Today I am spotlighting a collection that could easily be undervalued and overlooked in the Delaware State University archives. The Viola Young Scrivens collection is tiny at a mere 0.25 linear feet, but it holds contents for an era of DSU documentary history that is not well represented by other photographs and records.
In 1933 Viola Scrivens was a high school student at the laboratory high school on the campus of the State College for Colored Students. Although she had a long association with the college, she did not pursue a collegiate education. Beginning in the 1940's, Viola did, however, serve as a cook for Delaware State College, and she seems to have been an active alumna and member of the campus community. Her collection therefore contains event programs for student theater productions, concerts, building dedications, and Founder's Day events dated between 1931 and 1983.
Alumni play a valuable role at Delaware State University and are sincerely appreciated by administrators and students alike. Alumni, as always, are welcome to donate any documentary evidence of their collegiate experiences to the archives. The students who conduct research at the archives are always eager to learn how their experiences differ from their predecessors, and they value the life lessons that are often by only be conveyed through the archival collections curated by alumni.
A full description of the collection is available as a finding aid on the DSU archive's LibGuide: https://desu.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=34904850
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| A 1931 program for a twelfth grade play. |
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| Viola Young Scrivens' card of admission for the SCCS laboratory school. Click to enlarge the image. |
