New Year, New Goals, New Dreams - 2016

After my first year of being the University of St. Francis archivist, I hope to make 2016 as productive as last year.

A Brief Recap

Last year we created 18 individual collections relating to the University’s rich history, participated in Chicago Open Archives and showcased the Barbara A. Cooke Musical Theater Collection, implemented our records management system ArchivesSpace, and continued to fill requests from faculty, students, alumni, and the public.

There are also a few new forms, making contact with the Archives easier. The Appointment Request Form can set up a time to meet with me individually or for a class session. I also created forms for our faculty and student groups to transfer valuable historical  records for permanent storage to the Archives.

New Goals

Over the next few months, my focus will be cataloging the 1,000+ books of the Barbara A. Cooke Musical Theater Collection. We will start with biographies, which focus on influential people in the musical theater world, including: Fred Astaire, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more.

My student worker, Adjo Tameklo, and newest intern, Madison Bowie, will be adding over 500 images to our Sharing Our Past: A Visual History online collection. The work includes using our ContentDM software to write descriptions for each photograph, and searching for corresponding names and dates. Sometimes the names and dates are difficult to come by, so I intend to upload small batches over the coming months.

I will leave you with this inscription from the class of 1936 (which will hopefully be displayed in the future science building!)

Blessing of St. Francis: "May the Lord bless thee and keep thee. May He show His fact to thee and have mercy on thee.
May He turn His countenance to thee and give thee peace. May the Lord bless thee." - Presented by Class of 1936

If you have any questions regarding USF archival collections and/or have a donation, please contact Gloria Hendrickson, Archives Librarian, at ghendrickson@stfrancis.edu or 815-740-3539.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

St. Joseph School of Nursing

Image
In 1997 the St. Joseph College of Nursing joined the College of St. Francis and on January 1, 1998 became the College of Nursing and Allied Health at the newly renamed University of St. Francis. But before this storied nursing school joined USF they had been training nurses in Joliet for almost eight decades. Here's an abbreviated timeline about the history of St. Joseph School of Nursing. 1866 - 4 women form the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Seelback, Germany 1876 - Those 4 Sisters arrive in Avilla, Indiana 1881 - The Sisters traveled to Joliet to care for those affected by an epidemic of typhoid fever 1882 - Joliet donates $600 towards the creation of a hospital to be run by the Sisters 1882 - The Sisters of the Sacred Heart purchase the Motherhouse on Broadway from the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate to use as the St. Joseph Hospital *** So begins the relationship between the two congregations. The Sisters of St. Francis provided education for the Si
Read more

Chicago Open Archives 2016

Image
Research room in the Chicago History Museum October is American Archives Month and in celebration I attended Chicago Open Archives: Yours to Explore last week. Over thirty local archives, research centers, and cultural institutions in the Chicago area offered special events open to members of the public. I visited three archives, each with different missions and goals for their collections. First up, the Chicago History Museum . “The Chicago History Museum is a research center and exhibition space focused on collecting and telling Chicago's stories. In addition to exhibitions on Chicago’s history, the Chicago History Museum houses a Research Center which serves the research collections of the museum—archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, published material, and architectural drawings.” With such vast holdings the archivists focused on their sports-related collections. The two-hour tour began in the museum with the typical cases the public can easily view. T
Read more

Rediscovering Chicago's Film History

Image
Last year I became the LIBRAS Archives Special Interest Group Chairperson; part of my job is to put events together which interest archivists and librarians within the LIBRAS community. The most recent event was a visit and tour of the Chicago Film Archives . Their website states: “The Chicago Film Archives is a non-profit 501(c) (3) institution established in late 2003 in order to preserve and catalogue over five thousand 16mm films donated by the Chicago Public Library.” Extra copies of films donated by the Chicago Public Library During the visit, we discussed how the film industry in Chicago boomed during the early 20 th century with actors including Charlie Chaplin getting their first start at Essanay Studios. Chicago was the film industry hub until the production companies moved to Hollywood.  The films at CFA cover the “dark ages” of Chicago and Midwest filmmaking. As a regional archive their collections relate to Midwest history, amateur filmmakers, and home mov
Read more