Happy Thanksgiving!

To help everyone get into a Thanksgiving mood, we wanted to give you a peek at one of the books in our rare books collection. This artist's book is Turkey Trot by Lois Morrison (Spec Coll General N7433.4 M680 T87 2007). It's #15 from a series of 25 signed and numbered copies, made in 2007. Materials used to construct the book include pink paper for wrapping tacos, plastic, Tyvek, and Frasier's passport paper. The book's cover is cloth over board with turkey feet from La Gurilla, Mexico City.

While the turkey foot shape of the book might be enough to charm you into a Thanksgiving mood, the turkey-themed lyrics to the Nancy Sinatra tune “These Boots Are Made for Walking” will definitely brighten your day. "These feet / were made / for trotting / and that's / just what / they'll do. / One of / these days / they'll just / trot away / from you." The book also features some wonderful interactive elements, like a sliding turkey that moves from bush to bush and a pop up turkey who appears from beneath a bush.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Annual Women Veterans Luncheon on Saturday, November 14 2015

For eighteen years, the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) in the University Libraries at UNC Greensboro has recognized the contributions of women veterans with a November luncheon.


This year’s luncheon includes a dramatic production, written and performed by students in UNCG’s theatre program, based on the interviews in the WVHP collection, as well as an exhibit of uniforms and other selected items from the collection.

The purpose of the luncheon is threefold: to honor the service of women who served in the United States armed forces and the American Red Cross; to serve as an educational forum about women veterans; to engage the veteran community at UNCG and Greensboro; and to highlight the work of the WVHP and its ongoing oral history project.

An exhibit of military uniforms and other materials from the WVHP collection begins at 11:30 AM. The luncheon and program will begin at 12 PM. The event is open to the public.

Tickets are FREE for UNCG military affiliated students (veterans, reservists, active military), $14 for all other veterans and $18 for non-veterans. Table sponsorship opportunities to support student attendance and veterans with limited means will be available for $300.

Please make your luncheon reservations and table sponsorships by November 1.  For disability accommodations or other questions, or to make reservations, contact Beth Ann Koelsch at bakoelsc@uncg.edu or 336/334-5838.

#AskAnArchivist Day on Twitter, October 1st!

SCUA staff will be available throughout the day on Thursday, October 1st to answer your questions on Twitter as part of the Society of American Archivists' second annual Ask An Archivist Day. We'll be joining archivists from around the country to answer questions about our collections and our work. 

To participate, simply ask your question on Twitter and use the hashtag #AskAnArchivist. If you have a question specifically for us, please remember to use our handle (@UNCGArchives) in your tweet. We can't wait to chat with you!

What’s Cookin', Good Lookin'? Becoming a Domestic Goddess at Woman’s College

Student baking during a
Department of Home Economics class, 1947

As the State Normal and Industrial School was founded with the mission of producing teachers and educating women to assist in the recovery of the post Civil War South, classes needed to support the three concentrations of study: teaching, home economics, and business. The early administration of the school did not view these programs as mutually exclusive, insisting, “a model woman, as the mistress of a model home, ought to know something of business, and above all things, ought to be an intelligent teacher.” In the 1930s, what was then the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, provided the opportunity for students to earn valuable practical experience in household management by working in one of the campus’ Home Management Houses. By the 1940s, the Department of Home Economics offered seven specialized focuses of study, including course concentration in Foods and Nutrition, an invaluable area of knowledge as the United States implemented food rationing initiatives during World War II.

“What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’?: Becoming a Domestic Goddess at the Woman’s College” features photographs and artifacts reflecting the Department of Home Economics curriculum, as well as excerpts from the Special Collections and University Archives’ Home Economics Pamphlets Collection. The exhibit can be viewed from September 25th - November 2nd, 2015.

Exhibit - Maud Gatewood: Sketches

Maud Florance Gatewood was a widely recognized Southeastern artist and painter. Her most familiar work is known to feature natural landscapes and botanicals as well as figurative designs that depict various aspects of the human experience. Gatewood's artwork currently resides in several public and private collections, including the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC.

