Phi Beta Kappa
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The first Phi Beta Kappa Hall was erected in 1926 to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity, the first Greek letter fraternity, and to honor the 50 founders. All but one were Virginians and with one exception were students the College. Elisha Parmele of Connecticut was conducting a school in Virginia after his graduation from Harvard in 1778.
From Collection to Exhibit
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For the past few months, we have been working to translate the W&M Hip Hop Collection into an exhibit titled Re-Mixing the Old Dominion: 35 Years of Virginia Hip Hop History and Culture. In addition to selecting the "stuff" to showcase the collection and the history of Virginia hip-hop, a completely different set of skills are also needed to create a successful exhibit.
Surprises on Every Page
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The Lane Carlson Papers came to Swem Special Collections in 2012 in several large boxes, filled with what at first glance appeared to be just stacks and stacks of mundane letters from a small-town girl to her parents. This could not be further from the truth.
From Slavery to Freedom via Entrepreneurship
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On October 19, 2014 at Dinwiddie Court House, a Virginia historical marker was dedicated to Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (also spelled Keckly). Elizabeth, or 'Lizzy' Keckley was born near Petersburg and was a slave on the Burwell Plantation.
A World Both Foreign and Familiar
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"Like Dorry, I have decided to keep a journal. It seems to me a very pleasant thing to write down the occurrences of one's life so that one can read them later." So writes twenty-year-old Rosanna May Munger in 1886 (January 1 1886, Diary #1). Rose, as she preferred to be called, would go on recording the rhythms of her daily routine until 1945, providing the modern reader with a unique window into the religious, social, and cultural life of an unmarried woman over several decades.
Powell Family Papers - Hepburn Addition Available Online
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Through the work of our student assistants, volunteers, and staff, Special Collections has recently reprocessed, digitized, and made the Powell Family Papers, Hepburn Addition available online.
Collection Grants at Work: Prof. Xin Wu's Chinese Painting Students Engage with Facsimile Art Objects
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Each week during the semester, Special Collections hosts multiple class sessions to allow students hands-on access to primary source materials relevant to their course's subject matter. This week, Professor Xin Wu brought her ARTH 397 students into Special Collections to view facsimile artwork as part of her Chinese Painting class, which is being offered for the first time this fall.
Breaking in the Archives
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Devoted to the history of Virginia's hip-hop culture, the William & Mary Hip-Hop Collection has documented shared cultural origins with the Bronx and greater New York City. As early as 1979, many of Virginia's hip-hop pioneers were listening to the earliest commercial rap releases from New York City on Virginia radio stations, most prominently WRAP-AM broadcasting from Norfolk.
College Farm
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The College Farm of William & Mary was active in the 1920s-1940s. According to a 1935 Alumni Gazette article the farm was first organized in 1923 by President J.A.C. Chandler. The 65 acre farm supplied vegetables and fruit for the college dining hall.
The "Controversy" of Being Different: LGBT Student Groups at William & Mary
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One of the best sources for tracking LGBT presence at William & Mary is the archives' collection of the student yearbook, Colonial Echo, which is available online. Insider tip: the digitized versions are searchable by keyword! This is how I started my research filling in the gaps of what we know about LGBT groups at the College.
Fostering Hope and Community in an Internment Camp
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On Friday, the 25th of September, 1942, Hilda Haworth, her husband Walter, and many others left the English Channel island Guernsey for Germany. The diary details life in the camp for a little over a year, and was immensely fascinating to read through.
A Treasure Trove of the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Early National Periods
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Currently, the Tucker-Coleman Papers are undergoing a serious overhaul. Groups of boxes are being subdivided into intuitive series within the collection, and the finding aids for each are going digital, making the Tucker Coleman Papers more accessible to researchers than ever.
Diary of an Ocean Voyage to Latin America
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Marie Seegelken and her husband Oliver embarked on a cruise from Los Angeles to Cristobal, Panama. The couple left Los Angeles on August 7, 1934 after dining the night before at the California Yacht Club. The passengers started their voyage on the SS Santa Catalina but were transferred to the SS Santa Elena for the voyage home where they arrived on September 4.
Left in the Lurch
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In 1819 Asher Marx (no relation to Groucho) wrote a letter to Moses Myers of Norfolk, Virginia complaining about his money problems, saying that his credit would have been sufficient to support his family but Wilson & Cunningham "left me in the Lurch" for $40,000. Did they really use that expression in the early 19th century? Was Asher the one who coined the phrase?
College Memorial Garden
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The centerpiece of the College's Memorial Garden is a towering bronze sculpture of a dove, created by David Turner, class of 1983. Turner's sculptures appear all over campus, including Bald Eagles in the Sadler Center and Great Blue Heron and Marsh Wren in the Crim Dell.
Centering animals in archival research
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Tracing the histories of oppressed groups is notoriously difficult as their members may have been prevented from attaining educational or material resources that would allow them to keep records of their experiences. Or their existence may have been deemed so inconsequential that they were simply excluded from or misrepresented by larger data sources like census records, upon which researchers often rely.
Asian and Asian Americans in the University Archives
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In honor of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, here are brief biographies of some of the earliest known Asian and Asian American students and faculty at William & Mary.
K.O.B. Ribbon Society
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This image of female students of the K.O.B. ribbon society surrounding the Botetourt Statue appeared in the 1931 Colonial Echo yearbook. Shortly after William & Mary became a co-ed in 1918, "a certain group of girls who found each other's company congenial, decided to form a ribbon society."
Beautiful Penmanship
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One of the most beautifully executed manuscript volumes in the Special Collections Research Center is a genealogy notebook compiled by Wilson Miles Cary (1838-1914). Cary, the grandnephew of Thomas Jefferson, was born in Harford County, Md. and later lived in Baltimore, Md. where he served as a court clerk and also pursued his genealogy interest.
College Camp 1775
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Col. Patrick Henry marked out an area "behind the College" for the Virginia Militia camp during the period 1775-1781. This indicates that the camp was behind (west) of the Wren Building which was always referred to as "the College" in the eighteenth century.