Special Collections & University Archives

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The ODU Special Collections & University Archives page will be more active on Instagram until further notice! Follow us here for more posts on ODU’s history, Norfolk history, and peeks into our collections! Hope to see you there!

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September marks the end of the beginning of ODU. The Old Academic Building (first photo) was Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary’s first building. It was a gift of the Norfolk School Board, originally Larchmont Elementary School, constructed in 1912.  “Old Dominion University’s” first 206 students attended classes here, and here only. Over the summer of 1975, the building was demolished, (2nd photo), What remains is a landscaped area and three sides of it’s surrounding brick wall, a park for Norfolk natives (bottom photo).

News June 27, 1975

-G. Magier

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Sunrise at ODU on August 17, 1974 brought a candidate for ODU’s biggest event ever, a concert by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. A crowd of 32,500 people gathered to witness the men who, after the Beatles had broken up, sung the songs of the Woodstock generation. Obviously there were enthusiastic ODU students in the crowd, but people also converged on Foreman Field from elsewhere. For scale: Ted Constant Center’s Capacity is 9,520 for concerts, and this crowd outnumbers our current campus population. 

The crowd was well-behaved. Tim Oesterling, head of security for the concert’s promoter, remarked: “I’ve seen more problems working ballets where tickets were $32 a head.”

Source: ODU Digital Collections, Unews September 6, 1974

-G. Magier

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Messy Collection Monday!

MG81, the Papers of the Virginia Symphony are undergoing reconstruction, and have been for at least 4 months! Here, Ladaja Kennedy (student worker) is going through the year 2001 (surrounded by the early 2000s): sorting, refiling, and cleaning up that year along with Archives Assistant Melissa Erlandson who is working on 2000. This living collection is constantly growing due to in part the wonderful working relationship ODU has with the Virginia Symphony. 

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It begins with the chords of a low e flat on double basses. Soon enough, the double basses join in. Eventually an entire orchestra is committed to emulating the flow of a river, nature, and time. A dwarf flirts with Rhinemaidens. They are unimpressed with him, but revere the Rheingold at the bottom of the river. The lowly dwarf soon turns the tables, renouncing his capacity for love, replacing it with a desire for power, and claiming the gold for himself. It will get stranger from there, including incest between twins, the language of the birds, the Rhinemaidens eventually witnessing the destruction of the gods and creation to return the gold to it’s place. But all of it, 15 hours of music and performance, are one of the apexes of western art, and perhaps more importantly, an emulation of human history at a point where philosophical authority was shifting from the religious to human epistemic.

The man who was behind it all was of course Richard Wagner, who had already performed this opera, protesting all the way, to the king who had funded it. But on August 13, 1876, he would perform it for the first time in it’s context, not as an individual opera, but as part one of a four part operatic cycle. Wagner had a demanding view of immersing his audience and stage performance. He insisted absolute darkness in his theatre aside from the events happening on stage (think a 19th century movie theatre), and insisted on unprecedented commitment to performance from his singers. Towards that end, the first performance was a disaster. Cosima Wagner could tell the tale far better than I:

“First performance of Rheingold, under a completely unlucky star. Betz loses the ring, runs into the wings twice during the curse, a stagehand raises the backdrop too soon during the first scene change and one sees people standing around in shirt sleeves and the back wall of the theatre, all the singers embarrassed, etc. etc.- Each of us returns home separately, R. at first very upset, but gradually regains his spirits, and the sudden visit of the Emperor of Brazil restores the mood of ebullience. We go to bed in good spirits.”

Peter Mark had his own inaugural performance of one of these “music dramas” in Virginia, in the 2002-2003 opera season (see above). And there have been many performances of Rheingold across history, from the initial unsuccessful one, nationalist-fueled Nazi performances, to the Met’s recent effort showcasing a 45 ton machine and employing computer technicians and engineers in addition to musical types. We expect a new Star Wars, a new Harry Potter, and a new Avengers movie soon. This state of affairs is largely owed to Wagner applying his fantastic, although not entirely successful, vision of gods and powers to the stage on August 13, 1876.

-Post by G. Magier

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“He confounded causes with effects more than excusable, the most distinguished propagandists with impulsive bomb throwers, assumed organization where in the nature of things it could not exist, spoke of the social revolutionary part one moment as of a perfectly disciplined army where the word of chiefs was supreme, and at another as if it had been the loosest association of desperate brigands that ever camped in the mountain gorge.”  

