Archival Processing Work at Manuscripts and Archives, January-April 2021

The following information on recent archival processing work at Manuscripts and Archives (MSSA) was written by Alison Clemens, Head of Processing.

I typically share quarterly updates about collections and additions to collections for which MSSA has recently acquired and completed processing. MSSA processing staff are still working primarily remotely but have had occasional access to the Sterling Memorial Library (SML) building. We have therefore processed both traditional and born-digital archival materials (i.e., materials that were created in computer environments) over the past three months. MSSA processing staff have improved descriptions for approximately twenty born-digital accessions of materials since January 2021, and I’ll point to some highlights of that work in this post.

Since my last post in January, MSSA staff have made available the several collections and additions to existing collections, including:

Phineas Fiske Lesson Book, Circa 1706 (addition to Yale Course Lectures Collection, RU 159)

The Phineas Fiske lesson book was compiled by Phineas Fiske, a graduate of the class of 1704 of the Collegiate School, which was renamed Yale University in 1717. The lesson book was likely used while Fiske was a tutor between 1706 and 1713. The book contains material covering logic, physics, and ethics, and is written primarily in English, except for the section on ethics, which is written in Latin.

School of Architecture, Yale University, Records Concerning Events and Exhibitions (accessions 2005-A-085 and 2005-A-099, additions to RU 866)

Accession 2005-A-099 includes 2 CDs containing digital images documenting the 2004 exhibit “PSFS: Nothing More Modern.” Accession 2005-A-085 includes 1 CD containing digital images of the 2004 exhibition “Light Structures – The work of Jorge Schlaich and Rudolf Bergermann.”

Centerbrook Architects and Planners Records (MS 1844 born-digital material)

The records document projects undertaken by Centerbrook Architects and Planners, LLC. MSSA processors provided additional description for born-digital records from eleven DVDs; these DVDs contain videos documenting the 1984 Festival on Architecture and Planning and Centerbrook’s River Design Dayton and Watkins Glen Development Plan (“Watkins Glen Tomorrow”) projects.

Patricia Marx interview with Thomas Wilfred (MS 2076)

One digital copy of an audiorecording, with transcript, of an interview with Thomas Wilfred conducted on 1968 July 18 at New York Public Radio (WNYC) by Patricia Marx.

School of Architecture, Yale University, Lectures and Presentations (accession 2017-A-0058, addition to RU 880

Twenty-two .mp4 computer files of recordings from the spring 2016-fall 2017 architecture lecture series. Lecturers include Andrew Altman, Keller Easterling, Jonathan Emery, Marianne McKenna, Lukasz Stanek, Tsurumaki, Allison Williams, Elaine Scarry, Jacques Rancière, Mark Foster Gage, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Karsten Harries, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Michael Young, David Erdman, Majora Carter, George Knight, and Elihu Rubin.

Yale Student Papers Collection (accessions 2009-a-072, 2009-a-122, 2009-a-132, and 2010-a-013, additions to RU 331

Four computer files (.pdf and .ppt) documenting Yale student papers. Includes Brooks Swett’s 2008 paper “A Portrait of the Webster Family During the Civil War”; Olivia Martinez’s 2008 paper “On Broadway: A Timeline of New Haven Business”; Shannon Lee Connors’s 2008 paper “New Haven and the American City: Visual Representation of the City, Wooster Square”; Nikolas Bowie’s 2009 paper “Class Warfare, Inc.: James L. Buckley and the Conservative Origins of Corporate Class Consciousness in the 1970s”; Jennifer K. Lin’s 2009 paper “From Chemical Terror to Clinical Trial: The Development of Chemotherapy at Yale in World War II”; Kevin Michel’s 2009 paper “A Struggle Between Brothers: A Re-Examination of the Idea of a Cohesive Conservative Movement Through the Intellectual Life and Personal Conflict Surrounding L. Brent Bozell”; Emily St. Jean’s 2009 paper “Louise Bryant: A Reconsideration”; and Anna Wipfler’s 2009 paper “The Making of the ‘Gay Ivy’: A History of Lesbian and Gay Student Organizing at Yale, 1969-1987.”

Yale University’s 300th Anniversary Commemoration Records (accession 2004-a-160’s born-digital material, RU 844)

Digital images and topical papers for promotional materials and websites for the Yale Tercentennial Program, 1997-2001, originally stored on ten CDs and one zip disk.