-
Making 20th Century Patterns with 21st Century Materials: A Semester of Following Patterns Designed by Maud Churchill Nicoll
By Jessica Licker, Digital Literacy Librarian, Athens County Public Libraries, Master’s in Literary History, ’24, Rare Books Graduate Assistant, 2023-2024 At the end of the fall 2023 semester I began searching the Mahn Center rare book collection for anything related to fiber crafting. I was interested in experimenting with historic knitting or sewing patterns through…
-
Americana in Manuscript and Type: Piecing Together the Edward C. Fales Collection
By Alex Rienerth, ’25, MA in Literary History, 2024-2025 Graduate Assistant in Rare Books The Edward C. Fales collection was a bit of a mystery to me when I started working with it last semester. Many of the collections in rare books are extensively documented, including records from collectors that express their motivations and intentions…
-
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Geo-locating Athens, Ohio
By Adelle “Del” Stratton, History ’25 with a minor in Computer Science and certificate in Italian Studies, Digital Initiatives Assistant The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, a collection of maps published by the Sanborn Map Company, were made in response to fires during the 19th and 20th centuries. These maps of over 12,000 towns and cities within…
-
Handmade Narratives: Creativity, Expression, and Personal Stories within the Student Artist Books Collection
By Lindi M. Harden, Communication Studies ’25, Spring 2025 Intern Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent most of my time as an intern in Rare Books working with the Student Artist Books Collection, and it has quickly become a body of work to which I feel deeply connected. Because of the time I’ve spent…
-
Working with Film Negatives is Positively Fascinating
By Adrian Darden Kautz, History ’27, Digital Initiatives Assistant I have been working in the Archives & Special Collections Digital Initiatives unit since my first semester of college, and now I am about to finish my fourth semester! When I first took this job, I did not know much about digitizing historical materials, but I…
-
Welcome to Spring 2025!
By Miriam Intrator, Special Collections Librarian As a new semester is once again upon us, we are excited to offer a variety of events and opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the broader OHIO and Athens communities. Below is an overview of some of what is available this spring, through spring break. We encourage you…
-
Re-contextualizing How I View Public Education: An Exploration of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding
By Lizzy Daly, Communication Studies ’23, Margaret Boyd Scholar, Archives Assistant As an Archives Assistant for the manuscript collection in the Mahn Center, I have spent the majority of my time processing the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding (OCEASF) collection, which was donated by its founder Bill Phillis. Spending time with…
-
Welcome to Fall 2024!
By Miriam Intrator, Special Collections Librarian As a new semester and new academic year are once again upon us, there are many new events and opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the broader OHIO and Athens communities. Below is an overview of some of what’s available this coming fall. We encourage you to reach out…
-
Objects of Interest and Reflections on the Frank Buhla Collection
By Aurora Charlow, recent MS graduate of Simmons University, Metadata Assistant at Ohio University Libraries during the 2023-2024 academic year. In its heyday, from about 1880 to 1920, mines in the Hocking Valley Coal Field produced hundreds of thousands of tons of coal every year. It was pried from the ground, processed through mining tipples,…
-
The Athens Mental Health Center records – The Patients
By Julian Earley, BA ’26 Classical Civilizations, Digital Initiatives Assistant Everyone loves a good haunting. I too have been interested in ghost-hunting and wanted to know what lies in the Asylum here in Athens. But I think it’s important when we talk about the history of institutions like The Athens Mental Health Center to humanize…