W&M Libraries Blog

#SwemSpecialCollections

  • Donuts for Doughboys
    April 11, 2018
    Posted in: Special Collections
    As an Exhibit Apprentice in Swem’s Special Collections, I had the opportunity to curate a World War I centennial exhibit.
  • Merry and Bright
    March 28, 2018
    Posted in: Special Collections
    Cecil Aldin (1870-1935) was a British artist and illustrator, famous for his portrayal of dogs.
  • January 17, 2018
    Posted in: Special Collections
    On the night of Sunday October 16, 1859, twenty-three men emerged from the woods surrounding the town of Harpers Ferry, which sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in present-day West Virginia. Armed with rifles and pikes, their mission was to successfully secure the large cache of weapons kept in the town’s armory and expel the U.S. military from the area.
  • December 20, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
  • December 6, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
    In this month's dog series post, we decided to focus on dog books related to the December holidays. In doing so, it became quickly apparent that while we have a small number of titles related to dogs and Christmas, we do not have titles related to Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Our awareness of this deficiently will inform future collecting decisions. If there are specific titles you would like to suggest, please hit us up in the comments section.
  • November 22, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
    Down in the belly of Special Collections sits a mysterious blue velvet box. Its contents are simultaneously mundane and bizarre, important for the study of language in Spain, and remarkably unremarkable. The box bears the inscription Matxin de Zalbaren Gutuna, La Carta de Machin de Zalba, 1416. What is it? Why do we have it? What makes it both special and ordinary?
  • November 13, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
    This past spring Sharon Summers, Charles W. Scandrett, Janet S. Hunt, Barbara J. Kaufman, and Sandra S. Ellender generously donated the Civil War diary of Henry Alexander Scandrett to the Special Collections Research Center. Scandrett fought for the Union during the war and recorded his experiences in the pocket diary.
  • November 8, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
    In 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, an armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany, effectively ending World War I. This Saturday marks the anniversary of this event, commemorated as Veteran's Day in the United States, Armistice Day in France, and Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom.
  • October 25, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
    As a child of the 90's, I'm pretty familiar with trading cards. Pokémon and Yugio cards were all the rage throughout my younger years, but little did I know that trading cards have a much richer history than keeping myself occupied throughout elementary school.
  • October 11, 2017
    Posted in: Special Collections
    You may recall from our first series blog post that the Special Collections Research Center holds the second largest collection of books on dogs in the United States. Today’s blog post highlights one of our many titles, Journal of a Neglected Bulldog by Barbara Blair, published in 1911 by George W. Jacobs & Co. of Philadelphia.