Latest Post
Reading Tea Leaves at Special Collections
Posted June 26, 2024
Written by Dan Du, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina - Charlotte (Special Collections Research Center travel grant recipient, 2023-2024)
Special Collections
Strollin’: A History of Black Greek Letter Organizations at William & Mary
Posted
Strollin’, a new exhibit on view in the Marshall Gallery (1st floor rotunda in Swem Library), brings together belongings from members of Black Greek-letter organizations (BLGOs) at William & Mary.
Better Late Than Never?
Posted
I was late, to begin with. I hadn’t written about my time at the Swem Library’s Special Collections Research Center, within The Chapin-Horowitz Dog Book Collection. I kept promising myself—and others—that I would do it. The work was imminent. Forthcoming, shortly. About to arrive.
Santa Claus: An Alternative Image
Posted
The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was first published in 1823 and attributed to Clement Clarke Moore as author in 1837.
Curating for Belonging
Posted
Belonging is an ongoing goal for our archives, and our aim is to have collections that support and reflect the research and interests of students, faculty, staff, and the world.
Things that are Gone
Posted
I am old enough that several of the places that I have lived over the years have been torn down, including the house on South Boundary Street that I lived in for two years as a W&M student. To all those who wander up and down DoG Street: think about the street's very different appearance before Colonial Williamsburg.
The SCRC's First Web-Archived TikTok
Posted
April 13th, 2021 marks the entry of the first TikTok into William & Mary's Special Collections web archives. The TikTok features a performance by VIMS alum David Niebuhr, putting a spin on a TikTok trend where creators use a popular sea shanty, "The Wellerman," in the creation of their video content.
Nineteenth-Century Virtual Reality
Posted
On one level a virtual reality headset works the same way as the old View Master toy.
Finding Mr. Jodrell: Lost for 235 years
Posted
Recently, I began a process to show my appreciation to William & Mary, in a modest way, for my education and to give something back to the College as I approached the 50th anniversary of my graduation in 1970.
Something New Under the Moon
Posted
Over the winter and spring of early 1941, a towering landmark rose on the rural landscape less than two miles from downtown Williamsburg. The structure housed the screen for the Stockade Theatre Auto-Torium at Casey's Corner, where Richmond and Ironbound Roads intersect.
Cooking by the Book: Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife
Posted
My favorite kinds of materials in archives are the ones we might describe colloquially as "well-loved," where you can tell that someone—or perhaps more than one someone—spent hours writing, reading, and thinking about a topic.
Lists and Linnaean Taxonomy in Jean Skipwith's Papers
Posted
Sometime between 1795 and 1826, Lady Jean Skipwith made an account of the flora on her property. A pocket-sized notebook, now in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), contains her handwritten list of plants.
Outtakes, Known Unknowns, and a Problem with the Archive
Posted
Written by graduate student assistant, Erna Anderson. This exhibit is on view in the Swem Library lobby through April 1, 2021. Content warning: This post discusses blackface and gender impersonation.
The Stamp of Our Past
Posted
In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, protestors in Bristol toppled the statue of Edward Colston (1636-1721) in an act representative of an accelerated global reckoning with the legacies of enslavement and colonialism.
The Day W&M was Beat
Posted
Beatific. Sympathetic. Spiritually illuminated. An ecological, fresh-planet consciousness. So Beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac described their work, their art, their lives.
The Diane R. Clark Movie Poster Collection and The Importance of Destruction
Posted
A common and complex practice within Tibetan Buddhism is the millenia-old, slow and careful creation of sand mandalas.
Travel Grant Recipient Research Report: Russell Hooper
Posted
This summer, the Research Department at William & Mary Libraries reprised a workshop series for undergraduate researchers that we'd first held in Summer 2020 as a response to the pandemic. We built on the success of last year's series to offer greater variety, expanded topics, and more flexibility for students.
A Brief Look at Community and the Great Outdoors
Posted
With the turning of the seasons we at Special Collections look back on our histories of outdoor activities, and the community that can be found therein.
William & Mary, A Century Ago
Posted
Tracy Melton '85, member of the William & Mary Libraries Board of Directors, reflects on the university's previous experience with pandemic. Melton is generously donating the journal that he is keeping during the global health crisis; the journal will be open to research in 2022.
"No respecter of persons": Some Yorktown Visitors and the "Spanish Flu" Pandemic of 1918-1919
Posted
Bill Cole ('70) shares the stories behind the names in Catherine Sheild's 20th-century Yorktown guest book.
30 Years of ADA and the History of Accessibility at W&M
Posted
As we reflect on the past thirty years of the Americans with Disabilities Act at W&M—and the even longer history of activism preceding it—now we ask: What might the next thirty years look like?