Annual Report St. Olaf Archives

                                               
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Shaw-Olson Center for College History
(St. Olaf Archives)

Annual Report:  2003-04

Gary DeKrey, Director
Jeff Sauve, Associate Archivist

June 17, 2004

I.  Archival Acquisitions and Collections Development

Office Statistics:

  • Accessioned 139 new collections
  • Generated 3513 new electronic records

Major Additions and Accessioning:  30 new boxes received June 1, 2003 to May 31, 2004

Major additions to the collection

  • Seven boxes of H.T. Ytterboe papers received from NAHA
  • File cabinet of theater production programs, photos, and records since 1920s from Theater Department
  • Two boxes of summer theological conference audiotapes from Janet K. Thompson
  • Nine boxes from President's Office
  • Six boxes of communications and marketing material from Communications Office
  • Initial donation of Harold Ditmanson papers and memorabilia; active solicitation of family members for significant historical materials remaining in their hands
  • Several hundred images of athletics teams transferred from Skoglund with assistance of Tom Porter
  • Budget purchases of historical St. Olaf souvenir china, athletic postcards, and miscellaneous items from auctions and dealers
  • Early band uniform received from David J. Davidson '53
  • Received several student scrapbooks from 1904 through 1920s.

Major accessioning projects

  • Sixty-one boxes of E. Clifford Nelson papers completed
  • Over four hundred St. Olaf phonograph records individually accessioned
  • Over one hundred boxes of archival material added to online database, including David E. Johnson papers and papers of the Deans of Men and Women
  • Nine file cabinets of general historical information added to online database
II.  Public Education and Outreach

Providing Assistance to Patrons

  • Major assistance to St. Olaf magazine editors and writers for articles about NAHA-College Archives online projects and Sidney Rand
  • Provided ongoing archival and financial support (College History Fund) to Joe Shaw, Prof. of Religion Emeritus, for his current biography of President Thorbjorn N. Mohn
  • Provided materials to Eida Berrio and Bonita Bartholomew for Women's History Month
  • Provided assistance and artifacts to Carleton College students preparing exhibit about civil defense in Northfield in the 1960s for Northfield Historical Society
  • Major assistance to David Sudermann, working on history of the Way family gift, and to a variety of faculty and staff examining history of faculty status for librarians
  • Provided research responses to fifteen or more monthly inquiries from faculty or staff about records in our care (e-mails, attached photos and documents, faxes, telephone calls, letters)
  • Provided research responses to five or more monthly inquiries from St. Olaf alumni or alumni descendants about family connections to St. Olaf (e-mails, attached photos and documents, faxes, telephone calls, letters)
  • Provided research responses to five or more monthly inquires from persons not connected to St. Olaf about a variety of subjects, including family connections to defunct college whose records we hold (e-mails, attached photo and documents, faxes, telephone calls, letters).

Display, Treatment, and Preservation of Historical Artifacts

  • Provided new historical signage for the stained glass windows in Rolvaag 525 (Hauge Room)
  • Continued transferal of current chapel talks to CDs for archival preservation
  • Continued transferal of older recordings to CDs: work done by the Language Lab
  • Improved arrangement of all music organization recordings and memorabilia
  • Improved preservation and rearrangement of all student scrapbooks

Exhibits

Public History

Publications authored by Gary De Krey

  • "Remembering the Korean Was: How an earlier war defined a generation of St. Olaf Students," St. Olaf; the Magazine of St. Olaf College, 50, 3 (Fall, 2003) p. 42
  • "A Tradition of Diversity," Ibid., 51, 1 (January, 2004) pp. 21-29

Publications authored by Jeff Sauve

  • "Play Ball!  A look back at early athletics at St. Olaf," St. Olaf; the Magazine of St. Olaf College, 50, 3 (Fall, 2003), p. 3
  • Historical "Tidbits from the Archives" posted in monthly St. Olaf e-newsletter and on the President's Office web site at:  http://www.stolaf.edu/president/enewletter/archives.html
  • Additional "Tidbits" circulated on campus e-mail.

