Building Archives, Celebrating Local History: The Lucy Simms Project

Posted October 25, 2016 in Educational Technology News, JMU Libraries News

Celebrate American Archives Month with JMU Special Collections as JMU professors Mollie Godfrey and Seán McCarthy present Building Archives, Celebrating Local History: The Lucy Simms Project on Thursday, October 27, 4-5pm.

Celebrating Simms: The Story of the Lucy F. Simms School, the recently opened exhibit at the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center in Harrisonburg, was born out of an effort to involve JMU students in recovering local African-American history.  The project, organized by Mollie Godfrey, Seán McCarthy, and Robin Lyttle of the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project, included outreach with community members and extensive archival research. It resulted in a permanent physical and online exhibition and booklet dedicated to the Simms School, the peerless educator – Lucy F. Simms – who gave the school its name, and African-American education in Rockingham County.

Join us for our Special Collections Speaker Series as Drs. Godfrey and McCarthy walk us through Celebrating Simms, from project origins to exhibit opening and beyond.

More about the Lucy Simms Project is at omeka.lib.jmu.edu/simms.

This event will be held on Thursday, October 27, 4-5pm, in the Special Collections Reading Room, on the 2nd floor of Carrier Library on JMU’s campus. Free on-campus parking is available in the Grace Street parking Deck, levels 2 to 7.

Refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public!