A statement about the Wesley College Acquisition

Delaware State University is actively taking steps to acquire our neighboring institution of Wesley College. If all proceeds as planned, Wesley College will cease to operate as an independent institution, and will instead serve as Delaware State University's satellite campus for the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences.

I wish to acknowledge that because this is not a merger, there are inherent fears on the part of our Wesley colleagues and students.  More specifically, Wesley College alumni have expressed anxieties about how their collective identity and legacy as proud Wolverines is being impacted. Wesley alumni - Your history will not be forgotten. I hear you, and I share in your passion for your alma mater's history. 

At this time DSU and Wesley continue to operate as two distinct and separate institutions until the acquisition is legally affirmed. I would love to jump in and start working to preserve Wesley College's records and institutional memory, but I must remain at a distance. Nevertheless, I wish to allay your fears. Current Wesley College employees, from the library, alumni relations, athletics and others, are on a mission to gather the historic papers, photographs, artworks, and more. Allow me to definitively say that after the acquisition takes place, the records of Wesley College will be incorporated into the Delaware State University Archives.  For the first time ever, Wesley documents will receive the preservation treatments they so richly deserve under the direction of a professional archivist. 

If you are a member of the Wesley family, please don't hesitate to reach out to your current library staff to learn more about the initiatives happening on your campus.  After the acquisition is finalized, I too will be standing by to answer questions and ready to welcome you into the university archives.  I am so excited about the next chapter of the archives journey and meeting all of you!

Until then,

Rejoice

Final Mixx

Every weekday for six years I have come to work at the William C. Jason Library and never known that I was in the presence of musical greatness!  Sure, I occasionally heard our library assistant, Mark Harris, share stories about his band from back in the day. I knew his band had been popular, but it wasn't until I digitized the Hornet newspapers (now available online) that I realized just how BIG of a deal the band was. 

While attending Delaware State College in the mid 1980s, the Final Mixx band came of age and attained a name for itself among by touring the residence halls on the DSC campus. After gaining popularity with students, they eventually picked up gigs in the clubs of Dover, broader Delaware and New Jersey.  After graduation, the band members decided to stay in Dover in order to have a shot at fortune and fame as a professional band. Their opportunity eventually came in the form of Budweiser Showdown. Watch Final Mixx at Club Illusion in Dover, DE

Throughout the 1980s, Budweiser sponsored regional talent contests to locate up and coming Black music artists. The winners of the five regional competitions were then invited to perform at a national competition with a cash prize and a record label deal.  In 1989 Final Mixx entered a regional contest in Philadelphia and won! 

It's July 21, 1989 at the Hoosier Dome. There are 10,000 people watching. Spike Lee, Sinbad and El Debarge are in the audience. Standing in front of all of them are the members of Final Mixx, Mark Harris, Tracey Hazzard, Marty Denson, Derrick Williams, Vincent Adkins, Reuben Fountain and Richard Wright ready to give the performance of their lives. The band performed four songs, left the stage and assumed they hadn't won. 

In a stunning moment backstage, the band was hanging out and did not initially realize that Final Mixx had been declared the winner. With a little bit of prompting, the band rushed the stage to accept a $10,000 cash prize, musical equipment and a deal with Motown records. Watch a promo for Budweiser Showdown featuring the moment Final Mixx won.

While you can find the LP from the Budweiser Showdown in online marketplaces, unfortunately the band didn't go on to record an album and was all but forgotten by Motown Records. Final Mixx, has not, however, been erased.  Their story is forever preserved in the Hornet student newspapers.  Next time you are in Professor Denson's music class or chat with Mark Harris at the library front desk, be sure to ask them about the time they performed for 10,000 people!

Hornet Student Newspapers Now Available Online

 

The Hornet student newspapers are now accessible online! 

