Last week, I finished the “Community Involvement” series, wrote the scope note, and added the section to the finding aid. This series presented some fascinating finds, most of which involved Nashville’s African American community in the early to mid-twentieth century. Subseries include “Agora Assembly,” “American Red Cross Negro Division,” “Community Services Commission,” “National Technical Association,” and “Stockholder Information.”
Next, I began working on the “Newspaper Clippings” series. There are a variety of clippings conserved in
a few different ways. Unfortunately,
some of the clippings seem extremely fragile so special care will need to be
taken if we are to retain them. The
clippings are being divided by a very general subject matter, including
“People,” “Projects,” and
“Schools.” Unfortunately, the clippings
do not always identify the publication from where they were clipped nor do they
list the date, so I am trying to research them, but I am not verifying as much as
I would like. Regardless, this series
will be completed shortly which will leave about four final boxes to go through
containing photographs, realia, and miscellaneous materials. I’m getting closer and closer to the end!
Interesting Finds
Nearly everything in the “Community Involvement” series was
fascinating. There were only a few documents
for the Agora Assembly and, likewise, I was only able to find a little
background information on the organization.
It seems they were an elite African American civic social club in
Nashville in the mid-twentieth century.
The Red Cross papers seem to document a fundraising drive from 1952 and
include donation paperwork as well as people around the Nashville area who
either contributed or volunteered. The Community Services Commission is by far the most well-documented of this series. Memoranda, meeting notes, correspondence, and even the final report are included. This commission was established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1951 in order to consider solutions to public service delivery problems in Nashville and Davidson County. Topics of interest include public hospitals, transportation, schools, and other city maintenance issues. The final report, published in 1952, presents a fascinating snapshot of Nashville in the middle of the twentieth century.
The National Technical Association was established in the 1920s as an organization for minorities in the fields of engineering and technology. There are two binders of convention minutes and reports dating from 1948 through 1950 in this collection, although much of the information within the binders seems to be administrative data.
The final portion of this series is stockholder information. While the other sections pertained to Calvin McKissack’s activities, Moses McKissack was the stockholder for the Tri-State Bank of Memphis and the Universal Life Insurance Company, two black-owned businesses started in Memphis, Tennessee.
Newsletter Contributions
Last Friday, May 3, was the due date to submit an article to spring AAC Roundtable newsletter. The fellows decided to each submit a piece about their fellowship experience, much like last the fellows did last year. I discussed the McKissack collection and the important and fascinating documents that it holds. I am so excited that this collection will soon be open and accessible for researchers!
Until next time,
Amanda J. Carter
Franklin Library, Fisk University
IMLS HistoryMakers Fellow 2012-2013
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