Ardra Whitney: Week 38 @ Avery Research Center

More Fellowship Extras: A photo of the topiary outside of the Family Circle Tennis Center at this year's Family Circle Cup. Scroll to the end for details.

Monday, May 20^th:

I was asked by Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring to monitor the reading room and provide reference service to a patron researching the family papers of DeCosta-Seabrook, Sterrett-Hodge and Graves for a book she’s writing. I have mostly performed virtual reference up until now, so this opportunity gave me a chance to employ my in person reference service skills to engage the researcher in a polite and friendly manner—as well as suggest other collections she might be interested in viewing, inform her about Avery’s policies concerning the reproduction of collection materials and make her overall visit a pleasant and enjoyable one. The patron explained that she was from Idaho, but had lived in Charleston at one point. She also told me about a Charleston high school she had learned about from Harlan Green, Director of Archival and Reference Services at College of Charleston, which was integrated in the 1930s (thirty-three years before Rivers High School of Charleston became know as the first racially-integrated high school in the state of South Carolina). She learned from prior research at the Post & Courier archives that the school was once located at either George or Society Street; so as part of her research at Avery, she was looking for documents  to confirm the school’s true location.  

Tuesday, May 21^st - Wednesday, May 22^nd:

On Tuesday morning I participated in an IMLS Fellows Conference Call with The HistoryMakers to discuss final reports, paychecks, employment plans/job offers, and the 2013 SAA Conference. It was great hearing from all the fellows regarding their completed or nearly completed work (*smile*) and their plans following the fellowship. I found what Woodson Regional Library’s (Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature) IMLS Fellow, Skyla Hearn and the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum’s IMLS Fellow, Chaitra Powell had to say particularly interesting. Ms. Hearn explained that she was in talks to do some consulting work at Northeastern Illinois University for the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies Archives. Also Ms. Powell will be presenting next week at “Never the Same: Symposium on Grassroots Archiving” at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts. After the meeting, I spent the rest of the day labeling and arranging folders from the Virginia Geraty Papers’ and was able to complete the collection series containing educational and instructional material.

On Wednesday, I e-mailed images of myself and from two collections which I had recently processed (i.e., The St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records and Friendly Union Society Records) to Associate Director, Deborah Wright for inclusion in Avery’s newsletter.

Thursday, May 23^rd:

At 11AM I met with Mr. Spelbring and Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo to discuss archival staff updates and my departure from Avery in conclusion of the fellowship. Afterwards, I continued labeling folders from the Virginia Geraty Papers’ notebooks sub-series with the help of Avery Scholar, Jada Brown and Front Desk Receptionist, Emma King. At 4PM I attended and participated in The HistoryMakers’ last monthly professional development conference call with the Head of Collections/Technical Services at Indiana University’s Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC), Brenda Nelson-Strauss. During the call, she discussed the many challenges of: acquiring collections from popular musicians and music artists, preserving and storing large music collections, and digitizing older audio formats. I also asked her about: the AAAMC’s collection strengths, their providing workshops to musicians on how to create and maintain personal archives, and the status of their grant program--funded by the GRAMMY Foundation--to digitize interviews from Rhythm & Blues pioneers. With regards to the Rhythm & Blues pioneers digitization project, She noted that Indiana University and Northwestern University were currently working together to code and load audio and video interviews from the project for online access using an open source discovery interface they created called Avalon Media System.

Friday, May 24^th:

I continued labeling and arranging folders from the Virginia Geraty Papers’ notebooks sub-series with the help of my two volunteers, Ms. Brown and Ms. King. Our combined efforts brought the total number of completed boxes from the collection to nine out of eleven. I also posted an audio clip from my interview with Associate Professor in Arts Management at the College of Charleston, Dr. Karen Chandler to Black in the Lowcountry’s Tumblr page. I’m really proud of how well the page turned out. :)

Fellowship Extras Continued:

I got tickets to the final tennis match of the 2013 Family Circle Cup between Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic!

Williams and Jankovic preparing for their match, which Williams won in three sets.

Ardra Whitney: Week 36 @Avery Research Center

It's gettin' to be that time...

Monday, May 6^th:

With the conclusion of the fellowship approaching, I was asked by Assistant Director, Deborah Wright to submit an essay on my residency experience at Avery Research Center for inclusion in the Center’s newsletter. I spent the weekend reflecting on my growth and development from these past eight months at Avery and reviewing old blog entries and monthly reports, so that by Monday I was able to submit the requested article to Ms. Wright—along with two brief announcements on recent collections I had processed.