All of the newspapers held in the archival collection have been digitized and uploaded to the University Archives' DSpace digital repository. The earliest papers date to 1929 and 1947. There are a handful from the 1950s and 1960s but from 1970 until 2015 the collection is nearly comprehensive.  Please note that after April 2015 the paper became digital in format and can be found here. 

Digitizing the Hornets has been a thoroughly enjoyable project. For starters, I have discovered images of many of current university employees as college youths...you can't image the bad hair or funky fashion pictures that I now have. Just kidding.  

Second, I have become reacquainted with the college-age imagination, idealism, and snark. Who doesn't enjoy reading interviews with Mr. D. Par Kinglot or headlines such as "Lecterer bores, Student snores?" Aaaah the good old days when our biggest problems revolved around what the cafeteria was serving, athletic rivalries, and elections for the next student government president.  Joking aside, next to these humorous commentaries, you will find serious articles that prove DSC and DSU students were passionate about politics, fearless in tackling controversial topics, and well-versed in contemporary culture through poetry, plays, and concerts. Duke Ellington, Muhammad Ali, and numerous internationally-renown piano virtuosos toured on our campus!!

I hope that you, the alumni, enjoy reading about, and reliving, fond college experiences. As always, don't be shy about sharing your memories. Comment below or email me. I love hearing them!

Share your story!

 http://www.desu.edu/giving/ways-give/i-love-dsu

#ColorOurCollections 2021

 

It's national #ColorOurCollections week! Each February museums, libraries, and art institutions across the country release coloring book style images of artworks from their collections. This year the DSU archives brings you a drawing by Eugene Irving that first appeared on the cover of the Hornet student newspaper in February 1982.  Mr. Irving served as a Hornet staff photographer before completing a civil engineering course of study in 1983.  Happy coloring! 

If you want to check out some other coloring pages head over to the Color our Collections webpage hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine: https://library.nyam.org/colorourcollections/

Annual Christmas Letter, 2020

 Dear Friends, 

No need to tell you what a year it's been as we have all faced challenges and insecurities. As we close out this year, I hope that each of you is well and looking forward to the future. 

2020 started out as a great year as the project to digitize the course catalogs was progressing smoothly. I had just finished uploading them to DSpace when the library team started to get the feeling that something was coming. The week before Delawareans were given stay-at-home orders the library team dropped everything and hustled to produce a series of YouTube tutorials demonstrating our virtual services and live chat. After a well-deserved weekend we suddenly found ourselves on our couches asking, "what now?" We thought that by the Easter season we'd be back in the office, but that possibility became bleaker. As an archivist without anything to archive a slow month quickly became a slow year.  Some of you were able to send reference requests that were able to be fulfilled long-distance, and for that I was grateful. The value of having things digitized became apparently clear during this time. 

This past fall we were able to return to the library two-days a week. When I came to my office for the first time in many months, I found everything exactly as I had left it...half finished. Piles of paper were spread out across the room.  The stacks were separated into some sort of order that had once made sense to me, but that I was then straining remember.  Why didn't I make notes? It took me a few weeks to review it all and reorganize it. During those endless spring and summer days at home I had been looking forward to once again making progress, but now I found myself with the odd sensation of moving backwards. With perseverance I eventually dug out my desk and found the bottom of my conference table. 

At the beginning of this month, hope was once again in sight. Digitization projects have resumed! You can expect to see the Hornet newspapers (dating from 1928 to 2015) hitting our DSpace repository in early 2021. It is a relief to once again have a goal and see progress being made.  Nothing makes me happier in my work than the manifestation of a new collection or resource. Speaking of "new", next year promises to be a significant milestone as we anticipate the acquisition of Wesley College and all of its records. Exciting adventures into unchartered territories are ahead! 

I hope that you too are looking toward a brighter 2021, and I hope that you feel the warmth and peace of the Christmas season. Merry Christmas! I'll see you again next year. 