Gatewood was born on January 8, 1934 and raised in Yanceyville, North Carolina. In 1954, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and, in 1955, a Master's Degree from Ohio State University.

In 1963, Gatewood was awarded a Fulbright scholarship with which she studied in Austria under Oskar Kokoschka. Also among her awards and recognitions, she received the 1984 North Carolina Award in Fine Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters painting award in 1972, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from UNCG in 1999.

In addition to painting, Gatewood was also a very active member of her community, elected as the first female member of the Caswell County Board of Commissioners with which she served for several years. She became a faculty member at UNC Charlotte in 1964 and a founding head of the university's Art Department. She passed away November 8, 2004 in Chapel Hill at the age of 70.

This exhibit featuring select drawings from Maud Gatewood's sketchbooks is on display in the Hodges Reading Room from August 31, 2015 to January 31, 2016.

Our exhibit is part of The Maud Gatewood Trail.  Check out this brochure for more locations to see Maud Gatewood's art on display.

A Flair for the Dramatic: Early Campus Theater Productions,1896-1916

A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1912

The students of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro claim a rich history of dramatic performance. From the campus’s earliest years as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women, the student body has authored plays, created stage sets, sewn costumes, and performed both male and female roles. The first theatrical performance was County Fair in 1894, and each subsequent year saw an increase in the dramatic repertoire enjoyed by students, faculty, and the public. As there was no drama program at the time, student groups, such as the campus literary societies (predecessors of the modern sorority), the YWCA, specific classes, and the Dramatics Club (beginning in 1912) organized and performed for the pleasure of the campus.

An exhibit featuring photographs of student dramatic productions dating from 1896 to 1916 is on display in the Elliott University Center connector from September 1st until November 1st.

Archives (and UNCG archivists!!) Change Lives

At the 2015 Society of American Archivists annual meeting in Cleveland last week, SAA and their Committee on Public Awareness premiered a promotional video to highlight their awareness campaign -- Archives Change Lives. If you look closely, you'll see two of our UNCG SCUA employees making brief appearances!

A Portable Likeness: Selected Portrait Miniatures and Their Literary Context

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a new exhibit in the Hodges Reading Room. A Portable Likeness: Selected Portrait Miniatures and Their Literary Context, features selected portrait miniatures, both in the portable form as well as in a literary context.

Portrait miniatures emerged from the pages of manuscripts and appeared in portable form during the early 16th century. They were originally painted on vellum, card, wood, or copper and were considered a luxury item, often framed in precious metals or jewels. The images were painted with watercolors, oils, and enamels. Ivory became a more popular surface for artists around 1700, but portraits continued to appear on paper and card as well.

The earliest miniatures depicted royalty and were given as signs of favor and patronage. The late 16th century saw loyal, wealthy subjects wearing the images of Queen Elizabeth I of England as a sign of fidelity. Attempting to imitate the royals, members of the nobility began to commission miniature portraits to commemorate births, marriages, deaths, or the long departure of a loved one. By the 18th century, they were widely available to the rising middle class. These portable items were owned and carried by men and women alike, often on rings, in lockets and cases, on chains, and
incorporated into pins, necklaces, bracelets, and hair pieces.  Larger images were often displayed in a cabinet or “treasure room.”  While portrait miniatures usually show only the upper torso of the sitter, hairstyles, hats, and jewelry are often prominently featured and can help date paintings that have no provenance.

This exhibit will be featured in the Hodges Reading Room from May 12 until August 28. The Reading Room is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday

New Exhibit in EUC Connector

A new exhibit in the EUC connector focuses on the university's dual personality. Namely, Minerva and the Spartan.

The two part exhibit explains the origins of our patron goddess, Minerva, and how she grew to become the symbol of the university. You'll also find out why the Spartan was picked as the mascot for our athletic teams (a hint-it happened after we became co-educational!), while showing some of the changes the mascot has undergone through the years. The exhibit will be up through August 30th and we hope it helps with any confusion our SOAR students may be having in reconciling UNCG's split personalities.