Tuesday, May 7^th - Thursday, May 9^th:

Throughout the week, I continued foldering collection materials and labeling folders from the Virginia Geraty Papers. By Friday, I had completed roughly four and a half of the collection’s nine boxes. Also, in preparation for finalizing processing on the collection’s educational and instructional material series, I asked Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo about retention rules governing student work in South Carolina. The series contains Gullah language exercises completed by former students of Geraty, so I wanted to confirm whether or not I would have to separate these items for restriction in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which protects the privacy of student education records.

Friday, May 10^th:

On Friday morning, Ms. Mayo and I walked over to the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library to attend a presentation on managing 21^st century academic archives from Bobby R. Holt—a prospective candidate for the library’s Head of Special Collections position. I enjoyed Mr. Holt’s points about needing to change students’ perception of archives, as well as the importance of implementing aggressive outreach initiatives to draw students in, and building relationships with other academic libraries and archives through partnerships. After Holt’s presentation, I returned to Avery and posted photos from the C.A. Brown High School yearbooks, which had been scanned at Trident Technical College - Palmer Campus, to Black in the Lowcountry’s Tumblr page.

Ardra Whitney: Week 34 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, April 22^nd:

In the morning I sat down with Avery’s Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring to interview him about his work on the Abolitionist Map of America project—powered by Historypin. He and Lowcountry Digital Library Intern, Lauren Hess have been digitizing images from the Craft and Crum Families, 1780 – 2007 collection, since February, to contribute to the project. Mr. Spelbring explained that he was approached by producers from the television history series American Experience about a digital project/educational resource tool they were developing in conjunction with their three-part documentary film, The Abolitionists. The Avery staff decided to use the Craft and Crum Families collection, as well as the Avery Photograph Collection, circa 1890s - 2008 because those were two collections that most closely fit the aim and objectives of the project. Moreover, the Craft and Crum Families collection was specifically chosen because it is one of the collections at Avery Research Center that most reflects the abolitionist movement in America. William and Ellen Craft were slaves who met and married on a plantation in Macon, Georgia. They did not want to raise their children in slavery, so in December of 1848 the two devised a plan to escape to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ellen dressed as a man with her arm in a sling to avoid writing because both she and her husband were illiterate. She bandaged her face to hide her feminine voice and lack of facial hair—and William accompanied her as a servant. The couple arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, where they we were welcomed and assisted in their escape from slavery by well-known abolitionists. Twenty years later, the Crafts purchased Woodville Plantation in Bryan County, Georgia, where the two opened Woodville Co-Operative Farm School to educate newly-freed slaves. But the school closed for lack of funding, and in 1890 the Crafts moved to Charleston to live with their youngest daughter, Ellen Craft Crum, until their deaths. This is the Craft and Crum families’ connection to Charleston and subsequently how their papers came here to the Avery Research Center—through their descendants. Selected images from the Craft and Crum Families collection can be viewed here: http://to.pbs.org/RXRSKf, by simply typing in “Charleston” or “91 Spring Street” in the location field.

Throughout the day, I continued my collections processing work on the Virginia Geraty Papers. I had initially decided to process the collection at the series level. However, when I shared this arrangement approach with Mr. Spelbring, he instructed me to consolidate the number of series in the collection by creating sub-series. As result the collection, now has ten series and eight sub-series.

 

Tuesday, April 23^rd - Wednesday, April 24^th:

On Tuesday, I updated Avery’s Facebook and Twitter pages with new posts. For instance our Graduate Assistant, Daron-Lee Calhoun II, who is a Morehouse College alumnus, told me about his upcoming poster presentation for the 2013 HBCUstory Symposium on Saturday, April 27 in Downtown Nashville, TN—so I posted about that. He explained that his poster examined the influence of northern missionaries on black educational institutions in the South by investigating the motivation for changing the name of Atlanta Baptist College to Morehouse College in 1913. On Wednesday, Mr. Spelbring and I drove to Florence, SC to attend the South Carolina Archival Association’s (SCAA) Spring Workshop on metadata. It was nice to get out of the office for a bit on such a warm sunny day. The workshop consisted of a webinar titled: “A Beginners Guide to Metadata” and a panel discussion featuring guest speakers from across the state who discussed digitization measures, current issues and trends, and scholarship at their respective digital archive and/or library. College of Charleston’s Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) Project Coordinator, Heather Gilbert, was one of the panel speakers and talked about her work in developing a custom website for the LCDL that aims to enhance user experience and facilitate digital curation.

