Special Collections & Archives, GMU Libraries

Madness at Mason

2006-10-31T07:20:00.000-08:00

Special Collections & Archives announces the launch of Madness @ Mason: Documenting a Dream Season. Madness @Mason is an electronic archive of artifacts, printed materials and other items that documents the Mason men's basketball team's 2005-06 season and NCAA Tournament run. The project was conceived by the University Libraries' Special Collections and Archives department to preserve items related to the season and facilitate greater access to them through the World Wide Web.

2006-09-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Special Collections & Archives was recently featured in The Mason Gazette. David Driver's article, "Libraries' Archivists Join the 'Mason Nation' with Enthusiasm, is a nice summary of SC&A's efforts to collect materials from the 2005-2006 men's basketball season. The article can be found at http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/8970/

Fiscal Year In Review

2006-07-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

Special Collections & Archives
2005/2006 Fiscal Year Highlights

SC&A focused its efforts on creating digital collections including the C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Digital Collection, the Planned Community Archives: Catherine A. Baum Digital Collection, and the 1972 Richard Nixon Campaign Photographs Collection. All of these collections are accessible via the Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS).

SC&A staff worked on preparations for a new Special Collections & Archives facility to be built in the new wing of Fenwick Library. During exploratory stages, Paul Koda, Robert Vay, Anne Hakes, and Veronica Fletcher toured the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections & Archives Library at the University of Virginia, and developed detailed documents specifying the required elements for SC&A’s presence in the new wing.

Veronica Fletcher toured Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s newly renovated Special Collections Library in preparation for a new Special Collections & Archives facility to be built in the new wing of Fenwick Library.

Anne Hakes toured the new Special Collections wing in the newly renovated Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary.

SC&A obtained five map cases to house its oversized flat items. Most notably, SC&A transferred numerous maps from the C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Collection into the cases.

SC&A accessed 17 cubic feet of materials from the estate of Edith Ker. The materials included photographs, slides, and travel journals. An image from the Ker Collection was selected to be the cover of the University Libraries’ 2005 seasonal greeting card.

Myra Anson Nicholas, daughter of the late Abraham Anson, donated her father’s scholarly materials to SC&A. The geographic surveying collection consists of 14 cubic feet of aerial photographs, working papers and lab notes, Anson publications, glass plate negatives, and slides.

Barbara Thaler’s donated nine Arthur Scott photography scrapbooks. This donation is a rich addition to SC&A’s Arthur Scott Collection. The collection came to SC&A thanks to the efforts of Theodore McCord, who worked with Thaler and the Scott family to bring the scrapbooks to SC&A.

SC&A invited Detective B.C. Bannon from the GMU Police Department to visit the department and to conduct a security audit, which the staff used as a springboard to compile a more thorough analysis. Additionally, staff continued to work to limit the number of after-hours alarms that are accidentally triggered in SC&A.

The Planned Community Archives Board unanimously voted to officially transfer ownership of the Planned Community Archives Collection (PCA) to George Mason University Libraries.

Paul Koda, Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, retired from George Mason University on March 17, 2006. Preliminary steps were taken to find a new Head of SC&A.

Anne Hakes toured the Conservation Lab at the University of Maryland’s McKeldin Library with fellow members of the Libraries’ Preservation Planning Committee.

As Mason’s official repository, SC&A actively collected men’s basketball materials related to the team’s season and participation in the NCAA tournament.

In April, University Libraries and the Center for Study of Public Choice co-sponsored the first inaugural James M. Buchanan Lecture. In correlation with the lecture, SC&A created the James M. Buchanan Electronic Collection, accessible via the Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS), and a physical exhibition and keepsake flyer.

In the spring, the Records Management website underwent a complete upgrade.

SC&A accessioned approximately 35 cubic feet of material from retiring GMU faculty member, Jerry Clapsaddle.

SC&A accessioned 298 Mason dissertations and theses.

Records Management accessioned 1314 cubic feet of new materials, disposed of 472 c.f., and handled 120 retrieval requests.

Katja Hering, Robert Vay, and former Librarian of Special Collections & Archives, Paul Koda, conducted an oral history interview with Edwin Meese, former United States Attorney General and former GMU Board of Visitor member.

SC&A curated a number of exhibitions during the 2005-2006 fiscal year, including The Yellow Book and the Age of Decadence,” “What Can a Woman Do,” and “The History of Virginia in Books.”

