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Exterior and interior of a greeting card, which reads, "Happy Kwanzaa" in gold text. A drawing of Africa (colored in shades of green and brown) is in the center of the card. Superimposed on the continent is a fully-lit Kinara.

Celebrating the Principles

December 19, 2019

Shayna Gutcho, W&M Libraries Mosaic Fellow, offers an introduction to Kwanzaa, explaining the history, significance, and symbolism of this pan-African celebration through resources available at the Special Collections Research Center.

The phrase "Harambee," Swahili for "all pull together," emphasizes the values of unity and determination principal to Kwanzaa

Some people may assume that December 26 signifies an end to the holiday festivities, but for many people the celebration has only just begun. Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration that begins yearly on...

Previous Posts

Mar 2018

  • Student Voices: Grace Aylor

    March 9, 2018
    Hi! My name is Grace and I’ve been working at the Swem Circulation desk for a little over a year now. If you come to Swem often enough you might know me as ‘the girl with the bangs.’ Even though it’s only been a year, I am here so often now some of the full-time Swem staff are convinced that I’ve been here forever!

Feb 2018

  • Must Love Dogs: Knitting

    February 28, 2018
    If you’ve ever had a dog, you are no doubt aware of the amount of dog hair that accumulates on your floor, furniture, and clothes. There have likely been times when you have said something along the lines of “There’s enough hair here to knit a sweater.”  Well, if you ever get the desire to gather up all of that hair for such a purpose, the Chapin-Horowitz Collection of Books on Dogs can hook you up with “Knitting with Dog Hair: A Woof-to-Warp

  • “Dean”

    February 18, 2018
    For many black students who attended William & Mary during the 1980s and 1990s, “Dean” was a term of endearment—a title that demanded respect because it identified the power player in their corner—and only one individual carried that distinction: Dean Carroll Hardy.

  • Founders: The People Behind William & Mary

    February 14, 2018
    This year’s Charter Day marked the 325th anniversary of the founding of The College of William & Mary by William III and Mary II, the first and (to date) only joint-monarchs in British history. An exhibition in the lobby at Swem Library brings the focus to William and Mary – the people, not the university.

  • The Royal Charter: Manuscript and Print

    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

    The Dark Side of College Life

    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

  • “His Soul is Marching On”: Artifacts from the Raid on Harpers Ferry

    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

  • Christmas Behind the Scenes

    December 20, 2017

  • Tis the Season

    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

  • Basque in the Archives

    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?

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