Special Collections News – Libraries https://library.williams.edu Thu, 09 Feb 2023 00:17:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Transcribe-a-thon: Help Write the History of Williams https://library.williams.edu/2023/02/08/transcribe-a-thon-help-write-the-history-of-williams/ Thu, 09 Feb 2023 00:17:30 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5917 Continue reading "Transcribe-a-thon: Help Write the History of Williams"]]> On Wednesday March 1, join us in the Stetson Reading room 7:00-9:00 to learn to transcribe historic documents. Turning handwritten manuscripts into typed documents helps to make them more discoverable, readable, and searchable. We will focus on documents relating to the early history of Williams College, including a diary and letters written by the first President of Williams College, Ebenezer Fitch. Enjoy refreshments, company, and learn to read and interpret cursive. No prior experience is necessary!

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Williams Goes Modern: Architectural Drawings from the College Archives https://library.williams.edu/2023/01/24/williams-goes-modern-architectural-drawings-from-the-college-archives/ Tue, 24 Jan 2023 18:25:44 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5900 Modern architecture came slowly to Williams College. Colonial Revival was the rule until the building of Driscoll Hall in 1963. But long before this, the college was experimenting with modern ideas, and it was often students who took the initiative. A student campaign persuaded the college to build its first modern infirmary, complete with a surgical operating room. And it was a student-run fraternity that tried to give the campus its first completely modern building (but which gave it one of its ugliest). Through it all the campus’s development was guided by America’s most distinguished firm of landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers. 

This exhibition, organized by a Winter Study class, looks at selected projects from the College Archives. Together they show Williams College’s slow, fitful, and sometimes amusing move toward modernism. On view in the Schow Gallery, Sawyer Library 455, M-F 10:00-4:30, through February.

Curated by:

  • Carter Anderson
  • Jay Callahan
  • Matt Conforti
  • Leo Cooper
  • Michael J. Lewis
  • Janne Koch
  • Jakin Miller
  • Kurt Oelschlager
  • Henry Ouellette
  • Ian Di Pietro
  • Sam Riley
  • Niki Srivastava
  • With special thanks to Maysa Shaer, Special Collections Lowe Fellow
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Special Collections Summer Research Fellowships https://library.williams.edu/2023/01/03/5868/ Tue, 03 Jan 2023 19:11:18 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5868 Continue reading "Special Collections Summer Research Fellowships"]]> Williams students, apply for a summer research fellowship! These fellowships are designed to fully support use of Library Special Collections (the Chapin Library or the College Archives) over the course of a summer. During a fellowship, students work closely with library staff to continue an ongoing project or delve into new research. Applicants will be evaluated on their proposed use of materials held in Library Special Collections and the impact of their research project. In their proposals, students should include a description of the research project and its significance or impact, and specify which materials in Special Collections they plan to use. Fellows will be funded according to the Williams campus summer rate for a term of 6 to 8 weeks. Funded students will present the results of their research to a campus audience. To learn more about Special Collections, visit specialcollections.williams.edu. For more information about how to apply, see the Summer Fellowships information sheet.

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Digital collections now searchable in Library catalog https://library.williams.edu/2022/11/28/digital-collections-now-searchable-in-library-catalog/ Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:38:24 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5803 Continue reading "Digital collections now searchable in Library catalog"]]> New Way to Access Williams Digital Collections
New Way to Access Williams Digital Collections

Williams Digital Collections, including complete runs of the Gul and Record, senior theses, faculty scholarship, and the Alumni Review, can now be accessed through the library web page. This material, formerly accessed through the Unbound site, is now conveniently integrated into our library search engine. This allows library users to discover, access, and download digital collections in the same environment as other library resources.

You can browse Williams Digital collections using this new link: https://library.williams.edu/digital-collections. You might experience some changes in how digital collections are displayed and described as we transition to this new platform. Questions? Contact your department liaison or just ask us.

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New Sterling A. Brown Playlist Released https://library.williams.edu/2022/11/01/new-sterling-a-brown-playlist-released/ Tue, 01 Nov 2022 13:32:27 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5754 Continue reading "New Sterling A. Brown Playlist Released"]]> Sterling A. Brown and his record collectionThroughout his lifetime, D.C. Native, Sterling Allen Brown wore many hats. Novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, and educator extraordinaire, SAB was also considered a top authority on folk music and blues. His participation in events such as the 1952 Jazz Roundtable panel session, “Jazz and the American Popular Culture,” and the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival panel discussion “Jazz and American Life,” underscores how revered Prof. Brown was by musicians, academics, and his contemporaries.

Affectionately referred to as the Dean of African American Literature, his works Southern Road, The Negro in American Fiction, Negro Poetry and Drama: and the Negro in American Fiction, and perhaps his most renowned publication, The Negro Caravan, have cemented him in the American literary canon. Like his contemporary Langston Hughes and mentee Amiri Baraka, SAB was also influential in establishing what is known as blues poetry. Stephen E. Henderson’s “The Heavy Blues of Sterling Brown: A Study of Craft and Tradition,” shares that it is worth not that the hallmark of Prof. Brown’s poetry is its exploration of the bitter dimension of the blues, as well as the ballad, folk epic, lie, and the song sermon.

