Ideson Library Survey
The Julia Ideson Preservation Partners are conducting a survey of users of downtown Houston’s Ideson library. Please stop by and give them your input!
Houstonist has a great post about the building with a link to this article on its namesake.
StoryCorps comes to Houston
The StoryCorps MobileBooth will be in Houston from January 11- February 3. Reserve a slot now to record you and your family’s and community’s stories. Stories collected through this project form the StoryCorps archive, which is housed at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
New finding aids for the week of 9/18/06: “Miss Moonlight”, Mexico Documents
Once again, the collections represented in this week’s crop of of new finding aids represent some far-reaching aspects of the history of Houston, Texas, and beyond.
Maxine Mesinger Papers, 1965-2001
Special Collections holds the papers of the late great Houston society columnist Maxine Mesinger. Mesinger, also known as "Miss Moonlight", wrote the "Big City Beat" column for the Houston Chronicle. At her memorial service, Liz Carpenter eulogized "She was the last of the dot dot dot girls". Our holdings include the entire run of the "Big City Beat" column, Mesinger’s personal photo collection and an audio tribute from Joan Rivers!
Mexico Documents Collection, 1570 – 1898
Moving right along, I’ve put up the finding aid for this collection, which is really just a broad assortment of historical materials from Mexico. Translations are available for many of the documents. If you are a UH Faculty member, student, or any other community member with an interest in historic documents from the US-Mexico border region, get in touch with me. We have an even larger collection of materials, and they’re very underresearched.
More items unearthed from our unprocessed Manuscripts:
Paul Alexander Bartlett Letter, 1933
A letter from writer and artist Paul Alexander Bartlett asking for educational support from philanthropist Anita McCormick Blane. The Benson holds a collection of Bartlett’s photos.
This document details a skilled worker’s entry to Cuba.
Letter from the modernist architect and designer Marcel Breuer, written from New York City to University of Houston Professor of Architecture Howard Barnstone. October 12, 1971. Regards letter from Barnstone asking for support in Hugo V. Neuhaus Jr.’s nomination to the AIA College of Fellows.
Photo: Maxine Mesinger with Judy Garland. Photo dated Dec. 15, 1965. Houston Chronicle File Photo
Guest Blog: Summer Intern LeyAnne Ward
In the second installment of our intern guest blogs, LeyAnne Ward describes her experiences working with University Archives. We’re very pleased to have Alison and LeyAnne here for the fall semester as well.
I have always found libraries and, therefore, research to be fascinating, and was quite thrilled when I was given the opportunity to enroll in the English 4390: Professional Internship course, and secure a position at the M.D. Anderson Library where my main responsibility was to organize and compile a preliminary inventory of the Arte Público (a Hispanic press located at the University of Houston) Collection. My internship proved to be an extremely rewarding experience that I will cherish for years to come.
I eagerly began my first day as an intern in the Special Collections Department. From the beginning, I was graciously welcomed by librarian Julie Grob , who after a brief orientation, took me on a tour of the stack room, which houses all archival materials: historical documents, paintings, and ancient writings. Another facet to the stack room that I found interesting was the shelving. I had worked at a library before, but had never heard of nor seen mechanical shelves. Mrs. Grob allowed me to operate them, and I was amazed at how each shelf moved with the simple push of a button.
As mentioned earlier, my main responsibility was to organize the Arte Público collection and put together a preliminary inventory, a list of contents created upon receipt of a collection to provide a basic physical and intellectual description of the materials to aid researchers in their work. As a student intern, my other duties included learning about the founding of Arte Público Press and receiving instruction about the inventory as a step in the archival process. Most of the materials I dealt with were published drafts and manuscripts of works ranging from many categories and genres such as adult fiction, picture books, juvenile fiction, and much more.
My project supervisor Dick Dickerson (University Archivist) explained the process of how a Special Collections inventory is developed, including the various revisions it must undergo before it is complete. Mr. Dickerson then directed me to the Arte Público Press’ website. It proved to be beneficial avenue to learning about the press and I was very impressed with their goals and achievements.
After browsing through Arte Público’s online biographical page, I decided to research some of the titles I had come across in the stack room and read the synopsis for each one. About half of the titles belonged to Piñata Press, a branch of Arte Público, which publishes children’s and young adult novels. Most of the stories serve as character building tools that both educate and entertain young readers of Hispanic heritage.
Judging the entire scope of the internship, I would say that it has been a positive experience for me. Working in Special Collections was quite a treat, and I was able to see how an archival department was run, as well as the role that each staff member plays in the successful functioning of a library. As my internship came to a close, I realized that I had gained much satisfaction from the work I was doing and I decided that if the opportunity should arise, I would again intern in Special Collections as it would give me great pleasure to see the Arte Público project to its completion, and learn more about archival processing.
