Mudd Manuscript Library Blog

Name: Jennie Cole

Title and Duties: Public Policy Papers Project Archivist (although this title is somewhat obsolete!) I coordinate Mudd’s accessioning process, maintain the general Mudd reference email account, and create the monthly reference calendar. I am also the project manager for the Council on Foreign Relations digital audio project, as well as Ivy Lee and James A. Baker III Papers microfilm projects. I supervise the New Jersey Historical Commission’s grant-funded Special Collections Assistant, as well as the Special Collections Assistant for accessioning.

Recent projects: I completed Woodrow Wilson: A Guide to Selected Resources in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library earlier this year.

An interesting work anecdote: I’ve managed to have patron overlap from my last full time archival job at a historical society in Kentucky (2001-2004), with collections focusing on the nineteenth century history of the upper South, with my current reference work at Mudd. Small world!

Worked at Mudd since: September 2005

Why I like my job/archives: I always enjoyed reading and studying history (B.A. in Middle Eastern History, M.A. in American History) but never had the desire to be an educator, lawyer, or any of the other professions a history major is supposed to be interested in. I preferred research and museum work, and after internships at a historic house museum and historical society, ended up working as an archivist full time and enjoying it so much I went back to school to learn more about the theory of archives. I can’t imagine being as satisfied in another career.

Name: Daniel J. Linke (“Dan”)

Title and Duties: University Archivist and Curator of Public Policy Papers. Oversee the operations of the Mudd Library which includes reference, technical services, exhibitions, and collection development, as well as representing and promoting Mudd Library within the University and to the public at large.

Worked at Mudd since: December 27, 1993. Promoted to current position July 2002.

Ongoing projects: Directing the James A. Baker III Oral History Project; planning the celebration of the University Archives 50th Anniversary in 2009; and advocating for an electronics record management program, in conjunction with a full-time records manager to be hired.

Why I like my job/archives: Mudd’s holdings are broad and deep, in both the Public Policy Papers and the University Archives, and something interesting is always happening at Princeton. As a manager, I am also grateful for my smart and self-motivated staff.

An interesting work anecdote: For the Baker Oral History Project, I arranged to have Vice President Richard Cheney interviewed on videotape by former Newsweek White House correspondent Tom DeFrank in the Vice President’s formal office in the Old Executive Building, which is adjacent to the White House. The interview was to start at 10:30 but at 10:20, the Vice President walked into the room unannounced and asked, “Who’s in charge here?” I refrained from making any Al Haig jokes, but strode forward and said “I am, sir” and introduced myself. Fortunately everyone was ready to go so we started. Though I had asked for an hour of his time, Cheney talked for almost 90 minutes. (He restricted this interview though, so it is not yet available.)

Favorite item/collection: There are many. At the moment, when I give tours, I like to show Jacqueline Kennedy’s letter to Adlai Stevenson dated Dec. 4, 1963, Earl Gideon’s letter to the ACLU, and the Princeton flag that Pete Conrad ‘53 took to the moon with him on Apollo 12.

Other information: I am one of three “Dans” working at Mudd, and though born the earliest, I do not like being called “Old Dan.”

In 1968 “A Different Kick” marked a Triangle milestone. It featured the first female undergraduate to be cast in a Club show, Sue Jean Lee ‘70, above, with Fred Davis ‘70 (left) and George Cowen ‘69 (right).

“Times They Are A-Changin,’ ” the new exhibition at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, draws upon the library’s holdings to look back on a transformative era in the University’s history — the years between 1958 and 1983. The exhibition opens Friday, Feb. 22, and runs through Tuesday, July 15.

Using a montage of photographs, the exhibition describes in visual terms the changing order of life on campus: coeducation, the rise of computing technology, the formation of new academic departments, the restructuring of residential life, political activism by Princeton students during the 1960s and 1970s, and the vast changes that occurred to the campus physically, during President Robert Goheen’s tenure particularly.