January 20, 2017
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Snow, Snow, Snow…Let It Snow.
As the snow falls this weekend in Flagstaff, we wish you a safe and fun weekend.
Image courtesy of the Fronske Collection, circa December 1967.
Image courtesy of the NAU Cline Library, date unknown.
Image Courtesy of the Josef Muench Collection, circa 1960
January 17, 2017
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Sue Bennett Collection Finding Guide Now Available
Sue Bennett Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Utah
John Running Photograph (NAU.PH.2013.4.1.30.10.64)
Special Collections and Archives is pleased to announce the creation and release of the Sue Bennett finding guide.
Sue Bennett was born in Pasadena, California in 1948. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Southern California in 1972 then moved to Flagstaff, Arizona where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1975. While attending the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff she enrolled in many photography classes where her photographs of athletes impressed local photographer John Running. She did an internship for Mountain Bell taking marketing photos and later worked for the Arizona Tourism Board. Around this time, she started a freelance photography business called Sue Bennett Photography Inc.
Bennett was a masterful business woman, marketing herself and her work. In her later career, she was sought after by top agencies to shoot ad campaigns for clients such as Dupont, Olympus, Nikon, IBM, American Express, and many others.
In May of 2003, Sue died tragically in a car accident near Palm Springs California. She was remembered by friends and colleagues not just for her remarkable photography, but as a fun loving, kind and generous person.
In 2013 John Running, Bennett’s long-time partner, donated her work to Cline Library Special Collections and Archives. Approximately 150,000 color slides, black-and-white negatives/prints, and prints form the bulk of the collection. Detailed diaries and journals provide additional contextual insight into her work and personal life.
Special Collections and Archives will be developing an exhibit featuring Sue’s work that will open in October 2017. The department is receiving applications for the Elizabeth M and PT Reilly Summer Internship until February 17, 2017. The Reilly intern will be responsible for developing the physical and virtual exhibit under the supervision of an archivist. See the internship announcement here.
January 6, 2017
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Freaky Friday-Celebrities at NAU
First up:
A.S.C. La Questa Queen Patricia ‘Skip’ Johnson and Robert Mitchum. NAU.ARC.1948-6-11 (1948)
Next:
Campus Visitor – Lucille Ball. Lucille Ball visits the campus primary laboratory school, 1961. NAU.ARC.1961-6-2
Next:
La Questa Dance: Errol Flynn dances with Queen Alice Moore. 1940. NAU.ARC.1940-6-16
December 16, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Elizabeth M and P.T. Reilly Internship 2017
The Cline Library at Northern Arizona University invites applications for The Elizabeth M. and P.T. Reilly Internship.
The 2017 Reilly intern will work closely with Cline Library’s Special Collections and Archives staff to develop physical and virtual exhibits focused on the life and photographic work of Flagstaff photographer Sue Bennett (1948-2003). Bennett moved to Flagstaff in the mid-1970s because of her love of the Southwest and to attend NAU; she graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science. She subsequently became a well-known and highly successful commercial photographer at the regional, national, and international levels. In addition to her significant talent, Bennett fostered other local photographers’ creativity and built community with fellow Flagstaff artists.
In 2013 John Running, Bennett’s long-time partner, donated her work to Special Collections and Archives. Approximately 150,000 color slides, black-and-white negatives/prints, and prints form the bulk of the collection. Detailed diaries and journals provide additional contextual insight into her work and personal life.
The department envisions the exhibit as a contextual and intimate chronology of Bennett’s life through the progression of her photography. A careful balance between photographs as objects of art and as sources of meaningful context will underpin the exhibit.
Duties and Opportunities: The 2017 Reilly intern will assume primary responsibility for the virtual (web-based) exhibit. The intern will also provide significant support for development of the physical exhibit, from its interpretive text to design and fabrication.
The internship offers the opportunity to gain practical experience in:
*Research
*Synthesis of primary and published sources
*Exhibit Planning (team-based)
*Storyline development and content interpretation
*Web page design, creation, and digital storytelling
*Public speaking (presentation to library staff upon completion of the internship)
The Reilly intern will work 40 hours per week for ten consecutive weeks. The successful candidate will select a preferred ten-week block between May 15 – August 8, 2017. The workweek schedule offers some flexibility.