A large number of the books in the C. Harrison Mann Collection were professionally conserved by Etherington Conservation.

Anne Hakes attended the conferences of MARAC, VAGARA, and SLA. She is the webmaster of the University of Maryland’s student SLA chapter, which received the SARC award for Creative Use of Electronic Resources.

Anne Hakes presented a poster on digital conservation at the LOEX Annual Conference at the University of Maryland on May 5th.

Robert Vay attended “Copyright at a Crossroads: The Impact of Mass Digitization on Copyright and Higher Education”. The symposium was held June 14-16 at UMUC in College Park, MD.

Katja Hering, Robert Vay, and Anne Hakes interviewed Mason Basketball player Lamar Butler at the Patriot Center on June 30th.

2006-06-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

SC&A Collecting Areas

Recently, there has been several questions regarding what types of materials SC&A collects. SC&A's collecting areas are quite diverse, including such topics as the history of George Mason University, theater, photography, transportation, and planned communities.

Futhermore, Special Collections & Archives specializes in collecting Northern Virginia related items, pertaining to a variety of topics such as:

Transportation
Planned Communities
Civil War
George Mason, the historical figure

SC&A already has numerous Northern Virginia collections, including:

Planned Community Archives Collection
Eleanor L. Templeman Local History Collection
Ruth Preston Rose Collection
Henry Lampe Papers
The League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area Collection
C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Collection
Jack Underhill Collection

Special Collections & Archives seeks to collect:

Maps
Photographs
Books
Working papers
Manuscripts
Oral histories

2006-05-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Staff accomplishments
Several SC&A student workers are coming to the end of their careers at Mason. Liz Lordan graduates this spring, with a degree in managment. Liz has worked in SC&A for four years. Other students, Elizabeth Winder and Hyun Kim, are graduating this summer. Elizabeth is earning a master's degree in creative writing and Hyun is graduating with a degree in interntional studies. SC&A warmly congratulates these and all other Mason graduates.

2006-04-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Exhibition
There is a Special Collections & Archives exhibition located in the display cases on the second floor of Fenwick Library, Wing A. The exhibition is entitled "The History of Virginia in Books," and highlights some of Special Collections & Archives' recent acquisitions. Special Collections & Archives actively collects Virginia history, including the history of Northern Virginia and Jamestowne (the Herschel H. Helm Collection). Featured in the exhibit are: John Burk's The History of Virginia, from It's First Settlement to the Present Day. Petersburg, Virginia, published in 1804, 1805 and 1816; William Stith's The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, published in 1865; and T. B Warder and James Catlett's Battle of Young's Branch, or Manassas Plain, Fought July 21, 1861, published in 1862. The exhibit will be up through the end of May. Please stop by and check it out!

James M. Buchanan Inaugural Lecture
On April 7th the Center for the Study of Public Choice and University Libraries hosted the first James M. Buchanan Lecture. Distinguished guest lecturer Deirdre McCloskey was the keynote speaker, discussing "The Hobbes Problem: From Machiavelli to Buchanan." Robert Vay, electronics text coordinator, also spoke, discussing the process of making materials available via the Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS) . Following the lecture a reception was held in Mason Hall featuring the exhibit, "Biography of a Book." The exhibit, currated by Special Collections & Archives graduate students Adam Fielding and Carrie Hoover, featured letters, photographs and other documents related to the making of The Calculus of Consent. The Calculus of Consent, 1962, presented public choice theory as an innovative approach to to analyzing the political process as it relates to the economy. Photographs from the event can be found at: http://condor.gmu.edu/~photography/images/webbuchanan2/

2006-03-15T10:52:00.000-08:00

Staff News

Paul Koda, Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, recently announced his retirement from George Mason University. Paul has been the head of Special Collections & Archives for fourteen years and has been instrumental in its growth and development. His last day at GMU will be March 16, 2006.

Numerous graduate students, from the History Department, have been hired to fulfill various SC&A duties. Adam Fielding was hired to assist with the first inaugural Buchanan lecture, to be held on April 7, 2006. Rachel Korpan Lee was hired to work on the Catherine Baum Reston Images Digitization Project. Pearl Harris was hired to assist Anne Hakes with Records Management duties. Peter Cashman was hired to work on Electronic Finding Aid/Research Guides (EADs).

