Author Archives: Mudd Manuscript Library

MYTHBUSTER — “I Love Lucy” and a lost Presidential election?!

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Is there any truth to the story that a com­mer­cial for Adlai Stevenson’s cam­paign inter­rupted an episode of “I Love Lucy” and cost him the 1952 election?

StevensonforPres copy

This story has appeared in var­i­ous books and arti­cles, but none has a ver­i­fi­able cita­tion.
For exam­ple, in the book “Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Ency­clo­pe­dia” author Michael Karol asks the ques­tion “Is it pos­si­ble the Democ­rats lost an elec­tion because of the (view­ers) ded­i­ca­tion? He writes that a Cana­dian web­site states that the Steven­son cam­paign was bom­barded with hate mail when it bought a half hour cam­paign ad that pre­empted the pop­u­lar show (p. 277). Another vari­a­tion of the story has Steven­son receiv­ing a telegram from a dis­grun­tled Lucy fan that read: “I love Lucy, but I hate you.”

How­ever, no Steven­son biog­ra­phy men­tions this inci­dent, nor is there any reportage of it in news­pa­pers at the time. A search within the Adai Steven­son Papers held at Mudd Man­u­script Library con­tains records doc­u­ment­ing his 1952 radio and TV com­mer­cial pur­chases. They reveal that Stevenson’s cam­paign ran four types of ads: 20-second spots, 30 minute spots, five minute con­den­sa­tions, and 15 minute con­den­sa­tions. Pre­sum­ably the con­den­sa­tions were reduced ver­sions of the 30 minute spots. The evi­dence of this is found in mul­ti­ple doc­u­ments but the most suc­cinct sum­mary is in an undated telegram from Jay Sheri­dan to G. Rudiak found in Box 244, Folder 8. But the real stake in the heart for this myth is a list­ing of the cam­paigns media pur­chases for Fall 1952. While it shows a num­ber of CBS-TV pur­chases on Mon­day nights, none were near the 8 p.m. time slot when “I Love Lucy” aired.

Given the lack of con­tem­po­rary evi­dence (all the sto­ries about the telegram date from well past the end of the cam­paign), and that the nature of the story fits with a com­mon pat­tern in urban myths (smart guy gets his come­up­pance for being igno­rant about some­thing com­monly under­stood), we declare:

MYTH-BUSTED!!

Most used Princeton theses

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Dear Mr. Mudd, I was won­der­ing what is the most popular/most requested senior the­sis in the Uni­ver­sity Archives collection?

This is a peren­nial ques­tion and the short answer is that with the excep­tion of celebrity alumni the­ses, there are few the­ses that are pulled with any reg­u­lar­ity, yet the col­lec­tion as a whole (total­ing over 60,000 the­ses) is our most used col­lec­tion within the Uni­ver­sity Archives. Last year over 1,000 the­ses were viewed by visitors–mostly Prince­ton undergraduates–to the Mudd Library, which accounted for about 1/4 of all Archives mate­ri­als circulated.

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Wendy Kopp’s the­sis is always among those requested by remote researchers–that is, those who do not visit the library in per­son, and when­ever a Prince­ton­ian makes news or is on a hit show, their the­sis is often requested.

In the past, this included Went­worth Miller III (when Prison Break was a hit), David Duchovny (for the X Files) and Dean Cain (Adven­tures of Lois and Clark), as well as all three now sit­ting Supreme Court Jus­tices: Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.

The entire the­ses col­lec­tion can be searched via this data­base, and Archives staff are work­ing to make future senior the­ses avail­able online to the Prince­ton com­mu­nity start­ing in 2013.

