Minutes - June 2, 2010

Owned by Susan Graham
Last updated: Jun 15, 2010Version comment
7 min read

Maryland History and Culture Collaborative (MHCC)
St. Mary's College of Maryland
June 2, 2010

Attendees:

Anne Turkos (AT), UMCP
Bill Cady (BC), EPFL/SLRC, Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage
Carole Moody (CM), St. Mary's City Historical Society
David Ranson (DR), Salisbury University
Doug McElrath (DM), UMCP
Jeanette Lichtenwalner (JLW), Columbia Archives
Jennifer Neumyer (JN), UMES
Jill Craig (JC), Western MD Regional Library
Julia Lehnert (JL), National Park Service (Hampton & Ft. McHenry)
Kat Ryner (KR), St. Mary's College
Katherine Baer (KB), MD State Law Library
Lindsey Loeper (LL), UMBC
Martha Ruff (MR), Prince George's County Public Library
Michael Scott (MS), Enoc Pratt Free Library, Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage
Paul Berry(PB), Calvert Museum
Rich Behles (RB), Health Sciences
Robin Emrich (RE), Columbia Archives
Rob Schoeberlein (RS), MD State Archives
Rob Shindle (RSH), UB
Susan Graham (SG), UMBC
Tom Beck (TB), UMBC

I. Brief Introductions

  • In addition to the newsletter updates, the following participants had new information to share:

    • AT: Jennie Levine Knies is now on the Maryland Historical Society (MDHS) Library Committee.

    • MR: New brochure about the Sojourner Truth collection; Harriet Tubman artifacts will be on display at the future African American Museum; Harriet Tubman hymnal will be added to her library's collection.

    • PB: Calvert Museum has a volunteer staff; they have Tom Wisner's collection (slides, photos, correspondence).

    • MS: MDCH partnership with MDHS to digitize the MDHS materials on the War of 1812 in the next fiscal year.

    • TB: UMBC has two new acquisitions of portrait collections: Greif Archive (1940'2 -1990's) and Ankers Studio Archive (1930's – 1970's).

    • DM: Continues research on printed ephemera of 19th c. Baltimore; will be teaching a class on Special Collections at Maryland's iSchool.

    • KB: Preserving web-born documents; survey results reveal that 30% of URLs no longer working.

    • RE: Rouse papers box list on website; Bike-About took place on 5/8/10 (bike trails with history posters); Columbia Festival of the Arts is 6/11/10 – 6/13/10, Lucille Clifton tribute will take place there on Sunday 6/13/10.

    • KR: Lucille Clifton was a professor at St. Mary's; Michael Glaser (former poet laureate of MD) put together a memorial service for Lucille Clifton, KR and her student created and contributed a poster of photos of Lucille for the service.

II. Wiki Update, Lindsey Loeper

  • LL will send out a link to the wiki.

  • Repository List: Everyone is encouraged to look at their institution's entry and check the information for accuracy. If you would like to add your repository's information to the page, or if you would like to add more information to an existing entry, Michael Scott has volunteered to be the main contact to upload that information. LL will send out a template via email. Repository representatives can fill in the template and send to MS, and she will put it on the wiki. You may look at the Health Sciences page as an example of what can be done.

  • Feature of the Month: In January the Wiki Group started doing a "Feature of the Month," (FOM) to make the wiki more dynamic and attract members to the wiki. All wiki group member institutions contributed a feature, but nobody else volunteered. LL asked if we should continue this feature? Discussion: The FOM is included in the newsletter; Change the frequency from monthly to coincide with meetings (so it is not so often); Have a sign-up at meetings and online (for those who missed the meeting), so that somebody is responsible for that feature.

  • Statistics: The wiki is getting more traffic. Feb. 2010: 97 views; May 2010: 173 views.

III. Newsletter Update, Rob Shindle

  • RS asked the group if producing the newsletter is something that should be continued.

  • Everyone agreed that the newsletter looks great, and is grateful to RS for his excellent work.

  • Purpose: as a service to the MHCC, to use as outreach.

  • Dissemination: to MHCC members; in future could be sent to museums and historical societies; can leave in reading rooms for researchers to take.

  • Cost: RS likes to create the newsletter. His institution, UB, can't promise to sustain printing for other campuses. He can email the PDF (which has hyperlinks) and print-ready version to MHCC members, who can then print it themselves or put it on their websites.

  • Consensus: to keep doing the newsletter twice a year. LL will make a section on the wiki for the newsletters. If RS ever needs help with the newsletter, just let members know and we'll be happy to help.

IV. History Day, Doug McElrath

  • The wiki would be a good place for resources for History Day (HD). (This was originally in the wiki, but was never used). MHCC members could then put students in contact with the wiki to help them with their research for HD. Also, MHCC members can give the wiki URL to their county coordinators for HD.

V. Advocacy, Doug McElrath, Rob Schoeberlein

  • Maryland Historical Society (MDHS) Update

    • MDHS has increased public hours to 3 days/week.

    • The Library Committee met with the acting director, who seems like a good leader for MDHS.

    • MDHS not seeing new people on committees/new donors.

