New exhibit – Student Activism on Campus: A Movement for Change

Social activism has historically been an important catalyst for change. In the US this was never more true than during the golden age of student activism lasting through the 60s, 70s, and 80s. This was a time of historical movements taking place at highschools and on University campuses across the country. Specifically in the context of the civil rights movement, Universities became microcosms of progressive, rebellious societies stimulated with political discourse. Politicians, and influential guest speakers flocked to these Universities to preach their message, and students listened in droves.

Exhibition Extended: Get Out the Vote

We are excited to announce the extension of our gallery exhibition Get Out The Vote: Suffrage and Disenfranchisement in America through August 2023. Get Out The Vote highlights the history of suffrage in America and specifically the fight for the right to vote for women and African Americans. 

With the upcoming midterm elections, we hope that Get Out The Vote will inspire visitors to exercise their right to vote as well as illustrate the history of the expansion and contraction of voting rights. Get a sneak peek by visiting the online exhibition.

To learn about voting in early Maryland, the work of grassroots organizations, the unsteady progress toward greater enfranchisement, and more, visit us Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm in the Hornbake Library gallery. To visit outside these hours or inquire about a personalized tour, contact us!

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Post by Clio Reid, volunteer
McGill University, 2023

Student Employment in Special Collections and University Archives at UMD!

Interested in a career as a librarian or archivist? Are you detail-oriented? Looking for a job on campus with great colleagues? Special Collections and University Archives is hiring hourly student assistants!

Student assistants in Special Collections and University Archives at UMD experience a wide variety of public and behind-the-scenes elements of the special collection library/archival field.  They work closely with curators and library staff to make accessible some of the University’s most valuable research collections.

Our collections cover a wide variety of subjects/formats, including literary manuscripts and rare books, UMD history, labor history, the state of Maryland and other historical collections, mass media and culture, and women’s history.

We are looking for reliable and enthusiastic students who have an ability to learn quickly, with excellent written and verbal communication skills, a passion for history and cultural heritage, and a willingness to work both independently and collaboratively with students and staff.

Efficiency in computer programs such as Word or Excel are preferred. Students must also be able to retrieve archival boxes and books that may be heavy or fragile for researchers in the reading room. Experience in an archives/special collection library or conducting research in a library is helpful, but not essential.

We are currently hiring student assistants in the following areas:

• Mass Media and Culture Collections Team
  • Processing new and backlog collections that include printed as well as audiovisual materials
  • Inventorying audiovisual materials
  • Contributing to digital history projects related to broadcasting
  • Covering shifts on the public service desks, including the Hornbake welcome desk and reading room retrieval desk as needed.

• University Archives Collections Team
  • Assist in short-term and long-term reference research.
  • The student will also help with accessioning incoming collections, provide support for instruction, will generate social media content, work with unit level initiatives, such as Project STAND and university level projects, such as The 1856 Project, the Universities Studying Slavery Chapter for the University of Maryland. 
  • Covering shifts on the public service desks, including the Hornbake welcome desk and reading room retrieval desk as needed.

TO APPLY: Send a resume and brief cover letter (PDF format preferred) expressing interest in one or more of the positions described above to Special Collections Services Coordinator Amber Kohl at amberk@umd.edu.

Applicants must be able to maintain a consistent schedule of 15-20 hours per week. 

Working hours are available from 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday – Friday.

The pay rate for student assistants in Special Collections and University Archives is $15/hr.

Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to apply. 

These are hourly student positions only; not graduate assistantships.

The University of Maryland is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the 15th Amendment

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

U.S. Constitution. Amendment XV, Section 1. 1870

Last year marked the 150th Anniversary of the 15th Amendment. As one of the last amendments passed during the Reconstruction Era, some lawmakers intended for the 15th Amendment to guarantee voting rights for U.S. citizens regardless of their racial or ethnic identity or a “previous condition of servitude.” In the years immediately following the ratification of the 15th amendment, voter registration and political participation among black men increased dramatically. This trend lasted only a few years before politicians were able to enact laws that “legally” disenfranchised black men. Poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses limited the ability of many black men and poor people to continue to participate in elections. 

The artifacts gathered here reflect sentiments about the 15th Amendment throughout time.

Annual Report of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (1870) 

In this final annual report, members of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society reflect on the organization’s 36 years of work towards ending the system of slavery. In their report, they declare their success in their mission, discuss the decision to disband and acknowledge that the fight for sustained equal rights under the law was not over. On voting, they observed:

“Bravely, in the face of imminent peril have they addressed themselves to the performance of their duties. The record of the first election in Virginia where colored men used the ballot, tells the story of many such elections throughout the South. One who witnessed it, reports that on the evening previous to the election, “these loyal-hearted new citizens, devoted themselves in their place of worship, to the high duty before them, with prayer, and the grand old psalm, ‘Before Jehovah’s awful throne;’ then separated to meet at sunrise, and appear in body at the polls.” One hundred men, without a foot of land of their own, and with notices in their pockets, by the old slave-masters, threatening to turn them shelterless from the soils ; there they stook, in the face of the oppressor, and voted for Free Schools, Free Speech and Equal Taxation.” (6)

Teleworking and Staying Grateful in a Crisis

Today is my 50th day at my parents’ house in South Carolina. It’s my 50th day away from my friends, classmates, professors, roommates, and coworkers; my fifth week of online classes and teleworking. What was once a drastic change of pace has become a new normal, but I still haven’t adjusted to my indoor, isolated, stressful lifestyle. Assignments are harder and harder to turn in on time. Work is slower, less inspiring. Reaching out to loved ones–more important to my mental health now than ever–is increasingly taxing. 

