University Archives: What Does the University Archives Do ?
From GWUEncyc
Article
What Does the University Archives Do?
by Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
Some of you have had dealings with the University Archives, the unit of Special Collections that resides on the 7th floor of Gelman Library. But you probably wonder, what do those folks do, what is their charge and who do they service? We thought it might be a good idea to introduce ourselves to the rest of the GW community, and in the future offer periodic updates on our work.
The University Archives has its origins as part of the Special Collections Department, which was formed as a separate unit of the library in 1969. In 1978, the Head of Special Collections drafted a plan for establishing a comprehensive archival repository for the university, since most of the records at that time were scattered throughout various offices on campus and were not being transferred in a systematic fashion to Special Collections. Simply put, people were directing questions to the university library concerning the history of George Washington University that could not be answered, because the records necessary to answer them were not physically here. In 1986 the newly appointed University Archivist wrote another report outlining the need for a better organized and comprehensive archives for the university, and in 1987 the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) awarded a grant to the university to develop an archives and records management program. Continuing this work, the university archives is charged with acting as the official repository of university records (including the Medical and Law Schools), and serves 700-800 users per year. As the keeper of GW's history, we collect and preserve handwritten, typed, and printed documents, publications, photographs and negatives, yearbooks, student newspapers, oral histories, posters, blueprints, films and videotapes, artifacts and museum pieces.
Our typical users are GW students and staff, but we also have researchers come to us from all over the country and foreign lands. A typical day might look like this: A professor from the psychology department calls and asks if we have a paper written by a faculty member in the 1940's; a staff member from Alumni House comes in looking for information on Distinguished Alumni Award winners; a reporter from the Hatchet wants some information on Crawford and Mitchell Halls; we setup the Kiev Room for an interview taking place there for the TV show 60 Minutes; we provide the Law School with photos and documents they reproduce for a permanent exhibit on their history in Stockton Hall; we help the Graphics Department with research they are doing on the University Seal. In between that, we assist people who have various questions and contact us by phone, letter, and e-mail, answering 25-40 questions a month. And in our spare time we receive new collections and process them, add then to our electronic database, update or website (www.gwu.edu/gelman/archives), attend meetings, supervise student assistants, etc.
To give you an idea of the type of questions we get from people outside GW, here are some actual requests we have received:
• A Japanese company is doing a film on former GW student and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (LL.B 1916) and wants to know if they can film photos we have of him.
• A person calls saying his grandfather graduated from GW 1929 and asks for any information we may have about him.
• The Discovery Channel asks for photos of physicist George Gamow, who theorized the "Big Bang" origin of the universe.
• A former student e-mails us saying she is applying to graduate school and needs a course description from a class she took in 1973.
• What were admission requirements during World War II for undergraduates?
• Who was the Dean of the Veterinary School in 1911? (Yes, GW once had a Veterinary School).
• When were the first women admitted to the university?
• A writer is doing a biography of Dr. Walter Freeman and uses the Freeman/Watts collection (published as The Lobotomist in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons).
• The History Channel needs photos of Corky Devlin, GW basketball player in the 1950s.
• Where was the medical school located in 1905 and when was the new hospital built?
• The Discovery Channel needs information on Dr. Walter Freeman for a documentary they are doing on the Kennedy family.
• A man in the Philippines wants a copy of a 1922 thesis copied and sent to him.
• A woman in Chicago is writing a book on women with Ph.D.'s in math and wants information on Florence Mears of GW, who taught here in the 1930's.
• The National Archives asks for a photo of Robert King Stone, GW professor and physician to President Lincoln.
• ESPN comes in to film material related to basketball legend Red Auerbach.
So that gives you an idea of our routine. And I forgot to mention we also oversee the Archives at GW's Mount Vernon Campus, which has records going back to the late nineteenth century. The University Archives at Gelman Library has over 1,000 collections, or some 4,700 linear feet of materials. Some interesting things include an old notebook kept by a student in the 1820's, a photo of the graduating class of 1859, student newspapers from the 1890s, yearbooks going back to 1891, old football programs and footballs (GW won the Sun Bowl in 1957), athletic uniforms, caps and gowns, an aerial photo of Foggy Bottom in 1931, medical equipment, and papers of GW Presidents and the Board of Trustees. In the past few months we have assisted a writer working on a biography of Dr. Walter Freeman, a pioneer in the surgical procedure known as lobotomy in the U.S.; a physical therapist researching the papers of Dr. Janet Travell, the first woman to serve as personal physician to the President of the United States (Kennedy and Johnson); a German Ph.D. student researching Robert Bolwell, who founded the American Studies Program at GW in the 1930s; and a researcher working for a film company in England who wanted information on George Gamow, world-famous physicist who worked with Edward Teller (the “father” of the hydrogen bomb) and Watson and Crick (the men who won a Nobel Prize for discovering DNA).
This is just a sampling of the varied subjects and collections we deal with, and the public services we provide. Finally, we also maintain the David S. Brown Memorabilia Room on the ground floor of Gelman next to the front doors, which displays a number of interesting artifacts. These compliment the exhibits we do periodically. If you want to know more about our archives and the history of GW, feel free to venture up to the 7th floor sometime, and take a look at some of our “stuff.” We'll leave the light on for you.
Document Information
Images: 2
Photographic Credit: The George Washington University; Lyle Slovick
Author or Source: Lyle Slovick
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by:Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
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
Please send us your questions and comments about the encyclopedia.
This site is maintained by the Special Collections Research Center and the Web Development Group.