As a professor at Howard, SAB would often invite students, friends, and family into his home for fellowship, with his curated record collection providing the musical backdrop. However, it was while a student at Williams College that he began building his vast and culturally significant 20th-century record collection replete with folk music, jazz, blues, big band, classical, spoken word, gospel, and spirituals. The blues, specifically “Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith, one of his first record purchases and the first blues ever recorded in the US, helped him combat the isolation and loneliness he experienced at Williams. Often, after midnight, SAB and fellow Black classmates would meet at his Spring street dorm room and gather around the phonograph to listen to the blues.

What began as a hobby, continued to grow over nearly eight decades. A highlight of the record collection is that it includes records released on Black Swan Records, the first Black-owned record label founded by Harry Pace. One of the most beautiful offerings of Black expressive culture, this music playlist clocks in at 3,316 songs and 194 hours. The playlist is a catalog of the records SAB collected over his lifetime and includes works from Mahalia Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ella Fitzgerald, Illinois Jacquet, Fisk University Jubilee Singers, Count Basie, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Jelly Roll Morton, Chick Webb, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and many more. The collection is housed in the Williams College Special Collections in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

The Spotify playlist was compiled by Sterling A. Brown Archivist and Curator, Jessica C. Neal, Joey Hua-Phan , and Akhir Stewart.

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The Life and Legacy of Sterling A. Brown https://library.williams.edu/2022/09/22/the-life-and-legacy-of-sterling-a-brown/ Thu, 22 Sep 2022 19:13:49 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5664 Continue reading "The Life and Legacy of Sterling A. Brown"]]>

Williams Libraries is celebrating the life and legacy of Sterling A. Brown (Williams 1922) with an exhibit and symposium. Registration is now open for the virtual symposium and live in-person exhibition reception. Program highlights include Imani Perry, Paula Giddings, and Cornelius Eady. For a full schedule and registration details please see the event website.

Artwork by Naderson Saint-Pierre.

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New Exhibits: “Taking Place, Making Space” and “Spaces for Living and Learning” https://library.williams.edu/2022/06/09/new-exhibits-taking-place-making-space-and-spaces-for-living-and-learning/ Thu, 09 Jun 2022 17:43:39 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5515 Continue reading "New Exhibits: “Taking Place, Making Space” and “Spaces for Living and Learning”"]]> Collage of modern dorm building, students in classroom, and blueprint labelChange has a history. In a new pair of coordinate exhibits, the Chapin Library and the College Archives explore communities, campus, and our built environment through historical photographs, books, manuscripts, and artifacts.

In planning for a college campus, we draw on the current needs of our communities, as well as centuries of cultural experiences of group living. “Spaces for Living and Learning” offers views into spaces where people gather outside of nuclear family groupings.

“Taking Place, Making Space: Campus Planning and its Connections to Community at Williams College, 1918-2022,” explores moments of change to the physical Williams campus and to the general Williams community through six different themes of campus planning and change.

Curator Ruth Kramer ’22 writes: “It is my hope that this exhibition will allow each of us to understand the Williams community now by understanding the Williams communities in the past; understanding how the space and place of Williams has evolved is a form of preparation for the future. Change can be intimidating, but looking into the outcomes of history and the lives of the people who were a part of it allows for comforts of stability and reassurance that change can bring forth better community, advancements of accessibility, and possibilities rooted in equity.”

These coordinate exhibits will be on display in the Special Collections galleries (4th floor of Sawyer Library) until late summer.

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Celebrating Sterling A. Brown’s 121st Birthday https://library.williams.edu/2022/04/29/sab121/ Fri, 29 Apr 2022 17:03:42 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5464 Continue reading "Celebrating Sterling A. Brown’s 121st Birthday"]]> May 1 marks the 121st birthday of Sterling A. Brown, poet, folklorist, professor, and graduate of Williams College (class of 1922). Join us in remembrance and celebration with an audio mix curated by DJ Kailyn Hype. Does this playlist inspire you to submit a proposal for the symposium to be held October 20-22? Proposals are due May 13, find more information on the symposium site.

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Friendship Heights: Duke Ellington & Sterling A. Brown https://library.williams.edu/2021/09/22/friendship-heights-duke-ellington-sterling-a-brown/ Wed, 22 Sep 2021 14:36:26 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5205 The Sterling A. Brown (SAB) Papers detail the life, work, and teachings of Sterling Allen Brown. SAB was a known jazz and blues aficionado, renowned poet, and considered the “dean of Afro-American literary studies.” The collections also include letters, photographs, and music that evidence half a century of professional engagement activities, collaborations, and professional and personal relationships. Among SABs many long-lasting relationships was his friendship with fellow Washingtonian and jazz legend, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington.