2006-02-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Recent Acquisition

Arthur Scott scrapbooks.
Barbara Thaler’s recent donation of nine Arthur Scott photography scrapbooks is a rich addition to SC&A’s Arthur Scott Collection. Arthur E. Scott (1913-1977), widely known as "Scotty" on Capitol Hill, first covered the United States Congress in 1935 as a photographer for the Washington Times. Later, he worked for International News Service and United Press International. In 1955, he became the photographer for the Republican Senatorial Committee where he served for the next twenty years. During his last year with the U.S. Senate, he was the official photo-historian for the Senate Historical Office. There he set to work on a project he had advocated for many years - collecting a likeness of every person who had served as a United States senator. The scrapbooks reflect Scott’s career as a Washington photographer, capturing a variety of images such as capital monuments, U.S. Presidents, and military drills. After proper conservation, the scrapbooks will be available for examination in Special Collections & Archives. This recent addition to the Scott Collection is thanks to Dr. Theodore McCord, Associate Professor of History, who has worked as a liaison between the Scott family and University Libraries.

2006-01-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

Recent Acquisition:

Samuel Moore

An Accurate System of Surveying, 1796

This 1796 book has long been considered the first, totally American work on the practice of surveying. Its comparatively “late” publication date is somewhat surprising because of the obvious need for accurate surveying instruction, mainly because the development of colonial America was a pressing activity. It was a skill mastered by many Americans, not least of whom was George Washington.

Samuel Moore (1737?-1810) was born in colonial Connecticut and practiced surveying for over thirty years before writing An Accurate System of Surveying. He recounts his experience and desires for the book as follows:

Having pursued the business of practical surveying more than thirty years, long experience demonstrated the inaccuracy of the common methods of practice , and induced me to endeavor [sic] a correction thereof, and enlargement upon so important a subject. Many years close study produced what is now, in the following sheets [i.e. pages of the book], offered to the consideration of the candid reader. [p. v]

Most of the problems he addresses involve mathematics rather than field measurements, having been dissatisfied with relatively “crude,” but common practice of determining areas by plotting surveys on paper using triangulation.

Moore, Samuel. An Accurate System of Surveying. Litchfield [CT], Printed by T. Collier, 1796. Octavo half-sheets in 4s, xiii, 132 pp.

2005-10-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

Exhibition

There is a Special Collections & Archives exhibition located in the display cases on the second floor of Fenwick Library, Wing A. The exhibition is entitled The Yellow Book and the Age of Decadence. The Yellow Book was a magazine, but published in a hard-bound book format. Its signature yellow cover with a black drawing was first created by the English artist, Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). Beardsley's "sinister" art adorned the cover of the first four numbers and inside pages of the early issues. Although not associated with the magazine afterward, he set its tone. Notable writers that published in The Yellow Book include Max Beerbohn, Henry James, and W.B. Yeats. Even though The Yellow Book only ran for thirteen issues, it had a cultural impact wider than its limited run. The books in the exhibition are from the library of Professor Roger Lathbury who teaches in George Mason University's Department of English. The University Libraries is grateful for his generosity in allowing them to be exhibited.

The exhibit can be viewed via digital format at:
http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/yellowbook.html

Notable Research

Ourania Karoula, a doctoral candidate from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, began her dissertation research using SC&A's Federal Theatre Project Collection. Karoula will be in the United States for six weeks and plans on conducting most of her research in SC&A. Her focus is on the relationship of art and politics.

Staff Accomplishments

SC&A staff members, Paul Koda, Robert Vay, Anne Hakes, and Veronica Fletcher toured the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections & Archives Library at the University of Virginia. The tour was focused on facilities planning and proper design of a special collections library.

Recent Acquisitions

SC&A recently acquired scrapbooks, diaries, slides, video tapes, and other archival materials from the estate of Edith Ker. Ker was a well-renowned safari photographer, and many of her photographs of Africa and African wildlife have been used in children's books. Her husband, Donald Ker, owned Ker & Downey Safaris in Kenya. She was also president of the Society of Women Geographers. The most recent acquisition will be added to the Ker Collection already in SC&A, consisting of over 10,000 35 mm slides. SC&A is grateful to Jean Moretti, executor of the Ker estate and long time friend of Ms. Ker, who made the acquisition possible.

2005-09-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Staff Accomplishments

Anne Hakes and Robert Vay attended the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Managment Skills Insititute workshop. The workshop was held on Mason's Fairfax campus from August 15 to 17, 2005.

