Dispatches From the Archive

Because sharing might cure your archive fever Submit! Questions? Suggestions?

[archivestories]

For the past year and a half, I have been working with an amazing group of public historians, museum professionals, and activists on a project now titled States of Incarceration, organized and facilitated by the Humanities Action Lab. During the Fall semester 2015, a colleague, Robin Kirk (Co-Director of the Duke Human Rights Center) taught a course geared towards bringing undergraduate students together to produce a section of larger exhibit on over incarceration and the carceral state. Our group decided to focus on capital punishment in NC as a way to think about the many types of death (physical, social) that people face in the modern carceral state. For the exhibit, students researched images with the intention of illustrating some of key moments in the history of capital punishment in North Carolina. Much to our surprise, we learned that the North Carolina State Archives has recently closed the capital punishment files, restricting access to documents that had previously been open for decades. 

Pictured here is the headline for an op-ed piece that Robin wrote about her experience trying to negotiate the release of the picture below is of a young man named Allan Foster, the first person in NC to die by lethal gas, in 1936. It is also the picture the NC State Archive has told us is now classified, even though it is widely available in both print and on the internet. 

Read Robin’s op-ed on the situation, which she likens to George Orwell’s 1984, at the New & Observer, or see the text pasted below. 

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In Orwellian move, NC State Archives blocks access to death penalty photo

By Robin Kirk 

In George Orwell’s novel “1984,” the luckless Winston Smith labors in a Ministry of Truth office where he “re-creates” the past by removing or changing historical documents to reflect Big Brother’s political demands.

Winston doesn’t know whether he’s changing a fact or a fallacy another worker has already introduced. He erases some people entirely after the Party executes them.

I couldn’t help but think of Smith’s grim legacy recently. Last month, I requested from the North Carolina State Archives a photograph of the first inmate executed by lethal gas. I’d first seen Allen Foster’s mug shot in a 2004 edition of the state’s authorized history journal and wanted a high-resolution copy.

But the Archives – the state agency in charge of safeguarding the primary sources of our history – refused my request.

I dug deeper. I discovered that the Archives is blocking access to all historical material related to executions. This is especially important at a time when we as a state and a nation are engaged in a vital discussion about the death penalty. By blocking access to information, the state is harming education, stifling debate and undermining free speech.

The photo I sought is 80 years old. Three conjoined panels depict 20-year-old Foster in custody in 1936. Foster allegedly robbed and raped a Hoke County woman in 1935. At the time, rape was a capital crime. Foster’s mother unsuccessfully pleaded with Gov. J.C.B. Ehringhaus to spare his life. On Jan. 24, 1936, the state executed Foster, an African-American, the first in the state to die by lethal gas.

At the time, officials considered gas more humane than hanging. Yet Foster died horribly. The January cold prevented the gas from working properly. As sociologist Trina Seitz described in the North Carolina Historical Review, Foster gasped for three minutes before losing consciousness. Then “he convulsed wildly.” In all, it took him 11 minutes to die.

Request denied

In her article, Seitz reproduced the photo I wanted, which she legally obtained from the archives more than a decade ago.

I requested the photo as part of work I was doing on a national exhibit on mass incarceration, coordinated by the Humanities Action Lab at New York’s New School. Along with 20 other universities, 16 Duke students, a colleague and I were preparing our contribution, a history of the death penalty in North Carolina. The students read Seitz’s article as well as a UNC-sponsored site that reproduces the photo from the NCHR.

Imagine my surprise when the state archivist replied that current interpretation of law prevented access. I reached out to other researchers and learned that the state archivist is denying access to all historical death penalty records.

Among the statutes she cites are GS 148-74 and GS 148-76, in part meant to protect prisoner privacy, a worthy goal for living inmates and their families. Specifically, GS 148-74 requires the state to “minimize duplication and maximize effective use of ... records and materials.” My students’ project achieves both goals. It’s an overreach to apply this to a case eight decades in the past.

GS 148-76 is meant to empower the Department of Public Safety to keep records that enhance the public’s safety, irrelevant in the case of a man executed before World War II.

Worthy of Orwell

Claims of confidentiality are equally spurious. Foster’s mug shot was public at the time of his execution as is the mug shot of every inmate in prison today. Just go the offender lookup page on the prison system’s website, or peruse The Slammer at a gas station.

