To Make (or Not to Make) a Bacon Froize

This year when we announced the Rare Books Bakeoff, I knew that I had to enlist my roommate Michelle because we both enjoy cooking and History. What better way to understand the past than to cook your way through it? Michelle perused The queen-like closet, or, Rich cabinet last month from Diginole and found the

Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Newly Digitized Material Coming Soon to the Digital Library

On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. This legislation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ended segregation and unequal voter registration requirements. It also prohibited employment-based discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.1 This legislation would be passed a few weeks

Commemorating May Day

FSU Special Collections & Archives commemorates May 20th, Florida’s Emancipation Day, and the history of Emancipation in the United States. On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.1 Because it only applied to states “in rebellion” it excluded enslaved people in the four border states that remained in the Union. Furthermore, its signing

Is it Lost in the Archives?: Discovery Myths and Archival Labor

Every so often in the news we hear about an important document that was previously unknown and discovered in the archives. Beginning in 2012, The Atlantic ran two pieces about one such example: The Leale Report. This is a perfect case to examine for making archival labor transparent and looking at several myths in the

Awareness and Perceptions of Archives

Has the internet impacted perceptions about archivists and the work we do? Caitlin Patterson’s article “Perceptions and Understandings of Archives in the Digital Age” intends to help us understand.1 Here are the main takeaways of her survey: Increased expectations to find both general information and archival materials online. Respondents felt that archives were inaccessible and

Kitchen Politics?: Grits in the American South and the Equal Rights Amendment

Grits are a staple in southern cooking. They’re one of my favorite things to eat and can be enjoyed in different ways be it with butter, cheese, pepper jelly, an egg, or just on their own. I was born in North Carolina and have lived in Florida since I was five. Growing up, I didn’t

Vote!

October is coming to an end pretty soon and the National Election on November 3rd is approaching fast! The University has an important resource, FSU Votes, that may come in handy before casting a ballot. There, you can learn more about obtaining a sample ballot, tracking a mail-in ballot, safety precautions for in-person voting, your

Found in the Archives: The Capitol March for the Equal Rights Amendment in Tallahassee

October is American Archives Month! As an institution that works alongside and documents the local community, I wanted to highlight two collections housed in the Claude Pepper Library that illustrate local political action in our historic capitol: The National Organization of Women, Tallahassee Chapter Records and the League of Women Voters, Tallahassee Chapter Records. The

Updated SCA Page in Florida History Research Guide

This post was co-authored by Jennifer Fain. Special Collections & Archives is pleased to announce our new and improved page on the Florida History research guide. One of our major projects this summer in light of Covid-19 and the need for expanded online services has been to update our presence on FSU Library research guides

Behind the Scenes: Building a Digital Exhibit with Omeka

Like all of you, Covid-19 made an abrupt change to my spring semester. Thankfully, my Digital History class was mostly unaffected because the assignments were already web-based. Our final project had us create a digital exhibit using Omeka.net which is a free platform available from the Roy Rosenzweig Center for New Media. As opposed to