Stipend and Housing: $4,500 (no benefits included) total. The Reilly intern will be paid in bi-weekly installments to reach the total of $4,500. On-campus housing is subject to availability. For more information, please consult https://nau.edu/Residence-Life/Housing-Options/Summer-Housing/. Renting a room in the community is also a possibility. The successful candidate must be willing to relocate to Flagstaff for ten weeks and underwrite his or her own food, lodging, transportation to work, and parking.
Qualifications: The preferred candidate will be a graduate student in information science or museum studies working toward a career in a library, museum, or archives setting. Graduate students should be currently part of a program with an anticipated completion date of August/September 2017 or later. Undergraduate (junior or senior) students are also encouraged to apply.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities Required:
*Strong ability to write creatively while employing advanced research skills
*Demonstrated experience with web design
*Advanced communication skills (oral, written)
*Familiarity with video and audio software tools, HTML editing, and the Adobe Creative Suites products
*Ability to work as part of a team
*Basic experience with Microsoft Office products
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities Preferred:
*Knowledge of Colorado Plateau and Southwest history
*Understanding of photographic and print making processes
*Familiarity with archival practice
Application Deadline: February 17, 2017. To apply, submit the following documents to: Peter Runge, NAU Cline Library, Box 6022, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6022 or email Peter.Runge@nau.edu:
*Résumé or vita
*Letter of application addressing your qualifications, including hyperlinks to any previous online exhibits or products that you may have created/designed
*Copy of current transcript
*Names and contact information for three references
For more information, contact Peter Runge via email at peter.runge@nau.edu or phone at (928) 523-6502.
The mission of Cline Library’s Special Collections and Archives Department is to collect, preserve, and make available archival materials that document the history and development of the Colorado Plateau. Interdisciplinary in nature, the collections include 7 million manuscripts, 1 million photographs, 35,000 books, 2,000 maps, and 1,300 oral histories. Learn more at http://archive.library.nau.edu.
Flagstaff is a city of 67,000 at the base of the San Francisco Peaks surrounded by the Coconino National Forest. Approximately 80 miles from Grand Canyon and 140 miles from Phoenix, Flagstaff enjoys a four-season climate at an elevation of 7,000 feet. NAU has a growing and diverse student population and is a committed Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution and Employer of National Service. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.
November 17, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Angel Delgadillo Collection Coming to SCA
On November 11th, 2016, Kathleen Schmand, Peter Runge and Sean Evans travelled to Seligman, Arizona to partake in a celebration honoring Route 66’s 90th anniversary, and to begin a project that has been in process for nearly two years- to start bringing to Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives the Angel Delgadillo Collection.
The collection documents the Angel Delgallo family who arrived in Seligman in 1917, when the family left Mexico because of the revolution. It contains business records of Angel’s father and his pool hall and barber shop and Angel’s businesses as well. Along the way the collection also includes civic records of the city of Seligman; photos and more. The heart of the collection however, deals with Route 66. Specifically, Angel’s role in efforts to preserve and revitalize Route 66 after Seligman was bypassed by I-40 and ultimately decommissioned by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1985.
This part of the Delgadillo collection contains correspondence between Angel and pretty much anyone he could get to listen regarding the preservation and revitalization of Route 66. Also highlighted are interviews Angel partook in (nearly 1,000) with related correspondence, and the establishment of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. The Association is acknowledged as the first preservation association for Route 66 and has acted as the inspiration for virtually all other Route 66 associations in the U.S. and across the world.
We brought home to NAU the first “ceremonial” box of Delgadillo materials. Contained therein is Angel’s barber license, family and historic photographs and some unique published materials and articles on Route 66. We have a trip ahead early in December to assist the family with the wrapping up their project and to collect 6 more boxes of material, with as many as another 8-10 to follow. The material has been housed in the family’s historic pool hall which adds a certain historic sense to the work.
This collection will directly support research and study of Route 66 in Arizona. This collection will be used by NAU students (who have already produced three masters’ theses on Route 66 at NAU), faculty and Route 66 authors. This collection also broadly supports collections housed at other National Park Service, Research Route 66 institutions.