Black and white image of Duke Ellington sitting down, playing the piano.
Duke Ellington, MC-330, Sterling A. Brown Papers, Williams College Archives.

SAB and Ellington were childhood friends, who had very similar middle-class upbringings in Washington D.C. Both were reared in homes and families that fostered their curiosities in prose and music, respectively. While SAB attended Dunbar High School and was under the tutelage of Jessie Fauset, Haley Douglas, and Anna Julia Cooper, Ellington attended Armstrong Manual Training School. While in high school, Ellington began to take private lessons in harmony from Armstrong’s music teacher, Henry Grant, whom he credits with establishing his musical foundation. Coming of age in D.C., SAB and Duke witnessed and participated in the cultural renaissance of U Street, aka “Black Broadway,” that predated 1920s Harlem.

After years of playing Ragtime in clubs, rent parties, and for private societies, Duke relocated to Harlem, arriving on the emerging jazz scene. Jazz, with its origins in ragtime and blues, had begun in New Orleans and traveled north to Chicago, D.C., and Harlem. As the 20s roared on, Ellington’s major entree to success came when he assumed the role of band director of the Black Sox Orchestra, which rebranded as “The Washingtonians.”

Black and white image of Duke Ellington standing and conducting his 11 piece ensemble known as the Washingtonians.
Duke Ellington and the Washingtonians, MC-330, Sterling A. Brown Papers, Williams College Archives.

By the mid-20s, The Washingtonians landed a permanent spot at the famous Cotton Club, which catalyzed Ellington and his band’s fame and popularity in 1927, drawing large crowds and even regular NBC broadcasts. Duke Ellington’s musical presence was a force to be reckoned with, as fans were captivated by his elegance, stage presence, lifestyle, and self-confidence, which was shaped by the Washington community that raised him. Ellington also increased exposure of Black musicians to wealthy white clients of the Cotton Club and subsequently to a more broad, diverse, and international musical audience.

Image of "The Oracle"Similarly, SAB was also contributing to the Black creative expression that blossomed during Harlem Renaissance. In 1925, SAB published his first poem, “For A Certain Youngster,”  in the March issue of The Oracle. During the 20s, SAB was influenced by other Black poet contemporaries like Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen, Helene Johnson. During this time, SAB would contribute regularly as an editor and poet to publications such as The Crisis and Opportunity. Notably, his poem “When de Saints Go Ma’ching Home,” won Opportunity’s 1927 poetry prize.

In the 1930s SAB and Duke continued to experience parallel success. SABs poems depicted stripped-down portraits of Black experiences and legitimized the genre of African American folklore as an artistic expression. His collection of poems, Southern Road, published in 1932, pioneered a new era of African American literature. Southern Road expanded and introduced a new way of writing Black vernacular poetry and folk poetry, and was canonized as part of the artistic tradition of the Harlem Renaissance. Equally, Ellington began to appear in films and gained international fame as a composer and pianist alongside his all-Black ensemble. The achievements of both men, in literature and music, enhanced Black cultural production and transcended racial barriers.

 Black and white image of Sterling A. Brown (right) Duke Ellington (left) both smiling and wearing graduation caps and gowns at Howard University’s 1971 commencement ceremony in Washington, D.C. Unidentified person stands to the right of Duke Ellington and is also wearing a graduation cap and gown.
Duke Ellington and Sterling A. Brown at Howard University, MC-330, Sterling A. Brown Papers, Williams College Archives.

SAB is to poetry and prose what Duke is to big band jazz. Both SAB and Duke were creatives, forward thinkers, and hometown heroes of Washington D.C. In 1971, both men were awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University aka“The Mecca”.

To celebrate the bond between SAB and Duke, the Special Collections has created a playlist titled Friendship Heights, a nod to their friendship and the northwest neighborhood in D.C. The playlist is composed of Duke Ellington records that appear in the rich Sterling A. Brown record collection.

Access the playlist here: https://spoti.fi/2XyhMSk

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Openings: [re]turning to Special Collections https://library.williams.edu/2021/07/08/openings-exhibit-coming-soon/ Thu, 08 Jul 2021 17:30:20 +0000 https://library.williams.edu/?p=5097

As Williams reopens to visitors, Special Collections returns to displaying our material publicly behind protective glass. Few books are created with this kind of interaction in mind, but what can we learn from close looking at a distance?

“Openings” centers on themes of education, travel, dining, and gathering—aspects of our lives that have changed dramatically over the past year and a half. Whether we can’t turn the page because we’re looking at an object through Zoom, or because it is securely displayed in an exhibition, how much can we still learn from a single opening?

Each case offers three separate ways of examining its contents: one traditional, content-focused label; an explanation of the item’s provenance or acquisition history; and a book-specific vocabulary word with definition and context.

Openings: [re]turning to Special Collections will be on display in the Chapin Gallery (4th floor of Sawyer Library) through the Fall term.

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