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Category: Special Collections News

Nancy Bondurant Jones: Shenandoah Legend

Posted December 18, 2017

On Wednesday, December 13th, the Shenandoah Valley lost a beloved member of the community. Nancy Bondurant Jones was a well-known author throughout the Valley, and she leaves a unique mark on all that either read her work or had the […]

A horse with no name

Posted December 12, 2017

America’s folk rock hit “A Horse with No Name” became the background music as I made my way through processing a newly acquired archive of Henkel Family papers. Rarely would I apply a music soundtrack to archival arrangement, but in […]

REMIX | Spirits in the Archives

Posted September 6, 2017

American Archives Month is right around the corner in October! This year, various Archives and Special Collections throughout Virginia are teaming up to give YOU a chance to showcase your talents, while celebrating the importance of archival material. You could even win a $100 gift card! […]

The Carol Barton Pop-Up Book Collection

Posted August 31, 2017

by Fiona Wirth Have you ever had an interest in paper engineering? The Carol Barton Pop-Up Collection found in Special Collections has over 700 examples of movable books. Jen LeMay and Fiona Wirth, two student assistants, spent several weeks this […]

Pop-Ups: A New Way to Study Art History

Posted August 31, 2017

Written by Fiona Wirth This past summer, I began working in Carrier Library for Special Collections and Preservation. Over the summer my fellow student workers and I have worked on many projects such as the Blackley Collection, both archiving and […]

A Look Back – Interview with Preservation Assistant Madison Whitesell

Posted August 24, 2017

Madison Whitesell is a recent JMU graduate with degrees in art history and studio art. She began working in Preservation as a sophomore in 2015 and spent this summer working as a wage employee. This is her JMU Libraries story. […]

The Blackley Brownie in Focus

Posted August 21, 2017

Written by Preservation Assistant Madison Whitesell. Brownie cameras gave birth to amateur photography in the early 20th century. This one from the Blackley Collection is a No. 2 Folding Autographic Brownie dating from 1917-1926 and it’s in especially great shape. […]

Preservation Puzzles: Creating Custom Housing

Posted August 16, 2017

Written by: Preservation Assistant Madison Whitesell. Three dimensional objects in the Blackley Collection were processed in Preservation for long term storage this Summer. Among these objects are: an early Brownie camera, a hand-colored milk glass plate photograph, a ruby glass […]

In short, we consider him diseased from head to foot

Posted August 10, 2017

While the summer is generally less hectic on campus due to fewer students, less traffic, etc., here in Special Collections we have been busy, busy, busy growing our collections in materials related to local history. A new acquisition we are […]

Processing Update – Davis, Kline, and Hutton Family Papers

Posted June 19, 2017

We’re happy to announce that one of our most recent (and significant) acquisitions is currently undergoing processing. In early April 2017, we acquired several boxes of manuscript material including photographs, correspondence, ledgers, and scrapbooks from the estate of Mary Hutton […]