By Traci Henning-Kolberg Say "archive" to an historian and their eyes will light up with the excitement of mystery and discovery that comes along with digging into these sacred places. This is where history is hiding. While piles of boxes overflowing with papers, photos, old floppy disks (yes, they still exist), and journals among other things may seem like rubbish heaps to most; to historians, there is the possibility of treasure waiting to be uncovered. This past fall students from the new Public History course joined with members of the history club and a few faculty members from IPFW to take a trip to the Ball State University archives. Ball State is roughly 80 miles south of Fort Wayne and a bus was provided for students and faculty to make the trip south as convenient as possible. Upon arrival everyone unloaded and made their way to the library. The group was warmly greeted and taken to a media room for a presentation about the archives housed on BSU’s campus. There is a wonderfully varied collection being safely cared for there; one of the most intriguing pieces is an original copy of Salvadore Dali's illustrated version of Alice in Wonderland. Sadly, it's kept in a vault and we were unable to view it, but this is an article with information and images that you should definitely peruse. The highlight of the trip was stepping into the area where the actual archives had been sorted and stored. The smell of old books and manuscripts, a heady perfume to anyone with a deep love of the written word, wafted over everyone as they were shown the rows of old books that are part of the BSU collection. It was difficult to leave this entrancing treasure trove of books, but there was another presentation waiting. The second presentation dealt more with the technical side of archiving data and the tools available to do that as well as one of the projects that has come about because of research and technology locally. "What Middletown Read" is a collection of records from the Muncie Library following the reading habits of local townspeople from 1891 - 1902.
This was certainly an engaging and enlightening trip to see what a different university has established for its archives. The hope will be to have many more of these adventures to share in the future.
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Voices from Purdue university Fort Wayne StudentsThe hope is to gather many voices, perspectives and styles on where and how Public History works locally. More information about Public History at Purdue Fort Wayne. Archives
October 2018
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