As Baylor’s chronicler of news both local and national since 1900, the Baylor Lariat has seen 35 transfers of power in the Executive Branch (including today‘s swearing in of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President). While not all of those events warranted large write-ups, we thought it would be timely to point out some…
Category: Just for Fun
Friday Extra: Why Scream When You Can Shout!
If this first full week of October has been stressful, tiring or just plain exhausting, take heart! A new series of 2-minute segments called Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments has begun airing on Waco’s local NPR affiliate, KWBU-FM. Hosted by Robert Darden, they will feature stories from the Golden Age of Gospel (1945-1975) and will…
Still “Crush”-ing It 120 Years Later: Revisiting a Classic Post on a Big Anniversary
Today is the 120th anniversary of the “Crash at Crush,” a marketing stunt carried out by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT or “Katy”) Railroad in a field just outside of Waco. Our friends at Waco History have a great post about the event on their website, and it used materials from our blog post below to help…
It Was There Before The Tree, Obviously: The Story of Mrs. Hubbard’s Hidden Flag Pole at the ABL
An existential question for you on this Flag Day: Is a flag pole still a flag pole if it’s no longer flying a flag? (Short answer: yes, it’s just not living up to its potential.) Here’s another, related, question: What’s up with the 50-foot flag pole currently hidden by a giant oak tree on the…
Color Our Collections 2016!
We’re excited to be taking part in Color Our Collections 2016! The event start at the New York Academy of Medicine and this year tons of new institutions are joining in the fun by taking items from their collections, reformatting them as coloring pages, and encouraging users to upload their creations to social media using…
An Open Letter to Chip & Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s “Fixer Upper”
Dear Chip (@chippergaines) and Joanna (@TheMagnoliaMom), First off, a big old Howdy! from your alma mater‘s official Digital Collections blog! It seems like you guys are everywhere these days: doing publicity for Season 3 of your awesome show, going on the lecture circuit, showing up on the morning shows – and all while running the…
Making Our Mark(ers): The DPG’s 2015 in Review
Well, another year of saving the world one scan at a time is in the books, and 2015 was a doozy for all of us at the Digital Projects Group! But rather than give you a dry recitation of stats, we asked our friends Kara (Baylor’s oh-so-excellent metadata librarian and Friend of the Blog) and…
Choose Your Own Civil War Letter Adventure!
We’re currently processing a couple of Civil War letters collections – to be unveiled soon! – and getting them ready for online access inspired this week’s blog post. After reading and/or transcribing dozens of examples of 1860s correspondence, certain patterns in their organization and content began to emerge. And for whatever reason, that reminded me…
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…
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…
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…