Ardra Whitney: Week 30 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, March 25^th – Tuesday, March 26^th:

I began the week with continuing my work on the Virginia Geraty Papers and was invited by Curator, Curtis J. Franks to sit in on Resident Scholar, Dwana Waugh’s morning interview for Avery’s Public Historian position. In the afternoon, Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo and I gathered around the new workstation in the processing lab, where Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring provided us with a tutorial on how to use Archivists’ Toolkit (AT). Mr. Spelbring also taught us how to create records and finding aids in AT using my completed finding aid for the Friendly Union Society Records, which I prepared in NoteTab.

On Tuesday I met with Founder/Executive Director of The HistoryMakers, Julieanna Richardson for her site visit to Avery. Ms. Mayo picked her up from the airport and when she arrived at Avery, Mr. Franks took Ms. Richardson on a tour of the Center. Afterwards, she and I spoke briefly about my residency experience at Avery, as well as my plans following the fellowship. While Ms. Richardson, Ms. Mayo and Assistant Director, Deborah Wright met with one another in the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club Reading Room, I took a break from my collection processing to attend Derek Alderman’s lecture, "Pressing the RESET button on Southern Hospitality: African American Belonging and Tourism Justice." Dr. Alderman is Chair of the Geography Department at the University of Tennessee and during his lecture he touched on topics of public memory, popular culture, and heritage tourism in the U.S. South. He also proposed that African Americans could look to achieve a broader sense of social and spatial justice if they focused on commemorating their past and shaping cultural landscapes to reflect their perspectives and experiences.

Wednesday, March 27^th – Friday, March 28^th:

At half past eleven on Wednesday, I was invited by Mr. Spelbring to attend Mary Battle’s question and answer session as part of her interview for Avery’s Public Historian interview. Ms. Battle is Project Coordinator of the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative at the College of Charleston. Throughout the day I posted pertinent online articles and announcements to Avery’s Twitter page relating to our new ongoing exhibit on the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. By Friday I had completed surveying the Virginia Geraty Papers. I also touched base with Ms. Waugh and Mr. Spelbring about uploading the interviews I conducted with members of the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club to Avery’s Z: drive.