Ardra Whitney: Week 39 @ Avery Research Center (Over and Out!)

My celebration song!

Monday, May 27^th - Tuesday, May 28^th:

With the two days I had left before returning to New York, I focused on bringing my labeling and arranging of folders from the Virginia Geraty Papers to completion. To expedite the process I pulled all the dated notebooks from the collection I had inventoried and labeled these folders first. Then I worked on labeling folders for the undated notebooks. I also reviewed the folder contents from the correspondence series in order to take notes, which I would use towards creating the collection’s finding aid. On Tuesday, Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring treated me to a farewell lunch at Bull Street Gourmet & Market; where we talked about our previous jobs before coming to the Avery Research Center, apartment hunting in Chicago, and the strong nose-tingly heat from my Bull Street Club sandwich’s dijonaise sauce. Before leaving—Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo gave me a big hug and we exchanged thank you’s: her, for all my hard work during this nine-month residency and me, for all the great lessons learned and experience gained through it.

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 30 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, March 25^th – Tuesday, March 26^th:

I began the week with continuing my work on the Virginia Geraty Papers and was invited by Curator, Curtis J. Franks to sit in on Resident Scholar, Dwana Waugh’s morning interview for Avery’s Public Historian position. In the afternoon, Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo and I gathered around the new workstation in the processing lab, where Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring provided us with a tutorial on how to use Archivists’ Toolkit (AT). Mr. Spelbring also taught us how to create records and finding aids in AT using my completed finding aid for the Friendly Union Society Records, which I prepared in NoteTab.

On Tuesday I met with Founder/Executive Director of The HistoryMakers, Julieanna Richardson for her site visit to Avery. Ms. Mayo picked her up from the airport and when she arrived at Avery, Mr. Franks took Ms. Richardson on a tour of the Center. Afterwards, she and I spoke briefly about my residency experience at Avery, as well as my plans following the fellowship. While Ms. Richardson, Ms. Mayo and Assistant Director, Deborah Wright met with one another in the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club Reading Room, I took a break from my collection processing to attend Derek Alderman’s lecture, "Pressing the RESET button on Southern Hospitality: African American Belonging and Tourism Justice." Dr. Alderman is Chair of the Geography Department at the University of Tennessee and during his lecture he touched on topics of public memory, popular culture, and heritage tourism in the U.S. South. He also proposed that African Americans could look to achieve a broader sense of social and spatial justice if they focused on commemorating their past and shaping cultural landscapes to reflect their perspectives and experiences.

Wednesday, March 27^th – Friday, March 28^th:

At half past eleven on Wednesday, I was invited by Mr. Spelbring to attend Mary Battle’s question and answer session as part of her interview for Avery’s Public Historian interview. Ms. Battle is Project Coordinator of the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative at the College of Charleston. Throughout the day I posted pertinent online articles and announcements to Avery’s Twitter page relating to our new ongoing exhibit on the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. By Friday I had completed surveying the Virginia Geraty Papers. I also touched base with Ms. Waugh and Mr. Spelbring about uploading the interviews I conducted with members of the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club to Avery’s Z: drive. 

Week 29: Ardra Whitney @ Avery Research Center

Monday, March 18^th:

Administrative Assistant, Savannah Frierson and I worked on scanning and printing images of materials selected for display in the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club exhibit—materials which included, a thank you note to the club from W.E.B. DuBois (1925); correspondence from Mary McLeod Bethune to Mrs. Miriam D. Seabrook (1931); and a press release announcing the club’s sponsorship of an exhibit of art works and paintings by black artists for the Spoleto Festival (1978). Although before we could get started, she had to install the two office printers to the new workstation computer in the processing lab. While scanning materials from the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club Papers with Savannah; club member, Cynthia McCottry-Smith stopped by to follow up with me about locating photos of the club’s founder, Jeannette K. Cox to use in the exhibit. Ms. Smith also took some time to tell me about members of the club pictured in a circa 1949 photo. She recalled that one of the members taught her when she was in school and that another member’s husband owned a realty company in Charleston.

Tuesday, March 19^th:

As I worked on placing the exhibit items, Curator, Curtis Franks and Assistant Director, Deborah Wright observed that the documents on display needed some form of support to prevent them from curling or bending. I agreed and so Mr. Franks went out and purchased some white mounting board to help reinforce the documents, which were placed on upright clear acrylic display stands. Mr. Franks was also able to find a large portrait of Mrs. Cox to hang as part of the exhibit. I was very happy about this because her image positioned over the exhibit materials serves as a wonderful focal point.

