Christmas is a time for family, celebrating and the making and sharing of memories. Many times, those memories are presented as stories told during family gatherings (sometimes for the hundredth time), and oral traditions are an important part of any get-together. One of our most-used resources is composed almost entirely of personal stories and memories:…
Category: Collections
Perfect Delight: The Inaugural Voices & Vinyl Concert!
After months of planning and hours of rehearsal by our friends in the Heavenly Voices Gospel Choir, our Voices & Vinyl concert was held on Thursday, December 3rd in the Moody Memorial Library Allbritton foyer. It was, to be perfectly frank, a complete success from our point of view. A sizable crowd of students, faculty,…
All Hallows’ Eve in Poetry, Prose and Photos: Excerpts from the “Roundup” and the “Phoenix”
It’s the week of Halloween and there’s no better time to highlight some items from our University Archives collections, specifically the Baylor Roundup (our campus yearbook) and The Phoenix (a literary magazine sponsored by the English Department). First up, a poem called Halloween from the 1902 Roundup. From the 1950 Roundup A short story from…
This Is The Most 1990’s Video In Our Collections, And It Is Glorious
Oh, man. Let all that mid-90’s goodness settle in. It’s so perfect, it’s causing a Pavlovian response in my mind where everything tastes like Surge and smells like CK One and is swathed in flannel. The context on this piece is that, in celebration of Baylor’s sesquicentennial year (1995), a fundraising packet was sent to…
Political Maneuvering: Updates and Changes to the Digital Collections, Fall 2015
We’re taking the opportunity of this week’s blog post to highlight some changes to one of our partner institutions and – as it directly relates to us – their digital collections. Announcing the Baylor Collections of Political Materials Digital Collections! Our friends at the W.R. Poage Legislative Library recently announced a return to their longstanding…
Thrown Down, Fired Up and Glazed Over: Introducing the Harding Black Collection
How do we honor an innovator? Do we associate their name with their creation forever, like Eli Whitney and the cotton gin? Do we raise a statue in their honor? Do we put their name on a piece of currency? Around here, we make a digital collection out of their work, like we did with…
Jax and EBB Sitting ‘Neath A Tree / R-H-Y-M-I-N-G: On Sesame Street’s “Sons of Poetry” and the Brownings
What do fictional Northern California biker gangs, a beloved television institution and two Victorian poets have in common? According to this video from Sesame Street’s amazing line of pop culture parody skits, they share a love of rhyming couplets, of course. In typical Sesame Street fashion, they’ve taken something decidedly adult – the hit FX…
The Spencer Collection Marches On With 400+ New Titles!
Unlike some of our never-ending projects (ahem, Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, ahem), there are some projects that we’re making slow, steady progress on every day. And that’s why we’re announcing a new batch of items in the Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Popular Sheet Music – 461 all told! The items span a…
Documenting 64 Years of Joyful Noise: The School of Music Performances Programs Collection is Complete!
They were written on typewriters, word processors and laptops. Some used italicized fonts, others used “high tech” typefaces and the most recent ones feature the Baylor University Judge Baylor/Pat Neff Hall wordmark. They could be one page, two pages or dozens. In short, while the School of Music Performances Programs collection may seem like a…
Small But Mighty: Introducing the Armstrong Browning Library Photographic Archive
Boy howdy, it’s been a few days since we last blogged! [Checks calendar, sees it’s been almost two months, feels regret.] Let’s make up for that today, shall we? We’re excited to announce the launch of a new collection based on holdings of the Armstrong Browning Library. The new Photographic Archive will feature items digitized…
An Open Letter to Andrew Lincoln, a.k.a. “The Walking Dead’s” Sheriff Rick Grimes
Dear Mr. Lincoln, That all of us at the Digital Projects Group are big fans of your work on America’s #1 Zombie Apocalypse Themed Television series is no surprise to anyone who reads this blog. Over the course of five seasons we’ve seen you grow from startled victim to grizzled leader of a hardened band…
Caps, Gowns and College Towns: Collegiate Life in The Spencer Collection
It’s cap and gown season here on the campus of ol’ BU, and the class of 2015 has a lot to celebrate. Years of study, focus and passion come together in a 20-second walk across the stage to acquire their sheepskins and cross the threshold into alumni-hood. Themes related to college life find unique expression…