Presentations made by Gary De Krey:

  • "Forming St. Olaf, 1874-1942" (slide show):  Regularly shown on local access TV
  • "Transforming St. Olaf, 1942-1963" (power point show):  AAAs meeting, Jan. 6, 2004
  • Chapel talk for Centennial of H.T. Ytterboe's death.

Presentations made by Jeff Sauve:

  • "St. Olaf:  A to Z" (slide show)
         + Area hall coordinators:  August 6, 2003
         + Orientation for new faculty and staff:  August 25, 2003
         + Kildahl Hall JCs: November 13, 2003
  • "Hats off to St. Olaf" (power point show)
         + Alumni Journeys lunch: may13, 2004
         + Celebration weekend: May 29, 2004.

Presentations made by Joan Olson

  • "Forming St. Olaf, 1874-1942" (slide show): Mellby Dorm group, February 2004

Historical Consulting

  • Documentation about four St. Olaf buildings for inclusion in the Survey of Historic Architecture and Design of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC)
  • Facilities workshop for Waldorf College committee charged with establishing an institutional archive.
  • Background and historical information for FDR Archives (Hyde Park, NY), National Scouting Museum, Harvard University, and the Harlem Globetrotters
  • Database of student names for inclusion on wind chimes for memorial tower and continuing response to inquiries from interested families
  • Historical resource for the Northfield News, the Northfield Heritage Preservation Committee, and the Northfield Hospital
  • Assistance to Music Department and Jill Ewald in placement of F. Melius Christiansen and P.G. Schmidt portraits in Library Reference Room
  • Extensive consultation with Northfield, Randolph, Kenyon, and Minnesota historical societies
  • Zumbrota Area Historical Society Board (Sauve)
III.  Encouraging Student and Alumni Use of the Center/Archives
  • Advised/assisted research projects for American Conversations 201, taught by Jim Farrell and DeAne Lagerquist
  • Advised/assisted research projects for English 185 (David Wee)
  • Co-supervision of public history internship for high school senior Christopher Muessig
  • Continuing assistance to The Manitou Messenger, and the Viking yearbook
  • Assistance to students working on a variety of individual projects including Northfield environmental history and first-generation students at St. Olaf.
  • Assistance to Mary Loven Holt, Judith Stoutland, and others preparing historical memorabilia for class reunions
  • Archives open house for Celebration weekend
  • Assisted Todd Nichol, King Olav V Chair, in devising writing assignments using archival records for Norwegian-American history courses
IV. Providing Electronic Access to the Center/Archives
  • Two new exhibits placed online as detailed above
  • We site links established to online copies of Prof. I.F. Grose, Fifty Memorable Years at St. Olaf (1925) at the Library of Congress American Memories site and at the ancestry.com Web site.
  • The on-line collections database under construction was expanded to a current total of 43,893 records.  The database now includes approximately 60% of the collection
  • First sixteen years of Alumni magazine issues were scanned by outside vendor for inclusion in Archives online database.  Fully searchable text of all articles scanned will become available in 2004-05.  Scanning will continue, as budget permits, until all alumni magazine text is available online.
  • Discussion with Roberta Lembke, Brad Mikkelsen, Dan Beach and others about creation of the on-line Norwegian-American photographic image database envisaged in current Nygaard grant to NAHA and the Center for College History
V.  Oral History
  • Continued moderation of the Stories Forum at Cafe Ole on the Alumni and Family Relations Office web site
  • Interviewed Naurine Lennox about her unique St. Olaf ROTC membership as a female student
  • Oral history sessions with class of 1954 and other reunion groups
  • Trained Mrs. Edward Sovik, who recorded a lengthy interview with Ed about his life and professional work
  • Continued the rerecording on CDs of older voice recordings as detailed above
  • Downloaded all Chapel talks on DCs from WCAL web site.
VI.  Continuing Education
  • Attended Great Plains History Conference, Fargo, ND, October 3-4 (Sauve)
VII.  Endowment for the Center for College History
  • Met with the president, dean, vice-present for advancement, and associate dean for IGS to encourage the College to follow through on its announced intention of raising an endowment of $1 million to support the work of the Center through budget offset.