After some technical difficulties, we are pleased to finally announce the re-launch of our Samuel W. Richey Collection of the Southern Confederacy digital collection!.

This collection includes over 700 pieces of correspondence relating to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, and Confederate generals, including G.T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, Samuel Cooper, Joseph E. Johnson, Robert E. Lee, James A. Seddon, E. Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, and William H. Thomas, among other noted figures of the Civil War and the mid- to late-19th century. Correspondence of Varina Davis, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, and Mary Custis Lee, together with some photographs and other pieces of ephemera, can also be found in the collection.

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Special Collections and University Archives are celebrating American Archives Month with a brown-bag speaker series!

We invite students, faculty, staff and community members to join us for a series of brown-bag lunches in recognition of American Archives Month.

The event, which puts an historical spin on timely topics including politics, science and the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service,.

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 12:00 Noon – 1:00 pm  (King Rm. 320)

1920: The Last of the Ohio Presidents

Speakers: Steve Conn, Ph.D., W.E. Professor of History, Miami University &

Allan M. Winkler, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus, Miami University

Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch and turn their break into a “knowledge is power lunch.”

Sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, American Archives Month is opportunity to remind people of the importance of preserving, cataloging and keeping accessible items that are important to our history.

The Miami University Archives, which include the Western College Memorial Archives and Oxford College Archives, recently relocated to King Library 321. It contains manuscripts, publications, photographs and artifacts capturing the history of all three institutions.

The Archives and the Walter Havighurst Special Collections, are under one roof for the first time in Miami’s history, hours are Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

We are very pleased to announce that our exhibit about the history of student broadcasting, and now, Live from Miami…, has had its run extended into the fall semester! The exhibit will now be on display until Fall Break, October 14th. If you haven’t yet had a chance to see it, be sure to stop by King Library, room 341.

And there’s more good news to come! Our digital collection, the WMUB Archives, has also been vastly expanded thanks to the hard work of Steve Beitzel and Ringo Jones in Williams Hall, who have been working to digitize many old reels of student broadcasts. The digital collection features five decades of Miami student history, so check it out!

Last week, WVXU in Cincinnati aired a story about our postcards collection. Don’t worry if you missed it, you can read and hear the complete story online:

Wish You Were Here: How Old Postcards Are Finding A New Audience

I am very excited to announce the first exhibit being held in the new Special Collections & Archives space! As we move closer to finishing with both the renovations and the Archives move to the top floor of King Library, it is a great pleasure for me to be able to curate this exhibit drawing from both Special Collections & the Miami University Archives. The exhibit, which runs from today, April 18th, through August 12th, celebrates over 50 years of students in broadcasting here at Miami. Recordings and artifacts of broadcasts, as well as photos of many of the students who worked on them, are central to the exhibit. Clips from television programs and full radio broadcasts are also a part of the exhibit.

Our opening reception is Wednesday, April 20th, from 5-7 pm in King Library room 320. The reception is free and open to the public and will include a panel of current and former students, a chance to see the exhibit, and refreshments.

Beyond our department, I have also received tremendous support from the Department of Media, Journalism, & Film in Williams Hall and many former employees of the WMUB radio station as well as alumni. In particular, I would like to thank:

• Steve Beitzel for digitizing and contributing many of the shows in the exhibit, for loaning the recording equipment on display, and for being the source of some of the best stories and secrets in the exhibit.
• Darlene Chafin for keeping track of WMUB-FM people and materials even after the station closed. Nothing you see in the radio cases would have been possible without her.
• Ringo Jones and his MAC 311 class for the photo used in the exhibit poster.
• Rick Ludwin ‘70 for donating the Studio 14, Newspoint and 529-3521 recordings and scripts, as well as providing guidance, contacts, and advice for the exhibit.
• Ray Smith ’70 for contributing text and the Studio 14 images to the exhibit.
• William Utter for donating photographs and documents for the exhibit.
• Chad Wollett ‘02 for contributing the Passing Reality materials to the exhibit and donating to the archive a copy of the show.
• …and, of course, all the students – known and unknown – who have and continue to put so much work into broadcasting here at Miami!

Marcus Ladd
Exhibit Curator & Special Collections Digital Librarian