Princeton’s African American Honorary Degree Recipients: Activists and Public Servants

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by: Brenda Tindal

In the fall of 1748, Prince­ton University–then known as the Col­lege of New Jer­sey– held its first com­mence­ment. Dur­ing this cer­e­mony, six under­grad­u­ate stu­dents were grad­u­ated with Bach­e­lor of Arts degrees and the admin­is­tra­tion con­ferred the hon­oris causa (hon­orary degree) upon Jonathan Belcher, the Gov­er­nor of New Jer­sey. There­after, Prince­ton awarded hon­orary degrees to indi­vid­u­als who had made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions in var­i­ous sec­tors of soci­ety includ­ing reli­gion, aca­d­e­mics, arts and cul­ture, pol­i­tics, sci­ence, mil­i­tary, and finance, among other fields. How­ever, it would not be until 1951 that Prince­ton would con­fer this honor upon an African Amer­i­can. Since then, more than forty African Amer­i­cans have been hon­ored in this way. This post focuses on some African Amer­i­can activists and pub­lic ser­vants who have received an hon­orary degree from Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity.

Ralph John­son Bunche

Diplo­mat and scholar-activist Ralph John­son Bunche was the first African Amer­i­can awarded an hon­orary degree from Prince­ton in 1951, receiv­ing a Doc­tor of Laws degree.


Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 204th Commencement:
“A polit­i­cal sci­en­tist on the fac­ulty of Howard Uni­ver­sity on leave since 1941 for gov­ern­ment ser­vice. Stafford Lit­tle Lec­turer at Prince­ton in 1950. Professor-designate at Har­vard. An expert ana­lyst of colo­nial areas and ter­ri­to­r­ial affairs for the State Depart­ment and advi­sor to the United States Del­e­ga­tion at the sev­eral Con­fer­ences that ini­ti­ated the United Nations. Now on loan from the State Depart­ment to be Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Trustee­ship in the United Nations. Win­ner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1950 as United Nations medi­a­tor in Pales­tine. Where human affairs need a know­ing appraisal and states­man­like lead­er­ship, peo­ple draft him because he can be believed. His sin­gle­ness of pur­pose brings peo­ple to the point of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, and his sin­cer­ity and sim­plic­ity inspire in them con­fi­dent hope. A world cit­i­zen ‘ever will­ing to accept as great a share of haz­ard as of honor.’ ”

Thur­good Marshall

Judge and civil rights lit­i­ga­tor Thur­good Mar­shall received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Laws in 1963.

ThurgoodMarshall_hdpic

Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 206th Commencement:

ThurgoodMarshall_hdcit

Whit­ney Moore Young, Jr.

Leader of the National Urban League and civil rights activist Whit­ney Moore Young, Jr., received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Laws in 1967.

WhitneyYoung_hdpic

Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 220th Commencement:

WhitneyYoung_hdcit

Coretta Scott King

Human rights activist and widow of slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Human­i­ties in 1970.

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Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 223rd Commencement:

CSKing_hdcit

John Lewis

Con­gress­man and civil rights leader John Lewis received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Laws in 1987.
Cita­tion read at Prince­ton 240th Com­mence­ment:
JohnLewis_hdcit
Con­stance Baker Motley

Judge and civil rights lit­i­ga­tor Con­stance Baker-Motley received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Laws in 1989.

Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 242nd Commencement:

ConstanceMotley_hdcit

Dorothy Irene Height

Civic leader, activist, and edu­ca­tor Dorothy Irene Height received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Laws in 1990.
Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 243rd Commencement:

DorothyHeight_hdcit

Robert Par­ris Moses

Edu­ca­tor and civil rights pio­neer Robert Par­ris Moses received the hon­orary degree of Doc­tor of Laws in 2002.
*Moses is cur­rently the 2011–2012 Vis­it­ing Fel­low in Princeton’s Cen­ter for African Amer­i­can Stud­ies (CAAS)
Cita­tion read at Princeton’s 257th Commencement:

RobertMoses_hdcit

“Merge the Best of the Old with the Best of the New:” Coretta Scott King’s visits to Princeton

