Collins Unbound

…That the archives aren’t entirely old, dingy books and stuff. It’s also old, dingy letters and school memorabilia!

I’m sure that when you write a letter (or as is more common nowadays, an email), you don’t consider it to have any importance at all. You’re probably right, but how about that old receipt you got once, for the money required to build a bus shelter? How about that old football you used to own? How about that copy of The Trail you pick up every now and then, if only to see if you’re in the “Hey Yous”? Well, you’d be surprised how useful some of those things are. But if you’re, say, President Thomas, then it’s definitely worth saving.

You probably wouldn’t believe the amount of letters the President of an institution sends over the course of 31 years (that’s President Thompson, if you were wondering). We’ve got six boxes alone dedicated to general correspondence with every letter of the alphabet – and an entire folder labeled “Coffee, John M.” Do you want to know more about the Rockefeller Theological Fellowship Program? Hop on over to box 9, folder 38 of the Thompson collection. Want to know more about the Harry Brown Fountain? Box 10, folder 40. What if you had a question about how the College settled the riveting debate of who had to pay to water the flowers on Union? We’ve got that covered too (box 12, folder 4). Not enough context in letters for you? You could always check out the nine-volume (or 2,015 page) Thompson Histories.

So don’t forget, if you have an odd or abstract question about the school…chances are the answer is somewhere in the dozens of boxes we have. Stop by the Archives & Special Collections (2^nd floor of the Library) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 1:00pm and 3:00pm.

By Morgan Ford

If your first answer to that question was “not today,” you’d be entirely in the right. Additionally, if your first answer was “the birthdate of Wyatt Earp, legendary lawman of the Wild West,” you’d also be correct. However, there is another event that takes place every year on this day that you may or may not be aware of.

The answer (of course), is that March 19th is University of Puget Sound Day in Hawaii! Ratified on the eighth of March, 1991 by the Hawaiian state government, the day is meant to celebrate the contributions made to by the University of Puget Sound to the State of Hawaii. So while we were off enjoying spring break, the good people of the Aloha State were (surely) celebrating the virtues our University.

Here in our Archives & Special Collections we have original copies of not just the proclamation by Governor John Waihee dedicating the date, but also certificates presented and signed by the Hawaii House of Representatives and State Senate.

Hawaii not quite local enough for you? Don’t worry about that – March 17th is University of Puget Sound day in Tacoma. Ratified first in 1988 and again in 2013 for our 125th anniversary, the event commemorates the long history of the University’s relationship with Tacoma.

So drop on by to the Archives & Special Collections during our open hours, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and find out what day it really is.

By Zeb Howell