The Secret Agent is a tale of Joseph Conrad inspired by the Greenwich Observatory Bombing. It’s genesis was in a conversation with a friend, about what unreasoned principles might have motivated such an attack. The novel’s protagonist is a lazy agent provocateur. A government official uses economic duress to guilt him into bombing a building of science. The target is a cathedral of the educated middle class, to stir up emotion and counteraction at an upcoming diplomatic meeting. The explosion and the chaos is what the agent’s supervisor demands, actual loss of life being construed as incidental, and even avoidable. But, as the above passage states, much confusion and haze results from unwarranted destruction and social upheaval…

The novel’s influence has stretched to today. Terrorism remains a strong theme even in this year’s presidential election, perhaps as a symptom to be avoided, as well as a means of manipulating policy. “Madness alone is truly terrifying insofar as you cannot placate it with threats, persuasion or bribes.” It’s Joseph Conrad’s writing, but it could just as easily be a talking point on Fox News, paraphrased dialogue of a Villeneuve or Nolan movie. The Unabomber Ted Kaczynski adored The Secret Agent. With a genius-level intellect, he would become a centerpiece of domestic terrorism in the early 1990’s.

Conrad died on August 3, 1924. Crowds gathered, but not for the purpose of mourning him. A sporting event was taking place in the same town at the same time. It was only an elect few who gathered by his grave, to put him to rest, to watch his themes run on eternal.

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George Pickett was a member of the first families of Virginia, and obtained his appointment to West Point, traveling in the same social circles as President Lincoln. An ambivalent student at an institution that is very picky about class rank, he came in last place of all the students. The Civil War broke out. He would become a legend of military history regardless.

He was a subordinate of Lee, who had made careful assaults at the flanks of George Meade in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Now, Lee figured, it was time to strike at the center. Against a weak center, it might have shattered the army, but the Union was well positioned and resolute. The north barraged it’s opponents in artillery fire, and then engaged in some of the most bitter infantry combat of the war. George Pickett was there, in the rear, commanding twelve thousand comrades, half of whom would not survive the day. It was called the “high water mark” of the confederacy, the turning point of the war, and, although he was not in absolute command, and who is in absolute command when twelve thousand men are involved? “Pickett’s Charge.”

Vanquished in the end, and having ignobly executed a number of Union soldiers he discovered to be Confederate deserters, Pickett fled to Montreal. Sentiment endorsed his pardon.  He returned to Virginia before dying at St. Johns De Paul Hospital, Norfolk, on July 30, 1875.

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William Miller was born on July 20, 1909. In his family, he had been small, earning himself the nickname “Fishbait.” The nickname was colloquial to the quiet gulf coast he grew up in, and he might not have had his brush with history, but for his constant verbal sparring with a local lawyer, who thought him worthy of a college education. He obtained a job as a clerk for the House of Representatives in 1933. There he remained for over 42 years, but he was more than just the person that announced the president during the State of Union and commanded the door. The little gulf coast boy had grown into a man in command of three hundred and fifty seven employees, and an annual budget of 3.5 million taxpayer dollars.

In William Whitehurst’s Congressional Diaries, Fishbait appears early, and is a constant source of humor, often overstepping his boundaries of power in one of the highest American settings of office politics, owed to those he served being elected visitors in his fourty year “home.” But he also was a person of astute social power, who sanded his fingertips so he could discern which metal discs would get his democratic representatives good offices in a drawing, who wrote handwritten letters to each representative to preserve his job.

One of the first people he served was President Truman: “I’m the man who got in trouble by saying ‘Howdy ma’am’ when I was introduced to the Queen of England,” he said, of then Princess Elizabeth II.

Harry Truman had previously warned the princess that Miller was “a character.”

Truman’s opinion of the ordeal? “Well, Fishbait, I warned them, and you sure didn’t let me down.”

 -Post by G. Magier

MG 86: G. William Whitehurst Congressional Papers, 1968-2016

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All of the thoughts of our cool University Archivist, Steve Bookman, are focusing on the heat! Here's a Throwback Thursday focusing on the ODU of summers past.

-Photos by S. Bookman, Caption G. Magier

-Source http://dc.lib.odu.edu/

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You may have noticed people wandering around in groups, staring into cell phones this past weekend. The reason behind this is that Pokemon Go was released on the App store last week, and it has proven an explosive hit. An augmented reality app, it superimposes digital creatures over the Iphone’s camera, creating a Roger Rabbit-like visitor upon photographic reality, which can then be caught by the user in the tradition of the Pokemon children’s entertainment franchise. The significance of this is charming to some (millennials catching creatures between job interviews), annoying to others (friends complaining of hyper-reality cognitive distortion, parents moaning about data use). But the ALA has tacitly endorsed Pokemon Go, as seen at http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2016/07/pokemon-go-library-perfect-partnership/.