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Last year, as the nation cel­e­brated the obser­vance of Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr.’s birth­day, we posted an entry enti­tled “Mar­tin Luther King Jr.’s vis­its to Prince­ton,” which high­lighted the var­i­ous col­lec­tions at the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library con­tain­ing archival mate­ri­als related to Dr. King and his 1960 and 1962 vis­its to Prince­ton. To be sure, the “apos­tle of non-violence”—an eponym ascribed to MLK—was not the only King to spend time at Princeton.
Coretta at Commencement
Eight years after King’s last visit, his widow, Coretta Scott King, an activist in her own right, was con­ferred the Doc­tor of Human­i­ties, hon­oris causa (hon­orary degree) at Princeton’s 1970 com­mence­ment exer­cises. Dur­ing this occa­sion she was joined by an august group of hon­orees, includ­ing musi­cian Bob Dylan. In a let­ter of grat­i­tude to Princeton’s Pres­i­dent Robert F. Goheen, Scott King’s altru­ism, con­sci­en­tious tenor, and unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to racial and gen­der equal­ity were evinced when she wrote:
“I con­sider it a dis­tinct honor to be an alumna of Prince­ton, espe­cially since I received my degree at the time that you grad­u­ated your first woman stu­dent. I am fur­ther hon­ored to be asso­ci­ated with a pro­gres­sive insti­tu­tion which is steeped in tra­di­tion, but is keenly sen­si­tive to the tem­per of the times and can there­fore merge the best of the old with the best of the new.”
In yet another tes­ta­ment to her unshak­able activism, Scott King returned to Prince­ton in Novem­ber 1982 to par­take in Black Sol­i­dar­ity Day, a rally spon­sored by the Orga­ni­za­tion of Black Unity, among other stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions and aca­d­e­mic depart­ments. Accord­ing to the Novem­ber 2, 1982 Daily Prince­ton­ian arti­cle, when she climbed upon the ros­trum, as if to chan­nel her late husband’s phi­los­o­phy and dis­po­si­tion, she echoed the orga­niz­ing prin­ci­ples of non-violent social change, for which she added: “[non-violent action] awak­ens a sense of moral shame in one’s opponent.”
CSV and Honorees
Coretta Scott King along with other Hon­orary Degree recip­i­ents.
In both her 1970 and 1982 vis­its, Scott King demon­strated to Prince­to­ni­ans that she had not retreated to wid­ow­hood after King’s untimely assas­si­na­tion in 1968. Rather, she con­tin­ued in his stead, deliv­er­ing the gospel of non-violence, while also pre­serv­ing the rich legacy that Dr. King left in his wake. In short, Scott King cemented her place in Princeton’s Val­halla of dis­tin­guished alum­nae and vis­i­tors, right along­side her husband.
Inter­est­ingly, on Novem­ber 1, 1983, pre­cisely a year after her pow­er­ful speech at Black Sol­i­dar­ity Day, and after years of lob­by­ing, Scott King stood next to Pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan as he signed the bill estab­lish­ing Dr. King’s birth­day as a fed­eral hol­i­day. As the Prince­ton com­mu­nity joins the nation in com­mem­o­rat­ing King, we must also remem­ber Coretta Scott King, her time at Prince­ton, and most impor­tantly, the indeli­ble mark she has left on the world. On this day, we salute, Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Infor­ma­tion about Coretta Scott King’s hon­orary degree can be found in the Hon­orary Degree Records, with a pho­to­graph of her and the other 1970 hon­orees found in the His­tor­i­cal Pho­to­graph Col­lec­tion, Cam­pus Life Series . From the Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers, infor­ma­tion related to her role as a civil right and human rights leader can be found in the Franklin Book Pro­grams Records and the Amer­i­can Civil Lib­er­ties Union Records: Orga­ni­za­tional Mat­ters Series.
To learn more about any of these resources, please feel free to con­tact or visit the Mudd Man­u­script Library.
–Brenda Tin­dal

Meet Mudd’s Maureen Callahan

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Thumbnail image for CallahanImageWarthog
Mau­reen made fast friends with this warthog who was a part of the hotel where she was stay­ing while work­ing on an archives project at the Uni­ver­sity of Fort Hare in Alice, East­ern Cape, South Africa.

Name/Title: Mau­reen Calla­han — Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers Project Archivist

Title/Duties: My offi­cial job title is Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers Project Archivist. Like every­one at Mudd, I do a lot of dif­fer­ent things, but my main focus is being a good inter­me­di­ary between the feet, yards, even miles of archival records that we have and researchers who want to come to use them. I spend time fig­ur­ing out how to describe mate­ri­als in aggre­gate and make sense of their con­text and con­tent. Or, to put it another way, I dig through a lot of dusty stuff so you don’t have to.