People

SC&A hired Carrie Bowers, a graduate history student, to work on the Reston Virginia Electronic Images Collection (working title). The images are being carefully selected from several of SC&A’s collections, including the Planned Community Archives collection. The Planned Community Archives collection consists of numerous manuscripts, published books, government documents, flyers and ephemera, video and audio recordings, newspapers, journals, photographs, architectural drawings and plans, maps, and engineering reports. Manuscript materials include correspondence, memoirs, lectures, reports, and minutes. Once the images are selected and scanned, they will be accessible via MARS (Mason Archival Repository Service).

Renovation News

The creation of SC&A's new Mac-MARS Lab.

The Mac-MARS lab will provide the technological requirements for Special Collections & Archives scanning projects. Currently SC&A is undertaking two scanning projects to add to MARS (Mason Archival Repository Service). The C. Harrison Mann Collection scanning project highlights the accomplishments of C. Harrison Mann, one of the founders of GMU, who also served on the Virginia House of Delegates from 1954-1970. The Reston Images Electronic Collection will showcase the development of Reston, Virginia as a premier planned community, founded by Robert E. Simon. The Microteck ScanMaker 9800 XL will enable the scanning to be done at a rapid pace, and the Power MACs have more than enough memory to store the scanned images.

The Mac-MARS lab will be the primary oral history center. The George Mason University Oral History Program (GMU-OHP) records and preserves oral histories of individuals who have been members of the GMU community for a substantial amount of time (usually twenty-five years or longer) or who have made an important impact on the history of the University. In addition to the George Mason University Oral History Program, SC&A has several collections of oral histories available for research, such as the Planned Community Archives Oral History Project and the Reston Reflections Oral History Project.

The Mac-MARS lab will facilitate SC&A’s public service reproduction. Every year, SC&A fills hundreds of research requests for duplication of its images. The Microteck ScanMaker will enable these requests to be filled quickly and at the highest quality possible.

2005-08-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Notable Research

Last week, Stacey Stewart, a campaign associate from Arena Stage, visited SC&A to look at materials from the Arena Stage Collection. Stewart examined approximately thirty production notebooks, along with numerous photographs and historical documents. She was particularly interested in the Arena Stage seasons from the mid-1970s. During her visit she systematically compared them to more recent seasons and in the process made over 200 photocopies. Since George Mason University retains Arena Stage's historical materials, many of its employees conduct research in Special Collections & Archives. To learn more about the Arena Stage Collection please visit:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/arena.htm

During the renovations of Wing 2B, access to GMU theses and dissertations in Fenwick Library, has been limited to the unbound, archival copies in Special Collections & Archives. Consequently, SC&A has received numerous research inquires about dissertations and theses. For example, during the month of July, SC&A received 39 inquires about accessing dissertations and theses. GMU Ph.D. dissertations can be accessed online, either on campus or with your GMU identification number off campus, via “Current Research @” found at

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/current_research@.html

People

SC&A recently hired Elizabeth Winder to assist Bob Vay with coordinating the university’s dissertation and thesis service. Elizabeth is working towards her Master of Arts Degree in Creative Writing. We are happy to have her on board.

Accomplishments

Sid Frieland completed the Finding Aid/Research Guide for the William L. Mertz Transportation Collection. William Mertz (1920-1993), a former Federal Highway Administration Associate Administrator, played a leading role in planning and developing the Interstate system of highways in the United States. The collection contains transportation related materials collected over a forty-five year period. Types of materials include scholarly journal articles dealing with transportation topics, summaries of congressional acts relating to transportation, official reports and studies of transportation agencies, summaries of speeches given by transportation officials, and personal correspondence among transportation officials. The collection comprises 53 containers, and the total volume of the collection is 30.5 cubic feet or 45.75 linear feet. For more information about the William L. Mertz Collection, please visit:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/mertz.html

2005-07-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

People

SC&A recently hired Carrie Hoover to work on digitizing the C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Collection. Carrie is a history graduate student, who brings both historical knowledge and technical skills to the position. She will select key documents that provide insight into Mann's life and career. After careful selection, the documents will be scanned and available to view online through the Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS). For more information about MARS and the collections already available online, please visit

http://u2.gmu.edu:8080/dspace/index.jsp

Collection Highlights

SC&A has a rapidly growing number of digitized collections. This spring, SC&A added the Randolph H. Lytton Historical Postcards of Fairfax, Virginia Collection to its digitized collections. This collection serves as a window on the not-so-distant past for the City of Fairfax, Virginia. It features mainly Fairfax businesses, institutions, government buildings, and other places of interest. Many of the cards depict Fairfax places of lodging, particularly those along the Route 29 / Route 50 corridor. The collection contains about 200 color and black and white postcards. Total volume of the collection is .35 cubic feet or .5 linear feet. The digitized collection can be accessed at:

http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/gsdl/collect/lytton/lytton.shtml

