Annual Report St. Olaf Archives
Shaw-Olson Center for College History
(St. Olaf Archives)
Annual Report: 2004-05
Gary De Krey, Director
Jeff Sauve, Associate Archivist
July 29, 2005
I. ARCHIVAL ACQUISITIONS AND COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT
Office Statistics:
- Accessioned 250 new collections
- Generated 4487 new electronic records
Major Additions and Accessioning: 115 new boxes received June 1, 2004 to May 31, 2005.
Major additions to the collection
- WCAL records (81 boxes), including photographs, correspondence, recordings, station memorabilia, microphones and many hours of collecting time
- Several boxes of Howard Hong’s professional papers and St. Olaf materials
- Signature boards from George Weida Spohn guest bed with numerous St. Olaf student, faculty, alumni, and visitor signatures (including Carl Sandburg)
- Portrait of Ole Fugleskjel (class of 1894), the “lost Ole,” by Herbjorn Gausta, received from descendant Ms. Betty Parrott
- Professional and faculty papers from Robert Nichols and David Wee
- A collection of St. Olaf pennants and banners donated by Jon Rondestvedt ‘61
- Mock court tapes from Charles Umbanhower’s Jurisprudence class
- English department distinction papers (1928-present)
- Athletic photos retrieved from Manitou Field House storage by Tom Porter
Major accessioning and databasing projects
- News bureau photos and negatives, 1960-90
- Music department audiocassettes
- Distinction papers from English, History, and Nursing departments
- David Wee papers
- Most St. Olaf publications in collection now in database
II. PUBLIC EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Providing Assistance to Patrons
- Major assistance to and ghost writing for St. Olaf magazine editor and contributors
- Routine assistance to the Marketing-Communications Office on a variety of historical topics
- Routine assistance to Alumni-Parent Office in responding to historical queries from alumni and parents
- Photographic and research assistance to Tom Porter and Bob Phelps for The Greatest Game; Football at St. Olaf College 1893-2003 (2004).
- Assistance to Michael Cohen, Harvard graduate student, for article about co-education at St. Olaf and Carleton in late Nineteenth Century.
- Provided ongoing archival and financial support (College History Fund) to Joe Shaw, Prof. of Religion Emeritus, for his biography in progress of President Thorbjorn N. Mohn
- Ongoing assistance to B. J. Johnson and Music Department for such events as the Norway tour and retirement of Robert Scholz.
- Ongoing assistance to Karen Wilson and Theatre Department for digitization of archived theatre images.
- 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 inquires 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 about a variety of subjects from persons not connected to St. Olaf, including the Center for John Dewey Studies (SIU), Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard, the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, and the Dakota County Historical Society (e-mails, attached photos and documents, faxes, telephone calls, letters)
Display, Treatment, and Preservation of Historical Artifacts
- Conservation of Norwegian immigrant trunk provided gratis by James Hanson ‘55
- Continued reorganization of photo collection in subject books with mylar sleeves in vault
- Preservation of new athletic photos recovered from Field House storage
- Continued transferal of current chapel talks to CDs for archival preservation
- Continued transferal of older recordings to CDs: work done by Language Lab
Exhibits
- Contributed ten images and metadata to “Minnesota Reflections,” the first online project of the Minnesota Digital Library
Public History
Authored by Jeff Sauve
- Historical Tidbits from the Archives posted in St. Olaf e-newsletter
- Additional Tidbits circulated on campus e-mail
- “The Heroine of the North: The Works of Sister Anna Huseth,” Historical Tidbit circulated on campus e-mail
Presentations made by Gary De Krey:
- “A St. Olaf Primer”: new power point show for new faculty and staff, August 30, 2004
- “Forming St. Olaf, 1874-1942” (slide show):
- Area Coordinators, August 16, 2004
- Am Con 201, Sept. 27, 2004
- Chapel talk on 50 th anniversary of retirement of Sir Winston Churchill: April 5, 2005
- Luncheon talk for class of 1950 reunion: May 28, 2005
- Historical and architectural tour of Holland Hall for family reunion group
Presentations made by Jeff Sauve:
- Chapel talk about Elise Ytterboe and death of Ytterboe child, March 1, 2005 (version published in July 2005 Metro Lutheran)
- “Hats off to St. Olaf” (power point show)
- Northfield senior citizens: June 22, 2004
- Academic Administrative Assistants: May 3, 2005
- “The Roscoe Giant,” a talk about a local historical topic presented three times in Zumbrota, MN, and noticed in local papers with attention to St. Olaf Archives (Sauve)
Historical Consulting
- Wrote Nygaard grant application on behalf of College Archives, Luther College Archives, and NAHA to fund establishment of an online collection of Norwegian-American photographic images (application unsuccessful).
