Collins Unbound

It’s always a good time to donate materials to the Archives & Special Collections, but as we get to the end of the school year, we want to encourage student organizations to start going through everything they’ve produced in the past year and think about transferring documents to the A&SC. Donating items to the A&SC helps us document student life, ensures that your materials will be preserved according to professional standards, and contributes to a historical record that will be of use to students and other researchers in the years to come.

Some examples of things to save from student organizations include meeting minutes, scrapbooks, event descriptions, budgets, event flyers, programs, and other media. We’re also interested in items that document individual students’ experiences, like diaries, journals, or correspondence from your time here; photographs of you and your classmates volunteering, engaging with the Tacoma/campus community, attending official or unofficial student events, and participating in the performing arts; or any other items that you think uniquely document your Puget Sound experience. While this list is by no means exhaustive, there are some items that we do not collect or already have in abundance, such as yearbooks, newspapers, clothing, and awards. It is important to note that once materials are transferred to the A&SC, they cannot leave the Archives, so make sure that you keep anything that you need on a regular basis.

If you’re interested in transferring materials to the A&SC, contact Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Adriana Flores at aflores@pugetsound.edu .

The Archives & Special Collections is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM or by appointment.

By Julia Masur

For the last few years, Collins Memorial Library has participated in the annual McCarver Elementary School visit to Puget Sound. Coordinated by Amy Ryken, Professor and Dean of the School of Education, and Monica DeHart, Professor of Anthropology, the annual trip brings McCarver 5^th graders to campus to learn more about the college experience. During their visit, the elementary students are exposed to many different programs and facilities on campus, including the Slater Museum of Natural History, Norton Clapp Theatre, and Memorial Fieldhouse. The library is always happy to host the 5^th grade visitors and this year we brought them upstairs to the Archives & Special Collections.

Our visitors viewed a selection of our most rare and valuable books and manuscript leaves. The students learned about the arduous process of creating a medieval manuscript by hand—the process of creating vellum from animal skins, making ink from minerals and plants, the work of scribes to write the texts, and the art of illuminating (or decorating) the manuscript pages. The Archives & Special Collections holds examples of both illuminated manuscript vellum leaves as well as replica copies of rare texts that live in museums and archives in Europe.

Next, our students were encouraged to make their own illuminated manuscript page. They had pre-printed pages with fanciful borders that they were encouraged to decorate and make their own with markers, crayons, silver and gold pens, stencils, and stickers. It was a fun and creative process that allowed students to create their own special and rare object.

We were thrilled to host the McCarver Elementary 5^th graders and we cannot wait until next year’s visit!

The Archives & Special Collections is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM or by appointment.

By Adriana Flores ‘13, Archivist & Special Collections Librarian

We’re so excited to welcome parents and alumni to campus this weekend for the 2019 Spring Family Weekend! To celebrate, we’ll be hosting an open house and installing our new exhibit.

The open house will be this Friday, April 12, from 3:00 to 4:00 PM. Join us in the Archives & Special Collections Reading Room on the second floor of the library to view documents and artifacts from Puget Sound’s past. Drop by this casual event to learn more about the history of our Lu’au, student life on campus over the years, and the physical buildings and grounds of Puget Sound.

In honor of the Class of 1969’s 50^th Reunion this year, we will be installing an exhibit focusing on their time at Puget Sound. The exhibit will draw primarily from The Trail, Tamanawas, and the Ephemera Collection, and provide a glance into what campus life was like at that time, from student organizations to special events to figures on campus. Come take a look to learn about the past and discover its connections to the present!

The Archives & Special Collections is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM or by appointment.

By Julia Masur