Pokemon has been around (see the first photo). This app celebrates Pokemon’s 20th anniversary, and there is a generation of Americans who grew up venerating the franchise. Pokemon has been influential in pop culture almost since the moment of inception: it collected 57 billion dollars of revenue, and the amount of Pokemon cards printed outnumbers the people on the planet that could potentially enjoy them. The influence is deeper than corporate sponsorship, however. Traveling and exploring on limited means while demanding sophisticated access to data might be the modus operandi of Pokemon’s protagonists, but it also might be the mindset of the generation that watched Pokemon and expected the same of their reality.

I gave the app a shot, (on the tail end of my lunch break, supervisors and recruiters, note the time) and ODU Special Collections’ native Pokemon is the Spearow. It is a sharp-eyed bird with a shrill call that can be heard half a mile away. What Archive wouldn’t want one?

-Post by G. Magier

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What We Did On Our Summer Vacation:

Two professionals of ODU Special Collections could be found in Orlando for ALA's Annual Conference which took place between the 23rd and 28th of June, 2016. Jessica Ritchie did us proud by being the first speaker for Serving Up the Subversive, a conversation about archivists, curators, librarians, and educators working with controversial materials. As fate would have it, she spoke about the controversy and digitization of LGBTQ papers at ODU libraries.

Greg Magier, your author in this instance, did not speak at the conference, but he did appreciate the opportunity to be in Orlando at a sensitive time in history. He visited the site of Pulse, which is now transformed into a tranquil, quiet spot where people cry, reflect, and hug. The scene of the crime has been fenced off, and the demeanor of the site has shifted to serenity. Not far from there, a small crowd gathered and laid flowers at Orlando Health, the hospital that attended to the injured.

We are happy to report Orlando remains an active city capable of supporting intellectual activity on a vast scale.

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ATTN: POTTERHEADS!

The ODU Special Collections has a little display to celebrate the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which will be released July 31st! 

With the help of SCUA staff, we’ve assembled various bits and bobbs in anticipatory excitement for this release, including books from the library stacks. 

Come see what we’ve borrowed to share with you in the Learning Commons!

Saturday, July 30, our University Bookstore will hold a presale party from 11:00pm - 1:00 am

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Sunday, 12 June 2016:

Dear Old Dominion Community:

Today we learned of the worst mass shooting in our nation’s history. I know the Monarch community joins us in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. The Old Dominion University Monarch Nation stands strong in support with the LGBTQ community and denounces this horrific crime of hate.

It is during these times that it is important to have an opportunity to come together as a community. We will hold a candlelight vigil on the steps of Webb University Center at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 13 to remember the victims and stand together as 1ODU.

Sincerely,

John R. Broderick

President

Ellen J. Neufeldt

Vice President of Student Engagement & Enrollment Services

Yesterday evening, ODU held a candle light vigil for those lost and still healing in Orlando. 

Speaking at the vigil was Ellen Neufeldt (Vice President for Student Engagement and Enrollment Services), Joe Ritchie (First Year Academic Success, Safe Space Trainer), Grey Anderson (student), Connor Norton (Alumnus), Muhammad Rahman (Muslim Students Association), M'hammed Abdous (Muslim Community of Tidewater), among others.

We are all brothers and sisters regardless of color, creed, or gender. We are with you. 

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“Epidemics serve as blast furnaces that burn away the dross of custom and reveal what is most fundamental to a particular society” –Burden Lundgren

In June 7, 1855, Steamer Ben Franklin arrived at Norfolk under duress. Her hold carried Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that was ravaging the Virgin Islands with a Yellow Fever epidemic. The Ship was allowed to dock near Page and Allen’s Shipyard near Gosport Navy Yard, on the condition that her hold was to remain secure. The captain betrayed this condition.  Over the summer and the autumn, Yellow Fever rampaged across the Hampton Roads area, killing three thousand people, including Norfolk’s then-mayor Hunter Woodis.

Pandemics are incidents of history in which rulebooks of social decorum are thrown out, with an emphasis placed on individual survival. Having read both The Decameron and The Summer of the Pestilence, the Black Death and the Yellow Fever possess similar behaviors from their victimized populations. Self-quarantine of citizens, flights of populations resulting in empty streets, a fight-or-flight reaction from physicians and caregivers are all included.