Dust Jackets to Die For

Stories of murder, suspense, and horror fill the shelves of the American Women’s Detective Fiction Collection in the Martha Blakeney Special Collections & University Archives. It is the dust jacket artists’ struggle to convey the authors’ foreboding tales of intrigue and vengeance in book covers enticing to potential readers. Sometimes, these attempts fall short of their intended purpose. From ice skating skeletons to murder by baking soda, this exhibit features the best of the worst dust jacket art of the collection. The exhibit can be found in the displays next to the the Jackson Library reference desk from June 8th to September 1st.

Darlinettes on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday

On Saturday, May 30, NPR listeners around the country were treated to a story about the Darlinettes, a big band composed of students from Woman's College (now UNCG) in the 1940s and early 1950s. The piece aired as part of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. WFDD's David Ford used resources in University Archives (as well as interviews with Darlinettes members and Steve Haines of UNCG's Jazz Studies Program) to discuss the issues the Darlinettes faced as an all-woman jazz band during the 1940s and 1950s.

You can listen to the NPR piece online at http://www.npr.org/2015/05/30/410531268/a-band-of-their-own. The site also includes some photographs and a link to a recording of the Darlinettes' original song "You Don't Get it from Books."

You can learn even more about the Darlinettes in this Spartan Stories blog post from September 2014: http://uncghistory.blogspot.com/2014/09/darlinettes-and-rhythmettes-big-band.html.

 

New Exhibit on the History of Physical Education and Athletics at UNCG

A new exhibit in Jackson Library explores the history of physical education and athletics at UNCG, from the 1890s until today. Gym suits from the 1900s, 1930s, and 1950s; photographs of intramural and intercollegiate athletics teams; and much more are on display in the exhibit cases across from the Jackson Library Reference Desk.

 

The exhibit will be available for viewing until the end of June 2015. To learn more about these topics and the associated resources available in SCUA, please see our research guides on physical education and athletics.

University Archives Completes Grant to Enhance Oral History Interview Access

University Archives recently completed work on a grant-funded project to provide enhanced access to many of our oral history interviews with African American students who attended Woman's College/UNCG in the 1960s. These oral history interviews, which are part of SCUA's African American Institutional Memory Project, were previously available online only as a PDF transcription. Even with this somewhat limited access, the interviews were frequently used by undergraduate students and others seeking to gain information on the personal experiences of students during this time.

This project, which was supported by the University Libraries' Innovation and Enrichment Grant Program, allowed us to augment access to a total of 27 of our oral history interviews -- two more than the initially-proposed 25. Using the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS), developed by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries, we indexed the interviews and created time syncs that make it easier to search and move between the written transcription and specific points in the audio recordings. We also established a workflow that will incorporate indexing and syncing via OHMS into the workflow for future University Archives' oral history projects.

For the first time, direct access to the audio recordings of these valuable interviews is available online. You can browse and listen to these enhanced interviews through the Libraries' digital collections portal.

Questions about the project may be directed to University Archivist Erin Lawrimore.

Douglas B. Moore Joins the Cellists Represented in the UNCG Cello Music Collection

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives is pleased to announce the donation of the collection of Douglas B. Moore to the UNCG Cello Music Collection. Douglas Moore was Professor of Music at Williams College from 1970 to 2007, and cellist with the Williams Chamber Players and the Williams Trio.  His Bachelor of Music degree in cello is from Indiana University, where he studied with Fritz Magg and János Starker, and his Masters and DMA degrees are from The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

Moore has performed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and at the Great Music West (Utah), Saratoga Baroque, Music Mountain, and Newport music festivals. He has been an artist/faculty member at the Manchester (VT) Music Festival (1998-2008) and Kansas City Cello Clinic. He has been principal cellist with the Great Music West Festival Orchestra in Utah, the Albany (NY) Symphony, Berkshire Symphony at Williams College and the Lake George Opera Festival orchestra. From 1991 the 1995 he was a member of the Saratoga Chamber Players, based in Saratoga Springs NY. He has also conducted cello orchestras at cello congresses, cello camps and universities, and given frequent master classes.