I also work with other archivists and librar­i­ans here to lever­age the tools of a net­worked world to make our resources avail­able to peo­ple who might never be able to come to Prince­ton to do research. We’re look­ing at pos­si­bil­i­ties for mass dig­i­ti­za­tion so that we can put our actual stuff – and not just descrip­tions of it – on the internet.

Recent projects: Part of the rea­son why I enjoy my job so much is because I get to do a lot of dif­fer­ent things. Dan Linke and I are cur­rently work­ing on an exhibit about the 1912 elec­tion – read­ing about char­ac­ters like Eugene Debs, Teddy Roo­sevelt, Woodrow Wil­son (and let’s face it, to a lesser extent) William Howard Taft is extremely engag­ing, and we’re hav­ing fun think­ing about ways to explain the con­texts and par­al­lels of 1912 and today.

Over the sum­mer I processed the papers of Judge Harold R. Med­ina, a fig­ure so well-known dur­ing the 1940s and ‘50s that he made the cover of Time mag­a­zine, but who is rarely ref­er­enced today. Med­ina presided over the trial of the lead­ers of the Com­mu­nist Party, USA, and over a huge anti-trust case against invest­ment bank­ing firms in the early 1950s. After spend­ing qual­ity time with Judge Med­ina, I would say that there are pos­si­bly dozens of arti­cles and dis­ser­ta­tions to be writ­ten from the con­tent of his records. I hope that we see an uptick in researchers now that his papers are more fully processed!

Worked at Mudd since: I’ve worked at Mudd since Feb­ru­ary of 2011. Before that, I led a project to dig­i­tize rare mate­ri­als from the Mid­dle East and North Africa at George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity, and pre­vi­ous to that I was an archivist at the Penn Museum.

Why I like my job/archives: Well, at an eso­teric level, I believe that an hon­est look at the his­tor­i­cal record tends to destroy pre­vi­ous con­cep­tions of what is nor­mal, and I think that there’s some­thing extremely lib­er­at­ing about this. Even Mudd’s records of fairly main­stream char­ac­ters have the power to chal­lenge my pre­vi­ous con­cep­tions of how power presents itself, how peo­ple behave, and how the nation operates.

Much more con­cretely, I like work­ing with peo­ple and I like work­ing with tech­nol­ogy. We get a lot of ques­tions that start with “my ances­tor went to Prince­ton. Can you tell me about him?” I appre­ci­ate the chance to con­nect peo­ple with the peo­ple who came before them, and some­times sur­prise them with the rich­ness of our records. This process is reward­ing, and I’m opti­mistic about the capa­bil­i­ties of the web to bring our resources to more people.

Favorite item/collection: I’m not sure if it’s my favorite, but last year we acces­sioned the records of Elmer C. Werner, an IRS agent who had the goods on Halliburton’s (well, the group that existed that even­tu­ally became Hal­libur­ton) ille­gal con­tri­bu­tions to Lyn­don Baines Johnson’s sen­ate cam­paign. I wrote a blog post about it, which tells the whole sor­did story:

blogs.princeton.edu/mudd/2011/03/how-high-can-an-income-tax-fix-go-the-lbj-tax-scandal-that-youve-probably-never-heard-of.html

IMLS Archival Fellow: Brenda Tindal

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Brenda Tindal for HM

Brenda Tin­dal is one of nine archival fel­lows cho­sen from a very com­pet­i­tive appli­cant pool to par­tic­i­pate in Increas­ing African Amer­i­can Diver­sity in Archives: The His­to­ry­Mak­ers’ Fel­low­ship, Men­tor­ing, Train­ing and Place­ment Insti­tute, described by Har­vard Uni­ver­sity Pro­fes­sor and pre-eminent African Amer­i­can scholar Henry Louis Gates as“a won­der­fully inno­v­a­tive pro­gram.” The pro­gram addresses the “appalling low pro­por­tion” of African Amer­i­can archivists, which despite decades of effort has increased by only 1% in 22 years–from 1.8% as recorded in the Soci­ety of Amer­i­can Archivists (SAA)‘s 1982 sur­vey of its pro­fes­sion­als, to 2.8% in 2004 as recorded by the A* Census.