But it’s not just one photo or a certain category of records. Suppressing historical documents on the death penalty is part of a wider effort by our current legislature to restrict or deny public access to information, an effort worthy of Big Brother. One new law shields the identity of companies that sell death penalty drugs to North Carolina. Another, which took effect Jan. 1, aims to silence whistle-blowers. Anyone who secretly gathers information in order to uncover and correct abuses can be sued by business owners for bad publicity and be required to pay a fine.

Newspapers like this one have and will continue to insist that the state release records that we as citizens have a right to. But why should we as citizens be content with a system that forces us to fight for every paper – or photo?

Foster’s execution and his photograph are our history. To deny access is tantamount to sending the past down the memory hole for destruction. And the only point of that is to suppress what should be robust and informed debate.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article58894128.html#storylink=cpy

[archivestories]

Submission from Prof. Anne-Maria Makhulu, making important connections between documents in the University of Witwatersrand’s archives and contemporary social movements #BlackLivesMatter and #FeesMustFall. 

As some of you know, I’ve been working in the archive at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg specifically, in a depository called Wits Historical Papers. Thank you to Kelly Gillespie for taking me there; it’s a wonderful place. In any event, for a few weeks now, I’ve been sifting through a collection of papers which the head archivist and I both agree looks like a CIA front operation. USAID is the funding agency and the project is something called the “Transition to Democracy Project,” which was inaugurated on September 26, 1991, following Nelson Mandela’s release, with approximately $8 million in funds. The monies went to a variety of “sub-grantees.” Prominent among these were the ANC and the IFP!@? Mortal enemies at the time, but OK. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the way that USAID stipulates that funding eligibility, above all, is understood as the refusal to turn to violence. And yet, as one can see from the marginalia no one can sort out what violence or non-violence might be. Hence the qualification “rallies?” Apparently we’re still having difficulty sorting out what violence or non-violence consists in! From #BlackLivesMatter to #FeesMustFall this seems to be the conversation.

[archivestories]

A special guest post from the very awesome Anthropologist Anne-Maria Makhulu, currently doing work in South Africa. 

Sometimes, the archive delivers gems. This from today at Wits Historical Papers: 

Wits Historical Papers represent one of several archives at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. They are, however, understood to be one of the richest depositories in South Africa. This is what I found January 22, 2016.

Open Letter in response to Mr. F.W. De Klerk’s Invitation to the PAC to attend the Multi-Party Conference on Violence in 1991 from Advocate Dikgang Moseneke.

“By its very existence and nature, the whole social formation of racist South Africa pre-supposes violence. The existence of a government which took our land by violent means and which maintains itself by the force of arms as opposed to the will of the people, contextualizes the whole framework of the society within which the current violence is taking place. The question of the CCB (Civil Cooperation Bureau), Askaris and other death squads employed by the State would never arise under a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Absence of genuine democracy per se engenders violence.”

[archivestories]

from the family archive

One of the best parts of #historianlife is the professional imperative to snoop through people’s things. This is especially satisfying, in my experience, when the things belong to my family. You know how it is so difficult to imagine your parents’ lives before you existed, to think about them as separate beings who did not know each other, who lived in a time before you even existed? I often find myself wishing that a movie existed of my parent’s lives in the decades before my existence. I could sit down and watch as a narrator explained to me their hopes and dreams, the difficulties they faced in their daily lives, the joys they felt and the jokes they made. 

Right now what I have is these photos and our conversations to help my piece together their pasts. Pictured here are my dad’s Indian passport for his initial trip to the United States to study at the University of Minnesota, dated 1969-1970 (you can listen to interview with him about his journey at the South Asian Digital Archive), and photo of my mom when she was a nun in the 1960s, which was pasted into her convent diary. 

Once I found the passport, I handed it to my dad - looking at the picture together, I commented “I look just like you,” and he replied “yes, yes you do.” The visa for Europe in the passport included most countries, including Turkey and the USSR, but NOT Portugal (which we quickly deduced was because of the conflict over control in Goa). Also in the passport was a page of personal information, penned by a government bureaucrat with precise handwriting. Under occupation, it says “employee in a firm.” 

While my dad was in India being employed in a firm, my mom was a Catholic nun: she joined right after high school, entering on September 8, 1963. In the first few months, she began making her own clothes, spent long hours learning to chant, attending masses, and playing volleyball in a habit. During her first year, JFK was shot. The funeral and national day of mourning was on her 19th birthday. She wrote that it was sad, and that the other sisters made her a fudge cake. Her final thought for the day: “I’m 19 now - so old.” 

[aotus]

What’s in Your Attic?