In 1976, Moore played the world premiere performance of the Cello Sonata, Op. 78 by Arthur Foote. His edition of the complete music for cello and piano by Foote was published in 1982 by A-R Editions on the Recent Researches in American Music series. The first modern-day performance of Foote's Cello Concerto took place in 1981 with Douglas Moore as soloist. Since then, he has performed the work with orchestras in Connecticut, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Illinois and Iowa. He has recorded music by Foote, Farwell, Cadman, Arensky, Rachmaninov, and Kechley on the Musical Heritage Society, Grand Prix and Liscio labels.

Moore has published over forty original arrangements through his publishing company, PlayMooreCello, including Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever and Rossini’s Barber of Seville Overture. His arrangements have been recorded by Yo-Yo Ma, the Saito Cello Ensemble of Japan and the Boston Cello Quartet. Additionally, Moore has published nearly 3 dozen modern editions of late 18th and early 19th century duos for violin and cello, most of which have never appeared since their first publication.

The Cello Music Collection of the Special Collections and University Archives contains sheet music (manuscript and published), monographs, serials, audio-video recordings, personal papers, and artifacts associated with cellists noted for their distinguished contributions in the areas of composition, performance, pedagogy, and research. Douglas Moore is the twelfth cellist represented within the UNCG Cello Music Collection. Consisting of the archival music collections of Luigi Silva, Elizabeth Cowling, Rudolf Matz, Maurice Eisenberg, János Scholz, Fritz Magg, Bernard Greenhouse, Laszlo Varga, Lev Aronson, Lubomir Georgiev, Marion Davies, and Douglas Moore, the Cello Music Collection at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro constitutes the largest single holding of cello music-related material worldwide. 

New exhibit! Commencement Time at State Normal

It's almost time for graduation at UNCG, and, to celebrate, SCUA has installed a new exhibit on "Commencement Time at State Normal" in the cases next to the reference desk in Jackson Library. Stop by to check out a marshal dress from 1906, President Foust's academic robe and hood, a copy of the US and NC Constitutions given to State Normal graduates during commencement, and other photos and materials documenting the services and ceremonies of commencements on campus over 100 years ago. The exhibit will run through June 8th.

UNCG Class of 1965's 50th Reunion Weekend Exhibit

On Thursday and Friday, April 9-10, 2015, archivists Beth Ann Koelsch, Erin Lawrimore, and Kathelene Smith created a large exhibit for the Class of 1965's 50th Reunion weekend. The exhibit, which was mounted in the EUC Auditorium's lobby, included photographs, textiles, yearbooks, and other items from University Archives that document the Class of 1965's time at UNCG. Portions of the exhibit highlighted the commercial class, the nursing program, and civil rights activities on campus. Also, uniforms and photographs of members of the Class of 1965 who are part of the Women Veterans Historical Project were also featured.

During the weekend, SCUA also received donations of photographs and other materials from many members of the Class of 1965. If others have photographs or other materials related to their time on campus, please contact SCUA. While we are no longer seeking yearbooks or class jackets from this time, we are interested in unique items related to student life during the 1960s (and later).

An Exhibit: The Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club

Joseph M. Bryan wearing his green jacket

Known for its history and unique traditions, the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club is one of the premier golf competitions in the world. Since 1934, golfers have competed annually during the first full week in April for a chance to claim a cash prize and a coveted “Green Jacket.” One the biggest fans of the tournament was local Greensboro businessman and philanthropist, Joseph M. Bryan, who in 1937, made his first trip to Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Until his death in 1995, Bryan never missed a Masters Tournament and was even given the special status as the “Number 1 Official Observer” in honor of his commitment and loyalty to the club.

In recognition of the upcoming Masters Tournament, The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives invites the public to view a special exhibit on Joseph M. Bryan and his connection to the tournament.  On display are letters, memorabilia, photographs, artifacts, and even one of the few green jackets ever to leave the August National Golf Club.

