Black History at FSU: Reverend Dr. William R. Jones

This Black History Month we are spotlighting Reverend Dr. William R. Jones. In 1977, Jones helped found and became the director of Florida State University’s African American Studies program. He retired from FSU in 1999 as Professor Emeritus. Dr. William R. Jones was born July 17, 1933 in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Howard University, where

A Book Lover Lost Through Time: Women’s Names In Archival Description

It is no secret that the voices, experiences, and identities of women in history have been considerably obscured through time. Coverture, a legal concept, was likely introduced into Europe around the 11th Century and persisted well into the 19th century. It stipulated that upon marriage a woman’s legal identity was to be absorbed by her

Under Lock and Key: The Chained Book

One of our most interesting books from the late medieval/early modern period is our copy of Sermones discipuli. The materiality of this book is impressive, with it’s heavy covers, brass cornerpieces and brass bosses. However, one of the more interesting elements lies at the top of the book, where a heavy metal ring is attached

Digitizing the Leon County School Board Minutes

Through a community partnership with the Leon County School District office, Florida State University is digitizing and providing public access to the district’s collection of School Board Minutes which record the history of the school board from 1877 to present. The FSU Digital Library Center has been hard at work digitizing these minutes, which come

New Digital Collection: 17th-20th Century Correspondence and Documents

A series of over 600 documents have now been digitized by the Digital Library Center into DigiNole, FSU’s digital library! The 17th-20th Century Correspondence and Documents collection features manuscripts from 1618-1981 relating to international names and local celebrities. Some recognizable names apart of this collection include: General George Washington, Albert Einstein, and Mrs. Bram Stoker,

17th Century Contracts: A Glimpse Into Our New Collection

Object FSU_MSS_1948-003_B001_F001 via Florida State University. As a digital library intern for the past two semesters with Special Collections, I have been working on digitizing the 17th-20th Century Correspondence & Documents collection. To celebrate the approach of the end of this project and the midpoint of this semester, I wanted to highlight the first item

Current Reads: The Trial By Franz Kafka

This post was written by Yenesis Sotomayor, Special Collections & Archives collections management associate. Hello, fellow literary connoisseurs! I am currently engaging in Franz Kafka’s Germanic dystopian The Trial. My experience so far, you may ask, consists of me sinking deeper into my hunchback position and feasting off Kafka’s depressing tale. I adore the bitter

DPLA’s Black Women’s Suffrage Collection

As we approach Black History Month it is important to highlight the Black women who helped shape American history. The Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights,

On this day in Claude Pepper History: January 18, 1983

From his early days in the United States Senate, Claude Pepper continually advocated for the expansion of Social Security accommodations for all older Americans. The Claude Pepper Papers trace this advocacy from the Senate, to the U.S. House of Representatives, where in 1983 he was appointed to the National Commission on Social Security Reform. Informally

On This Day: December 12th, 1765

Among the 17th-20th Century Correspondence and Documents Collection at FSU’s Special Collections and Archives, there is a letter from Charles Lyttelton dated December 12th, but as the title of the collection would suggest, it was not written in 2022. This 18th century letter was written on December 12, 1765, and discusses newly uncovered tree fossils.