Special Collections Research Center

By Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor In the nineteenth century, contradictions ran rampant in the state of New York in regards to the question of marriage. At this time and after, New York’s marriage laws were among the strictest in the country, but the state also became the site of radical reform movements, including the Oneida Community in ...

By Colleen Theisen, Chief Curator The Special Collection Research Center had a fast-paced early December, as we wrapped up the semester of teaching. A highlight for the semester were the visits from our fall Faculty Fellow Dr. Jim Watts’ Ancient Near Eastern Religions and Cultures class. After packing away the cuneiform tablets, we had a quiet ...

By Dane Flansburgh, Assistant Archivist “This is a forty year letter of gratitude.” This first sentence of a letter that had been stored with thousands of other letters in an archival box, jumped out at me. When processing so much loose material, archivists rarely have time to read individual letters, but this opening line immediately captured ...

By Tiffany Miller, Reference Assistant          MS 47 located in the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University is a breviary on vellum, or a book that contains daily services recited by members of the Roman Catholic Church. This manuscript is spectacular in that it contains its original 12th century text underneath a more recent 16th ...

By Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor Happy New Year from SCRC! We are excited to ring in the New Year and new decade at SCRC! The featured party invitation comes from our William Wallace Denslow Collection. Denslow was an artist and illustrator, best known for his collaborations with L. Frank Baum on Father Goose ...

By Dane Flansburgh, Assistant Archivist “This is a forty year letter of gratitude.” This first sentence of a letter that had been stored with thousands of other letters in an archival box, jumped out at me. When processing so much loose material, archivists rarely have time to read individual letters, but this opening line immediately captured ...

By Colleen Theisen, Chief Curator Can you tell us about your job and what you do? I began my career in 1982 with a 3 year apprenticeship in Archive Conservation in my home city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), moving to the Isle of Man in 1993, Carlisle (UK) in 1997, NYC in 2001 and then Syracuse University in ...

By Grace Wagner, Reading Room Access Services Supervisor “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” the Wizard of Oz announces in a harassed tone toward the end of the eponymous 1939 film. At this moment, the main characters – Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion – are presented with two ...

By Nicole Wright, University Archives Graduate Assistant When I process a new collection, or reprocess an old one, our University Archivist cautions me at least once with the same phrase: “Nicole, don’t get pulled in too far.” She wants to make sure I don’t spend too much time on extraneous details, since my primary goal is ...

In November, SCRC staff members attended conferences, contributed to sesquicentennial activities and public workshops. If you visited the Reading Room the week of November 18th, you may have noticed some construction happening. The doors leading into SCRC’s Reading Room and Lemke classroom were renovated to improve accessibility in SCRC’s public spaces. Finally, our University Archives team has been ...