W&M Libraries Blog

A librarian holds a microphone while answering questions
Posted on April 23, 2024

"People Behind the Events You Love" is an occasional series highlighting the work we do to make events happen. In this story, Liz Bellamy, Alexandra Flores Glosson, and Paul Showalter from the Research and Instruction department, discuss the recent library career showcase.

Previous Posts

Feb 2018

  • Posted on February 8, 2018
    On February 8, 1693, the Royal Charter establishing the College of William & Mary in Virginia was written. William & Mary President James Blair brought both English and Latin versions of the twelve page document with him from the Court of William & Mary at Kensington Palace. The original copy of the charter establishing the College was lost about the time of the American Revolution.
  • Malachi Gardiner, University Archives Photograph Collection, UA 8
    Posted on February 1, 2018
    In my everlasting search for materials relating to African Americans in Special Collections, I was pointed to the 1921 edition of the Colonial Echo. Within its worn cover, there is a single page spread entitled “The Dark Side of College Life.” These are the only words. The rest of the page is filled with several black and white photographs of exactly what one might expect – black employees of the College.

Jan 2018

  • Posted on January 17, 2018
    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.

Dec 2017

  • Posted on December 20, 2017
  • Posted on December 6, 2017
    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.

Nov 2017

  • Posted on November 22, 2017
    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?
  • Posted on November 13, 2017
    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.
  • Posted on November 8, 2017
    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.

Oct 2017

  • Posted on October 25, 2017
    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.
  • Posted on October 11, 2017
    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.