Following the tradition of our 2021/22 SAASC Executive Board, we were thrilled to facilitate another Fall Scavenger Hunt this year, where participants worked together in teams to dig for archival treasures across digital collections. Over the course of five weekly challenges, our Scavenger Hunt teams uncovered some pretty fascinating finds that we’d like to share!
Team Curious Curatorials used ArchiveGrid to locate a Catholic Church missal from 1450 — it’s the oldest item in California State University Long Beach’s Library, and it’s held in their Special Collections. They also found an incredible engraving of a William Blake poem in the CalTech Archives, of all places!
Team Cataloging Queens, aside from coming up with an incredible team name, added 13 sites to SAASC’s Collection of Interesting Archives! Poetry came up again in their findings of the University at Buffalo’s Poetry Collection, which holds one of the world’s largest collections of poetry first editions and other titles.
Team Raiders of the Lost Archives, in our spooky, occult-themed Halloween challenge, used the Getty Research Portal’s Alchemy Collection to contemplate the mysteries in this scene:
The One-ders Team shared an international archive that they’re adding to their collective archival bucket list: the Museo Ixchel in Guatemala, which offers an extensive collection of Guatemalan indigenous dress and textiles.
Team West Coast Chroniclers explored our own San Jose State University Special Collections to find this beautiful photograph from the Gerald L. French Photographic Collection:
They also took us back in time to the 1967 Vietnam War Protests at SJSU:
Finally, Team History Hunters came across a perplexing discrepancy while scouring the records in the Indigenous Digital Archives Treaties Explorer. You might notice the use of what looks to be an “f” in place of an “s” in the print. This is no accident, but instead, an example of “long s,” which you can read more on here.
A big thank you and congratulations to all our teams for participating in this SAASC Fall Scavenger Hunt, hopefully a tradition for years to come! If you’re interested in participating in future activities, joining SAASC as a member is a great place to start. You’ll be welcomed into a community of students and archive-interested peers while also gaining access to archives-focused resources, speaker events, and opportunities to develop professionally. Sign up for our newsletter so you can stay in the loop!