Recently I came across a story about an archives in a box of Corn Flakes. A woman in Tennessee had stored some 400 letters written by former German prisoners-of-war who had lived in camp near the state’s southern border. After the war was over, many of the POWs wrote to the people in the community, often addressing the Americans as family, such as “aunt” or “uncle,” asking for help, and sharing the stories of their lives.

The family donated the letters to Lipscomb University in Nashville, and through a small re-grant from the Tennessee Historical Records Advisory Board made possible through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), they are being transcribed, translated, and made available in digital form online. See the ABC News story here.

I am constantly surprised at what turns up from work supported by the National Archives through the NHPRC. Not just the small gems that turn up through the state boards, but large-scale projects as well—from the creation of municipal archives in cities like Boston, Seattle, and San Antonio to the publication of the papers of 16 U.S. Presidents on microfilm, print, and online editions. And it has enabled the National Archives to fund professional development for archives and historical editors and in research and development in electronic records management, Encoded Archival Description, and much more.

In turn, this investment helps historians write new histories—including several Pulitzer Prize books; teachers introduce primary source materials in the classroom; and family historians and local historical societies discover lost treasures.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Photo courtesy of Kristi Jones/Lipscomb University and ABC news 

[iowawomensarchives]

Check out this ad booklet from the 1950s. Here, the “Know-How” family explores the versatility of Arm & Hammer baking soda and its predecessor, Cow Brand.

Stay tuned for more vintage advertisements and guides in the coming weeks.

–Laurel 

This booklet was donated to the Iowa Women’s Archives by Sylvia Schneider in 1999 as part of the Rural Women’s Project.

[bitch-media]

A new series of prints by artist Roger Peet aim to address a tricky topic: cultural appropriation. In his series In//Appropriate, which debuted at Portland State University’s Littman Gallery this month, Peet printed images of white Americans engaging in cultural appropriation in black ink on tall banners. Frozen in time, Miley Cyrus joyfully twerks with her tongue in its signature position, a hipster wears a keffiyeh, and Katy Perry smiles in her American Music Awards geisha costume. Behind them, another vision of whiteness—a violent one—is printed in red: Miley is starkly framed against a scene of police in Ferguson, a bohemian white girl in a feathered headdress is juxtaposed with an iconic photo of a mountain of buffalo skulls.

To accompany the images, Peet constructed special glasses made from cardboard and red plastic. These are “whiteness goggles,” a sign explains. When you put them on and look at the images, suddenly the red, violent image disappears. Viewers are left with just the visions of Miley, Katy Perry, and Elvis with none of the violence behind them. The viewers are forced to consider the blinders that race creates: one of the privileges of being white is the ability to ignore racism. All too often, the reality of the white supremacy is rendered invisible to people who don’t want to see it.

“When you put on the Whiteness Goggles, the colonial, military and police violence that underpins casual cultural consumption disappears,” explains Peet, in his artist statement of the project. Peet himself is a white immigrant to the US from Britain—he works as a politically minded printmaker with the Justseeds Collective. In addition to well-known celebrities engaged in cultural appropriation, the In//Appropriate show includes an image of Peet, foregrounded holding an American flag against a backdrop of the war in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Including himself in the show was important, Peet says, to show that as a white person coming from England, he faced few hurdles in immigrating to the United States. “I was welcomed with open arms,” he says—a contrast to the racial stereotyping many people of color face when they immigrate the US.

Read more about the show—and listen to voicemails from people calling in to discuss cultural appropriation—on Peet’s Tumblr.

[thegetty]

Barbara Kruger and 400 Los Angeles high school students came together to create an installation at the Getty Museum. They are asking some tough questions. How did this project come to life?

“I remember we this conversation with Barbara Kruger when she came to our individual classrooms…she said, I want you guys to throw out some things. What do you value most? Freedom? But what does that mean?”

Hear more about the collaboration and see the work here.

[wilsonlibunc]

Blueberries, and melons, and pears oh my!…recipes from the collection

It’s summer in the south and that means fresh fruit!  So run to your local farmers market or grocer, grab your favorite fruit, and try out a new to you recipe.

Fruit Cocktail poem from Kitchen kapers.

Cantaloupe Pond Lilies from Heavenly delights.

Watermelon Ice from Pass the plate : the collection from Christ Church.

Blueberry-Pineapple Float from Cooking with berries.

Broiled Grapefruit from Given to hospitality : a cook book.

For more fruit recipes check out our North Carolina Miscellany blog.

