Preserving Her Legacy: Gayle Andrews
March is Women’s History Month and here at FSU Special Collections & Archives, we are spotlighting some women who made a mark on FSU throughout history. Gayle Gay (née Andrews) was the first Black FSU cheerleader, joining the squad in 1970! Gayle Andrews was born in Coconut Grove, Florida on September 20, 1951. She graduated…
Happy Black History Month!
As we celebrate Black History Month here on FSU’s campus, take a look at this gallery of photographs that provides a glimpse into the lives of Black students at FSU throughout history.
Society of Florida Archivists 2023 Annual Meeting in Tallahassee
Last week, the Society of Florida Archivists 2023 Annual Meeting took place in Tallahassee. Several FSU Special Collections & Archives staff gave presentations on their work. Krystal Thomas, Torrio Osbourne, Hope Evans, Caroline Haight, Neissa Philemon, and Laura Parcés discussed their work of digitizing the John G. Riley archives. Rob Rubero, Rory Grennan, and Michaela…
2023 Emmett Till Archives Lecture Series
Join FSU Libraries and the Emmett Till Archives on Tuesday, March 28 at 5:30 p.m. in the Broad Auditorium, Claude Pepper Center, in a discussion about the “Educational Legacy of Mamie Till-Mobley” with Dr. Brandon M. Erby. Dr. Erby is an Assistant Professor of Writing Rhetoric, and Digital Studies and an affiliated faculty member in African…
Book Traces in Strozier Library
Earlier this month, Strozier library hosted visiting professor Andrew Stauffer to lead a class through the exercise of finding unique texts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This project, called Book Traces, was founded by Stauffer with the goal of discovering and cataloging books of this time that were customized by their owners.…
Book Traces Event
Today, Thursday February 9th, the FSU English Department will be hosting a talk by Professor Andrew Stauffer in the Williams Building Common Room. Andrew Stauffer is the founder of the crowd-sourced project Book Traces, an online collection of photos of unique copies of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century books found on library shelves. What makes these…
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,…
Happy 172nd Birthday, FSU!
Today marks 172 years since the Florida Legislature (then the General Assembly of the State of Florida) passed a bill establishing an institution of higher learning in Tallahassee in 1851. This institution would eventually become Florida State University. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that 1851 was accepted as FSU’s founding year. Previously, FSU’s founding…
GRBBO Mini-Exhibit
Currently located on the main floor of Strozier Library is a mini-exhibit dedicated to the Great Rare Books Bake Off event hosted by Special Collections and Archives. Over the last month or so, I have been searching the archives for interesting and relevant materials to fill the display case and put together a cohesive exhibit…
Tarpon Club at Strozier
Heritage & University Archives has a new exhibit displaying materials from FSU’s Tarpon Club in the Norwood Reading Room at Strozier. This exhibit was put together by Sierria Groom over the summer. Continue reading to learn more about her experience curating this exhibit and to learn where and when you can view it. As an…
Family Weekend at Heritage Museum
This weekend is Family Weekend at FSU! This tradition is one FSU has participated in for over 35 years. The Heritage Museum in Dodd Hall will be open today, September 23rd, from 10am to 5pm for students and their families to visit. Below, enjoy some then and now photographs of Dodd Hall, one of the…
FAAHPN Digital Library Workshop Recap and Riley House Partner Grant Update
FSU Libraries is proud to be a partner with the City of Tallahassee’s John G. Riley Center and Museum of African American History and Culture on a grant to digitize their archives. As part of the three-year project the grant also provides training for members of the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network (FAAHPN). The…
Postcards from the Library
This month, Special Collections & Archives teamed up with Student Outreach at Strozier to present Postcards from the Library, highlighting books and objects about travel, home, and identity. Our window display addresses FSU memorabilia and the International Program, general travel containing objects from the collections of our donors, World’s Fair souvenirs, and immigration and identity.…
Valentine’s Day Classifieds from the Florida Flambeau