Notable Researchers

Recently Tai Gerhart, a GMU history graduate student, examined approximately 15 cubic feet of material from the Early 20th Century Women's Magazine Collection. The collection consists of Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Vogue - the three most important women's literary-fashion magazines of the early twentieth century. This extensive collection was bequeathed to the George Mason University by the estate of Jane Nierling. The copies are especially worthwhile because they have not been bound, so the original covers - illustrated by many of the foremost illustrators of the period - have been retained. They are now available for study and research by students in women's studies, cultural studies, American history, literature and design. For more information about the Early 20th Century Women's Magazine Collection, please see:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/womensmags.html

Collection Development and GMU Departmental Histories

SC&A's largest collection is the George Mason University Archives, containing official, permanent papers and documents of the University. SC&A is interested in acquiring departmental histories, which would add to the overall history of the University. If you have any departmental historical materials or know of any departments on campus that do, please contact SC&A at speccoll@gmu.edu or 703-993-2220. An Electronic Documentary History of GMU is already available at:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/gmdcs.html

2005-06-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

Staff Accomplishments:

Anne Hakes and Robert Vay have been invited to attend an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Managment Skills Insititute workshop. The workshop is to be held on Mason's Fairfax campus on August 15-17, 2005. This ARL workshop was originally intended for only members of the Management Group, but the University Librarian, John Zenelis, chose to invite other members of the Library staff that might benefit from the workshop. For more information pertaining to this workshop, and ARL in general, please visit:

http://www.arl.org

People:

SC&A recently hired Lara Harmon to assist organizing SC&A's Rare Book Collection. Lara is a second year Theater major. We are happy to have her on board.

Collection Highlights:

The Francis C. Steinbauer Collection

Francis C. Steinbauer was a key participant in the development of Reston through the first twenty years of its growth as a major new community in Northern Virginia. In 1964 he joined Palindrome Corporation (later Reston VA, Inc), headed by founder Robert E Simon. The Steinbauer Collection consists of materials that include reports, photographs, manuals, and master plans. More information regarding the Steinbauer Collection can be found at:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/steinbauer.html

Notable Researchers:

Paul Renard, a Ph.D. candidate from Virginia Tech, looked at the entire Milton Barnes Civil War Collection The collection consists of numerous letters and photographs. Milton Barnes was a recently married lawyer in Cambridge, Ohio, when the Civil War began. He served first as a captain, commanding G Company of the 62nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The unit participated in the first Union invasion of the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862. When the 62nd Ohio was transferred to the Rappahannock in mid-1862, Captain Barnes was discharged on medical grounds and returned to Cambridge, Ohio. More about Milton Barnes and the collection can be found at:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/barnes.html

2005-06-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Four New Electronic Finding Aids/Research Guides

Special Collections & Archives recently created four new Electronic Finding Aids/Research Guides (EADs). Electronic Finding Aids/Research Guides are Internet browseable sources of information on collections in SC&A's holdings.

C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Collection EAD:

http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/gmu/vivadoc.pl?file=vifgm00053.xml

Mann (1908-1977) was in integral part of the creation of GMU. He served as the Chairman of George Mason College's first Board of Control. He sponsored bills constituting George Mason College as a branch of the University of Virginia and later elevating it to a four year division of the University with the right to grant degrees and offer graduate program. He served on the GMU Board of Visitors from 1975 to 1977.

Martha V. Pennino Collection EAD:

http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/gmu/vivadoc.pl?file=vifgm00060.xml

Martha Pennino (1918-2004) was called the Mother of Fairfax for her long service to the county. She was one of the longest-serving members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, spending 24 years on the board. She was first elected in November 1967, representing what was then the Centreville District. Pennino served as vice-chairman for 17 years.

Leonid Ozernoy Collection EAD:

http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/gmu/vivadoc.pl?file=vifgm00054.xml

Leonid M. Ozernoy (1939-2002) taught in the School of Computational Sciences and Informatices at GMU from 1993 to 2002. Born in Moscow, Ozernoy was one of the former Soviet Union's "refusniks" and came to the United States in 1986. He worked at Boston University and Harvard University before coming to the Washington, D.C., area in the early 1990s to join NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland as a consultant. At George Mason, he taught courses in computational sciences and physics, most recently Colloquium on Computational Sciences and Informatics, Astrophysics, and Modern Astronomy.

