Special Collections Research Center

Margaret Bourke-White was known for taking risks. An American photojournalist and war correspondent, she shot the cover photograph for Life Magazine‘s first issue in 1936, beginning a professional relationship that continued for several decades of the magazine’s publication and her career. Bourke-White traveled across the United States during the Great Depression and she extensively chronicled ...

In 1967, WSYR issued the following message, an interruption to their scheduled broadcast: “We interrupt this program. The Office of Civil Defense has issued the following message: This is an attack warning. Repeat. This is an attack warning. Attack warning means that an actual attack against this country has been detected and that protective actions should ...

By Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor We’re posting our wrap up a little early this month, because next week, we will be celebrating American Archives Month with a five-day series on preservation in SCRC’s collections. The series, a collaboration between The Living Record, SCRC’s blog, and Sound Beat, will cover preservation of different audio ...

By Tiffany Miller, Reference Assistant I am co-president of the George Fisk Comfort Society, a graduate student club for art history students at Syracuse, and, before this semester, I was not aware of who I was representing. George Fisk Comfort (1833 – 1910) was a liberal arts scholar and museum founder from Berkshire, New York. He ...

By Sebastian Modrow, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts Verso of the title page with large woodcut and beginning of the Vita of St. Bernard on the opposite page featuring the only illumination of the copy. In early 2019, SCRC acquired a Renaissance edition of the works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Printed in 1508 in Paris by ...

By Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor As September draws to a close, we are celebrating Banned Books Week, which runs this year from 9/27 to 10/3. In honor of the celebration, we have a few staff and student selections to share with you: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair By Brett Barrie, Assistant Catalog Librarian Two books with ...

By Courtney Asztalos, Plastics and Historical Artifacts Curator, and Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor Hand-washing is not a passive act these days. It is careful, deliberate, systematic. Labels of soaps and hand sanitizers are inspected closely for germ- and bacteria-fighting power. And advertising agencies and soap manufacturers are coming up with new ways to ...

By Ari Spatola G’20, University Archives Graduate Assistant Throughout this past year of working for the University Archives at the Special Collections Research Center, I’ve been tasked with processing quite a few Greek life organization collections. In general, I’m always excited to process new collections because any experience is helping me transition from “baby” archivist to ...

By Isabel McCullough, Reference Assistant The study of architecture is an interesting endeavor. Buildings are generally large, immobile, and subject to change. Buildings are rarely in a convenient location, and even if you are able to see a building in person, you can never take in the entirety at once — you cannot be both inside ...

By Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor As August draws to a close and we look to the start of a very unusual fall semester, it’s a good time to look back on some of the projects of this past spring and summer. Digital Projects Counter Working remotely has given SCRC staff, students, and Bird Library employees ...