    • MDHS now more open to collaborative ventures: MD State Archives digitized the MDHS magazines; the War of 1812 collaboration with EPFL; Pat Anderson had her class at Towson Univ. catalog the Paul Henderson Collection (photographic prints and negatives from the Peale Museum)

    • Staffing – still minimal: Jenny Feretti (digital initiatives) and Francis O'Neal (genealogy), with some part-time workers and volunteers, and re-hired someone to work in the gallery. Perhaps MHCC members could donate a few hours/month to keep them up and running.

    • There is a blue ribbon panel examining the future of the MDHS.

    • Determined that the MDHS needs to generate publications that will sell and make money: e.g. the War of 1812 catalog; book about POW artist John Jacob Omenhauser, who created drawings of Point Lookout (Ross Kimmel had woked on this, but costs too much to produce). A digital exhibition of Omenhauser's work is a consideration, barring high permission fees.

    • Finances: MDHS has Greyhound building up for sale.

    • MDHS is revamping their website.

    • Almost finished digitizing the MD German-language newspaper, Der Deutsche Correspondent (mid 19th c. – 20th c.).

  • Baltimore City Archives (BCA) Update

    • State Archives (SA) is taking stronger leadership role: starting a volunteer program; inventorying image collection; older and most heavily used documents are stored at SA (10 different series including Mayors' Papers, Housing & Health Depts. & other records), but will be transferred back to BCA. Dr. Papenfuse has put up a temporary website for the BCA: http://baltimorecityhistory.net/ with finding aids, bibliographies, etc.

    • NHPRC grant proposal: wrote a proposal for ~$200,000 (to create website, develop cataloging system – SA programmers & archivists will help) in the Fall of 2009 and will hear back shortly.

    • There are no guides/finding aids for locating materials on the shelves.

    • The site is a former manufacturing building – no climate control, however there is discussion about air conditioning/climate control for stacks.

    • Staffing: Rebecca Gunby has retired. Tony Roberts will continue to work at BCA. With the current budget situation, it is unknown wither the Director position will be opened. Melissa Ruffner has started volunteering at BCA, as well as Aiden Faust.

    • Things are looking up for the BCA!

  • Montgomery County Archives (MCA) Update

    • Unfortunately, Rob Jensen is no longer working there.

    • Archives materials are now in storage (former location could not bear weight of the collections.

    • Montgomery County government has not come up with a sustainable model to keep the MCA doors open.

  • Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) Update

    • Nancy Perlman (NP) was the archivist, but now there is no one dedicated to manage the collections.

    • Prominent collections: Canton Company records; trade literature collection.

    • Good facility – climate controlled.

    • NP is concerned about the collections fading from people's memories and the lack of access.

VI. Name of the Collaborative, Rob Shindle

  • RS and Jennie Levine Knies were wondering if the "History and Culture Collaborative" part of the group's name was too broad. Would Archives & Special Collections be more appropriate (because our focus is on collections)?

  • Discussion: When MHCC started, it was hoped that scholars and historians would join. Perhaps we could invite historians to our future meetings to get their perspectives: what they use in their research/ what they want in repositories.

    • Ideas: MASC (Maryland Archives & Special Collections Collaboratives); MHCC (Maryland History Collections Collaborative); Keeping the word "culture"; Using "cultural heritage institutions."

  • Open for comment

    • Will put a page on the wiki for discussion, ideas, comment.

VII. Other Business

  • RSH

    • (One item has been omitted from the minutes, pending RSH edit)

    • State Historical Record Advisory Board (SHRAB) – trying to resurrect the entity. RSH has written a grant to fund projects. Idea to do a statewide survey and will create a plan of action and website based on results. In 2011, will host 4 regional workshops for 1. Disaster Preparedness training; and 2. Government Records Management training. Also, want to provide small grant awards to small institutions. When someone in the state applies for an NHPRC grant, it will first be reviewed by SHRAB. You can also give your draft to SHRAB before officially submitting it, to get comments and feedback.

      • Suggestions from group: to think about having the disaster preparedness training travel to smaller institutions; to have a joint meeting between SHRAB & MHCC.

  • CM

    • Many events coming down the pike to celebrate the anniversary of the War of 1812.

  • Preservation Maryland: the state is selling a coin to raise money, which will then be available to improve access points and signage.

  • JL: New Visitor's Center at Fort McHenry – official grand opening March 2011.

  • TB: 150th anniversary of the Civil War

    • NPS is gearing up – Fort McHenry.

    • UMCP exhibit on Women in Civil War Maryland.

    • UMBC is showing 75-80 Civil War photos questioning the nature of photography as a historical record of the war (distortion of history, posing corpses, etc.).

    • 2014 is the 150th anniversary of the Maryland Emancipation of Slaves.

VIII. Next Meeting

  • Monday, October 18, 2010 at UMBC

    • UMBC will be celebrating Archives Month with a special event prior to the meeting. A panel of archivists, historians, and librarians will discuss using visual materials for research. All MHCC members are welcome to attend! The MHCC meeting will take place in the afternoon, following the panel discussion.

IX. Tour of Archives, Lunch, Tour of Historic St. Mary's City