Helen Ball at the Reserve Desk, Alumni Library, Summer 1964

As the department began to pull together materials for our exhibit for Alumni Weekend, Miami and Oxford in the 1960s, I looked through some old files for images of Alumni Library. I found some wonderful photographs that were taken in the summer of 1964, including a picture that has special meaning to me. The person at the counter is Helen Ball. She, along with Frances McClure and Elizabeth Brice, hired me to work in Special Collections many, many years ago.

Helen began working part time in the University Library as an undergraduate at Miami. She went on to get an M.A. in English in 1942 and left her University Library position to marry. Two months later Mr. King asked her to return to work “temporarily”. In 1971 Dr. Charles Churchwell appointed her Curator, rare Books and Special Collections, of the newly established Walter Havighurst Special Collections in King Library. When Helen retired in 1990 she was heard to say, “You’ve got to watch those temporary jobs.”

Helen Ball

For almost twenty years Helen’s vision defined the development of Special Collections. Former University President Phillip R. Shriver once said, “In the last twenty years I have personally used the Special Collections more than any other part of the Library. The living legacy of Helen Ball has been, still is, and will always be evident to those of us who have been fortunate to use them.”

Frances, Elizabeth and Helen opened a very special world to me when they invited me to join them at The Walter Havighurst Special Collections. Finding this picture of Helen Ball brought back very pleasant memories of an important person in my life.

The picture at the top is a part of our Miami and Oxford in the 1960s exhibit, which will be up through the middle of August. I hope you will have the opportunity to stop in and see it.

Some of the background and the quotations for this post came from The History of the Miami University Libraries by Elizabeth H. Baer, and A Memorial to Helen Coulter Ball, prepared by a committee on the occasion of her death.

Jim Bricker
Senior Library Technician

As the Slavic Librarian and the Cataloger, I get to spend one day each week in Special Collections, mostly cataloging Slavic materials in the de Saint-Rat collection, occasionally helping with other materials or tending the desk. I enjoy and am honored to be included in the daily life of this truly special department and like to think of it as the third part of my job. I love all parts of my job, but Thursdays are a highlight of my week. Special things almost always happen on Thursdays. Whether discovering an inscription that gives you goose bumps and launches a month-long research project or just being in the company of the most amiable people in the library, every Thursday is unfailingly special.

When I got there this Thursday, two surprises were already waiting for me. One was my very own name tag on one of the windows of the Reading room, making me feel official and appreciated. The other was a “present” that Jim Bricker thoughtfully left behind my chair, a flat package, cocooned in plastic and standing taller than me. Neither one of us knew what it was beyond its label: “Brezhnev poster.” Thinking that I may need some time to prepare mentally to see Brezhnev this big, I left it looming over my head while I was settling in. When we finally opened it, we discovered an instant collection gem. Measuring a little over 3’x6.5’, it is the largest, brightest, and the most imposing of our posters. It is the only one from that time period.

The poster was published in 1979, the fifteenth year of Brezhnev’s post as the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. Leonid Il’ich Brezhnev enjoyed an 18-year term, second longest (after Stalin’s) and, by some accounts, the most popular as the General Secretary. In the best traditions of Soviet leaders he nurtured his own “cult of personality,” a divinization of sorts, though not nearly as successfully as Stalin or Lenin. After being instrumental in removing his mentor Nikita Khrushchev from power in 1964, he was surprisingly passive in his decision-making regarding most aspects, especially the economy, consulting colleagues before making any decisions. Instead, he put all his efforts into developing the military. As a result, his term is popularly known as the Era of Stagnation, while his major accomplishment closer to the end was sending the Soviet troops to Afghanistan.

His term finished with his death in 1982, which was not reported immediately. The Soviet television stations built up to the announcement by changing the scheduled programming to broadcasts of revolutionary documentaries and classical music concerts, rather than hockey games and pop music performances. This lasted for a day or two until the formal announcement was made. A week after I remember being pulled from class in first grade, along with the rest of the school to watch the funeral on the only television set in the director’s office. I remember the close up of the casket with Brezhnev in it, which made several teachers sob loudly. Brezhnev suffered from a multitude of illnesses, including cancer, leukemia, emphysema, which was not public knowledge. His manner of speaking, as well as his passive approach, was made fun of the most in political jokes and impersonations. In those he was perceived as slow and dumb.