The exhibit can be seen in the three display cases next to the reference desk in Jackson Library from April 6, 2015 – April 27, 2015. 

For questions or comments, please contact the exhibit curator, Sean Mulligan at 336-334-5763 or at Sean_Mulligan@uncg.edu.

Presentation on LGBT Outreach at SNCA

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro enjoys the reputation for supporting an inclusive campus “where there is visible and meaningful representation of the diversity present in the wider community.” During this year’s annual conference of the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) held in Greenville, NC from March 11th to 13th, Stacey Krim from the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) presented on how the department is contributing to the University’s diversity mission through archival outreach to UNCG’s LGBT community.

In the presentation titled, “Outreach to the Invisible: Archivists as Advocates to the LGBTQ Community,” Krim discussed the benefits of advocacy work as a platform for targeted educational outreach and collection development. A Safe Zone Ally since 2008, she has been heavily involved with training relating to the needs of LGBT students and staff, bringing this initiative with her when she began working in SCUA in 2011. Taking inspiration from University Archive’s UNCG African American history outreach, Krim began the development of a UNCG LGBTQ history presentation.

Finding historical records relating to UNCG’s history on the topic was challenging. Although twelve percent of the UNCG student body self-identifies as not being gender or sex conforming (making them one of the largest minority groups on campus), fear of discrimination has kept the LGBT community virtually invisible in the historical record. In fact, the first officially “out” student at UNCG is not documented until 1992, a century after the opening of the institution. After several months of research, enough information was discovered to present an hour long UNCG LGBT history presentation, the debut of which was at the first meeting of the UNCG LGBT Alumni Group during Homecoming in 2012. Since then, this presentation has been requested several times each semester, with supplementary material posted on the University Archives social media outlets.

The outcome of Krim’s outreach to UNCG’s LGBT students and alumni has been wholly positive. The presentation is a staple for UNCG Safe Zone continuing education. Additionally, Krim has collaborated with UNCG’s Queer Student Union in the recreation of a controversial exhibit from 2002 featuring LGBT African American authors. Most importantly, this outreach raises the visibility of SCUA’s primary source materials and promotes the value University Libraries places on supporting diversity and inclusion on campus.

UNCG Archives trending on Tumblr!

The UNCG Archives Tumblr is currently featured as one of the Trending Blogs on the popular social media site Tumblr. We use our Tumblr to share photos, videos, and other content related to UNCG history and the collections and work of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. In the last three days alone, the UNCG Archives Tumblr has gained 768 new followers.

Our most popular post from the past month was a photograph from the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project. The photo depicts African American WACs (Women’s Army Corps) standing in formation during basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in April 1943.

If you wish to follow the UNCG Archives Tumblr, you can do so by clicking the Follow button on our page. You can also follow via RSS feed using any RSS feed reader.

Shakespeare Exhibit

The UNCG sponsored series, The Globe and the Cosmos, is a year-long celebration of William Shakespeare and Galileo Galilei on the 450th anniversary of their respective births. It is a collaborative project that brings artists and scholars to campus and taps into the knowledge and talent of its faculty, students, and staff. The celebration also draws on the university’s holdings of art and rare and unique books to highlight the genius and humanity of both Shakespeare and Galileo. These works reflect the continued impact of these two men on scholarly research, creative work, and the ways we all imagine the world.

With strong holdings in the works of William Shakespeare, Special Collections and University Archives at UNCG’s University Libraries has mounted an exhibit that exclusively focused on the Bard. The exhibit, “That in Black Ink My Love May Still Shine Bright:” Selections from Five Centuries of Printed Works of William Shakespeare, seeks to illustrate Shakespeare’s impact on the history of western print culture. Additionally, the exhibit reveals the Library’s own active collecting of Shakespeare since the university’s founding.

