Hi! This is Noelle! I’m a junior at UTC and a third year employee, or rather student worker, of the Lupton Library. I received the opportunity to work for the library through a scholarship, and although it has been one of the easiest jobs I’ve had, it has also been the most beneficial and interesting. I worked in the Material Processing section of the library for my first year, but transferred over to the Special Collections department my second year. I thoroughly enjoyed the transition, because the Special Collections department has been able to cater to my interest in history (I am a History major after all) and has allowed me to expand my knowledge of specific historical events such as the Civil War and World War I through their many collections.
I have recently been promoted to the task of going through the many unprocessed collections and describing them, getting to know the content and the person about whom they concern, and then translating that information into an online format so that other students can enjoy them. As of late, I have been processing the Cyrus Griffin Martin collection, a 2nd Lieutenant in the American Expeditionary Forces stationed in France during World War I. He was also a banker for the Atlanta National Bank and handled many of the finances of his battalions. His military papers and financial papers have been interesting to read, but possibly one of the best things I found was a government distributed pamphlet promoting the buying of war bonds.
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As the picture implies, buying war bonds helped push America to victory in the war. Similarly, finding small treasures of insight into the past motivates me to continue to work hard and appreciate the opportunities I have here in Special Collections.
Editorial Note: Welcome to the Lupton Library online community, Noelle! We will be asking Noelle, as part of her student worker duties, to report on her findings as she sifts through…cue scary music…The Archive! We can’t wait to hear what she digs up next!
This piece is very relevant to our country’s history and, specifically, to my social studies course. Last week, students brought to class political cartoons such as the one you’ve retrieved; they were required to explain them to the others. In history, events happened in the present, of course, and the work undertaken in the S.C. Department really helps your patrons to better understand this.
Really good point, Dr. M! We’ve been thinking lately about writing a post on how archival material is “made”. What will be archival material is created in the now and its relevancy is often not discovered for some time. BTW,we haven’t seen you in here in a while-it’s time to visit! We would also be happy to tailor a talk to your social studies class if you wanted to bring them in. See ya soon!