  Boccaccio, Introduction to the Decameron, on the Black Death: “For not only did many people die without women surrounding them, most passed away from this life without anyone there to witness it at all…”

George D. Armstrong, on the Yellow Fever: “The family that kept the boarding house, becoming terrified, after a day or two went off, leaving him sick in one of the upper rooms of the house, with no one to attend him, not even to give him a glass of water…”

  Exploring Yellow Fever, I am indebted to Burden Lundgren and her dissertation The Great Pestilence: Yellow Fever in Portsmouth, Virginia. As modern researchers, both of us are doubtless indebted to George D. Armstrong, author of the pages above from The Summer of the Pestilence, pastor in Norfolk who created a contemporary account of Yellow Fever in Norfolk. In spite of losing several family members to the fever, eventually coming down with it himself and surviving, and having no knowledge of the causes of the condition, he developed a sterling phenomenological account of what it was like to not just live in Norfolk at the time, but to selflessly preserve social bonds and care for the otherwise abandoned.

Be safe this summer, as the mosquito Aedes has developed a new trick: the Zika virus.

-Post by G. Magier

The Summer of Pestilence: A History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Virginia, A.D. 1855 by George Armstrong call # F234.N8.A8 

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Richard Le Gaillienne knew both the value of books and the compression of scarcity. He lived near Menton, at the border of France and Italy. World War II came, and he had been waylaid in Monaco. Not a bad place to be falsely imprisoned, but the propaganda of the war powers was in full swing, and Gaillienne, despite being gifted with the power of language, refused to write propaganda for the Italian and German armies. No other employment opportunities came. He collapsed on the street in hunger. Two years after the war ended, so did his life. He left behind himself almost a half-century of poetry, translations of foreign works, and a daughter.

His child was spared Monaco. The daughter’s name was Eva la Gaillienne. At the start of her life, London was her home, but soon she set sail for New York. Taking an interest in the performing arts, she rejected Bette Davis as frivolous (Bette Davis would remain an antagonist, but one of Hollywood’s favorite ones). She found Basil Rathbone charming enough to consider arranging a sham marriage with him, to conceal her lesbianism. Rathbone would go on to become a handsome Sherlock Holmes with a magnifying glass and a deerstalker cap, the one you think of before the eccentric, ugly, yet reasonable and brilliant detective that Arthur Conan Doyle actually wrote. Eva herself was an actress, as well as a stage producer.  Under her stage craft, Peter Pan actually flew over his audience for the first time, assisted by an invisible wire. She passed away June 3, 1991.

ODU Special Collections and Archives is in possession of one of Richard Le Gallienne’s legacies. It is a very old copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, accomplished early in his life. It is a translation of a Persian work written in a millennia ago.

Call #  PK6516 .L5 1897  

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May is Jewish American Heritage Month and on this the last day we would like honor a couple of the locals who have made Norfolk wonderful. 

Moses Myers moved to Norfolk after marrying his wife, Eliza Judah Chapman in the Spring of 1787. Myers was a prominent financial player in the import/export business and held many positions within the community. 

Benjamin A. Banks was a local politician who relocated from Baltimore, Maryland to Norfolk after the death of his father. He worked hard to also increase understanding and cooperation between the local Jewish and Christian communities. Mr. Banks died in 1974.

Edythe C. Harrison is an opera aficionado who has served in the Virginia House of Delegates and on many local boards including ODU’s President’s Advisory Council and is a founding member of the Virginia Opera Association. Mrs. Harrison also served on the National Conference of Soviet Jewry and the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

In our Special Collections, we have the records of Mrs. Edythe C Harrison (MG 60) and Mr. Benjamin A. Banks (MG 6), as well as this tome by Irwin M. Berent, Norfolk, Virginia: A Jewish History of the 20th Century (call # F234.N8 B473 2001

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On more than one occasion, George Washington passed through our very own Norfolk. We can trace when he was here by his meticulously kept ledgers. 

His first passing though our neck of the woods is recorded as late 1751.

This visit was 25 May 1763, where he recorded that he paid one shilling for a ferry to cross from Hampton into Norfolk. He was here this weekend, the 28-29 (253 years ago!), and local tradition says because he was here on a “Sunday, he attended Sunday Morning Prayer at the Borough Church, now St. Paul’s Episcopal. There is no contemporary evidence to support this tradition, however.” (see below)

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Information source: Tucker, George H. Norfolk Highlights: 1584-1881. Portsmouth: Printcraft Press, Inc., 1974.