Sleuthing!

I started today with the idea that I was going to configure what was going to go in the small glass cases up front, which I had spent a few minutes figuring out which set of keys Kheir gave me would successfully unlock. These are different glass cases than the bigger ones I spent the last couple weeks on. These are elsewhere in the archive that once we unlocked them we talked about what to do with the unrelated material that was already in them. Using them for the exhibit means that things that I thought I wouldn't be able to fit into the Freeman exhibit can now possibly make an appearance. And that also means that I can spread out certain periods or even give one case an entire highlight of one period. For example, one case can be all the material from the Harold Washington overlap with Freeman (former legal partners, Freeman swore HW in to office both terms, etc.), or maybe one can be about the link between Freeman and CSU (more on that below).

But then my day got away from me, because other tasks came up that required attention. We decided it was important to see if there was any link to Freeman at CSU, other than CSU being in the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Consortium (therefore being an appropriate repository for archives of black justices etc.). Kheir navigated me to where in the Chicago Public Library digital archive I could find back issues of the Chicago Defender, which would probably help me in my research. And I found it! The Chi Defender alerted me to the fact that in 2004 Justice Freeman participated in a renactment of the 1954 Brown vs Board of Ed desegregation trial. He played the judge from the historic trial, and the reenactment happened at CSU to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the court decision. Other than that I didn't find any links to Freeman at CSU, but that was a good one. One article in particular featured a good photo we could print out and use.

I finished itemizing the things I had put in the bigger glass cases as well, so that when it is time to put stuff away we remember where it goes (if it isn't me that's there it will be helpful to someone!). I checked the stuff against the finding aid that Kheir had given me. I might end up changing the cases of course, now that we have the 2 extra small ones to use, but that's fine. Just the exercise of itemizing and configuring has helped me familiarize myself with Freeman's history and the general timeline of things.

I also spent some time looking at 2 more books Kheir lent me that were helpful in getting me up to speed on archive exhibiting and label making and so forth. They are Exhibits in Archives and Special Collections Libraries and The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook. There was some helpful info in them, which prompted me to ask if when I make the labels I'm supposed to spray mount them.

Kheir responded, "It doesn't have to be fancy. It's not like University of Chicago."

"Yeah, sounds like they have all the resources there," I mused.

Kheir ruefully nodded. "Totally. They have the working robot arm in the library. Ours doesn't work. It's kind of a haves and have nots thing between us and them."

"I think of it more of a snobs verses slobs situation. Like in '80s movies." I observed.

"Yeah, you're not wrong."

Then we both went back to work.

I spent some time doing cross-reference searches in a few internet databases to see if there was a link between Justice Freeman and Gwendolyn Brooks, seeing as how Brooks had her ties to CSU (and the library is named after her). It would be nice if there was, because that would make a nice edition to the exhibit. After sleuthing around, I found that the link between the 2 of them is that they both played major roles at both of HW's inaugurations. Freeman swore Washington in for both and Brooks read poetry at both. If only I could find a photo that had the 3 of them together, but alas!

I also found a video on YouTube of Washington's inauguration. I think we're going to have that playing on a loop, and after downloading it we can edit it down to just the part with Freeman swearing in HW. It occurred to me just now that maybe when I go in next week I should look and see if there's any video of Brooks reading poetry at the inauguration, because Kheir suggested that we find out what poems Brooks read, and I do recall seeing the listing of the poems listed somewhere.

I also put old issues of the CSU newspaper in sequential order. There weren't many; there were clearly a lot of issues missing from the stack. There weren't any from 2003 or 2004, which would have been nice, because then there might have been stuff about Freeman and the court reenactment. Perhaps there are other copies elsewhere that just aren't in the school archive. Kheir said he would check around with his contacts at CSU to see if there was any documentation about that event in general (or maybe even some video). I'm glad I stumbled on the fact that Freeman did that event there. It will make the exhibition more relevent to the institution in which it is housed!

Also, an update: the Freeman event date has been moved. It is now on March 3rd.

From the "Of Note But Totally Unrelated" Dept:

I found this in an old issue of the Sun Times dated 12/5/71.

More Effective Than Ipecac!

Today's standards fulfilled as per the Society of American Archivists Curriculum:

Society of American Archivists Curriculum: A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 1. Knowledge of Archival Material and Functions, b) Appraisal for Selection and Acquisition, g. Management and Administration (p. 5)

A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 3. Contextual knowledge, a) Social and Cultural Context, d) Underserved & Underrepresented Communities (pp. 7-8)

B. COMPLEMENTARY KNOWLEDGE, B. Structure of the Learning Process (pp 8-9)