Ardra Whitney: Week 2 @ The HistoryMakers

The highlight of my week was the 2012 IMLS Summer Immersion Program’s scheduled field trip to the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library (pictured at right).  On Tuesday, June 12^th, fellows received an introduction to the Woodson Library, as well as an overview of the library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Following her introduction and overview, Beverly Cook, Director of Archives and Processing, led fellows on a group tour of the Woodson Library’s preservation lab and archival processing and storage facilities. She also provided us with a fun tutorial on how to access and utilize “Find it” – the Chicago Public Library’s digital access portal. Additionally, fellows completed an archives “scavenger hunt” exercise, which required us to use online findings aids to locate specific collection materials. Ms. Cook‘s tour and conference room presentations were very informative:  I learned about Society for American Archivists’ (SAA) emergency preparedness workshops; stewardship in the archival profession; and the Illinois Collections Preservation Network (ICPN).  Ms. Cook also spoke about the collection development efforts of Vivian G. Harsh (the Chicago Public Library system’s first black librarian). Harsh worked diligently to have books depicting negative and derogatory images of African American s removed from the library. She believed that by replacing these books with ones that more richly documented the history of blacks in America, African American patrons would have a better and more positive library experience.

On Thursday, June 14^th, I attended an archives seminar with Cecilia Salvatore, Ph.D. and Associate Professor of Library and InformationScience at Dominican College. The topic of the seminar was archival cataloging using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Fellows discussed general usage of LCSHs, as well as their use in The HistoryMakers EAD/EAC-CPF finding aids. We also completed a simple but insightful practice exercise that required us to use two different indexing methods: derived and free. In addition, the seminar provided fellows with the opportunity to address major challenges we’ve experienced in processing collections for The HistoryMakers Digital Archives.

This week I completed an interview evaluation for journalist, radio host and television news correspondent, Michele Norris (MediaMaker). I also began evaluating an interview for educator, politician and South Carolina native, Crain Woods (EducationMaker). Norris tells such wonderful stories in her interview; I enjoyed listening to her describe Minnesota winters, Birmingham summers and her father’s flower garden.  It was difficult to pick only a few web clips to accompany her interview because she had so many lush and terrifically detailed stories. Likewise, Woods’ remembrances of the sights, smells, and sounds he experienced growing up in Due West, South Carolina, were also beautiful to listen to.

Also, this week Dan Johnson, Digital Archivist, taught fellows how to transform interview evaluations in FileMaker Pro into XML documents in order to create EAD/EAC-CPF finding aids. I look forward to publishing my first finding aid for the Alvin Little oral history interview soon.

In preparation for my upcoming special collections processing project, I watched The HistoryMakers’ DVD of "An Evening with B.B. King,” hosted by producer and songwriter, Isaac Hayes. During the hour long program, I learned that King’s real name is Riley B. King—and that the “B.B.” in his stage name stands for Blues Boy.  I also learned the startling but humorous story behind the name of his famous guitar, Lucille. In addition to blues guitarist and vocalist, B.B. King, I have been assigned to process special collections for the multiple Grammy award winning music producer, composer and arranger, Quincy Jones; and politician, diplomat and activist, Andrew Young.

On Wednesday, June 13^th, I met with Dan Johnson and Julieanna Richardson, Founder/Executive Director, to discuss my progress with the fellowship.  During the meeting, she discussed the importance of creating a narrative flow when writing evaluation summaries that captured the essence of an interview–without reading like a transcript. When our conversation turned to my interest in the visual arts, she recommended I call and speak with South Carolina painter and printmaker, Jonathan Green (ArtsMaker).  When I called the Jonathan Green Studio in Daniel Island, South Carolina, I spoke with Richard Weedman, Studio Director. Mr. Weedman was very gracious and invited me to stop by the studio, once I started my residency with Avery Research Center.

At the African American history lecture with Christopher Reed on Wednesday, discussion focused on topics, such as blacks and the 18th century Revolutionary War; blacks in the North;  and slave labor in American agriculture. One thing that Dr. Reed said regarding blacks and the American Revolution , which resonated with me was that  “black soldiers served on both sides during the Revolutionary War as a safeguard for their interests”—namely freedom. I think the same was true for black soldiers who fought on both sides during the Civil War.

Speaking of emancipation, this upcoming Tuesday, June 19^th, is Juneteenth–also known as Freedom or Emancipation Day. The term is a combination of the words "June" and "nineteenth". Recognized as a state holiday in forty-one U.S. states, including Illinois; Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Galveston, Texas in 1865.