As an archival fel­low in res­i­dence at the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library at Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity, Tin­dal is actively engaged in pro­cess­ing archival mate­r­ial, research, ref­er­ence ser­vices, appraisal and col­lec­tion devel­op­ment, ped­a­gogy, and out­reach ini­tia­tives. Her work “advances Mudd’s com­mit­ment to mak­ing the Uni­ver­sity Archives and the Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers acces­si­ble to patrons who include fac­ulty, stu­dents, vis­it­ing schol­ars and researchers, and geneal­o­gist, among oth­ers,” says Tin­dal. It also allows her to “hone invalu­able skills and con­tinue to develop a greater lit­er­acy of the many facets of archival work within an aca­d­e­mic library.” Addi­tion­ally, Tin­dal adds, the Increas­ing African Amer­i­can Diver­sity in Archives fel­low­ship pro­gram has also given her the oppor­tu­nity to “build upon her exper­tise in African Amer­i­can his­tory and cul­ture, while cul­ti­vat­ing rela­tion­ships with like-minded archival prac­ti­tion­ers, who have a vested inter­est in diver­si­fy­ing the pro­fes­sion and the nations archival holdings.”
The goal of Increas­ing African Amer­i­can Diver­sity in Archives is to pro­vide African Amer­i­can archival col­lec­tions with African Amer­i­can archivists and other archivists qual­i­fied and inter­ested in work­ing with African Amer­i­can col­lec­tions. Ulti­mately, the pro­gram seeks to “increase the vis­i­bil­ity of the archival pro­fes­sion and African Amer­i­can col­lec­tions through pub­lic programs/outreach efforts,” says Exec­u­tive Direc­tor and Founder of The His­to­ry­Mak­ers, Julieanna L. Richardson.
“I am delighted Brenda is part of the Mudd staff,” said Uni­ver­sity Archivist Daniel J. Linke. “She brings a pas­sion for doc­u­ments grounded in a deep under­stand­ing of their his­tor­i­cal con­text. In just the first few weeks she has been here, she has been fan­tas­tic in the class­room work­ing with stu­dents, and I expect her time here will ben­e­fit us as well as her.”
Speak­ing on the impor­tance of the pro­gram, Tin­dal says, “an ini­tia­tive of this mag­ni­tude is inge­nious and has the poten­tial to rede­fine the indus­try by address­ing the paucity of African Amer­i­cans in the archival pro­fes­sion, and in turn, ele­vate the unique per­spec­tives that we bring to the domain of library and infor­ma­tion science.”
Brenda Tin­dal is a Ph.D. can­di­date in the Grad­u­ate Insti­tute of the Lib­eral Arts (Amer­i­can Stud­ies) at Emory Uni­ver­sity, where she is com­plet­ing a dis­ser­ta­tion enti­tled “’What Our Com­mon Past Had Done to Us’: Land­scapes of Mem­ory, Rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and Enact­ments of Move­ment Wid­ow­hood, 1963–2006.” Tin­dal has worked on numer­ous archival projects, includ­ing the Alice Walker Papers and the orga­ni­za­tional records of the South­ern Chris­t­ian Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence at the Man­u­script, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory Uni­ver­sity and the Andrew J. Young Papers at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African Amer­i­can Cul­ture and History.