Wednesday, March 20^th:

Throughout the day I continued surveying the Virginia Geraty Papers by making an item list of her many notebooks (and scrapbooks), which contain: lesson plans on Gullah grammar instruction; Gullah vocabulary; fables, poems and short stories translated into Gullah; as well as other literary productions and notes pertaining to Gullah language education/instruction.

Thursday, March 21^st:

In the morning I met with Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring and Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo to discuss department updates and submissions for the inaugural undergraduate essay contest. I also began processing the audio-visual material from the Virginia Geraty collection, which includes cassette tape recordings of her presentations and speaking engagements, lectures at the College of Charleston, and Gullah music; as well as video cassette tapes of television programs/films on Gullah language and culture.

In the afternoon, I participated in The HistoryMakers’ Monthly Professional Development Call with the former Chief Curator and Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and present Director of Howard University’s Moorland Spingarn Research Center, Howard Dodson, Jr. I enjoyed his remarks on the differences between museum and library curators, in addition to his observations on what makes a library successful.

Friday, March 22^nd:

By the end of the week I had completed 11 out of 12 boxes from the Virginia Geraty Papers and began surveying the final box from the collection.

Ardra Whitney: Week 23 @ Avery Research Center

All Done!


Monday, February 4^th - Wednesday, February 6^th:
 

This week I wrapped up work on the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records. On Monday and Tuesday, I finalized folder headings; measured the extent of the entire collection in linear feet—as well as each individual series within the collection; and edited the collection’s finding aid, which I encoded in EAD. I completed processing the collection on Wednesday by enclosing old ledgers and parish registers in protective tissue paper and preparing box labels for the collection’s ten boxes.

Throughout the week I posted photos and pertinent online articles to Avery’s Facebook and Twitter pages—including a flyer for the upcoming panel discussion on February 12th, “Bridge Builders: Faces of Black Professionals in Charleston”—sponsored by the College of Charleston’s African-American Studies Department.

 

Thursday, February 7^th - Friday, February 8^th:

On Thursday morning I began drafting an e-mail to send to Trident Technical College’s Phoebe and Susan Williams. Back in fall of 2012, I had assisted them with digitizing images from C.A. Brown High School’s yearbooks and newspapers for the “Eastside Day” celebration and now I wanted to see if some of the images I helped scan could be included in the Black in the Lowcountry: Digital Photo Archive project. Subsequently, I corresponded with Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring and Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo regarding my endeavor and they recommended that I draft an image(s) request form to accompany the e-mail in order to outline the purpose for and conditions under which the images would be reproduced.

On Friday, they reviewed my draft and offered up suggestions for revisions. Additionally, I completed surveying the Friendly Union Society Records and drafted a finding aid for the collection. The society was founded in 1813 to provide relief for widows and orphaned children and a place of burial for its members. I also began evaluating a video oral history interview from the sixteenth Supreme Basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and former professor of education at Southern University and A&M College, Dr. Julia Purnell.

Ardra Whitney: Week 18 @ Avery Research Center

Wednesday, January 2^nd:

Happy New Year! On Wednesday I returned to the Avery Research Center refreshed from my holiday break and ready to get right back into the swing of things. Over the vacation, I began drafting a descriptive summary for the digital photo archive project I had proposed earlier in the year. Hence, when I met with Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo on Wednesday morning, one of the first things we discussed was the project—well that and 2012’s gripping holiday blockbusters, “Django Unchained,” “The Hobbit” and “The Guilt Trip”. Ms. Mayo explained that in order to display photos online submitted by the public, I would need to get their permission via a photo use request form or policy agreement statement. She also explained that her and Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring would want to review photo submissions before scanning and posting them in order to choose the most appropriate and relevant images.

Throughout the day I continued working on arrangement, description and finding aid preparation for the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records. I researched dates for news clippings from the collection that seemed to have none and asked Mr. Spelbring about using cotton twill tape to secure the covers of ledgers, books and other bound items that were coming apart due to age, wear and lack of preservation.

Thursday, January 3^rd:

I continued classifying materials from the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records in order to create a folder/item list organized by series for the collection’s finding aid. My run in with some painful paper cuts reminded me of the importance of wearing gloves—not only to protect the archival materials, but to protect myself as well. Additionally, I continued my research on collection materials that I had initially deemed miscellaneous. By learning more about the context and value of these materials in relationship to St. Mark’s, the better I am able understand how to describe them for reference and research purposes. For example, I am currently researching the church’s affiliation with the Homebuilders Association of Greater Charleston.

