Ardra Whitney: Week 14 @ Avery Research Center

Q: Guess who’s going to see Nas perform at Radio City Music Hall on New Year’s Eve?

A: Me!!!! “Now I'm the one that’s reppin’ Queens way beyond your wildest dreams”. Woooooooo!!!!
 

Monday, December 3^rd:

With Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring’s instruction, I made my final edits to the finding aid for the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers. I also photocopied all news clippings from the collection and used paper clips to fasten together loose and/or related materials. Afterwards, I continued processing St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records. Items surveyed included church programs dating from 1939-1990, vestry proceedings from the early part of the 20^th century, and souvenir journals from the church’s 125^th anniversary celebration in 1990.

Tuesday, December 4^th:

In the morning I followed up with Avery's Executive Director, Dr. Patricia Williams Lessane regarding the writing of a description for undergraduate internship opportunities at Avery, which she had mentioned at last Thursday’s staff meeting. She also asked me to connect with one of Avery’s current undergraduate interns to write a profile on them for the Avery Messenger. After work, I participated in the monthly IMLS Fellows’ conference call with The HistoryMakers. Fellows provided The HistoryMakers' Executive Director, Julieanna Richardson, Dan Johnson and Marta Grabowski with progress reports on their work at each of their respective host institutions and learned about new changes to The HistoryMakers’ interview evaluation process.

Wednesday, December 5^th and Thursday, December 6^th:

On Wednesday I e-mailed some public program ideas I had for the upcoming year to Dr. Lessane, Mr. Spelbring and Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo. I also forwarded the message to Avery’s recently promoted Assistant Director, Deborah Wright. Congratulations Ms. Wright! On Thursday, I provided a brief coverage of the reading room for Mr. Spelbring and monitored patrons as they viewed and handled collection materials for their research.

Friday, December 7^th:

I answered a reference request regarding race, religion and the writings of James Baldwin via Facebook— the request was from a Ph.D. student all the way from India, so that was exciting. I also posted a flyer to Avery’s Facebook page regarding the ceremony honoring South Carolina freedom fighters— Mary Moultrie, Ken Riley, William Saunders, and the Martyrs of the Orangeburg Massacre— taking place that evening. The event kicked off the 9th Bi-Annual Southern Human Rights Organizers' Conference being held from December 7-9, 2012, at the International Longshoreman’s Association’s Local 1422 Headquarters. I concluded the day by working on the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records. During my processing, I came across some really interesting materials like a journal from the late 19^th century containing entries from parish leadership, a bible published in 1866, and an autograph from prominent Charleston architect, Louis J. Barbot, who designed St. Mark's church building.

Ardra Whitney: Week 13 @ Avery Research Center

 

Monday, November 26^th:

I worked on preparing and printing labels for the Hollinger boxes containing the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers and began processing the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records. The first segment of documents I came across for the collection dealt with grant funding the church received in 1983 to assist with its exterior stabilization and repairs. Noted African American architect and contractor, H.A. DeCosta, Jr., of H.A. DeCosta Company, served as project director during the church’s preservation and reconstruction work.
 

Tuesday, November 27^th:

In the morning, I worked with Reference Librarian, Deborah Wright, Mr. Spelbring and Graduate Assistant, Elizabeth “Tiz” Wilkins to digitize photographic negatives from the Walter N. Boags Papers, 1945 - 1980s, which were requested by a researcher. Boags owned and operated one of the few African American photography studios in Charleston. Around lunchtime, I spoke with Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo about some ideas I had for public/outreach programs. She also shared more with me about her experiences in Seattle for the 40th Annual Museum Computer Network (MCN) Conference. At this year’s conference, Ms. Mayo and Systems Librarian at Trident Technical College, Laura Barfield, presented on a panel entitled, “The Lowcountry Foodways Project: Deconstruction of an IMLS Planning Grant and the Importance of Regional Foodways for Collection Development, Preservation, and Community Building.” The aim of the session was to provide tips and strategies for navigating the IMLS grant process and to raise awareness of regional foodways and their relevance to collection development, preservation, and community building. In the afternoon, I reviewed my encoding of the finding aid for the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers in NoteTab with Mr. Spelbring and continued my work on processing the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records. After work, I attended a lecture with Dr. Temple Grandin at the Sottile Theater, which was sponsored by the College of Charleston REACH Program. Grandin is a doctor of animal science, a designer of livestock handling facilities and a professor at Colorado State University who was born with autism. She has traveled extensively lecturing to audiences throughout the U.S. on her experiences in living with autism. She is also a best-selling author and the subject of the award-winning HBO biographical film, Temple Grandin, which was released in 2010.
 

Wednesday, November 28^th and Thursday, November 29^th:

I continued processing the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records and spoke with Ms. Mayo about her essay "Susan Dart Butler & Ethel Martin Bolden: SC's Pioneer African American Librarians," which is featured in the book, South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 3. On Thursday, I attended an Avery staff meeting, where we addressed a range of topics including: a call for papers for next year’s conference at Avery on Black gender and sexuality; Avery’s Holiday Party; acquiring systems, tools and technology that support Avery’s operations and improve service delivery; opportunities for professional development in archives and records management; recruiting undergraduate interns and graduate assistants; and raising the profile of Avery through outreach.
 

Friday, November 30^th:

By lunch time I had finished editing my finding aid for the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers and posted an article on Avery’s Facebook page about Paul Gabarini and his research on William James Parker, the Tinsmith of Tradd Street. In the afternoon, I worked in Avery’s reading room with Ms. Wright and helped Graduate Assistant, Daron Calhoun II with pulling boxes from the collection, Mamie E. Garvin Fields Papers, circa 1925-1990, for a researcher. Fields was the co-founder of the Modern Priscilla Club of Charleston; an African American women's literary club, whose motto was "Lifting as We Climb."

References

ARCHIVEGRID. “Mamie E. Garvin Fields papers, 1894-1987 (bulk 1945-1985).” Accessed December 6, 2012. http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/record.php?id=133145105.

Mamie E. Garvin Fields Papers, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.

Sherry B. Gadsden, e-mail message to author, November 9, 2012.

Walter N. Boags Papers, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.