Archives – Page 7 – SJSU SAASC

Highlights from our 2022 Fall Scavenger Hunt!

by SAASC Team

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!

Archives of the Month: The Mütter Museum

by SAASC Team

We are publishing on October 31st to bring you an exclusive SPOOKY archives of the month! Today we are visiting the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. This museum has an immense collection of 35,000 preserved “anatomical specimens, models, and medical instruments in a nineteenth-century ‘cabinet museum’ setting”. This includes the permanent Hyrtl Skull Collection of 139 human skulls by Josef Hyrtl acquired in 1874. The Viennese anatomist aimed to show proof that certain cranial features were not “evidence of intelligence and personality and that racial differences [did not cause] anatomical differences”.

Once almost exclusively visited by medical students and professionals, this museum has risen in popularity due not only to its macabre collections but also to the tireless work of its librarians and staff members. With the help of outreach programs, events, and advertising campaigns, the museum rebranded itself as a “disturbingly informed” museum of medical history. Current exhibitions include Unseen, and Spit Spreads Death. Unseen is a photography exhibit by Nikki Johnson showcasing objects in the archives restricted from public view. Spit Spreads Death is a riveting special exhibition on the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic in Philadelphia.

The Mütter Museum has more than 3,000 osteological specimens, including representations of illness, trauma, and corset deformation. Their historical medical photograph collection has patient x-rays and photographs of rare diseases and malformations like conjoined twins and amputations. The museum also hosts over 1,300 wet specimens, which are parts of the human body encased in fluid (think cysts or tumors).

The largest spooky attraction this year would have to be the special exhibition entitled Dracula and the Incorruptible Body. It explores “how folklore, embalming and funerary practices, and the misunderstanding of diseases like tuberculosis, led to post-mortem identifications of ordinary citizens as vampires in the 19th century”. This is part of the museum’s Year of Dracula, which includes vampire-themed movie nights, literary lectures, and a blood drive!

The Mütter Research Institute partners with “historic, scientific, or medical institutions with the goal of utilizing College collections to conduct research relevant to 21^st-century human health”.

Thank you for reading our spooky archives of the month blog, and we hope you have a fun and safe Oct. 31^st! As always, if you are interested in joining SAASC, you can find out more here.

But…what if a shelf filled with medically preserved human skulls isn’t your thing? We made a list below of spooky archives, places, and things for your enjoyment!

Sedlec Ossuary, The Church of Bones: https://sedlecossuary.com/

Museo de la Tortura, a collection of Spanish Inquisition torture devices: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museo-de-la-tortura

The Jonathan Corwin House in Salem, MA: https://www.thewitchhouse.org/

The Poe Museum: https://poemuseum.org/

Icons of Darkness, a collection of screen-used special effects, props, and costumes: https://www.iconsofdarkness.com/

Ireland’s National Cemetery, including City of the Dead and O’Connell’s Crypt: https://www.dctrust.ie/experience-glasnevin.html

Museum of Jurassic Technology: https://www.mjt.org/

Archive of “Creepy” magazine: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/CPY/creepy-archives

Ventriloquist Dummy Museum: https://www.venthaven.org/

National Museum Of Funeral History In Houston, Texas: https://www.nmfh.org/

Mummy Museum in Mexico: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museo-de-las-momias-de-guanajuato

More info here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/inside-las-strangest-museum-180954803/

References

Mütter Musuem. (2022). Website. https://muttermuseum.org/

Images used:

Mutter Museum. (2022). Screenshot of the Mutter Museum’s photo booklet: Highlights from the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0703/6125/products/mutter_cover_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1440626711

Mutter Museum. (2022). Screenshot of Dracula and the corruptible body site. https://muttermuseum.org/static/7e76c235cd4552ec815345de851032ed/d0f42/web_mutter_draculaexhibit_0.webp

Mutter Museum. (2022). Screenshot of Hands with Gout. https://muttermuseum.org/static/031c4e11297c674647d345d39bb638d8/6fc9d/hands_with_gout.webp

Mutter Museum. (2022). Screenshot of Hyrtl Skull Collection. https://muttermuseum.org/static/4aa26d610f47e0a3bbeba43998bd7f9c/96b1e/2021_muesum_installations_hyrtl_skulls_misc-8.webp

