This post is written by one of our 2020-2021 Special Collections Research Travel Grant Recipients, Kevin James (University of Guelph).
Special Collections
Apr 2021
-
April 28, 2021Over 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.
Mar 2021
-
March 29, 2021My 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. -
March 25, 2021Sometime between 1795 and 1826, Lady Jean Skipwith made an account of the flora on her property. [i] A pocket-sized notebook, now in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), contains her handwritten list of plants. -
March 23, 2021Written 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.]] -
March 8, 2021Beatific. Sympathetic. Spiritually illuminated. An ecological, fresh-planet consciousness. So Beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac described their work, their art, their lives.
Feb 2021
-
February 8, 2021In 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.
Dec 2020
-
December 2, 2020A common and complex practice within Tibetan Buddhism is the millenia-old, slow and careful creation of sand mandalas.
Nov 2020
-
November 11, 2020When I arrived at the Special Collections Research Center this past July 29th for my first day of research into William & Mary’s collection of Maury Family Papers, I felt in my bones that I was in store for a fascinating week of discovery. My hunch proved true.
Oct 2020
-
October 28, 2020On August 23, 1812, Robert Stevens wrote to his parents in Rhode Island from New Orleans in the aftermath of a hurricane, “a Scene of horror & devastation.” -
October 13, 2020With 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.