Meet Mudd’s Jimmy Lu

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Jimmy 003

Name: Jimmy Lu ’13

Major: Mechan­i­cal and Aero­space Engineering
Title/Duties: Spe­cial Col­lec­tions Stu­dent Assis­tant. I copy and scan doc­u­ments to ful­fill patron orders. I deliver files to offices that are too valu­able to be sent via cam­pus mail. On occa­sion, I also watch over the library’s read­ing room, lest patrons misbehave.
Recent projects: Dig­i­ti­za­tion of Trustees Min­utes. From the old vol­umes of early 1900s to the con­fi­den­tial records of the recent years, I con­tribute to humanity’s tran­si­tion from our reliance on paper to a bondage to electronics.
Worked at Mudd since: Sum­mer 2010
Why I like my job/archives: It’s a nice change of pace from my course­work. I can per­form my duties while let­ting my mind drift and wan­der. The immer­sion in the his­tory of Prince­ton is also very enjoy­able. See­ing the old doc­u­ments that have sur­vived from Princeton’s baby years strength­ens my con­nec­tion to the pres­ti­gious insti­tu­tion. Addi­tion­ally, the short dis­tance between the archives and most of my classes suits my lazy self very well.
Favorite item/collection: The Daily Prince­ton­ian Records. Noth­ing cov­ers the many aspects of Prince­ton and the hap­pen­ings inside the Orange Bub­ble as com­pletely as the stu­dent news­pa­per. It’s inter­est­ing to see the changes in the writ­ing qual­ity, the focus of the arti­cles, and the tem­pera­ments of the stu­dent body through the many decades.

“She Flourishes:” Chapters in the History of Princeton Women

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The See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library at Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity invites vis­i­tors to view the new exhibit, “She Flour­ishes: Chap­ters in the His­tory of Prince­ton Women,” which doc­u­ments the strug­gles and accom­plish­ments of women schol­ars, stu­dents, staff and other women asso­ci­ated with the insti­tu­tion. The exhibit is open now through the end of August, 2012.

The exhibit title is derived from the University’s offi­cial motto, Dei Sub Numine Viget, which trans­lates to “Under God’s Power, She Flour­ishes.” Draw­ing from the library’s rich hold­ings, the exhibit show­cases var­i­ous accounts of women through­out Princeton’s his­tory and explores the ways in which these women have rede­fined what was once con­sid­ered an “old-boys’ school.”

EvelynWomensCollege
From the “dan­ger­ous exper­i­ment” of Eve­lyn Col­lege (Princeton’s local all-women’s col­lege, 1887–97), to the imple­men­ta­tion of under­grad­u­ate coed­u­ca­tion (1969), and the inau­gu­ra­tion of Pres­i­dent Shirley M. Tilgh­man (2001), women have his­tor­i­cally con­tributed sig­nif­i­cantly to the func­tion and edu­ca­tional mis­sion of Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity, though not always with­out oppo­si­tion. Exhi­bi­tion items from the Uni­ver­sity Archives at the Mudd Man­u­script Library spot­light chap­ters in the lives of a hand­ful of par­tic­u­larly notable Prince­ton women, while demon­strat­ing their chang­ing roles and their abil­ity to influ­ence their environment.
Women high­lighted in the exhibit include: Beat­rix Far­rand, who was respon­si­ble for craft­ing Princeton’s highly regarded land­scape envi­ron­ment; Katharine Fuller­ton Ger­ould, a noted scholar and fac­ulty wife barred from intel­lec­tual pur­suits, skew­ered the parochial, hyper-masculine envi­ron­ment at Prince­ton in 1924; Josephine Thom­son Swann who was inte­gral in the found­ing of the Ivy Club in 1887; and Sally Frank, who more than one hun­dred years later, chal­lenged male-oriented cul­tural tra­di­tions, result­ing in the full inte­gra­tion of women into the eat­ing clubs.
Woman Enters Admissions
This exhibit does not and can­not tell the whole story of women at Prince­ton. It does, how­ever, pro­vide a glimpse into the mate­ri­als gen­er­a­tions of Prince­ton women left behind includ­ing let­ters, mem­o­randa, pho­tographs, pub­li­ca­tions and other records of schol­ar­ship and cam­pus work. The exhibit also includes a video com­pi­la­tion of archival footage relat­ing to women at Prince­ton, avail­able online through the Reel Mudd Blog. For more infor­ma­tion related to the his­tory of women at Prince­ton, see the Mudd Library’s page devoted to this topic.
“She Flour­ishes” is open to the pub­lic free of charge from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Mon­day through Fri­day until August 31, 2012. The Mudd Library will also be open Sat­ur­day morn­ing, June 2, 2012, for Reunions. Begin­ning in June, exhibit hours will be 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Mon­day through Friday.