For more on Angel Delgadillo, check out the oral history we did with him here.
November 7, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Victory Bell?
Inquiring minds want to know: Where is the Victory Bell?
In the image above is a small piece of NAU’s (or more properly ASC’s) campus history- the “Victory Bell”. As the cropped piece of NAU Archive image NAU.ARC.1956-9-8 shows, here is a grainy look at the victory bell at the 50 yard line of Spillsbury Field in 1956 while the band is on the field. In searching the Pine/Lumberjack online it appears that the bell begins to get mentioned in the 1950s, and drops from mention in 1965 or so. The bell was rung at games when the Lumberjacks scored a touchdown, and generally attended to by the Chain Gang- quite a task as it appears the bell was attached to a healthy diameter log. As the keepers of campus traditions, that makes sense.
The rest of the bell information we can put forward is pure supposition. Given that we only have two images taken at a fair distance, there is little apparent detail. The bell pictured does look like a steam locomotive bell- and that makes sense inasmuch as railroads nationwide were moving to diesel-electric locomotives and scrapping their steam engines. Such bells were probably plentiful and in need of homes.
In chatting with folks locally and seeing if anyone remembered the bell, we heard few plausible and not so plausible ideas. We have heard that bell was stolen by an opposing team (as once happened to the copper ax); that it was decommissioned to Flagstaff High School and lives in a trophy case (doesn’t seem so); or that it got moved into the Dome and is lost in some little-known closet like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Indiana Jones.
If you know anything about the Victory Bell- or have a story to share, we’d love to hear them- contact us at special.collections@nau.edu
August 30, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Saying Goodbye to the “Fred Harvey: Branding the Southwest” Exhibit
This time last year, we were sweating the details on completing and putting into place what would turn out to be one of the most influential exhibits ever. “Fred Harvey: Branding the Southwest” was built out of Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives most used collection and so it was well due the honor of being the focus of an exhibit. Our Elizabeth and P.T. Reilly intern, Ofelia Zepeda (University of Arizona, SIRLS, Knowledge River cohort member) did a magnificent job of teasing out the often complex storylines of the Fred Harvey Company’s history into very digestible parts for display in our modest exhibit space and then expanding that content for the web version of the exhibit.
Along the way across the past year we place satellite versions of the exhibit in the Flagstaff Public Library, the Flagstaff Visitors’ Center, The 1899 restaurant on campus, and in our own Scholars’ Corner Coffee shop. We did three First Friday Art Walks to celebrate the closing of the previous exhibit done around the images of Flagstaff photographer John Running, and to hint towards the Fred Harvey exhibit; the opening of the Fred Harvey Exhibit and then the celebration of the release of the Fred Harvey inspired Seven Stages beer from Mother Road Brewery. We held two exhibit openings, one for donors and one public event that also featured a great panel discussion comprised of Allen Naille, Allan Affeldt, Stephan Fried (author of Appetite for America), and Dr. Wanda Costen of NAU’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. We hosted a showing of Katrina Parks’ 2013 film Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound. We hosted a variety of groups who came to tour the exhibits, plus hosted a number of NAU classes who used the exhibit as part of their class activities. We even discovered that there were what we might term Fred Harvey groupies called “Fred Heads”!
Yes, this exhibit was a lot of work for lots of people, but well worth it in the end, and it was lots of fun.
The best part of the whole process however are the great partners we worked with across this past year. They include: The Flagstaff Arts Council, Flagstaff Convention and Visitors Bureau/Flagstaff Visitors Center, Flagstaff Public Library, Grand Canyon National Parks Lodges, the Harvey Girls of Winslow, La Posada Hotel, Old Trails Museum, Mother Road Brewery, the NAU School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, and the 1899 Bar and Grill. We also received support (of many types) and encouragement from a whole host of people way too numerous to mention here (but you can see them here).
The exhibit will come down, quietly, Tuesday, September 6th (early before we open…) to make way for some touch-ups before the next exhibit is put in place. Watch this space!
July 6, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Introducing SCA’s new Collections Manager!