It’s interesting that in the poster, as huge and imposing as it is, he appears lacking most of his famous medals and distinctions and eyebrows. The two of his most famous attributes are not included, making him look younger and more egalitarian, especially given the relatively little space he is taking up. Before we unwrapped the poster, both Jim and I expected to see a life size portrait (with eyebrows and medals, of course), but found him sharing the large space with two groups of Soviet youth and some factories. The quote loosely translates: “The Party firmly believes that the youth, Komsomol, will write new pages into the chronicle of the communism building.” Another interesting thing about the poster is that it is not the only large format poster using this quote from one of Brezhnev’s speeches. In fact, a better-known poster depicts a young welder in the center instead of Brezhnev and has factories and the quote taking up the rest of the space.

The potential for research of the poster is very exciting. If you are the scholar for the job, I will be happy to pull it out for viewing any day of the week and help with resources in any way I can!

Masha Stepanova

Slavic Librarian

One of the realities of growing older is witnessing profound changes in the world as well as in one’s personal life.

When I started working at Miami as a newly-minted professional librarian in November 1984, there were print collections on all four floors of King Library. The ‘A’ classes in the general collection began on the first floor and wound up to the ‘Z’s on the third. Bound journals took up most of the first floor, and government documents about half of the third. The Instructional Materials Center was on the ground floor (to which, after a brief sojourn on the third floor, it has returned.)

Now the King general stacks are entirely on the second floor. Journals and government documents are mostly online, with the print remains of both collections on the ground floor or at SWORD (our regional depository). It is more common to see students in the libraries focused on laptops and tablets than on printed books.

The one print collection in King Library that has grown during the past 30 years is that in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections.

As a humanist and a book lover, it has sometimes been difficult to accept the fundamental revolution we are experiencing in human communications. It is a rare, if questionable privilege to live through such a time. Letting go of Gutenberg’s remarkably stable technology for an exhilarating yet uncertain digital future can be unnerving. But there is a consolation for those of us who still like the feel of a bound volume of printed paper.

In this new digital context, the physical book has evolved a new meaning. From an object so ubiquitous in the 20^th century as to be invisible, appreciated only for its content, in the 21^st century the book as a physical object is now of interest to students, researchers and artists. It is this transformation in our perception that I find most fascinating about the Digital Revolution. The printed book is more valued than ever.

Among other things this strengthens the role of our heritage collections in Special Collections and in the Archives. Next spring, after construction scheduled for this winter, the University Archives, including the Western College and Oxford College archives, will move from Withrow Court to the third floor of King Library. Our two principal heritage collections will be united in one location and one department. This union has been a dream of mine for several years, and I look forward to the result that I believe will greatly benefit students, faculty and researchers.

But I’ll be leaving the hard work of bringing this dream to fruition in other more capable hands. On July 1 I will be retiring from the Miami University Libraries after 30 years. Those years included some dark days now and then, but for the most part it has been not only a privilege but a pleasure to be a member of this very fine staff.

Over the last three decades I have met and worked with wonderful colleagues, students, faculty, donors, researchers and alumni and made many lasting friendships. I know I am leaving the Libraries in very good hands. My thanks and best wishes to all of you.

Elizabeth Brice
Assistant Dean for Technical Services & Special Collections

Clyde Fisher

Like most special collections and archives we have a backlog in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections.  This backlog consists of both uncataloged books as well as unprocessed manuscript collections.  One of the items recently removed from our backlog is the Clyde Fisher and Te Ata Collection.  You can see the finding aid here, the collection can also be searched for in our catalog on the library’s home page.

Clyde Fisher

George Clyde Fisher was born on May 22, 1878 near Sidney, Ohio.  He attended Miami University and graduated with an A.B. in 1905.  After several years of teaching science at high schools and universities he returned to school and received a Ph.D in Botany from Johns Hopkins University in 1913.

Later that same year he was hired as the Curator of Education at the American Museum of Natural History.  He was later named Curator of Astronomy in 1924 and the Head of the Hayden Planetarium in 1935, which he was one of the individuals responsible for raising the funds to build.  Fisher was also an avid traveler and prolific writer, publishing a significant amount of articles in academic journals.

One of Fishers many publications

Fisher’s wife, Te Ata, was a Chickasaw Princess and performer.  They married in 1933, and remained so until his death in 1949.

The Clyde Fisher and Te Ata Collection consists primarily of Fisher’s travel journals.  Other items in the collection include some of his publications, biographical information, and photographs.

Fishers Travel Journal from a Trip to Lapland in 1924.

To learn more about these amazing individuals please come see us in Special Collections on the third floor of King Library.

