Ardra Whitney: Week 35 @ Avery Research Center

 

Monday, April 29^th - Tuesday, April 30^th:

I continued my work on the Virginia Geraty Papers by removing the metal spiral bindings from the collection’s 227 notebooks and foldering them individually. On Tuesday afternoon, I attended Avery’s weekly staff meeting where we discussed: collection and historic property assessment grants, opportunities to present on Avery’s archival collections, developing a free people of color and Philip Simmons walking tour app in partnership with Lowcountry Digital Library, educational tours and visits, Avery’s summer internship program, hanging the Cox family plaques for public viewing, recent acquisitions to Avery’s archives, and the deadline for Avery Messenger submissions—the Center’s quarterly newsletter. Before concluding my day, I contacted James Auclair at WBGH Stock Sales to inquire about using a screen shot of the Abolitionist Map of America as part of my Archivists and Archives of Color Roundtable (AACR) Newsletter article submission.

Wednesday, May 1^st - Friday, May 3^rd:

In the latter half of the week, I updated Avery’s Facebook and Twitter pages with posts pertaining to African American history, culture and current events. For example, since May starts off graduation season in the U.S., I shared an article on Facebook about Architect, Philip Freelon—lead designer for the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.—delivering the commencement address at his alma mater, North Carolina State University. I also continued drafting the finding aid for the Virginia Geraty Papers; researching Library of Congress subject headings and filling in the collection arrangement section. On Friday, I submitted the article I had written on my interview with Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring and his digitization work for Abolitionist Map of America project to the AACR Newsletter Editor, Stacie Williams. A day prior to e-mailing the article, I took a few snapshots of Mr. Spelbring in front of Avery’s digital scanning workstation to include with the submission. After the photo session (lol), I had the pleasure of viewing the tribute book from the Craft and Crum Families collection, which Mr. Spelbring had mentioned during our interview. I asked to see it because he said it contained the signature of noted abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe. When he showed me Stowe’s signature, I was in awe. The opportunity to observe this important and valuable piece of history reinforced for me how truly awesome and rewarding it is to be an archivist.