 

 

Friday, January 4^th:

By noon time I had finished a final draft of the descriptive summary for my digital photo archive project and sent it to Ms. Mayo, Mr. Spelbring and Avery’s 2011-2012 IMLS Fellow, Aaisha Haykal, for feedback. Ms. Mayo was the first to chime in with some points for discussion regarding the project, which she said we could talk more about on Monday. I also completed description and arrangement for four out of the nine proposed series of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records.

Somehow I think the New Year is inspiring the writing of significantly more fantastic articles on African American history and culture in South Carolina. I did a Google search on Tuesday using the terms “African American history” and “South Carolina,” which returned way more relevant hits than usual. By Friday I had a favorites folder full of articles that I am looking forward to sharing on Avery’s Facebook page.

Ardra Whitney: Week 15 @ Avery Research Center

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Monday, December 10^th:
 
I continued processing the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Records throughout the week and by Friday I had surveyed nine out of the collection’s ten boxes. I think one of the most exciting things I came across during my inventory of the collection was microfiche of the church’s register, offerings and cash books; all dating from the  early  part of the 20^th century. I was like wow microfiche, that’s really neat! I also took some more time to research the articles on James Baldwin from the James E. Campbell Papers, 1930 – 2009, for the request made by the Ph.D student from India. I followed up with him on Friday, providing him with the titles of the articles, as well as the name and date of the publications they were in.

Tuesday, December 11^th:

In the afternoon, IMLS Fellows participated in The HistoryMakers’ monthly professional development conference call with Virginia Historical Society’s (VHS) Curator of African American History, Lauranette L. Lee and Assistant Archivist, Paige Newman. The two discussed their work on the project, Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names, which launched in September of this year. VHS was presented with the C. Herbert Finch Publication Award from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) for the database. Unknown No Longer launched with 1,500 names but now has over 10,000 names entered into the database. “It is the latest step by the Virginia Historical Society to increase access to its varied collections relating to Virginians of African descent.”

Wednesday, December 12^th:

I posted an article on Avery’s Facebook page about the two music professors, Mary Ellen Junda and Robert Stephens from the University of Connecticut studying Gullah culture in preparation to share their research with 80 classroom teachers from across the U.S. Introducing teachers to the Gullah people’s distinctive language and rich history is one way the professors hope to combat age old stereotypes about the culture. Junda and Stephens also want to help spread the word about Gullah culture in order to preserve its viable and distinct traditions, which are quickly giving way to assimilation. Though on a sad note I was shocked to hear of the tragedy that struck Newtown, Connecticut on Friday. My thoughts and prayers are with the entire community during their time of incredible heartbreak.

Thursday, December 13^th:

I completed my interview evaluation for Entertainment Lawyer, Lisa E. Davis. Davis hails from Queens, New York; so needless to say I was thrilled to hear her talk about how her grandmother who lived in St. Albans used to take Davis shopping on Jamaica Avenue. The avenue is a major thoroughfare that stretches from Queens all the way into Brooklyn—I know it like the back of my hand and also have many fond memories of it. Davis remarks in her interview that her paternal grandparents were the first black family to break the restrictive covenant act by moving to St. Albans, Queens in 1946. In addition, she talks about the famous jazz musicians that lived in St. Albans during the 1940s and 1950s. Jazz artists, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and Count Basie were all residents of the Queens neighborhood.

Friday, December 14^th:

I began research on the history of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in order to prepare a finding aid for the collection. I also completed my weekly report to Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo and Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring, which included my considerations regarding the preservation, storage and possible digitization of the collection’s parish ledgers, registries and other historical record books.

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 9 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, October 29^th – Wednesday, October 31^st

At the beginning of the week, I met with Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo and Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring to discuss revisions to the finding aid draft for the W. Melvin Brown, Jr. Papers; the collection arrangement for the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers; and creating EAD finding aids in NoteTab. I also continued my work with drafting a finding aid for the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers: editing the biographical and scope and content note; revising the collection’s series arrangement and folder list and adding subject headings. Additionally, I brainstormed with Reference Librarian, Deborah Wright and Ms. Mayo about developing potential programs, workshops, events and social media initiatives to raise awareness about Avery’s archives.