- Visited with Luther College and Vesterheim Museum archival staff in Decorah, Iowa about Norwegian-American digital photographic collection.
- Visited Concordia College (Moorhead) Archives and Center for Western Studies (Augustana College, Sioux Falls) to talk about Norwegian-American digital photo collection.
- Participated in on-campus discussions with Paddy Dale, Roberta Lembke, Bryn Geffert, Todd Nichol, Dan Dressen, and others about the creation of a campus digital consortium for Norwegian-American projects
- Co-hosted (with NAHA) visit of Tzianeng Vang (Interim Director of Hmong Archives, St. Paul) and associates
- Assisted PBS researcher with photographs for documentary about Norwegian Americans
- Met with director of Northfield Historical Society and planning committee for Northfield Sesquicentennial
- Prepared list of St. Olaf students killed in American wars for Northfield war memorial
- Assisted Susan Hvistendahl with St. Olaf images and details for Northfield Sesquicentennial calendar.
- Assisted Joan Olson and others preparing a Northfield Sesquicentennial cookbook.
- Provided Dean’s Office with list of faculty names to honor with possible endowed chairs
- Provided historical information to Northfield Historic Buildings Commission
- Advised Cora Scholz about archiving records of Northfield Youth Choir
- Zumbrota Area Historical Society Board (Sauve)
III. ENCOURAGING STUDENT, STAFF & ALUMNI USE OF THE CENTER
- Meetings with Registrar’s staff to facilitate archiving of material
- Assisted with projects for Gen Ed 111I(Fall), First-year writing, taught by David Wee
- Assisted with projects for American Conversations 201 (Fall), taught by Mathew Rohn and Judy Kutulas
- Assisted with projects for Environmental Studies 270 (Fall), taught by Mathew Rohn
- Assisted with projects for Theatre 270 (Fall), taught by Karen Wilson
- Assisted with projects for Art and Art History 271 (Interim), taught by Nancy Thompson
- Assisted with projects for American Conversations 102 (Spring), taught by Mary Titus and Eric Fure-Slocum
- Assisted with projects for Gen Ed 111B (Spring), First-year writing, taught by Jan Allister
- Archives open house for Celebration weekend
- Assisted Micki Hemstad and 50 th reunion committee for class of 1955
- Provided assistance and materials for ROTC reunion during Celebration Week-end
- Continuing assistance to The Manitou Messenger, and the Viking yearbook.
IV. PROVIDING ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO NAHA & THE CENTER/ARCHIVES
- Expansion of Archives database to 51,765 records and about 70% of the collection
- Brought Leif, the new electronic finding aid for NAHA manuscript collection, online
- Introduced Leif at NAHA triennial members’ meeting.
- Brought total of scanned NAHA images up to 1500
- Brought total of NAHA data-based records up to 1160, about 80% of that collection
- Scanning project for St. Olaf alumni magazine completed through 1960: fully searchable text of all scanned articles now available on the Archives web site, with plans to continue, as budget permits
V. ORAL HISTORY
- Continued the rerecording on CDs of older voice recordings as detailed above.
- Downloaded all Chapel talks on CDs from WCAL web site.
- Recorded stories with Class of 1955 as part of their 50 th reunion
- Recorded Bob Nichols’s reminiscences about the history of the History department
VI. ENDOWMENT FOR THE CENTER FOR COLLEGE HISTORY
- Received gift from David Granskou, class of 1950
- Sought outside funding for restoration of President Mohn’s desk, the kind of project that an endowment could support budget offset.