Classified advertisements are a form of advertising popular in newspapers that consists of short advertisements that are sold by the word or letter for low prices. These ads were extremely popular in Florida State University’s student-run newspaper, Florida Flambeau. They served as a cheap way for students to exchange messages between friends, offer things for…
Vintage Valentines in the Archives
In celebration of Valentine’s Day we are reposting this entry from 2020. Valentine’s Day gained popularity in the United States with the introduction of mass-produced Valentines cards around the middle of the 19th century. Most of these early cards have long since disappeared, but we are fortunate to have many examples of early 20th century…
Introductions and the Medial S/f
We decided we would tell you a little about ourselves and the work we do in Special Collections and Archives. I am Dianna Bradley and I have been assisting in Special Collections and Archives for a little over 4 years now. I am a cataloger at FSU Libraries and work on managing our records, including…
Burns Night
Today, January 25, is a day to celebrate the national bard of Scotland, Robert Burns. Burns was a poet and songwriter who left a deep imprint on the world in his short 37 years. His first collection of poetry Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was published in 1786. This first edition is known as…
Emmett Till Archives Inaugural Lecture
FSU Libraries welcome Keith Beauchamp and Devery Anderson for the Emmett Till Archives Inaugural Lecture. Please join us for an evening of story telling and discussion. Dr. Davis Houck, Fannie Lou Hamer Professor, will lead the discussion with Keith Beauchamp, filmmaker and producer of “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till”, and Devery Anderson, author…
40th Anniversary of the Civic Center
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center! The Civic Center opened as the Tallahassee Leon County Civic Center on September 14th, 1981 to 3,000 guests with a performance by the Tallahassee Symphony. Planning for the Civic Center began in the early 1970s, with the acquisition of the 40 acres of…
FSU SCA Artists’ Books Featured in New Digital Exhibit
Undergraduate students in the Spring 2021 “Museum Object” course (FSU Department of Art History) spent the semester developing and curating Show & Tell, an online exhibition of artists’ books. They collaborated with FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives and the Small Craft Advisory Press (SCAP) and endeavored to use this year’s non-traditional exhibition format to…
What is an Archives?
As part of International Archives Week 2020, the International Council of Archives (ICA) has encouraged its members to consider what archives are and what they mean to researchers and society. Read on for my thoughts and a few sources on archival collections, institutions, and professionals, and what parts they play in empowering 21st century communities.…
Remembering Senator Claude Pepper
Social Security, minimum wage, and the National Institutes of Health. These are just a few of the ways that Claude Denson Pepper left his mark on American politics. He was born in rural Alabama, the eldest of four children to Joseph and Lena Pepper, on September 8, 1900. From these humble beginnings, Pepper would come…
Remembering the Tallahassee Bus Boycott at 64
Today marks the 64th anniversary of the Tallahassee Bus Boycott. In the spring of 1956, Florida A&M students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson boarded a Tallahassee bus and took seats of their own choosing. Because these seats were in the “whites only” section of the bus, Jakes and Patterson were arrested by the Tallahassee Police…
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…
Earth Day 50th Anniversary
Today, April 22 2020, is the 50th anniversary of the first celebration of Earth Day. The first Earth Day in 1970 was a major mobilizing event of inestimable historical significance. The event was such a success because it came at the right time as awareness of human effects on the balance of nature was growing.…
Earth Day Exhibit Goes Digital
As mentioned in a previous post, the current exhibit in the Special Collections & Archives Exhibit room was uninstalled in preparation for installing a new exhibit, “Earth Day 50”. Unfortunately, Strozier Library and FSU campus closures have forced us to explore different platforms for sharing exhibits that can be viewed safely from home. Maybe you have…
New Exhibit Coming Soon!