Special Collections and Archives (SCA) is thrilled to have Kelly Phillips join the department in the role of Collections Manager. This is a brand new position for SCA and one that has been needed for many years. This vital position was created after a rigorous departmental analysis revealed a need to better document incoming and outgoing materials (gifts, loans etc.) Furthermore, the analysis revealed that the department needed to centralize the monitoring and management of the collections storage environment as a broader component of preservation at the library. Finally, this role frees up duties presently undertaken by others in SCA responsible for other functions.
Kelly Phillips working with ArchivesSpace
What specific tasks are associated with collections management you ask? On any given day, Kelly could …
Kelly can be reached by contacting us at Special Collections and Archives.
Welcome Kelly!
April 18, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Announcing the 2016 Elizabeth M and PT Reilly Intern – Alexandra Morris
April 15, 2016
by special collections & archives
Comments Off on Archive Ale
…..Perhaps it happened because we began the planning conversation around our current exhibit “Fred Harvey: Branding the Southwest” at Mother Road Brewery. Maybe it was because Michael Marquess of Mother Road Brewery likes using the old historic images from our Digital Archives for some of his beer labels. Or, it could have been because of the W. Dean Fausett paintings in our Fred Harvey Collection- the Seven Stages of Drunkenness. Who knows?
W. Dean Fausett, “Verbose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1
The results however will be revealed formally on May 6th at Mother Road Brewery when Michael reveals the “Seven Stages” beer, in a special 7-pack box during the May First Friday Art Walk from 6-9. Each 7 pack will include 16 oz. cans with all seven individual images of W. Dean Fausett’s Seven Stages of Drunkeness.
W. Dean Fausett “Jacose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1
The story of the exhibit, and the beer is long and tangled, but it goes something like this:
We had gone to Mother Road on that fateful day back in the Fall of 2014 to talk with a former archives compatriot about how we might be able to weave our various Grand Canyon and river-runner collections to tell a story based on the linear geography of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River into an exhibit for 2015-16. Maybe it was because only one member of our party had beer, but the idea didn’t gel and that particular exhibit concept simply failed to come into being.
W. Dean Fausett “Amicose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1
Later, in looking at use statistics, we discovered our most requested manuscript collection was our MS 280- the Fred Harvey Collection. The collection had more than 300 pulls over the last 8 years, and some was for a notable author who wrote a NYT bestseller on the Harvey Company. The exhibit was born!
Fausett, W. Dean “Vamose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1
This lead us into a period of rediscovery- experiencing almost like for the first time all the great stuff in the collection: menus (with great imagery) from Harvey establishments from Ohio to Hawaii; scripts from the 1947 Harvey Girls movie; recipes; promotional material; visitor registers from the El Tovar (which included inscriptions from Zane and Dolly Gray), and those great Fausett paintings which had been commissioned by Mary Colter (in her role as architect/interior designer for the Fred Harvey Company) for the bar in the El Tovar at Grand Canyon. We began sharing these discoveries with users, donors, and people interested in how the exhibit might look. Mr. Marquess had come by for a tour and we popped open the box with the paintings and the beer idea was hatched.
W. Dean Fausett “Bellicose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1
Mr. Marquess chose the beer that he was going to brew (in a 900 gallon batch), and the labelling and packaging ideas began to flow. Along the way, another Fred Harvey exhibit partner: Grand Canyon Lodges got involved giving the beer not only a sense of history- but also a place to be sold. The beer is now ultimately meant to be made available via the restaurants, bars and gift shops at the Canyon. The different parties (now including NAU, Grand Canyon Lodges and the Mother Road Brewery) managed through the execution of their own unique needs and wants, to extend the beers’ schedule, but it will arrive just in time for Summer! Along the way, a lot of great detail was brought to the final product: the beer itself, the name of the beer, the wonderful label design and the great box design. Even better, part of the proceeds from the sale of the beer will flow back to the archives to support our collections and operations.
W. Dean Smith “Lachrymose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1
So, look for a return of Fred Harvey-iana to Mother Road Brewery on May 6, check out Archive Ale, and if you haven’t yet visited to exhibit, plan to stop in. The exhibit will be up through August. Meanwhile-follow this blog for developing news of our next exhibit!
W. Dean Smith “Comatose” MS 280 Ser. 6 Box 1