Collins Unbound

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

Pamphlet by Charles Herle, 1642

Hi, and welcome back! My name is Julia Masur, and I am the Peer Research Specialist in the Archives and Special Collections. I’m a junior here at UPS, with a History major and a double minor in Education Studies and Sociology/Anthropology. I just returned from studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany, where I took classes on European history and politics. On campus, I am also on the club ski team, and I serve as the Assistant Director of Recruitment for the Panhellenic Council, the governing body of the sororities.

As the Peer Research Specialist, I’ll be doing double-duty this semester. On Tuesdays from 1-4pm and Fridays from 1-3pm, you can find me up in the A&SC. My responsibilities include helping our Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, Adriana Flores, and our Assistant Archivist, Laura Edgar, with projects like setting up for classes, assisting researchers during open hours, digitizing A&SC materials, and any other projects that might come up. On Thursday and Sunday nights from 9-11pm, I’ll be holding drop-in hours and working alongside the Peer Research Advisors in the Learning Commons to assist students with finding resources for classes (especially SSIs and other intro-level classes), evaluating sources, and citations.

As a history major, I obviously love primary sources, but hadn’t really used any of the resources in the A&SC until first semester of my sophomore year, when I took Hist-200: Doing History (basically a research methods class). One of our major assignments was a digital history project, involving a pamphlet titled A fuller answer to a treatise written by Dr. Ferne, entituled The resolving of conscience upon this question, whether upon this supposition or case (the King will not defend, but is bent to subvert religion, lawes, and liberties) subjects may with good conscience make resistance. This pamphlet was published in London in 1642 as part of a pamphlet war between Charles Herle (the author) and Dr. Ferne, and believe it or not, that’s a shortened version of the title. The English Civil War had begun earlier that year, and Ferne and Herle debated the role of the king and people in government, with Ferne defending King Charles I, and Herle advocating for the Parliamentarian side.

Being able to touch the pamphlet and read through the original pages from almost 400 years ago was such a great experience, and made the topic feel much less abstract. You can tell from looking at the pages how well-read this copy was, and the way in which it could have helped change people’s worldview during the English Civil War and maybe even shifted their allegiances was exciting to me. I love it when history feels personal, and that pamphlet definitely made the English Civil War feel that way while working on this project. You can find the website that my class built about this pamphlet here.

That class and that professor (Professor Katherine Smith) inspired me to apply for this job in the A&SC, and I hope that I can help you all find sources that spark your interest the way the Charles Herle pamphlet sparked mine.

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

By Julia Masur

Welcome back! My name is Laura Edgar and I am the Assistant Archivist in the Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) here at Puget Sound. I started working in the A&SC in 2012 as the Archivist for the Abby Williams Hill Collection, but officially started my job as Assistant Archivist this summer. I only work part time so I am here in the archives on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

As Assistant Archivist, I am primarily responsible for assisting researchers, processing our collections, and overseeing digitization projects that are happening in the archives. The A&SC has open hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM and I am here during that time to help provide access to our materials for the researchers who are using them. I enjoy interacting with the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and scholars who visit the A&SC and I always learn a lot about the content of our collections in the process of assisting researchers.

I also process the collections that we have in the A≻ processing is my favorite part about being an archivist. Processing, in archival terms, refers to the arrangement and description of records that are in our care, with the ultimate goal of providing access to researchers in the form of a finding aid. A finding aid is an inventory of the collection. Basically, we receive records from university departments and donors in a variety of conditions and it is my job to organize those records in a way that makes sense, put them in appropriate archival folders and boxes, and create the inventory that we ultimately post online, thereby providing access to researchers. That means that I get to look at all of the items in a collection so it gives me a great in depth understanding of what materials we have. While processing collections, I think about how the documents, photographs, and ephemera I am looking at might be used in teaching here at Puget Sound.  The Archivist & Special Collections Librarian and I both teach classes using materials from the A&SC, so that is always on our minds!

In addition to my varied duties as Assistant Archivist, I am still responsible for all activities and inquiries related to the Abby Williams Hill Collection. This collection documents the life and times of a female landscape artist and activist during the 1800s and early 1900s. Hill’s detailed diaries and correspondence provide a female perspective into significant issues that were affecting the nation as a whole, including the westward movement, African-American and Native American rights, early childhood education, and the preservation of federal lands. I teach class sessions related to Hill, curate exhibits, respond to research questions, and digitize materials from the collection. It has been really fun to learn about this unique woman through her own writings.

I look forward to meeting you in the Archives & Special Collections very soon!

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

By Laura Edgar

Hello! My name is Adriana Flores and I’m the brand new Archivist & Special Collections Librarian at the University of Puget Sound. I started working at the university in July and I’ve had a busy two months on campus so far! I thought I’d start off the year with a welcome blog post to introduce who I am, where I’ve come from, and why I’m excited to be at Puget Sound!

First, a little about me: I’m a born and raised Washingtonian, having spent most of my life in Sedro-Woolley (about two hours north of Tacoma). I am a Puget Sound alumna; I started my undergraduate degree in 2009 and graduated in 2013. As a student, I was lucky enough to work in the Archives & Special Collections, so I’m already familiar with some of our collections. After college I moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to get my graduate degree in Library and Information Sciences, with a concentration in Archives Management. While in Boston, I got a job at Boston University as the Assistant Archivist for Acquisitions at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. I worked there for two years, but quickly realized I wanted to return to the Pacific Northwest. Luckily for me, the Archives & Special Collections Librarian position at Puget Sound became available and I jumped at the opportunity to return!

As a Puget Sound student, I loved exploring the archival collections to see what treasures were tucked away in the archives. One reason I’m excited to return is that I get to dive back into our collections, enjoy everything our archives have to offer, and share it with the rest of our campus community. One collection in particular that I loved working with as a student was the John M. Canse pamphlet collection. John Canse was a pastor for the United Methodist Episcopal Church in Seattle, Washington, during the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909. Canse collected travel and settlement advertisements, maps, and historical documents about the American West from the end of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

As someone who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I love looking at these old advertisements, booklets, and pamphlets that promoted travel to the West Coast. Obviously, I love the Pacific Northwest and it’s interesting to see how it was advertised around the turn of the century. These documents are often vibrant and they showcase some of the natural landscape as well as the technological changes that were happening during the twentieth century. Below are a few of my favorite items from the pamphlet collection.

Images from left:  1.) This undated pamphlet highlights the great city of Tacoma and all it has to offer (with Mount Rainier looming in the distance, of course!).  2.) Being a Skagit County native, I loved seeing this pamphlet that was published by my hometown circa 1912!  3.) I love this image of the I-90 floating bridge. Published in 1940, this vibrant pamphlet emphasizes the structural feat of the floating bridge.

The John M. Canse pamphlet collection is just one example of the fascinating materials we have in the Archives & Special Collections. As the Archivist & Special Collections Librarian, I plan to find new and exciting ways to incorporate these types of materials into classroom settings. I believe our collections hold limitless possibilities, so I’m excited to get to work! Please feel free to drop by our Open Hours (see below) or email me at archives@pugetsound.edu if you have any questions about Archives & Special Collections!

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

By Adriana Flores