Gelman Library: David S. Brown Memorabilia Room
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Since May 1998, the George Washington University has had a small museum located just off the entrance to Gelman Library, known as the David S. Brown Memorabilia Room. (Brown was a professor at GW and his widow, an ardent supporter of the library, made a naming donation to the university in his honor in 2003.) The room showcases the University’s history and is an expression of its spirit. It connects to and identifies several of the University’s collecting resources, including the Dimock Gallery/GW Permanent Collection of fine and decorative arts and The Gelman Library’s Department of Special Collections and University Archives. Displayed are visual testimonials to GW’s history that educate those who are new to the institution and serve as a an institutional memory of many milestones achieved.
Special appreciation is given to Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, President of The George Washington University, for his inspiration and support of this historical center. Co-Curators for the museum are G. David Anderson, University Archivist and Historian, and Lenore D. Miller, Director, University Art Galleries. It houses a number of interesting artifacts chronicling the history of GW going back to 1821. The fact that George Washington University is one of the oldest universities in this country is not realized by half the students registered here, who know little of the old traditions.
The idea of such a museum is not a new thing, as evidenced in a Hatchet editorial from 1916, shown below. As Harry Truman was fond of saying: “The only thing new under the sun is the history you don’t know.”
A room should be set aside in the University where all the relics of the University could be kept and so arranged that the student body would be free to visit it. Such a room should contain issues of the University publications from the time of their installation to the present day issues. The old societies of the University such as the Enosinian Society and others, should file their historic documents in such a room where they could be appreciated by all the students. Relics of past customs would thus be in safe keeping.
In former years it was the custom to hold a "Pipe Oration" at the Commencement exercises, and to be the "Pipe Orator" was the highest honor conferred upon any graduate. This custom got its name from the fact that the orator held a long stem pipe, on the style of the Dutch pipe seen in those quaint pictures of Holland, while delivering his oration. After the oration was finished the pipe was handed down to the undergraduates who were to keep up the tradition. The pipe has since been lost.
Why not start a museum now so our future relics and traditions will be preserved? We can make a search and maybe some of those memorials might be found. With athletics restored, we will want a place to keep our trophies, “our winning bat,” “the baseball that won the game,” and “the football that won us the title.”
Our doctrines, rites, practices, and customs from ancestry to posterity should be preserved. We should be able to answer in the affirmative Shakespeare’s question – “Shall we go see the relics of this place?”
Document Information
Images: 0
Photographic Credit: n/a
Author or Source: Hatchet, April 7, 1916
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist; G. David Anderson, University Archivist and Historian
For more information about GW history
Contact:
Special Collections Research Center [1]
The Melvin Gelman Library [2]
The George Washington University [3]
2130 H Street, NW Suite 704
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-7549
mailto:archives@gwu.edu
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