March 13, 2020 will be the last day to view the current exhibit in the Special Collections & Archives Exhibit room, “A Century of Mystery and Intrigue”. Our new exhibit, “Earth Day 50”, will be opening in April to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day: April 22, 1970. “Earth Day 50” is…
Enslaved Lives in the Archives at FSU- Research Guide and ASERL Exhibit Update
Special Collections & Archives wants to share some updates on our work surfacing and highlighting collections documenting local enslavement and sharecropping. Collaborating with the Tallahassee History and Human Rights Project in their creation of the Invisible Lives Tours produced a list of our archival materials that we wanted to make more visible and accessible to…
Archives Month in FSU Special Collections & Archives
October is American Archives Month. And while every month is Archives Month to those of us here in Special Collections & Archives, October is the month we really like to toot our own horn. We kicked off the festivities this year with our annual takeover of the FSU Libraries twitter handle for #AskAnArchivist day which…
#AskAnArchivist Day is tomorrow!
FSU Special Collections & Archives is once again participating in #AskAnArchivist Day, the kick-off event for American Archives Month. We’ll be taking over the FSU Libraries twitter feed (@fsulibraries) tomorrow, Wednesday, October 2, 2019 from 10am to 6pm. How does this work? Archivists here at FSU and all over the country will take to Twitter…
A Century of Mystery and Intrigue
The following blog post was written by Joseph, Special Collections & Archives Scholar-in-Residence and Guest Curator of our latest exhibit A Century of Mystery and Intrigue. I really enjoyed putting together the exhibit last summer on pirates, so I started thinking about a possible new exhibit topic. The original idea I came up with was…
New Digital Exhibit on Integration at FSU
A new digital exhibit is now available, featuring information and documents that expand on the items currently on display in at the Heritage Museum in Dodd Hall. The exhibit is titled A University in Transition: The Long Path to Integration and focuses on the role of institutional racism in delaying state university integration. It also highlights…
A Portrait in Courage at the Norwood Reading Room
This post was written by Kacee Reguera, an undergraduate senior at FSU pursuing a Studio Art degree in Printmaking, Artist’s Books, and Photography. A love for art preservation and the history of our university led her to an internship with Heritage & University Archives at Special Collections. During the summer of 2018, we received a…
Exploring the Alicia Korenman Graphic Novels Collection (1983-2007)
Will Eisner Week kicked off on March 1st, so it’s a great time to remind library users of the rich graphic novel and comics resources available in Special Collections & Archives. If you’re wondering who Will Eisner is and why he gets his own week, you can check out SCA Manuscript Archivist Rory Grennan’s brief…
Celebrating Dirac’s Nobel Prize
This December is the 85th anniversary of Paul Dirac’s Nobel Prize for Physics. Dirac was an English theoretical physicist who became a fundamental contributor to the development of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. The Dirac Equation, which was formulated in 1928, described the behavior of fermions, or subatomic particles, and predicted the existence of antimatter.…
Recapping Archives Month at FSU
October is a special month for those us in the archives. It’s an entire month to celebrate our collections and, more importantly, our work which is often shrouded in mystery. Even for our co-workers in libraries. So, archivists have embraced American Archives Month, held every October, as a way to share what it is we…
Poetry in Protest, a new Exhibit in Strozier Library
Poetry can be a powerful tool for eliciting emotion and is frequently used to express dissent or advocate for change. FSU Special Collections & Archives’ latest exhibition, “Poetry in Protest,” explores the genres, tactics, and voices of poets that write against the existing world and imagine societal revolution. As a means of delving into the…
Ruffians, Scoundrels, and Buccaneers: Pirates Throughout the Ages
The following blog post was written by Joseph, Special Collections & Archives Scholar in Residence and Guest Curator of our latest exhibit Ruffians, Scoundrels, and Buccaneers: Pirates Throughout the Ages. My name is Joseph and I am 11 years old. I started coming to Special Collections with my mom when I was between 5 and 6…
Florida State: Traditions through the Eras
Florida State: Traditions through the Eras is an exhibit that traces back some of Florida State University’s most well-known traditions through the institution’s long history. What we now know as FSU has gone through many changes over the years: beginning as the Seminary West of the Suwannee River, then the Florida State College, Florida State…
Celebrating the 4th
Special Collections & Archives, along with Strozier Library, the Claude Pepper Library and the Heritage Museum are closed in observance of Independence Day. All our spaces will resume normal hours on Thursday, July 5, 2018. We wish you a safe and happy Fourth of July!