Mutter Museum. (2022). Screenshot of Cephalothoracopagus. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0703/6125/products/Ceph_Keychain_6217767e-deac-46de-86e9-cc4c49526599_540x.jpg?v=1541351478

SJSU SAASC Hosts “Ask an Archivist” Q&A Event

by SAASC Team

The Society of American Archivists hosted “Ask An Archivist” day on Twitter last Wednesday, October 12, 2022 on Twitter. To honor the day, the SJSU SAASC hosted a Q & A event with Nikki Thomas (Archivist for Collection Management at UNC Charlotte), Lolita Rowe (Assistant University Archivist for Outreach and Engagement at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill), and Erin Baucom (associate professor and digital archivist at The University of Montana).

The three archivists are clearly passionate about their archive work as well as maintaining a healthy work/life balance. Here is a summary of their answers to the questions asked. Check out the event recording if you want to watch the whole thing. You can find it here on our website or on our YouTube channel.

What is the best way to enter the archive field?

Nikki Thomas: Do something in an archive and get paid for it.

Lolita Rowe: Be open to any job where you want to work and stick around until the job you want becomes available.

Erin Baucom: Get experience in community archiving.

What was your first archive job?

NT: Volunteered at my college archive, worked in the math archives when nobody else wanted to. Leave time to do things you like to do, to gain that experience.

LR: UNC archive and special collections.

EB: Tech support as a fellow at UNCC, setting up the digital archives program. The people you work with is super important.

What do you wish you had known when you began your first job or internship in archives?

NT: There is a lot of flexibility outside of the core job. Breadth of skills is more important than specialization. Think of the “specialization” as the workplace you want to work in such as government or academic archive. Do as much weird stuff as you can.

LR: You may have to wait for the job to be what you want it to be. Play to your strengths, focus on the things that lift you up. Work anyplace that you can.

EB: Don’t hyper specialize. You will need to be able to do lots of things, especially somewhere with a small staff. You will need to do reference and you might need to do instruction. Get practical experience.

What Library Science courses (other than Archiving classes) did you feel were helpful for your current positions?

NT: Take management and leadership courses. Acknowledge that you’ll probably be a manager or leader.

LR: Take project management and people management classes.

EB: Courses to learn the grant process. Learn reference and processing. My thesis publishing process was super helpful.

What skills do you think are most valuable in an archivist?

NT: Assert your own boundaries and know your value in a library. Don’t feel you have to do more than you are able to do during your agreed work hours.

LR: Communication skills and empowering others to learn how to find their information for themselves are both important.

EB: Soft skills from customer service experience are important and useful when working at the reference desk and when interacting with donors.

How to manage work/life balance?

NT: Do all service, scholarship, and community work at work, including article writing, etc.

LR: Be comfortable to say no. Set your own boundaries. If asked to work 60 hours, say no, it’s not in my job description. Individuals understand work/life balance better than institutions do.

EB: Be sure to stop and take a break. If you work late one day, work shorter hours the next day. Don’t volunteer for extra things, even if nobody else will do it.

What does an archivist do all day? Students/patrons, materials, computer work?

NT: Work at my desk doing things such as updating ArchiveSpace databases. Meet with donors to pack up the collection, ask them questions, etc. You can shape your job to be what you want it to be. As new people come in, you can have a say in how the responsibilities are divided up in the job descriptions.

LR: Prep for upcoming podcast and social media posts. Work two-hour desk shift. Meet with donor/non-profit groups and work on person-to-person safety protocols. Attend lots of meetings.

EB: Work two desk shifts, help resurrect files from people’s computers; both donors and staff. Teach electronic file management. Write out processing workflows, train students/interns/adjunct archivists. Meet with service and administration both within the library and campus wide. Connect with the community.

Are there opportunities for digital archivists, for remote work, or for international work?

EB: Archives are culturally specific concerning what’s important to keep in the archive, so each country has unique systems. You would need to learn each country’s record keeping process that you can do by reading literature, going to conferences, and sitting in on foreign archives.

Thank you to our guest blog writer, the SJSU SAASC Chair, Katie Burns!

If you are interested in becoming a member of SAASC, check it out here.