To best view the exhibit, it is recommended that visitors begin with the two horizontal glass exhibit cases to the left as you enter the Hodges Reading Room. Moving in a clock-wise direction, visitors will view printed works in five horizontal exhibits cases and then end the tour by examining the contents of two large vertical cases that stand on either side of the Reading Room’s main entrance.

The first two exhibits cases contain works that provide the visitor with a glimpse of the print revolution that was sweeping Early Modern England. With rising literacy rates and a flourishing book trade, Shakespeare’s plays and poetry were purchased and read in large numbers. On display is a wonderful facsimile of a 1609 quarto of his sonnets and a complete 1623 First Folio, both found in Special Collections and University Archives. In the accompanying vertical case, there are two of the earliest print editions found in the exhibit. The case contains a 1632 copy of Richard the Third and a beautiful and complete 1685 Fourth Folio.

The display in the next two exhibit cases is intended to transport the visitor to the 19th and 20th centuries and reveal Shakespeare’s revered place within the English speaking world. The 1850 edition of the complete works of Shakespeare is a scholarly edition that contains an essay on his genius. These editions were intended to be used for educational pursuits. In the adjoining exhibit, the visitor will view examples of Shakespeare’s works produced by high-end publishing houses such as: Kelmscott Press, Doves Press, and Cranach Press. These works were collected for both their intricate design and content.

The works found in the final two vertical cases are wonderful examples of how book artists and custom binders of the late 20th century continue to turn to Shakespeare for inspiration. The works of Ronald King and Circle Press are found in the first case. Please note the provocative custom binding design of Antony & Cleopatra by Monique Lallier. In the last case, the visitor has the opportunity to view the breathtaking woodcuts by Leonard Baskin (Gehenna Press) and Claire Van Vliet (Theodore Press).

C-SPAN2 Book TV Program features Women Veterans Historical Project and WWI Pamphlets

C-SPAN2 Book TV visited Greensboro and made a trip to Special Collections and University Archives. 

Beth Ann Koelsch, Curator of the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) and  Keith Gorman, Head of Special Collections and University Archives were featured on C-Span2 Book TV in February, 2015.

Koelsch showcased a selection of books by and about women in the military including self-published memoirs, cartoon books, and recruiting brochures.Gorman discussed about how the special collection of WWI pamphlets illustrated how propaganda was used throughout the course of the "Great War."

You can watch the program at this link: http://www.c-span.org/video/?324062-1/book-tv-greensboro-north-carolina

Why do archives matter to you?

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) is seeking input from researchers and others who use and enjoy archives, like those we have here at UNCG. They're seeking comments or testimonials on why archives matter to you!!

If you're willing to share a short statement about why archives matter to you (and you're willing to let us share that statement with the folks at SAA), please comment on this blog post or email us at scua@uncg.edu. It can be anything from a short and sweet comment on something interesting you learned the archives to a lengthier story about archival research you've done. We look forward to hearing from you!!

Upcoming Event - LGBT History of UNCG Presentation

***Due to adverse weather, this presentation will be rescheduled. We'll share the new date and time as soon as it's available.***

Where: Virginia Dare Room, Alumni House

When: Tuesday, February 24^th from 12:30-1:30

Although our University enjoys the benefits of a culture promoting equality and inclusivity, UNCG’s reputation for embracing diversity as an educational foundation was constructed over decades by student and staff advocacy. Among the more hidden stories of Civil Rights struggles at UNCG is that of the formation of a university-acknowledged student organization for LGBTQ students. 

As part of the Safe Zone Lunch and Learn Series, Stacey Krim will be discussing the LGBT history of UNCG on Tuesday, February 24 from 12:30-1:30 at the Alumni House's Virginia Dare Room.

Archiving UNCG's Online History

"It might seem, and it often feels, as though stuff on the Web lasts forever, for better and frequently for worse: the embarrassing photograph, the regretted blog (more usually regrettable not in the way the slaughter of civilians is regrettable but in the way that bad hair is regrettable). No one believes any longer, if anyone ever did, that “if it’s on the Web it must be true,” but a lot of people do believe that if it’s on the Web it will stay on the Web. Chances are, though, that it actually won’t."

