewhat dismayed since I'd spent the last two months or so selecting images, like 139 photographs, that I thought would suffice for the visual representation needed to accompany the text panels used in the exhibit to highlight the great legacy of the life of Reverend Addie L. Wyatt. How narcissistic of me... Photographs are only a part, albeit significant, of an exhibit. Documents, clothing, plaques, awards, and other objects are vital as well in providing a complete account of the story the curator, archivist, historian, and so forth attempt to convey when educating the public about the subject(s) of the exhibit. With this being said, I didn't need to go back "to the drawing board" but to the stacks to find some letters, booklets, programs and so on to accompany the photos and text panels. After many trips up and down the stairs, to and from the stacks, we were able to complete ten of the eleven sections. Throughout the course of the day, I felt nutty but not because my co-worker was driving me batty, which he really wasn't, but because I realized I was working with someone with similar characteristics as myself. Other than the short cereal break around 2pm, we committed ourselves to completing the day's tasks before going home. We accomplished our mission with complete sanity, a few jokes and well wishes for the remaining evening.
Shameless Plug: Huge Shout-Out to Aaisha Haykal, University Archivist, at Chicago State University. Aaisha and her team organized the conference "Black Self-Determination through Health Care and Nursing: The Provident Hospital Training School" which took place on CSU's campus, which is located at 9500 S. King Drive, in Chicago. The Conference was sponsored by the Chicago State University Archives and Special Collections and the CSU Library. Aaisha is an inspiration and example of what dedication and hard work can accomplish.
The half-day conference consisted of two panel discussions, an exhibit of materials from collections of Provident Hospital and the Black Nurse Association archival collections, and a reception. I was able to attend both panel discussions and to view the exhibit. Both discussions were lead by health care professionals, advocates and educators. To name a few, Dr. Berlean Burns, Dr. Annie Lawrence Brown, Dr. Carol Alexander, Professor Conway-Phillips, Mr. Girotti and Mr. Lyons. Another highlight of attending the conference was meeting Mrs. Gillespie, a retired health care professional and current historian for the PLR (Patricia Liddell Researchers). If you recall, I presented to the PLR a few weeks ago at the Harsh Research Center. Mrs. Gillespie remembered me from the presentation. What a small world!
Day Off? What is that?! As I've mentioned, I have volunteered to be a Chicago Metro History Fair coach and judge. We, at the Harsh, were contacted by Mrs. Maral, a public school high school teacher, to assist with some of her students currently working on CMHF projects. She informed us that ten of the students wanted to work in the Archives and the rest in another department of the library. I was asked to give an introductory presentation to the students on the Archives and to assist with their projects. I dutifully obliged. The students had some really interesting topics from Idlewild to Abortion. They explored the files, boxes and photographs well over their initial two hour time frame to find some interesting and useful information for their projects. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and their discoveries. I was more than proud of them for not only their ability to conduct research like college students but for embracing the rich histories stored in the archives. It goes without saying even though I will, I was geeked to welcome them into the wonderful world of archives.
In a few days, I will be a part of an acquisitions trip to acquire the remainder of one of the archival collections we currently house. I'm super psyched to tell you more so stay tuned!
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