John Dockery Collection EAD:

http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/gmu/vivadoc.pl?file=vifgm00050.xml

John Dockery served on the Reston Community Association planning and Zoning Committee from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The collection contains materials relating to the Planning and Zoning Committee of the Reston Community Association. Maps, planning documents, memoranda, correspondence, legal documents, are in the collection.

All of SC&A’s EADs can be accessed at:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/eadfndgaids.html

Notable Researchers:

Last week, Peter Gough, a researcher from Utah, examined10 cubic feet of materials from the Federal Theater Project Collection, including listening to three oral histories. Gough is writing a book pertaining to the end of the Federal Theater Project and plans on visiting SC&A again this summer. More information about the Federal Theater Project Collection is available at: http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/federal.html

Recently, Ann White, a doctoral candidate from Northwestern University, visited SC&A, examining approximately 50 cubic feet from the Federal Theater Project Collection. White looked at a variety of material over the course of four days, including 25 oral history transcripts and Theater of the Thirties videotapes. She plans on returning in late June to conduct more research.

Online Collections Addition:

SC&A is pleased to announce a new addition to our online collections: Life at Bailey’s Crossroads 1961-1964, found at:
http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/mason_history1.pdf The beautifully designed booklet combines photographs and text by Richard Sparks, who is a free-lance photographer and artist. Mr. Sparks attended George Mason College at its first location at Bailey's Crossroads from 1961 until 1964. Sparks later returned to George Mason College/University, where he received his M.S. in biology in 1973.

Introducing SC&A

2005-06-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

The staff of Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) at George Mason University hopes to use this forum to announce new acquisitions, staff accomplishments, events, and other happenings in SC&A. We welcome your comments and any inquiries you may have regarding our postings. As always, please continue to visit our website, http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/ for more information. Feel free to e-mail us at speccoll@gmu.edu with any comments or questions.

People

SC&A would like to take this opportunity to recognize our two volunteers: Kay Liebermann and Sid Friedland. Kay and Sid have been devoted volunteers for years, helping to process and make collections accessible. Their service has proven to be an invaluable part of SC&A.
We would also like to bid farewell to two of our graduating students, Nate Smith and Ali Gardezi, who leave Mason with graduate degrees. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Events

SC&A supports a rich oral history program. Graduate assistant, Katja Hering, has been our oral history coordinator for the past year and will continue in that capacity for the 2005-2006 academic year. Just within the last month, she has interviewed:

J.J. Mathy, a long time contributor and supporter of GMU.
George Johnson was GMU's president from 1978 to 1996.

These interviews are available for research and review in SC&A.

Staff accomplishments

Anne Hakes is pursuing a Master's of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland. She was recently awarded a scholarship from the Friends Scholarship Fund sponsored by the Fairfax County Public Library Foundation, Inc.
Bob Vay was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award pertaining to his exhibit catalog, Simplicity, Performance, and Economy: The Origins of George Mason University's Fairfax Campus. Please visit the online exhibit at http://www.40th.gmu.edu/ It commemorates the Fortieth Anniversary of the building of GMU's Fairfax Campus. Just recently, Bob was chosen as an "Everyday Hero," by the Daily Gazette. Look for the upcoming article that details Bob's role as the University Dissertation and Thesis Coordinator.
Veronica Fletcher earned her MA degree in History from GMU in May.

Recent Acquisitions
Books on Northern Virginia History:

Warder, T.B. and James M. Catlett. Battle of Young's Branch, or, Manassas Plain, Fought July 21, 1861. The book noted for being an important Confederate imprint, with one of the best battlefield maps in the genre.
Burk, John. The History of Virginia, from Its First Settlement to the Present Day. Petersburg, Virginia, Dickson and Pescud, 1804-1805-1816.
It is the first comprehensive history of the Commonwealth published after the Revolutionary War.
Stith, William. The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. New York, Reprinted for Joseph Sabin, 1865.
The 1865 edition is a facsimile reprint of Stith's 1747 book. Joseph Sabin chose to reprint "edition A," also known as the first edition or Williamsburg edition of the two Parks editions. It was published by Sabin as the sixth in his reprint series.