Week 11-15: Conclusion of Harrisonburg Historic Maps and Beyond

Over the past couple of weeks, the other intern and I finally completed reprocessing the Harrisonburg Historic Maps Collection. We were able to fine all but one of the missing maps, but we continued on with the numbering even though one was still missing. Originally, we were able to reduce the number of large map folders down to 10 from 20, and after more reorganizing we were able to fit all of the large maps into only six map folders, much more manageable than 20. We updated the finding aid to reflect the new map additions and added some brief information about how we went about reprocessing the old and new collections together.

The final step in this project, after the completed finding aid, was processing the over sized maps. We left these maps until the end because they were not going to be stored with the rest of the map collection and instead needed to be rolled up and placed into rolled storage boxes. With assistance from Julia, who is in charge of preservation here, we were able to roll up the oversize maps and place them into two separate rolled storage boxes.

This entire process took just about two months and was an incredible experience in how processing collections is done. It didn't seem like too much work in the beginning, just numbering and reorganizing, but it turned out to be much more time consuming than either of us imagined. I am extremely glad this was my first processing experience because it showed me all the intricacies and tiny details that need to be paid attention to while processing collections. We ran into some speed bumps along the way but were able to push through them and finally get this collection open to the public for research.

Flat boxes containing small maps

Rolled storage boxes with oversize maps

After we finished the map project, I have been working on a number of smaller projects for Special Collections. There is a reunion coming up for the Women's Concert Choir here at JMU and we needed some more information on their history. I went through numerous copies of the yearbooks and was able to find out they they are the oldest choir on campus, beginning back in 1916 and called the Glee Club, and remained a choir until the late 80s when they were eventually split up into many other choir groups. One of the coolest things I found out about them was that in the mid 1950s, they went on an international tour for the Air Force and performed in Belize, Iceland, and Azores, a small island off the coast of Portugal. While on this trip, one of their planes was actually struck by lightening on the way to Iceland and they had to make an emergency landing in the states.

Along with that project, I worked on compiling a list of collections for your map project that were specific to Harrisonburg and contained information about specific places within the city. Hopefully that list was sufficient enough and I look forward to hearing more about that project.

Update on Harrisonburg Historic Map Project Through Week 11

Throughout the last few weeks we have still been working on the historic map project. We incorporated all of the maps from the new collection into our current collection. Since many of the maps were smaller and didn't really need to be in large map folders, we moved them to smaller folders that we can fit into a smaller box. As a result, we got rid of half of the old map folders and now only have 10 folders instead of 20.

We ran into some problems for a couple days when we realized that about 5 maps were actually missing from the collection. We had to go through all of the folders to see if they were just misplaced and were able to find all of them except for one. We still cannot find this last map, but we decided to continue on with the project and as of now, every map has a new number on it corresponding to the new list of maps with the old and new collections combined.

We should be able to finish up this entire project within the next week, as we only have to update the finding aid online then all of this will be complete.

Week 4-6: Historic Maps Project

For the past few weeks me and the other intern have been working with our Harrisonburg Historic Maps collection which we are currently trying to reprocess. Special collections received another collection of maps last semester that need to be incorporated into our current collection, so while we take inventory of the new maps and put the two collections together, we will reprocess them in order to create one, succinct collection that is easily accessible.

Most of the maps are plans for new infrastructure, such as widening a street or adding sewer lines through someone's property. The rest of the collection is full of individual's plots of land that is either being exchanged between two people or between the City of Harrisonburg and the land owner. I've included a couple pictures here of various maps in the collection:

We started working with the new collection by first ordering all of them by date and making sure we had every map from the inventory with us. After this we discussed with Kate how to best combine the two collections. We came across multiple small maps in the new collection and decided that we should take those out and combine them with our current small maps collection.

This whole process has taken quite some time as there are a lot of little things we have to keep track of, such as correctly ordering the maps in a spreadsheet and making sure they are all in chronological order and alphabetized within each date. After the spreadsheet was complete with all the maps combined, both old and new collection, we have to incorporate all the new maps within the original collection.

Currently, I have gone through half the folders from our original map collection and incorporated the new maps from those dates into the collection. After all the maps are in the same place, we will have to go back and re-label each map with a map and folder number.


As for the Brian Flota Comic Book Collection I was previously sorting too, I finished going through all 20 boxes and correctly checked each date. Currently that project is on hold as I am spending most of my time with the map collection

Week 3: Archival Processing

This week I was introduced to how Special Collections processes material and creates a finding aid online to help others understand what is in the collection. We went through a presentation that showed us the basics of archival processing, including how to name a collection, how to create finding aids for the collection, and various terms regarding collections.

Eventually, I was able to create my own finding aid for a small collection. I was given John A. Frenger's account book and two newspaper articles along with it and had to put all of that information in the finding aid. It was really cool looking through the account book, and he even kept a diary in parts of it. Most of the entries were about the weather, since he was a farmer, but the coolest part was his writings about James Garfield's assassination. In one entry in July, he mourns the death of Garfield, although at this point he had only been shot and was not yet dead. Over the next couple of months, he periodically mentions how Garfield seems to be recovering well and may even make a fully recovery. In the end, however, he put a "Special Entry" on the day Garfield finally passed away and mourned the death of who he called a "good friend." This was a really good experience to see exactly what we need to put online for others to see so they know exactly what they can find in our collections before they come to us.

On my last day of the week, I spent the entire afternoon working with the Brian Flota Comic Book Collection. I had previously worked with the inventory list and finding aid of the collection and had to go through all the entries and correct any spacing or other mistakes found in there. As it turns out, though, some of the dates entered in the spreadsheet did not correctly match up with the comic book date. Because of this, I started going through the twelve boxes in the collection, pulling each comic book out one by one, and making sure the date correctly matched the one written down. I only made it through three of the boxes and although it was extremely time consuming and tedious work, it will pay off in the long run and is necessary to make sure we have the correct information available to the public

Week 2: Training and More

My first couple of weeks here at Special Collections has definitely been a new and challenging experience. The first couple days were a little overwhelming, trying to learn the proper procedures for overseeing the reading room and finding out exactly where everything is located in the collections, but I am slowly feeling more and more comfortable with these every day.

On the last day of my first week, I was finally able to participate in an upcoming project for Special Collections called "Color Our Collections." This is a nationwide event in which archives and special collections from across the country are digitizing images from their collections and then allowing anybody to print them off to color them, thereby drawing more attention to the collections. For a few hours I looked through multiple editions of St. Nicholas, a popular children's literature magazine from the late 19th century, and some of the old JMU yearbooks. This was my first experience actually handling and looking through a book that old and it was a pretty incredible experience. I was able to find a ton of cool pictures from the stories that would be great for coloring, and even got the chance to read a lot of the stories, most of which were actually pretty amusing. Here are a couple of the pictures I found:

During my second week, I helped with another project: taking inventory on our collections of "The Virginia Teacher," a popular teacher's magazine from the early 20th century. I was responsible for going through every copy we had, nearly 20 years worth of the monthly magazine, and record the date and volume number for each. It was definitely a tedious task that took up most of my time for the day, but it was good experience that shows the kind of minor tasks necessary to help Special Collections run. The day before the snowstorm hit us a couple classes came in to learn about our Special Collections and take a tour of the archives. While they were up in the collections, me and the other intern looked through old yearbooks to find pictures of snow at JMU. There were some pretty humorous pictures, even one of a couple students carrying a case of beer through the snow. So far, my first couple of weeks have been a learning curve but an enjoyable one, and I look forward to learning more about archives and working on more projects around the collections.