In her recent New Yorker article "The Cobweb: Can the Internet be Archived?," writer Jill Lepore explores the important work of archivists, librarians, and organizations like the Internet Archive in preserving and providing continual access to web content. Her article coincides with a concerted effort in University Archives to proactively document the University's online history. As of January 2015, UNCG is officially a partner member of  the Internet Archive's service Archive-It.

Archive-It is a subscription web archiving service from the Internet Archive that helps organizations to harvest, build, and preserve collections of digital content. With Archive-It, partner members can collect, catalog, and manage their collections of archived content with 24/7 access and full text search available for their use as well as their patrons. Content is made available through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Also, we in University Archives can link to archived websites using our online collection finding aids.

A screenshot of UNCG's homepage in 1997

Our web archiving work is just beginning, but already a number of key websites have been collected using the Archive-It tool. You can see the sites we've archived on our Archive-It member page. Pages captured as of January 26th include the primary website related to the 2015 search for our next Chancellor, the web-based publications of course bulletins that don't exist in print, the websites for a number of key administrative bodies on campus (Board of Trustees, Faculty Senate, and Staff Senate), and websites for a number of campus departments. In the future, we plan to archive the University's main social media accounts, websites of many student groups and organizations, and other online content related to the current work of the University.

University Archives is tasked with documenting UNCG's history, from its founding until today. Today, the University's web presence is a key part of that history. This new and exciting partnership with the Internet Archive and Archive-It helps us ensure that our current online history is as accessible to scholars as paper records from 50 or 100 years ago are.

Cello Music Collection Material on Television

The Fox Business channel is airing a new television series, Strange Inheritance, which will be featuring material from the Bernard Greenhouse Cello Music Collection. The pilot episode focuses on the Greenhouse family’s inheritance of the Countess of Stanlein, the Stradivarius violoncello dating to 1707, originally owned by Nicolò Paganini. After Bernard Greenhouse passed away in 2011, it was sold for roughly $6 million.   

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives provided photographs of Bernard Greenhouse, as well as video footage from an oral history conducted in 2009. Strange Inheritance premieres with the tale of the inheritance of Bernard Greenhouse’s cello on Fox Business. 

Remembering the Legacy of Laszlo Varga

Bela Bartok's Sonata for Solo Violin arranged for
5 Stringed Cello by Laszlo Varga

Renowned cellist Laszlo Varga passed away December 11, 2014. Born in 1924, Varga studied at the Franz Liszt Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. After escaping the forced labor camps in Hungary during World War II, Varga immigrated to the United States, serving eleven years as the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic. He was a featured performer and respected teacher at the Aspen, Chautauqua and Shreveport music festivals, among many others. In addition, he conducted major orchestras such as the Budapest Symphony and the San Leandro Symphony. For twenty-five years, Varga served as both director and conductor of the San Francisco State University Symphony. Among his many awards and recognitions, Varga was presented the distinguished title of "Chevalier du Violoncelle" by Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at Indiana University in 1991.

Laszlo Varga donated his musical score collection to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives in 2005. This impressive collection contains over fifty transcriptions for solo cello and cello ensemble, including his solo cello transcriptions of the Bach D minor and E major violin partitas and his arrangement of Strauss’ “Don Quixote, Op. 35” for cello, viola, violin, clarinet, horn, and piano. UNCG celebrated this pioneering artist’s legacy in 2007 by hosting the Laszlo Varga Cello Music Celebration. Varga is the eighth cellist represented in the UNCG Cello Music Collection, the largest single holding of cello music related literature in the world.

University Libraries is honoring the memory of this world-class performer, teacher, and arranger of cello music through the digitization of portions of his collection. The Laszlo Varga Digital Collection contains many of Varga’s unpublished manuscript arrangements, promoting his legacy to cellists worldwide.

Click to view Laszlo Varga obituary in the New York Times.

Laszlo Varga at the UNCG Cello Music Celebration held in his honor,
2007