Ardra Whitney
IMLS Fellow
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture

Chicago State of Mind: Alex Champion's Week 2

As America’s second city Chicago is a smaller version of old New York with its vibrant neighborhoods and tall buildings. As America’s second city Chicago is more compact than Los Angeles; these combinations afford Chicago’s neighborhoods a fiefdom-like status while easily connecting them with mass transit and bicycle paths. My sublet is in Kenwood, immediately north of the invisible line that separates it from Hyde Park, and just two blocks away from President Barack Obama’s private residence. Since the president calls the very Democratic Chicago home and his former aid is the mayor, Obama is quite popular around these parts. Twice in as many weeks he stopped over and each time I missed—arriving immediately after he left or leaving the city before he came. The maintenance man for the condo was cleaning the front door and smiled kindly as he opened it for me; little did he know my bicycling injury the previous week required me to set down my conveyance in order to use the door.  I returned the smile and, modifying a favorite bumper sticker, I commanded him to “look busy,” since “the President’s coming today.” He continued smiling and, with a tinge of pride, gently complained about the security measures.
 

A quarter of the way to work...

This second week in Chicago was the first one where I commuted by bike every day. Kenwood and Hyde Park have no El service and any convenient buses require passing The HistoryMakers’ cross street and transferring to a second bus or walk fifteen minutes to catch a direct bus. The alternative is the Metra commuter line; rather than learn which local trains need to be flagged and which of these go to Soldier Field I simply bike the five and a half miles along the scenic coast. Bicyclists and joggers clog the trails like the car traffic along Lake Shore Drive while ubiquitous parks personnel pick up litter, water the soil with fire hoses, and avoid inattentive bicyclists and joggers who would mow them down.

Unlike Week 1 we had no extended workshop. Our primary tasks were the interview evaluations, the basis of the EAD and EAC finding aids, to Julieanna Richardson’s satisfaction. Unfortunately she was absent for the “A NightWith Warren Washington” ScienceMakers event in Washington, D.C. and gave us our critiques in a single day. We have yet to create a single finding aid but, pending final approval, I have three ready to go. The most recent interview I processed was Bernice King, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s youngest daughter. Interviewed in February 2008, King extensively described her mother and father’s genealogy and her reaction to her father’s death; it was simultaneously touching and tragic that she created no permanent memories of her father. Having just turned five years old, King had an admittedly poor grasp of death’s permanence. In a telling anecdote from his funeral, they played an excerpt from King’s sermon “The Drum Major Instinct” for the eulogy and young Bernice, tired from a long day, believed her father was alive again. His extended absences and, when Coretta toured to continue his legacy, the celebrity of her mother made a normal childhood impossible. I listened to the complete sermon as I revised her interview evaluation and reexamined the controversy behind the King memorial in Washington, D.C.’s paraphrasing of its closing passages; I agree with May Angelou that omitting the “if” clause makes King sound like an arrogant twit, which is precisely what his sermon decries.

Art

Bev Cook shows us around

Curiously, I seem to be building a reputation within the Chicago community. Before our tour of the Carter G. Woodson branch of the Chicago Public Library, the archivist of the Vivian Harsh Collection, Beverly “Bev” Cook, smiled knowingly at me and proclaimed “I was warned about you…” She repeated this phrase every so often when I joked; after my departing quip, which referenced something she said two hours earlier, again she laughed but this time claimed she was “gonna miss me.” Our history professor Dr. Christopher Reed said something similar; Dr. Reed casually wondered aloud if the McCormick-International Harvester Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society had papers concerning blacks who participated in the development of the reaper. I told him I knew the PA and, if he dropped my name, he may get extra help. He laughed and claimed I was becoming a Chicago politician by using connections like favors and, as I usually do, I played along with the same deadpan delivery I used to announce the connection. Dr. Reed went on to say I was “like his son”; I sincerely hope that is a good thing.

Dr. Reed plays the role of eminent professor

Both experiences were rewarding in their own ways. I always enjoy frank and practical counsel from practicing archivists and Bev certainly fits that description. After the usual introductions we talked about the Vivian Harsh Collection and its place in Chicago history and toured the facility; Bev emphasized their preservation methods and showed me my first de-acidification chamber. After lunch she gave us an assignment to use the library’s website or catalog to find information about particular to us. My assignment involved locating audio visual materials in a collection of scripts, supporting files, and CDs of a 1948-1950 radio drama of black pioneers. I needed to locate the CDs for three scripts, each with an incremental level of difficulty. The first script was found with a simple “Ctrl F” of the subject’s whole name, the second one required me to use their last name because the CD spelled out the subject’s entire time, and the third subject could not be found with “Ctrl F” because the CD portion the inventory had a typo; instead I used the chronological structure of the finding aid to locate the CD.

My happy face

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Alex Champion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~