Reunions 2, 2008

Smith women love to return to campus!  There are so many Smith alumnae that return, and so few places of accommodation in the Valley, that we have 2 weekends of Reunion fun!  We’re now in the beginnings of the 2nd weekend of reunion.  The College Archives is pretty busy during these times.  This morning I had an alumna from the Class of 1938 donate materials of the class; we’ve pulled together mini-exhibit for the 12 classes that are returning.  Saturday afternoon 98 women from the Class of 1953 meet in Alumnae Gymnasium for their class meeting and I will give two talks about what’s in the College Archives and what the Archives is all about!  If recent past statistics say anything,  the College Archives staff meet, on average, with 40 individuals during our weekend of open hours.

It’s wonderful that so many women care about the history of Smith–and are a part of the history of Smith!  We, the staff, look forward to all the opportunities to meet and talk with Smith alumnae!

Illumination Night

Well, I sure have been off the ‘blog-o-sphere’ of late!  Today is the first day of our second weekend of reunion events here at Smith.  Last weekend was the big one for seniors: Commencement was held on Sunday morning, May 18th.  There were lot’s of families, friends and supporters of Smith on campus.  The weather was fairly cooperative, except for the Saturday night rain out of Illumination Night.  Everyone loves Illumination Night, so there were many disappointed folks out there.

What is Illumination Night, you ask?  One of the earliest mentions of the night is in the Hampshire County Journal of June 23, 1888 when it describes, “…The College ground were brilliantly decorated with Chinese lanterns Tuesday night, when the annual reception took place in Hillyer art gallery…”  1,000 lanterns lit campus that night.  As the years progressed music became an important part of the festivities with the Glee Club, alumnae and step singing happening.  Singing competitions were held on the steps of the old Students Building.  In the 1950s the Glee Club performed on the island in Paradise Pond.  Today there is still plenty of musical activity to Illumination Night, including group singing, and formal bands playing.  When the rain does come down, Illumination Night has been held in various places: the College Hall Social Hall, Alumnae Gymnasium, the Indoor Track and Tennis Courts, and now the Campus Center.

February Happenings in the Archives

February has been a busy month in the College Archives.  Class presentations to students in archeology, sociology, american studies, first year writing seminars, and exercise sport studies makes for opportunities to excite students about primary research.  Topics for student papers include: women explorers, scholarship offerings, racial tensions, queer identity, women writers, sports and physical culture at Smith, labor unrest, housing issues–to name a few.

I enjoyed the warmth of Palm Beach, FL for 32 hours when I gave a talk to the Smith Club of Palm Beaches about the history of women of color at Smith.  This past Monday, as part of our Rally Day kick-off events, I gave a talk on Smith Traditions to a standing room only crowd (120+) of students, along with Dan Horowitz who spoke about Betty (Goldstein) Friedan’s (Class of 1942) student experiences at Smith and subsequent life-long activist work.  Those presentations, plus a few House History talks on Friday afternoons are rounding out my days and nights.  Who says archivists are stuffy people hidden away in dark corners of buildings??!!

Mountain Day

“When is it going to be Mountain Day?!” is a refrain/demand I’m hearing from students these days.  As the month of September wanes and turns into October; after the success of the Quad Riot, people are wondering!  The first time we read of Mountain Day is in a diary of student in the Class of 1881.  In the early days of the College Mountain Day is an official holiday announced in the published  calendar!  The current tradition of it being announced at the discretion of the President started in the early 1920s. 

 So, when will the 2007 Mountain be??  With the fickly New England weather this season–your guess is as good as mine!

Welcome Back!

This week I saw a large number of TVs, futons, plastic containers of clothes, bedding, books, and other assorted ’student stuff’ make their way into the houses on campus.  I thought it might be fun for you to see what the Northampton Railroad Station looked like in 1901 when Smith students and their belongings came off the trains.  All of these trunks are awaiting delivery to the campus.  Things haven’t changed very much have they? [click on the image to view it in larger format].

Summer in the Archives

People often inquire whether or not the Archives ’slows down’ or ‘closes’ during the summer.  Far from the case!  The College Archives enjoys a busy and productive time during the 3 months when the vast majority of undergraduate students and Smith faculty are not on campus.

Since July 1, (the beginning of our stats-collecting year), the College Archives staff has answered over 127 reference questions, with varying degrees of complexity, from off-site researchers; spent 85 hours staffing our on-site reference desk; accessioned 15 feet of material and taken in 10 photocopy or photoduplication orders.  We supervise 70 hours of student assistant assignments per week.  I have been conducting research for a paper I’m giving in October, as well as preparing for a presentation to First Year students this week.  My colleague Debbie has been working non-stop, accessioning new materials (and old), processing records, as well as creating lists of materials for our web-version database.  Summer is not a slow time in the Archives!

As we head into the school year, we’ll see students coming to the Archives using materials for class assignments.  We’ll be speaking to groups of students at Friday Teas, during student organization meetings; and welcoming back student assistants. 

 Summer is good in the Archives, and we look forward to the start of the academic year!

Life-logging

My colleague Leslie Fields posted a message on her blog For The Record ( http://smithrecords.wordpress.com/)about the recent New Yorker article (May 28, 2007), describing Gordon Bell and his project for Microsoft called MyLifeBits.  Bell is recording “the daily minutuea of life” according to article author Alec Wilkinson.  Another recent article found in the February 2, 2007 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education by Scott Carlson describes his experiences with a digital audio recorder hanging around his neck.  Both articles are fascinating reading whether you agree with the concept of not. 

As an archivist, I think about the meriad of ways that one would need to “access the 22,000 emails, 58,000 photographs,…every Web page he [Bell] has visited.”  Why collect the data if it is not accessible?  That begs the question, is it necessary to collect the daily minutiae of life, even healthy?  What about the self-sensoring that goes on in daily life?  Is someone ready to be confronted with the reality of a recording that shows them in a differing light from what they believe?  What about the purpose of memory and context within life?  Can a recording, even the most faithful, deliver the multiple points of emotional, visual, psychic, and tactil access points to a life experience? 

There’s plenty to chew on in these articles and I hope to see, read and hear more about life-logging on this blog and others. 

Finding Archival Materials

Start your search for materials in the Smith College Archives by reviewing the Archives website at:

www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/archives

 This website will provide you with general information about the Archives and links to additional resources.  As you take time to explore this source we’ll post more information about specific parts of the website.