Written by Dan Du, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina - Charlotte (Special Collections Research Center travel grant recipient, 2023-2024)
Special Collections
Mar 2021
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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
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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
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December 2, 2020A common and complex practice within Tibetan Buddhism is the millenia-old, slow and careful creation of sand mandalas.
Nov 2020
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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
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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.
Sep 2020
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September 28, 2020Bill Cole (’70) shares the stories behind the names in Catherine Sheild's 20th-century Yorktown guest book.
Aug 2020
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August 31, 2020Tracy 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.