[hclib]

Land of 10,000 Cookbooks

Hennepin County Library is home to over 10,000 Cookbooks. The Minneapolis Central Library is home to most of them, and we have one of the largest and in-depth collections in the country. We are a research collection so we keep much more than one would find in many libraries: cookbooks from the early 20th century, self-published fundraiser cookbooks from local churches, books on preserving and storing food, books about nutrition and the human diet through the years, and cookbooks featuring cuisine from around the world.  

Are you interested in Slow Cooking or 5-minute dinners?

Would you rather forge or hunt locally for your food, or try the cuisine of Bolivia, New Zealand, or Finland?

Have you miscalculated and planted far too many Romas and Big Boys, leaving you with a mountain of tomatoes?

Have you been tasked with creating a meal for your whole family – including the cousin who follows a Vegan diet, the picky five-year-old, the aunt with diabetes, the brother who is into Paleo, the sister who is gluten-free, and the uncle who just wants his meat and potatoes thank-you-very-much?  

Before you throw a pot-luck and offer to bring a big bag of potato chips, take a look at the Hennepin County Library Cookbook collection. From soup to nuts, we’ve got it covered.

This is the first post in an intermittent series by Business, Science, and Gov Docs librarian Michele, featuring our extensive Cookbook collection. Keep an eye out for more “Land of 10,000 Cookbooks” posts for a bit of cooking inspiration!

[thegetty]

What is sunrise like at the Getty?

“The fog was so thick we couldn’t see the sunrise when it came at 5:47am PT. There was no gong, no fanfare. Many of us were oblivious, engrossed in conversations with old friends or new acquaintances, awkwardly touching each other as per Ono’s instructions, or contemplating the obscured landscape. I looked at my companions, asking them “Was that it? Did we miss it?” That was it, but we hadn’t missed it at all.”

Piece by hyperallergic‘s Matt Stromberg. Read in full here.

[todaysdocument]

How do we volunteer to transcribe documents? Thank you

Becoming a Citizen Archivist is easy!

Create a username and password in the National Archives Catalog.

Login from any transcription page or on the login page.

Start a Transcription Mission, check out More Records, create your own mission by doing a keyword search for your favorite topics. (Or maybe you had a favorite record from one of our past posts?)

Select the “View/Add Contributions” button located below all images in the catalog.

Select the “Transcribe” tab for the page of the record you would like to transcribe.

Select the “Edit” button and remember to save your work frequently.

Check out this example transcription page and Citizen Contribution Policy for more information.

[public-historian-in-rochester-d]

Calling all want to be archivists- simmonsslis

[radicalarchive]

‘Forward!’, Worldwide Federation of Ethiopian Students, Madison, Wisconsin, 1977.

[ourpresidents]

The Man Who Invented the Zip Code

In 1961, the volume of magazine and circular mail bundles in the United States averaged 43 million pieces per week, with a total of about 30 billion pieces annually. The U.S. Post Office was still dealing with the loss of many trained employees from World War II and did not have the necessary resources to increase the specialized training required to handle this amount of mail. With mass mail marketing campaigns and magazine circulation on the rise, the U.S. Post Office was searching for ways to manage the exponentially increasing load more effectively.

After spending six years evaluating the operations of the field postal service, Henry Bentley Hahn, Sr. submitted a report entitled, “Proposed Reorganization of the Field Postal Service” as a solution to the developing mail problem. This proposal would later become the, “Zone Improvement Plan,” establishing the ZIP Code and the two-letter state abbreviations. 

The Zone Improvement Plan was announced to the public on November 28, 1962 and implemented on July 1, 1963.

Shortly afterward, reports of success started to come in from the regional postmasters, with minor issues to be addressed. Despite these issues, the ZIP Code was considered by the U.S. Post Office to be a huge success. Some counties saved as much as $10,000 per year, speeding up delivery by up to 48 hours in some locations and easing the process of sorting without a reduction in staff or closing local post offices.  Read More

Newly Digitized from the JFK Library - the J. Bentley Hahn Personal 

[todaysdocument]

The story behind the Zip Code, first introduced by the U.S. Postal Service on July 1, 1963:

[imkealiikuaaina]

honor the request

[radicalarchive]

Election poster of the Spartacist League, San Francisco, [1980’s]. Photograph shows a member of the Spartacist League tearing down a Confederate flag.

[chicagohistorymuseum-deactivate]

A drag queen performs at the Gay Pride Parade, Chicago, c. 1971. Photograph by Declan Haun.

Explore the history of LGBT Chicago. Learn about the local gay and lesbian rights movements.

Purchase a copy E-mail [email protected] and give them this number: ICHi-50714

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