“I try to be grateful everyday.”

I am in an extremely privileged position, all things considered, and I try to be grateful every day. I have a comfortable place to live, loving family members to interact with, enough food, a job, and fulfilling classwork. I have a plethora of craft supplies to keep me busy and creative. If I have all of this, why can’t I work at my usual pace? Why am I so tired? Why, after weeks of practice, am I still so bad at InDesign? Nearly all of my undergrad friends are facing similar challenges, but that doesn’t make it any easier to come to terms with my failure to adapt to this situation. I want to be motivated, so why do I prioritize tending to my lavender plant over my assigned reading? 

Add Terp Flair to Your “Animal Crossing” Island

The release of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” could not have come at a better time. People across the globe are stuck indoors and “bored in the house, and in the house bored.” The popularity of the game has led to numerous articles touting the merits of the game and its timeliness, even dissecting the politics of Tom Nook and his island. 

We, too, have enjoyed countless hours of trying to get our favorite villagers, catching fish and bugs (and tarantula hunting), gathering materials, crafting, and building towards that ultimate rush of achieving a 5-star island. 

“Interacting with friends through the game and visiting their islands has been helpful for me during this time of isolation. It’s also really nice to have something pretty low-stress and low-stakes to focus on.”

Sharona Ginsberg, Head of Terrapin Learning Commons 

As the nostalgia for campus and being surrounded by fellow Terps has hit us, we began experimenting with adding images that represent UMD to our islands.

Virtual Maryland Day 2020

Happy Maryland Day! The crowds are staying home this year while we all practice social distancing, but you can still enjoy a bit of Special Collections and University Archives fun from home!

Start off with the official UMD Maryland Day activity book! You can color Testudo, play work search, create finger puppets, and lots more! Download online: http://go.umd.edu/mdbook

Here are a few Maryland Day activities from Special Collections and University Archives you can explore from the comfort of home:

COLOR OUR COLLECTIONS

Get creative and unwind with these ready-to-color illustrations curated from our Rare Books collection! Choose from a selection including artwork by William Morris, Walter Crane, George Gaskin, and John Tenniel.

MAKE AN ORIGAMI HEART

Show your love with origami! ♥♥♥ Every Maryland Day in Hornbake Library, staff from the Gordon W. Prange collection show visitors how to make origami hearts. Grab some paper and follow the directions in the video below to make you own!

“Get Out the Vote”: New Gallery Exhibition Coming Soon

As millions of voters visit the polls to cast their vote this Super Tuesday, we want to share some exciting news about the work that goes on behind the scenes in Special Collections and University Archives. Librarians are busy preparing the next gallery exhibition, to be installed in 2021, which will explore the history of voting rights in the United States. An online exhibit will be available in the Fall.

The people who have organized at the local level have been incredibly important to voters’ rights and their local stories make up the larger national story of changes to American voting rights throughout this nation’s history. “Get Out the Vote”, the upcoming exhibition will feature material from our collections that illustrate the history and stories of those who have organized to “get out the vote.”

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  Individual items are marked prior to digitization

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  Narrow selection of material relating to efforts made to expand voting rights

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  Book of clippings of articles from Maryland newspapers about efforts to disenfranchise voters in the early 1900s

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  Photograph of women suffragists in Washington DC

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  Article about disenfranchisement in Lousiana

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  Material from the Second Look fair from student groups engaged in political activism

New Exhibit on Intersectional Feminism Now on Display

A new exhibit in the Maryland Room celebrates Black and Women’s History Months. Two cases showcase works by and about black women, including essays, poetry, and black student newspapers. They feature civil rights icons like Angela Davis, Pauli Murray, Maya Angelou, and Shirley Chisholm. 

Another case explores intersectional feminism as a whole. It includes documents by and about lesbian and trans women, disabled women, Native American and Chicana women, working class women, older women, and women from developing countries. 

What is intersectional feminism? Put simply, intersectional feminism emphasizes the fact that all women have different experiences and identities. People are often disadvantaged by more than one source of oppression: their race, class, sexual orientation, religion, or nationality may affect their experience as a woman. Intersectionality explores how multiple identities interact with each other, especially within the frameworks of oppression and marginalization. 

In Time for Valentine’s Day, Long Lost Companions are Reunited

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, librarians have reunited two important local history collections. This week, the acetate film and glass plate negatives, previously cared for by the librarians at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, were transferred to Hornbake Library. Beginning this week, these resources will reside alongside their long lost companion, and one of our most popular collections, the Baltimore News American photo morgue, a collection of over 1 million photographs used during the publication run of the Baltimore’s now defunct News American.

This massive task was undertaken by librarians from Special Collections and our Preservation Department. Thank you to all who helped!