Collins Unbound

The Puget Sound Centennial quilt is a great example of Puget Sound history and a great item to reflect on during Archives month! Alums worked together to craft this quilt in 1986 to celebrate 100 years of Puget Sound history. The quilt now lives in the Archives & Special Collections to be preserved for years to come!

Every year in October we celebrate American Archives Month to raise awareness about the importance of preserving, cataloging, and caring for important materials. This month we celebrate archives and archivists across the country. Join in on the American Archives Month celebration at the University of Puget Sound by exploring our digital collections: browse historic photographs of campus in A Sound Past, check out some cool university ephemera, or search our student newspaper “The Trail”.  Or stop by the Archives & Special Collections and look through old manuscripts, artists’ books, and many other collections. Archivists have the important responsibility of preserving the heritage of our country, state, and school so take the opportunity to discover these historical treasures.

Depicted here are the quilters who created the amazing Centennial Quilt. They are, from left: Joanne Neff Cross ’53, Renae Paine ’76, Liz Gallo, Rose Henry, Kathleen Weidkamp Peterson ’67, and Karen Peterson Finney ’67.

The Archives & Special Collections is open on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 12:00-3:00 p.m. or by appointment.

By Sierra Scott

Have you zine our new collection? Well, over in the Archives & Special Collections we haven’t zine better days! We have recently received a brand new collection of ZINES (in case you haven’t guessed) due to a generous donation by the Zine Pavilion at the American Library Association Annual Conference last June! As of now, our zine-pool contains around 175 zines covering a wide variety of topics such as politics, national issues, social and environmental justice, queer identities, trans experiences, feminism, race, and mental health, just to name a few.

For those of you who don’t know, “zine” is short for “magazine” or “fanzine.” Zines are most commonly inexpensive, small-circulation self-published works (usually the product of a single person or a small group) intended to spread information, appreciation, art, activism, social justice, etc. for means of awareness rather than profit. They are often small, created with a photocopier, and stitched together creatively to construct a unique work of art, ready to be shared! Barnard Zine Library defines zines as “self-publications, motivated by a desire for self-expression, not for profit.”

If you’re interested in analy-zine our growing collection, we have an upcoming Behind the Archives Door event, “Zines and More!” taking place on Thursday October 5^th, from 4:00-5:00pm in the Archives & Special Collections Seminar room on the second floor of Collins Library. Hosted by Katy Curtis, our Humanities Librarian and Zine expert extraordinaire, this event will be showcasing our ama-zine collection and the ways in which zines can be used for teaching and learning!

Try squee-zine it into your busy schedules, and don’t hesitate mobili-zine on over to our open hours to check out any of our other surpri-zine materials! They’re worth utili-zine!

The Archives & Special Collections is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 12:00-3:00 p.m. or by appointment.

By Monica Patterson

This is one of our recent acquisitions in the Archives and Special Collections, a copy of the 1781 issue of The Arminian Magazine. This magazine was founded by John Wesley in 1778 as part of a response to the evangelical revival and he often sought personal religious accounts to feature. Something notable about this issue in particular is that it features Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American female poet. Phillis Wheatley was born in West Africa and was sold into slavery at a young age. During her time as a slave Wheatley learned to read and write, and was encouraged to write poetry.  After her master’s death, she was emancipated and married. This particular issue features three of Phillis Wheatley’s poems, “On the Death of a Child, five years of Age”, “On the Death of a young Gentleman” and “Thoughts on the Works of Providence”. Come read the work of this significant African American poet!

The Archives & Special Collections is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 12:00-3:00 p.m. or by appointment.

By Laure Mounts