Thursday, April 25^th:

In the morning, I worked with Administrative Assistant, Savannah Frierson and Mr. Calhoun to create and print awards certificates for the three winners of Avery’s inaugural essay contest. At half past noon, I attended a small ceremony and luncheon for the award recipients with members of the Avery Research Center staff, including Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo; Mr. Spelbring; Assistant Director Deborah Wright and Executive Director, Dr. Patricia Lessane Williams— and College of Charleston faculty, Dr. Jon N. Hale. Second and third place winners, Austin Hughey and Michael Johnson, were presented with their awards certificates by Ms. Mayo and Mr. Calhoun and then given a few moments to briefly present a summary of their essay’s thesis and main points. Unfortunately, first place winner Civia Stein could not attend the ceremony because she was at home, tending to an ill family member in Virginia.

Later in the day, I participated in The HistoryMakers' IMLS Fellowship Professional Development Conference Call with Digital Archivist of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, Gretchen Gueguen. I had suggested Ms. Gueguen for the call after reading about her work with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded “Born Digital Collections: An Inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship (AIMS) project at The University of Virginia Library, in partnership with Stanford University, the University of Hull, and Yale University. Over a two-year period from October 2009 to October 2011, the various partners named above created an inter-institutional framework for stewarding, processing and preserving thirteen born-digital collections of noteworthy individuals and organizations. This born-digital content was then made discoverable via Hydra, a Fedora-based solution. I appreciated Ms. Gueguen’s insights on issues concerning the digital archivist community, as well as her lessons learned from her processing and preserving born-digital collections. She also discussed the challenges of working with digital formats, such as obtaining data from 8-inch floppy disks and dealing with obsolescence. With respect to project management, Ms. Guegen talked about the importance of aligning the goals of a digital archives’ various departments in order to foster the most effective and comprehensive digital stewardship possible.

Friday, April 26^th:

I continued processing the Virginia Geraty Papers at the series and folder level; established an arrangement for the collection’s ten series and eight sub-series, and completed a folder inventory of the entire collection. I also began drafting the collection’s finding aid. Then, taking a break from my processing duties, I compressed and uploaded an audio clip from Cynthia McCottry-Smith’s oral history interview on the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club to Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive’s Tumblr page (with an accompanying photo of the women’s club, circa 1950).

Ardra Whitney: Week 32 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, April 8^th - Tuesday, April 9^th:

I sent Mr. Thomas McTeer a thank you note for my visit to his home in Beaufort, SC. In the note I expressed my enjoyment in having the opportunity to learn about his father, Sherriff J.E. McTeer’s experiences with the practice of Voodoo and Hoodoo in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, as well as my appreciation for the free copy of his father’s memoir he gave me. I also e-mailed librarians, Grace Cordial and Charmaine Seabrook, at the Beaufort County Library to request a follow-up visit to complete my research on the library’s collection of materials pertaining to Hoodoo.

Wednesday, April 10^th:

In the morning I posted an announcement to both Avery’s Twitter page and Not Just in February Blog, calling for papers and panels for the Fall 2013 Conference and Symposium, “Unleashing the Black Erotic: Gender and Sexuality—Passion, Power, and Praxis”. This year’s conference and symposium seeks to provide a forum where participants can articulate the wide, varied, and expansive nature of gender and sexuality, and the performance of both. It also aims to teach African Americans how to understand, embrace, and harness the power, beauty, and essence of the erotic as a key to their positive evolution as people. The conference and symposium is inviting proposals from across disciplines, but is most interested in proposals that address aspects of: black bodies in popular culture; black sexuality in television, film, and literature; queering the black body in art and performance studies and iconic black queer motifs; sexuality and black faith; black women and the politics of respectability; black erotica, romance novels and comic books; the black body and public health; hip hop and the hypersexuality of black women; alternative modes of black love and family; and the politics and economics of porn.