Annual Report 2011: Goals for Fiscal Year 2012

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To final­ize our series on our 2011 Annual Report, please see a descrip­tion of our goals for fis­cal year 2012:

  • Com­plete NHPRC-funded ACLU pro­cess­ing grant
  • Col­lec­tion devel­op­ment: con­tinue to build the Pol­icy col­lec­tions through dona­tions and efforts such as the Baker Oral His­tory Project
  • Imple­ment Aeon for reg­is­tra­tion and other pub­lic ser­vice functions
  • Con­tinue high level of pub­lic services
  • Begin work on redesign of EAD website
  • Con­tinue to exploit our blog, Face­book, and other social media as part of out­reach efforts.
  • Com­plete Daily Prince­ton­ian dig­i­ti­za­tion project
  • Build a records man­age­ment program
  • Suc­cess­fully host IMLS intern
  • Con­tinue Uni­ver­sity Archives pro­cess­ing and description
  • Com­plete descrip­tion of addi­tions to audio­vi­sual and mem­o­ra­bilia col­lec­tions; fin­ish P-collection sur­vey; begin HPC descrip­tion and cleanup work
  • Pro­vide access to all newly cre­ated data either through revamped data­bases and Primo, or con­ver­sion to EAD
  • Con­tinue work on pro­cess­ing and descrip­tion doc­u­men­ta­tion enhance­ment and consolidation
  • For­mal­ize plans for start of elec­tronic records man­age­ment program
  • Shift to elec­tronic sub­mis­sion of doc­toral dis­ser­ta­tions begin­ning in Fall 2011

We hope you enjoyed our series on our 2011 Annual Report. You may read it in its entirety here. Check in next year for a review of our activ­ity in FY2012!

Annual Report 2011: Exhibitions, Public Relations, and Outreach

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As a con­tin­u­a­tion of our series on our 2011 Annual Report, please see a descrip­tion of our work in exhi­bi­tions, pub­lic rela­tions, and outreach:

  • The John F. Kennedy exhi­bi­tion assem­bled by Nicole Milano in August 2010 was very well-received, so much that we extended its run through the end of August 2011. In addi­tion, in March Mudd co-hosted a panel with the Woodrow Wil­son School enti­tled “JFK and Civil Rights: 50 Years After” that filled Dodds audi­to­rium. John Doar ’44 and Nicholas Katzen­bach ’43 were the high­lights of the panel that rem­i­nisced about their ser­vice in US Jus­tice Depart­ment in the first half of the 1960s. A din­ner in the Gar­den Room at Prospect fol­lowed where over 50 peo­ple dined with the speak­ers, includ­ing Pres­i­dent Shirley Tilghman.
  • Mudd hosted an Open House on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 23, fea­tur­ing the exhibit and stacks tours that attracted 17 people.
  • The Mudd blog con­tin­ues to be a source of infor­ma­tion on new col­lec­tions, inter­est­ing ref­er­ence inquiries, dig­i­tal col­lec­tions, staff, acces­sions and find­ing aids, and other library news. We cre­ated 25 new entries last year. Mudd con­tin­ued to expand its embrace of social media this year by adding a new blog, The Reel Mudd, devoted to pro­vid­ing access to our audio­vi­sual media, with 58 entries fea­tur­ing over 85 films. We also launched Face­book and Twit­ter sites. At the con­clu­sion of the fis­cal year, our Face­book page had over 200 monthly active users and we had more than 200 wall posts, a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of those orig­i­nat­ing from our Twit­ter account where we deliver the “This Day in Prince­ton His­tory” facts.
  • In con­junc­tion with Alumni Day, Mudd Library assisted The­atre Intime’s 90th anniver­sary din­ner in Feb­ru­ary. Stu­dent mem­bers assem­bled an exhi­bi­tion in the Har­lan Room that was viewed prior to the din­ner which was served in the read­ing room.
Stay tuned for fur­ther dis­cus­sion of our goals for fis­cal year 2012.