Thursday, November 1^st – Friday, November 2^nd

By Thursday, I had begun evaluating ArtMaker, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s video oral history interview. Zollar is the founder of the all-female African-American dance company, Urban Bush Women. On Friday, I corresponded with Public Historian, Robert T. Chase and spoke with Ms. Wright about an e-mail from Founding Director of Lowcountry Africana, Toni Carrier, regarding Story Corps' National Day of Listening.

Ardra Whitney: Week 8 @ Avery Research Center

Monday, October 22^nd:
On Monday morning, Processing Archivist, Georgette Mayo shared with me that she would be participating in the South Carolina Library Association (SCLA) Annual Conference 2012. Her group’s panel was entitled, “Stand Up and Shout! Sit Down and Negotiate” and included both library and archives professionals as speakers. She explained that panelists would discuss their experiences in advocating for South Carolina’s libraries, as well as their efforts to develop and implement advocacy programs and initiatives across the state that engaged and guided others in library advocacy. Ms. Mayo told me that she was planning to mention my work with Avery’s social media campaign for American Archives Month in her portion of the panel discussion and wondered if I could provide any further insights into using social media as a tool for library and archives advocacy. From there, we entered into a wonderful conversation about the role technology, and more specifically the Internet, has played in democratizing archives and increasing the public’s awareness about historical materials present in archives and libraries. We also discussed archives advocacy in the form of incorporating archival material into educational curricula and activities. I mentioned something I had seen recently from the US National Archives called, DocsTeach, an online teaching tool that "enables educators to find and create interactive learning activities with primary source documents". During the course of our conversation, Ms. Mayo shared her copy of Archives Power: Memory, Accountability, and Social Justice by Randall C. Jimerson with me. I first learned of the book when having a similar discussion with one of the archives interns at Weeksville Heritage Center about how the digital revolution has led to greater accessibility to archival material.

Tuesday, October 23^rd:

In the afternoon, I attended the “Between the Tracks at 25” symposium at Trident Technical College with Ms. Mayo and Manager of Archival Services, Aaron Spelbring; where scholars, community leaders and audience members met to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the book Between the Tracks: Charleston’s East Side During the Nineteenth Century. Between the Tracks was published by the Charleston Museum and Avery Research Center in 1987 and was designed to encourage a variety of endeavors related to the history and heritage of Charleston’s Eastside community, including: archaeological research, historic preservation, new construction, public education, and community programs. I received a mention during the symposium's introduction from Dr. Susan Millar Williams for my participation on the Eastside Day Planning Committee. (I was honored by the acknowledgement.) Avery’s Education Outreach Coordinator, Shelia Harell-Roye who lived in Eastside at one time, was one of the symposium’s speakers and talked about the valuable life lessons she learned growing up in the neighborhood. I also had the opportunity to meet Martha Zierden of the Charleston Museum, who was one of the contributors to Between the Tracks. Ms. Mayo was kind enough to introduce Mr. Spelbring and myself to Ms. Zierden.

Wednesday, October 24^th and Thursday, October 25^th:

On Wednesday, I posted a quote from Andrea Jackson’s (Head of the Archives Research Center at Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center) professional development call with IMLS Fellows to Facebook as part Avery’s American Archives Month social media campaign. On Thursday, I completed revisions to my evaluation form for part two of Debra Lee’s video oral history interview. It was so great listening to Lee talk about witnessing the election of America’s first African American president. In her interview, she makes a very perceptive observation and connection about the president’s election and the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. In the afternoon, I attended the all library staff meeting with Mr. Spelbring at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. At the meeting, various staff members discussed recent acquisitions to the library; upcoming events and exhibits; and approved a new library policy concerning eating, drinking, cell phone use and other behavior prohibited in the library.

Friday, October 26^th:

I completed the physical collection arrangement and editing of the finding aid draft for the W. Melvin Brown, Jr. Papers. I also established the series and folder arrangement for the Edwina Harleston Whitlock Papers and continued developing the biographical and scope and content note for the collection’s finding aid. Additionally, I created photo albums on Avery’s Facebook page for Mrs. Harell-Roye’s photos of the 10^th anniversary celebration of The Tammy Show; the unveiling of the C.A. Brown High School historical marker and the Eastside neighborhood walking tour. I also forwarded Ms. Mayo e-mails from followers of Avery’s Facebook page, so that we can stay knowledgeable about what is important to Avery’s followers; remain connected and engaged with them; and continue to show them that we care about what matters to them.