New Collections
Below are a few collections recently acquired by the Grenander Department. Complete lists of the Department's collections are available here.
Bridge Line Historical Society (MSS-129) - The Bridge Line Historical Society (BLHS) was founded in 1990 to document the history of the Delaware & Hudson Railway. The collection includes the BLHS's newsletter, The Bulletin, as well as maps, drawings, publications, and related material. The Grenander Department has only just begun to receive records from the BLHS and expects to steadily receive additional material from the organization in the months and years to come.
Business and Professional Women's Club of Schenectady (APAP-218) - The records of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Schenectady joins the records of the Albany and New York State organizations already held by the Grenander Department. The collection includes meeting minutes, news clippings, publications, programs, scrapbooks detailing the club's activities and accomplishments, and photographs from its organization in 1927 through 2006.
David Coplon (APAP-288) - The collection includes material from the Schenectady chapter of Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE); local anti-Vietnam war organizations; Church and Laity United, Schenectady; and groups advocating for Middle East peace. Much of the material dates from the 1970s.
Robert Gross (APAP-291) - The records were created during Gross' work with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), Journey of Hope, Lighting the Torch of Conscience, and other activities in opposition to the death penalty. The NCADP leads and coordinates the movement to end state killing in the United States. Its 120 member organizations include civil and human rights groups, legal advocacy and public interest groups, and virtually every major church or religious denomination in the country. Journey of Hope...from Violence to Healing is an organization that is led by murder victims' family members. It conducts public education speaking tours and addresses alternatives to the death penalty. The collection includes: NCADP state files, programs, and organizations; Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing administrative files, videotapes, photographs, and press packets related to speaking tours; and material from the Lighting the Torch of Conscience march in 1990.
Geof Huth (MSS-137) - The collection includes artworks produced by Geof Huth (including poetry, fiction, essays, aphorisms, visual poems, dramatic works, and comics), biographical records, extensive correspondence, records of his various micropresses, weblogs, audiovisual recordings of sound poems and presentations given at professional conferences, and a large collection of small and micropress publications focused on visual and experimental poetry. Huth's reflections on donating his papers, including the finding aid he wrote for his collection, are here. After a bit of editing, the Grenander Department will make the finding aid available from here.
Women's Building, Inc. (APAP-292) - The Women's Building, Inc. is the women's community center of the Capital Region located at 79 Central Avenue in Albany, New York and operated by the Holding Our Own foundation. The Women's Building's mission is to create an environment where differences are respected, leadership is shared, all women's strengths are recognized, all women's growth is supported, and a diversity of age, race, education, income, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, religion, and social background is seen as enriching. The organization's goals are to: provide a resource center and clearinghouse for information of interest to women; a multi-purpose space for cultural, informational, and recreational events of interest to women and children including meeting rooms, office rental for women's organizations, services, commercial, and professional enterprises, and a performance area; and to enhance a sense of community among women throughout the Capital Region. The collection includes records such as meeting minutes, grant applications, material related to the Women's Building's capital campaign, publications, program material, and other administrative material.
Comments
Quite a wide variety of records. Over what period of time were these collected?
Of interest to me is the issue of how you will promote access to this great variety. Some, certainly, by virtue of their being parts of larger, fairly cohesive, collections, such as the Death Penalty Archives.
Lots of great records and lots of great work.
Geof
Posted by: Geof Huth | January 4, 2007 09:07 PM
Geof,
These collections were transferred to the Grenander Department from March 2006 through January 2007.
-Bridge Line Historical Society-Physical transfer began in December 2006 with regular additions expected in the months and years to come.
-Business and Professional Women's Club of Schenectady-The transfer stretched from March-September 2006 as records were variously housed in a central meeting space as well as with individual members.
-David Coplon-August 2006.
-Robert Gross-Arrived via UPS on the first day we were open in 2007.
-Geof Huth-The papers were transferred via semi-regular pick-ups from October through December 2006. Additional material is expected in the future.
-Women's Building-I picked these boxes up two days ago. Various staff members here have talked with the Women's Building about preserving their records since the late 1980s, so it is quite satisfying to have this collection.
There are more new collections acquired in the last few months to mention from the University Archives and the Emigres collections, so expect that in a separate post in the next few weeks.
While these collections cover a breadth of subject areas, all fit within the Department's (regularly revised) collection development policy.
As for promoting the collections, we do all of the usual things (cataloging, finding aids online, presentations, brochures, etc.). We are fortunate to have university constituencies with already developed interests in these collections, such as the School of Criminal Justice with the National Death Penalty Archive collections and women's studies/history classes for the Women's Building and BPW. Of course, our users are not simply affiliated with the University at Albany and we are always working on new ways to reach these potential users.
Also, we keep our Subject Guides current and I add new ones as faculty or researchers make comments ("I'm working on a project about Schenectady. Do you have anything even though you are in Albany?") or as inspiration strikes one of the archivists here in the Department. We know that many non-University at Albany users find our collections simply through Google and other search engines (Google leads the way with over 70% of our search engine referrals). And of course this blog. I know people are reading it, but no one has yet told me, "I saw this on your blog!" Well, I guess I can count your comment that way.
There are other plans in the works such as creating research and travel awards focusing on specific collections and/or subject areas to further promote the collections.
Acquiring new collections and spreading the word about those collections is ongoing and will always be one of the major functions of the archivists here.
Thank you for reading.
Posted by: Amy Schindler | January 5, 2007 11:48 AM