Literary, Women’s Archives Collections Finding Aids
New finding aids up on TARO this week:
John Lehmann : An Inventory of his Collection
Called "the greatest British literary editor of his time" by New York Times Book Review, UH holds a small collection of Lehmann’s papers, including three manuscripts, drafts of book reviews, and other writings. Princeton University’s Rare Books and Special Collections holds the Lehmann Family Papers.
Peggy Hall NOW Collection, 1970-1996
This Women’s Archives collection contains materials concerning the activities of the Houston chapter of National Organization for Women and other items of interest related to women’s issues and other chapters from the 1970s to 1990s.
In addition, these finding aids have been updated to reflect new additions to the collections:
Women in the Visual and Literary Arts (WIVLA) Records, 1994-2001
Women’s Fund for Health, Education and Research (HER) Records, 1979-2000
Cullinan, Whitmire, Heights Woman’s Club Finding Aids
Several new finding aids are up on TARO this week, each representing a unique part of Houston history:
Joseph Stephen Cullinan Collection
Back at UH after their long term loan to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, the collection documents the life and work of Joseph Cullinan, founder of the Texas Company and one of Houston’s most influential citizens.
The papers of former Houston mayor Kathy Whitmire, the first woman elected to Houston City government, are now housed in the Women’s Archives.
Houston Heights Woman’s Club Records
Founded in 1906 by some of the founding women residents of the Houston Heights, the records of this organization document civic, cultural and literary activities.
Guest Blog: Summer Intern Alison Ward
UH student Alison Ward served as an intern in Special Collections this summer. She agreed to write a blog post about her experiences with us. Thanks to Alison and all our interns for their hard work!
When I first heard about this internship opportunity, I was both intrigued and excited. I chose Special Collections because it proved to be a great occasion to discover whether or not library science was a plausible graduate degree for me to pursue. My internship began the first day of the Summer IV session, July 5-August 4, 2006.
After meeting my supervisor Amelia Abreu, the Archivist/History librarian in this department, I began training for my main summer project. It consisted of updating departmental Finding Aids (documents that provide access to archival collections) to ensure consistency and accuracy. Over the next few days, Amelia did an excellent job explaining the importance of Finding Aids, as well as the new inputting requirements.
The Finding Aids themselves first had to be transferred onto official Templates which include the following information: the name and dates of the collection, a detailed biography of the collector (if applicable), copyright information, a detailed description of the collection, and more. This description is divided by boxes and subdivided into folders, the entire contents of which are delineated. Librarians organize the boxes by topics such as correspondence, articles, scrapbooks, photographs, art, manuscripts, plays, and miscellaneous items. I completed over fifteen Literature Finding Aids files, some larger and more extensive than others, which included the Aldous Huxley Papers, Vassar Miller Papers, Kenneth Patchen, Fritz Leiber, and Sylvan Karchmer to name some prominent ones.
As a culminating project for my internship, Ms. Abreu asked me to create my own Finding Aid for a rather important collection. This was a fantastic opportunity for me to call upon the skills that I had acquired while transferring ready-made documents onto official Templates. The designated collection was by William B. Shrimplin, an Ohio barber who was an avid collector of Mark Twain works. While making an itinerary, I discovered some priceless finds among this collection. There are letters written by prominent figures such as Jack London, James Whitcomb Riley, Carl Sandburg, and President Calvin Coolidge! He also owned two letters written by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) in 1891 and 1894.
There were many other wonderful collections that I discovered while working in Special collections. For instance, Ms. Grob allowed me to touch an original copy of the King James Version Bible printed in 1611! There is a collection (Colonel Israel Shreves Revolutionary Papers) which contains letters by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Special Collections even owns a Sumerian cuneiform tablet. All of these artifacts fascinated me and made me all the more eager to learn about the documents and other items housed here.
Many of the collections are one-of-a-kind; I was privileged to be able to record and handle these valuable documents, artifacts that connect one with the past. Whenever I held a letter by Mark Twain or the King James Bible, it gave me goose bumps to think that I was touching documents handled by people that I have only read about. That, I can honestly say, was the most rewarding experience that I had during my internship here in the Special Collections Department-the continuity of past in this present day and age.
USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection
The National Agricultural Library has a fascinating online collection of 175 historic pomology watercolors from its Special Collections. Search by artist, or by fruit.
Image courtesy of National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Delaware’s Paul Bowles Exhibit
A few weeks ago, I posted a link to the finding aid for our very small collection of Paul Bowles Letters. For an informative overview of Bowles life and career, The University of Delaware has an "online exhibition and internet source page" on Bowles, which contains many digital images from their collection.
Small collections find a new home
I’ve began to create finding aids for some of the single items that have been floating around in the purgatory that was our "A-Z Collection". As you can see, the crop of material housed therein was extremely varied. I hope that by creating individual records for these homeless yet valuable items, users will be able to access them through online finding aids, and eventually, the library catalog. And, thanks to new Senior Library Assistant Rebecca Russell, they’re already encoded in EAD and up on TARO!
Lenny Abercrombie Letter, 1858
Paul Bowles Letters, 1983-1984