More resources:
Te Ata: Chickasaw Story Teller, American Treasure
New York Botanical Gardens: Clyde Fisher Papers
Shelby County Historical Society
The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma – Special Collections (They have video footage of some of the travels that Fisher and Ata went on that correspond to the travel journals in our collection, though not available online)

Johnathan Cooper

One of the great advantages of receiving a graduate degree through Miami University’s History Department is the guaranteed assistantship position that provides for your tuition and living stipend. The default assistantship is a teaching position alongside one of the many esteemed faculty members in the department. However, as I have experienced, the History Department’s graduate program is more than willing to let their students look elsewhere for work to fulfill their assistantship requirements (and still get paid!). These out-of-department opportunities allow students to apply their historical training in different settings and gain new skillsets for the all too quickly approaching job market. I enjoyed teaching undergraduate courses. It was a great mixture of guidance from professors and freedom to be creative with lessons.

Although, knowing that teaching was not my first choice for a career path and I was not looking to go immediately into a doctoral program, I chose to venture elsewhere on campus to offer my services. At the time I knew I wanted to work with historical objects and the public, whether that be museums, archives, libraries, living history, etc. I asked Special Collections if I could work for a semester in their department to learn what it was like to work with rare books, organize manuscript collections, and possibly dabble in digitization. During this past semester, I achieved those goals and then some, gaining valuable skills that I happily placed on my resume already.

My primary responsibility this semester was the conservation and updating of the James T. Farrell collection, which was donated to Special Collections in the 1990s by Dr. Edgar Branch, former Miami University professor of English and American Literature. Branch, a personal friend and official biographer of Farrell, extensively collected anything to do with the twentieth century author. Writing in the same era as Hemingway and Steinbeck, Farrell published over fifty novels, ranging from coming-of-age tales to political commentaries. The collection includes personal correspondences, journals, manuscripts, and several other pieces of the author’s personal life. This was (and still is) a long-term task, but it was a great lesson in basic document conservation and finding aid organization. I now also know about everything there is to know about the late author, and have a Nook library full of his books to read.

I also had additional tasks that I performed on an as needed basis. These were often short-term projects that just needed done around the department that I gladly volunteered for to broaden my experience. My favorite thing to do was occasionally curate some display cases highlighting special events in the library with books from the closed stacks of Special Collections. I even did displays with my own theme of choice, where I highlighted the department’s extensive collection of books about the Old Northwest Territory (my favorite historical time and place). Curating allowed me to become more familiar with the books in Special Collections and gain experience in visually displaying objects.

Narrating America’s First Frontier

A primary goal of mine going into the semester was to gain experience in digitization. With new emerging technology, documents and artifacts are able to be scanned and captured in better quality than ever before. I used the book scanner to create images for researchers and professors unable to devote an extended amount of time in our reading room, but I also got to help with the re-digitization project of the Shakespeare Folios. Photographing every single page of several books requires continuous attention to focus, distance, book margins, glass placement, and pretty much everything. Now that the process is finished, the Folios are available for the rest of the world to view and it is a great feeling knowing I helped (however minute).

(Link to Digital Librarian Marcus Ladd’s blog post about the process of the Shakespeare Folio project here, and link to view the Folios here)

I did several other tasks in Special Collections: shelve books, help students research, assist in class visits, aid in the spring semester’s exhibition reception. All of these experiences will, I am sure, help me in the next chapter of my life, or at least the search of that next chapter. I am applying to a variety of jobs, including education, museum, archive, government, and research positions, all over the country. Nothing is a sure thing yet, but I am willing to make the most of the journey and glad to have had this diverse graduate student experience.

Thank you once again to Special Collections and the History Department. I only wish I could stay longer.

Dana Bogart, M.A.

The Undergraduate Research Forum showcases the creative and scholarly activities of undergraduate researchers. These undergraduates work with professors on funded research and are engaged in research over the course of the academic year.

Two exceptional undergraduate students: Rebecka J. Mock (Anthropology and Classics Major) and Daniel T. McClurkin (English Literature and Anthropology Major) have been working with Professor Jeb J. Card (Department of Anthropology) on identifying ancient clay tablets – cuneiform – discovered near Hoyt Hall and part of the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and Archives.

Their project – Provenence, Preservation, and Analysis of Special Collections Artifacts had them working with a Seal cylinder, Babylonian tablets and Egyptian fragments.

Rebecka and Daniel with Marcus Ladd Special Collections and Archives Digital Librarian

Egyptian Fragment

These remarkable students under Dr. Card’s tutelage were able to decipher, determine provenance and the historical record of the ancient artifacts and using 3D scanning technology they we able to reconstruct the fragments and reveal the seal impression of the cylinder. These artifacts are well over 4000 years old!

Their work on this project enabled them to participate with a poster presentation in the Research Forum and provide valuable information for researchers on the materials. Rebecka and Daniel were able to clarify some early misinformation providing a better description of these ancient tablets.

 Babylonian Tablet

Seal Cylinder

This is just a small example of the many interesting research opportunities available using such unique and fascinating materials accessible in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and Archives.