What They Fought: Resistance to Integration and the Path to the 1956 Tallahassee Bus Boycott
In the spring of 1956, after students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson from Florida A&M University, were arrested and jailed for refusing to leave the “whites only” section of a Tallahassee bus, the African-American community of the city rallied together to boycott the city bus service and take a stand for their civil rights and…
Responding to Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Children’s Book Calls for Peace
War & Peace for Children The Special Collections book we’re highlighting today has a very specific mission: to teach children (and perhaps, the adults reading to or with them) about the post-nuclear world, and about the need for peace. On the Wings of Peace: In Memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a 1995 collection of…
Clifton in the Capital: Tallahassee Civic Activist Exhibition Opening
Guests are invited to explore the life works of Clifton Van Brunt Lewis, a local activist in the Tallahassee civil rights movement who championed for equality, pushed for historic preservation and founded many of Tallahassee’s beloved cultural institutions, including LeMoyne Center for the Arts, Tallahassee Museum, and the Spring House Institute. Clifton and her husband…
Poetry and Nature: Robert Burns’ “Tim’rous Beastie”
In keeping with month’s theme, Poetry and Nature, I wanted to turn back to Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse,” a poem that delights and provokes upon each reread. In the poem we can see Burns’ tendency to find inspiration in the everyday; a brief encounter with nature gives him the opportunity to ruminate on the…
In his “Great Shadow”: Robert Burns’ Legacy
Robert Burns’ ability to spontaneously produce musical and poignant verse earned him the title of “Scotland’s Bard,” and ensured that his legacy would remain especially close to that nation’s people and their descendants. Special Collections & Archives’ forthcoming exhibit, “In his ‘Great Shadow’: Robert Burns’ Legacy,” opening January 22nd, explores not only the lyrical finesse…
The Age of Experience: We Tell Better Stories
An exhibition of new work by Amy Fleming, The Age of Experience: We Tell Better Stories, is coming to the Claude Pepper Museum at the Claude Pepper Center, 636 West Call Street, Tallahassee, on the campus of Florida State University. The exhibition runs from December 1, 2017, to January 19, 2018, with an opening reception December…
A Brief History of FSU’s International Programs
Florida State University’s international programs celebrate 60+ years of connecting students interested in new cultural experiences and a brand new learning environment. Within the program today, students can choose from more than 20 locations, ranging from Panama to China and everywhere in between. Those who are interested in studying abroad, are offered a flexible schedule,…
FSU’s Law School & President Emeritus D’Alemberte
Established in 1966 by former Florida Supreme Court Justice B.K. Roberts, Florida State University’s College of Law has contributed many notable individuals to the law community, such as current Florida House of Representatives Majority Leader Adam Hasner and current Senior Judge for the United States Air Force, W. Thomas Cumbie. A scrapbook documenting the planning…
Time for #AskAnArchivist Day!
FSU Special Collections & Archives will be participating in #AskAnArchivist Day again this year! We’ll be taking over the FSU Libraries Twitter account (@FSULibrary) from 10am to 2pm on Wednesday, October 4, 2017, to answer all your questions about our materials, what we do and why we do it. Not sure what #AskAnArchivist day is?…
Illuminations: Highlights from Special Collections & Archives
While this blog serves as a running feature of highlights from Special Collections & Archives, our newest exhibit makes the materials we talk about online available for the public to see in person. Illuminations the exhibit features items from our manuscript and rare books collections, Heritage & University Archives, and the Claude Pepper Library. Come and…
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Special Collections Research Center
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Claude Pepper Library and Museum
636 West Call Street
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Heritage Museum
641 University Way
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Illuminations 