In the afternoon I created a favicon, using PowerPoint, for Black in the Lowcountry (BIL): Digital Photo Archive’s Tumblr page and also posted a second round of photos to the page. According to Wikipedia, a favicon— also known as a shortcut icon, Web site icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon— is a file containing one or more small icons that is associated with a particular Web site or Web page. “Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page's favicon next to the page's title on the tab.” For BIL’s favicon I decided to go with a digital artwork titled, Uncle Remus Triptych (2011). The work features images of three characters from African-American folklore: Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit (Brother Rabbit) and Tar Baby. I chose this work because while processing the Virginia Geraty Papers, I came across manuscripts and printed drafts for children’s books by Geraty featuring the animal trickster, Brer Rabbit. Geraty’s translated versions of popular African American folktales reflect the rich storytelling tradition of the Gullah people; that too were influenced by African and Native American oral traditions and include stories about the antics of animal tricksters such as Brer Fox, Brer Bear, Brer Wolf— in addition to Brer Rabbit. And in the same way that these folktales impart meaningful lessons to their listeners, I want BIL to teach viewers to see the value and historical significance of the African-American experience in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Thursday, April 11^th - Friday, April 12^th

A little after 9AM, Graduate Assistant, Daron Calhoun II and I entered into a wonderful conversation about the books: Janie Mitchell, Reliable Cook: An Ex-slave’s Recipes for Living by Lisa Foster and Mary Lou Coombs and The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 by James D. Anderson. We also spoke about the history of African American Higher Education in the South, the founding history of Morehouse and Spelman College, the Hampton Model of Normal School Industrial Education, and the fundraising efforts of Marcus Garvey and Booker T. Washington— specifically Garvey’s appeal to the Klu Klux Klan to fund his UNIA-sponsored movement for repatriation to Africa and Washington with his U.S. fundraising tours, which allowed him to finance court cases that challenged the disenfranchisement of blacks in America.

During the latter part of Thursday, I had a chance to complete and return my poster presenter agreement form for the 2013 SAA Conference via e-mail. Throughout the week I continued processing series from the Virginia Geraty Papers and by Friday I had completed work on approximately fourteen of the collection’s eighteen proposed series and sub-series. These series included: educational and instructional material, ephemera, literary productions and manuscripts, lists, maps, oral history materials, and documents pertaining to the production of Geraty’s Porgy: A Gullah Version, which was performed at Charleston’s Garden Theater in 1995.

Ardra Whitney: Week 31 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, April 1^st:

With Monday being April Fool’s Day, I took to Twitter posting a link to Google Nose BETA, which I had read about in an online article from the Huffington Post. I thought it was such a well thought out; well executed and hilarious practical joke, and I really enjoyed the premise of it. Throughout the rest of the day I continued working on the Virginia Geraty Papers—processing the collection’s biographical and professional material series.

Tuesday, April 2^nd - Wednesday, April 3^rd:

I began the day by reblogging photos which I had collected for the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project. I was really pleased with the outcome and look forward to perhaps receiving more submissions to post to the projects Tumblr page. On Wednesday, Graduate Assistant, Daron Calhoun II and I shared our thoughts on the inaugural undergraduate essay contest submissions. He explained that the announcement for the winners would be going out at the end of the week—and so I should finalize my decision by Thursday.

Thursday, April 4^th:

By the end of the day, I completed processing two more series from the Virginia Geraty Papers: correspondence and drawing/illustrations. Additionally, I reviewed and ranked essays provided by Assistant Professor, Jon Hale for Avery’s inaugural undergraduate essay contest and e-mailed my decision to Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring. While waiting for my bus home to arrive, I received a call from Thomas McTeer, son of J.E. McTeer, a famous Lowcountry Sheriff and Witch Doctor. He was returning my call about visiting him and also answered my question about the best way to get to his home in Beaufort, SC.

Friday, April 5^th:

I had been planning Friday’s trip to Beaufort since March, in order to conduct research for my SAA poster presentation on the African American folk magic tradition of Hoodoo. Renting a car from a nearby Avis, I drove in the morning to the beautiful and culturally rich town of Beaufort—my first stop was Mr. McTeer’s home. Mr. McTeer was very nice and had a free copy of his father’s memoir, Fifty Years as a Low Country Witch Doctor, waiting for me; along with a small collection of his father’s belongings. The collection included a medium sized tin containing roots his father had removed from people who had been hexed, a carved mandrake root which symbolized his father’s power and potency as a witch doctor, and scrapbooks containing news clippings his father collected during his work as both a local sheriff and Hoodoo practioner.

After speaking with Mr. McTeer about his father’s collection, he graciously directed me over to my next stop— the Beaufort County Library (BCL). There I met with librarians Grace Cordial and Charmaine Seabrook of the Beaufort District Collection, who brought out several vertical files, books, correspondence and news clippings on the practice of folk magic in the Lowcountry for me to look at and take notes on. I am planning a return trip to the BCL, so that I can review its collection of scrapbooks from J.E. McTeer, as well as literary productions on microfiche pertaining to the topics of Hoodoo and African-American folk magic.

