Friends Historical Collection News
Friends Historical Collection Celebrating Archives Week, October 20 – 26
Guilford’s Friends Historical Collection, which includes the college’s archives, is joining with other cultural institutions around the state to celebrate Archives Week. The theme for this year is “Capturing Memories of Sports and Leisure in the Old North State.” A display about this history of sports at Guilford College will be on exhibit at the entrance to the collection in Hege Library. Additional images and Guilford sports history information will be available at www.guilford.edu/fhc.
Join us to learn more about Guilford’s archives by participating in our annual Archives Week trivia contest (see daily questions in the Buzz) or taking a “Behind-the-Scenes” Tour. Tours will be on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 1:00, and Thursday, Oct. 23, at 4:00. An evening tour is also available by advanced reservation on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 6:45 p.m. E-mail us at archives@guilford.edu for additional information about the Friends Historical Collection and our Archives Week activities.
Other events are happening around the state, including an archival exhibit on hockey at the RBC Center in Raleigh and Home Movie Day events in Chapel Hill and Durham. See http://www.ncarchivists.org/archives_week/calendar.htm for information about other Archives Week events at Guilford and beyond.
Underground Railroad Research Facility Designation
Following an application and review process, the National Parks Service recently designated the Friends Historical Collection as a research facility "making a significant contribution to the understanding of the Underground Railroad in American history" and as meeting "the requirements for inclusion in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom." See http://www.nps.gov/history/ugrr/ for additional information about the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program.
CivilRightsGreensboro Collaborative Grant Project
The Friends Historical Collection is partnering with other area archives on a project to increase access to resources in our collections documenting Greensboro's civil rights history from 1945 to 1980.
From the UNC-Greensboro Press Release, July 2008:
CivilRightsGreensboro will provide online access to primary source material documenting Greensboro, NC, during the modern civil rights era (1945-1980). CRG will produce a website which presents archival printed materials, correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, and oral histories held at four cultural heritage institutions throughout the city and state: UNC Greensboro, Guilford College, Greensboro College, and Duke University. CRG will unite related items online that are physically housed miles apart, thereby enhancing the context and usefulness of all materials, which have local, regional, national, and even international historical significance.
CivilRightsGreensboro is a natural progression and extension of the Greensboro VOICES project, an oral history digital library created in partnership with the Greensboro Public Library and funded by Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. In the process of transcribing oral histories and authoring web page content, UNCG project staff became intimately aware of local events in the civil rights movement, the existence of related material at other community archives, and the need to gather these resources in a virtual hub. For more information about the Greensboro VOICES project, see http://library.uncg.edu/greensborovoices.
Cat McDowell, Digital Projects Coordinator and the Principal Investigator for the grant, says “I believe CivilRightsGreensboro will become a cornerstone resource in the study of civil rights generally and in the study of our city’s history. Diverse documentation of significant events, people, and issues during the local civil rights movement would not have been possible without collaboration between the partner institutions, and I look forward to working with them to create an informative, engaging website.”
NC ECHO Digitization grants are awarded by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. These Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds originate from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which invests dollars to expand learning resources and access to information for individuals from all walks of life. The IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas, and fulfill their mission as centers of lifelong learning. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.