The Sacramento Archives Crawl

by SAASC Team

The city of Sacramento, CA kicked off Archives Month on October 1st with an Archives Crawl through four city and state archival collections. This was a chance for the community to learn more about archives in the Sacramento area and see parts of their collection. The theme for the event was “Acquired Tastes: Food and Agriculture in Regional Collections,” so events at the California State Archive, the California State Library, the Sacramento Public Library, and the Center for Sacramento History featured food-related items from the collection.

At The California State Library, several local archives, including Historical Societies from Rocklin and Roseville, and UC Davis’s Bulosan Center, had information booths. The library featured a display of cookbooks connected to the agricultural industry, as well as the origin stories of several California signature cocktails, and a display about beekeeping.

The California State Archives included state park archives and historical instruction from Gold Fields State Park, and featured historical photos from the food industry, such as the first orange tree planted in California which spawned a billion dollar industry, a bumper crop of avocados from the 1930’s, and canning factory workers.

The Center for Sacramento History focused on local restaurants and menus, and featured a behind the scenes tour of the archival collections. During the tour, guides gave simple best practices for preserving paper, photos, and clothing in personal and family archives, such as protecting materials from light and wrapping textiles in a clean, white sheet. They also explained some of the more advanced features of the city archive, such as mechanical stacks with automated lighting and cold storage that was added to preserve local news reels.

The Sacramento city archive includes 7 million photos from the Sacramento Bee, the city newspaper, stored in rows of file cabinets, mortgage documents in large cloth bound books, metal and neon signs from around the city, furniture from significant historical events like presidential visits, and early technology, like a fax machine that was phased out during World War II.

The archive tour gave an interesting look at the range of items an archive may preserve, the storage solutions for large items, delicate items, and numerous items, and the ways the archive is actively used, such as by documentary filmmakers. Each location was well attended, and seeing the community interest in the archives left an impression that these collections are active and relevant at the community, city, and state levels.

Thank you for reading our latest Blog and be sure to check out our 2nd Annual SAASC Scavenger Hunt kickoff meeting today, October 10th, at 6:30pm and our Ask an Archivist event on October 12th from 6pm to 7pm!

*Images taken by our guest author, and SAASC Vice Chair, Katrina Williams

SAASC Chapter Business

by SAASC Team

First things first, thank you to everyone who attended our Fall 2022 SAASC Membership meeting. One of our main goals as the 22-23 SAASC Board is to foster a sense of community among the aspiring archivists at SJSU. We aim to create a place where we can chat about our goals, share our insights and talk through our frustrations. This isn’t easy to do in an online environment, however, we started building that community at the meeting last Wednesday. For those unable to attend, check out the highlights below:

We need your feedback! Please take our member survey so our events are in tune with your needs and interests.
Sign up for the SAASC Newsletter
Archeota, our student run journal, is recruiting Associate Editors. Find out more about the position and how you can apply here. Deadline: October 28.
Archeota is also accepting winter/spring submissions. Learn more about submitting here. Deadline: November 4.
Don’t forget to follow us on social media! Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Facebook.
If you have any questions, email us at sjsusaasc@gmail.com or visit our website.

We have a series of events planned for the fall 2022 semester:

SAASC Scavenger Hunt

Kick off American Archives Month and join the SAASC this fall as we embark on our 2nd Annual Virtual Scavenger Hunt! This is a great chance to meet other group members, have some fun between classes, and learn more about the world of archives. From October 10th through November 10th, you’ll be able to work with your teammates on a series of weekly challenges. Sign up here to participate and register for the Scavenger Hunt Kickoff event on October 10 at 6:30 PM.

Ask an Archivist Day

Join us Wednesday, October 12 from 6-7 PM as Nikki Thomas, Erin Baucom & Lolita Rowe answer questions about working as a professional archivist. Submit questions in advance of the event using this form and register to attend here.

Inside the Archive

Join us on Wednesday, November 9 from 7-8 PM as Angel Diaz, curator of California Ethnic and Multicultural Archive at UC Santa Barbara, talks about this unique archive. Register using this link

Last, but not least, you can view the recording of the SAASC Annual Meeting on our YouTube Channel.

We look forward to seeing you at future events!

Category: <span>Archives</span>