Ardra Whitney: Week 28 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, March 11^th - Thursday, March 14^th:

I began the week by continuing to survey the Virginia Geraty Papers and plan the Women’s History Exhibit on the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. On Tuesday, I followed up with C.A. Brown High School Alumni Association President, Joey Washington and got his permission to use high school newspaper and yearbook photos for the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project. On Wednesday morning I conducted an oral history interview with Associate Professor of Arts Management at the College of Charleston, Dr. Karen Chandler about her membership with the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her speak about her work with the college’s Arts Management Program, as well as the Charleston Jazz Initiative and of course her participation in the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. One of the things she said during her interview that resonated with me, was how the club gives her the opportunity to be in the company of other African-American women that she shares personal and professional interests with. She also remarked on how gratifying it is to be around her fellow clubwomen, because of her great admiration and respect for the work that they do. In the afternoon, I posted an article from CHARLIE magazine to Avery’s Twitter page about Executive Director, Dr. Patricia Williams Lessane. In the article she is featured as one of Charleston’s 50 most progressive people and discusses what it means to be a “progressive leader”. On Thursday, I contacted Cynthia McCottry-Smith and left a voicemail asking if she had any photos of the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club’s Founder, Jeanette Cox that I could include in the Women’s History Month Exhibit.

Friday, March 15^th:

I continued surveying the Virginia Geraty Papers, completing 7 out of 12 boxes. I created an item list for 60 out of approximately 90 some-odd spiral notebooks from the collection, which contained notes on everything from books of the bible translated into Gullah, Gullah vocabulary, educational materials, and preparation for the production of Porgy: A Gullah Version at the Garden Theatre. Additionally, I began placing the items I had selected for display and narrowing down the number of items to be part of the exhibit. In the afternoon, I stopped by Trident Technical College to meet with Phoebe Williams, where she burned all the images we had scanned related to C.A. Brown High School onto a CD. In the coming months, I will be posting these images on the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive's Tumblr page.

Week 25: Ardra Whitney @ Avery Research Center

(Are they hiring?)

Monday, February 18^th:

In the morning I sent out an e-mail to Lauren Saulino asking her to post an announcement on the College of Charleston’s African-American Studies blog for the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project. Afterwards I attended the weekly archives staff meeting with Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring and Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo, where we discussed work updates, professional development and upcoming conferences. I also burned a copy of Cynthia McCottry-Smith’s oral history interview to CD and mailed it out to her along with a thank you note. By the end of the day I had completed processing the Friendly Union Society Records and encoding the finding aid for the collection in EAD.

That evening I attended Francoise N. Hamlin’s lecture on her recently published book, Crossroads At Clarksdale: The Black Freedom Struggle in the Mississippi Delta After World War II. Hamlin is the Hans Rothfels Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Brown University; during her lecture she shared stories about the black townspeople of Clarksdale, including the extent of political change their slow struggle for social equality was able to bring about. Hamlin also shared how leaders of Mississippi’s local civil rights organizations-- like Vera Pigee and Aaron Henry--worked to challenge Jim Crow through fights against inequality, police brutality, segregation, and economic injustice.

Tuesday, February 19^th - Wednesday, February 20^th:

On Tuesday Assistant Director, Deborah Wright spoke to me and Mr. Spelbring about managing Avery’s blogs and generating content for them regularly. I also asked Ms. Wright to give me user privileges for the Not Just in February blog, so that I could post an announcement on it about the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project. On Wednesday, Ms. Mayo asked me to speak with Ruth Rambo about conducting an oral history interview on the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. Ms. Rambo was in the reading room conducting research on the club for an outreach program she is planning for elementary through high school students. She also explained that she was a newly inducted member into the club and had been nominated for membership by the club’s president, Norma White.

That evening I had the chance to attend one of the club’s monthly meetings, where I listened to members discuss revisions to their constitution. I helped member, Sharon Reed setup for the meeting in Avery’s McKinley Washington Auditorium and was treated to a delicious dinner, which included fried chicken, collard greens, brown rice, shrimp and stuffing, salad, and lemon cake for dessert. Yum!

Thursday, February 21^st - Friday, February 22^nd:

On Thursday I posted a photo submissions announcement for the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project on Facebook and the Not Just in February blog. I also attended Avery’s weekly general staff meeting at noon and at the end of the day, Dr. James Anderson's lecture, entitled “Affirmative Action and the New Color: Fischer v. the University of Texas and Public Discourse about Race in Educational Policy”. On Friday I posted photos and pertinent online articles to Avery’s Facebook and Twitter pages and continued my work on the Virginia Geraty Papers.