Love, 

Joy

Me and Busy, my coworker for 2020

Accessing the archives during COVID-19

Hey Friends! I hope you're all safe and well.  The William C. Jason Library is open to the campus community on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The University Archives, specifically, is open on Monday and Wednesday.  As always, I am eager to assist you in whatever capacity I can, however, I must beg your patience and make you aware of some protocol:

• If you are a university community member, and need to access archival collections I ask that you email me (rscherry@desu.edu) well in advance to schedule a visit. This is necessary to ensure that the appropriate health and safety arrangements have been undertaken.  
• If you are an alumni or member of the public, please email me to determine how I can best assist you.  In most cases, I will conduct research on your behalf and provide a limited number of digitized records pertinent to your request. 
• Please be aware that myself and my fellow librarians are working remotely on the days when the building is not open.  Toward that end, we are not reachable by office phone. Email is the best method of communication (rscherry@desu.edu). 

While COVID-19 may seem like a significant barrier to accessing the archives, it can also be a benefit.  For example, I recently had a request for records of the 1968 student unrest.  In meeting the patron's needs, I was actually able to upload the 1968 unrest collection to our digital repository (https://desu.dspacedirect.org/handle/20.500.12090/345).  So while I share your frustrations, I am also pleased to be able to increase our digitized collections.  I hope that you will enjoy exploring the new records. 

Collection Spotlight: Eula Maloy Oliver collection

This month we are showing off another tiny, but fascinating, collection at the Delaware State University Archives.  Like the Viola Young Scrivens collection highlighted last month, The Eula Maloy Oliver collection is small in stature, but it is representative of an era in DSU history that is not well documented.  

Beginning in the late 1950s Eula Maloy Oliver attended the DuPont High School, more commonly referred to as the laboratory school on the campus of Delaware State College.  After completion of the high school division, Eula continued her DSC education at the collegiate level.  She attained a bachelors degree in education in 1962. While in attendance, Eula was very active socially and became a member of the then-newly established Delta Lambda chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.  Eula also married one of her classmates, William A. Oliver.

The Eula Maloy Oliver collection is a treasure trove of black and white photographs depicting 1950s Delaware State College.  The subject matter ranges from campus scenery to athletics, to student organizations and more. The individuals most commonly shown are Mr. and Mrs. Oliver and their mutual friends. The images found here are just two examples: Above - two female students promenade on the campus circle, a popular spot for croquet games and relaxation, and a hangout for the children of faculty members. Below - Students typically enjoyed dancing and card games in "the canteen" located in the basement of Conrad Hall.  The canteen was one of the few social locations on campus where male and female students could enjoy time together. Dorm visitations at this time were very strict.

Other contents in this collection include a 1952 Dupont High School yearbook, a 1962 DSC yearbook, and a letter written by Eula to Dr. Claibourne Smill dated November 9, 2005 in which she addresses concerns for the further expansion of the campus and maintaining a diverse student population.

Through her DSC degree, Mrs. Eula Oliver was employed as an elementary school teacher for 35 years. She was an influential individual in Delaware Education and served on a great number of local, state, and national committees. Perhaps most significantly, she worked to formulate the Delaware State Assessment Standards in the areas of math, science and social studies. 

Mrs. Oliver had two sisters who additionally attended Delaware State College, Mrs. Mary Scott and Mrs. Bertha Turner. Please note that Mrs. Scott also has an archival collection of photographic scrapbooks available for public viewing.  

Collection Spotlight: Viola Young Scrivens collection

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

A 1931 program for a twelfth grade play. 

Viola Young Scrivens' card of admission for the SCCS
laboratory school. Click to enlarge the image.

Course Catalogs now online

The DSU archives' online repository is continuing to grow!

This month marks the completion of yet another collection in DSpace. All of the course catalogs housed in the University Archives, 95 in total, have been digitized and made publicly available. It is hoped that the online catalogs will be a resource for alumni and university departments alike who need to access historic degree requirements and course descriptions.  Additionally, the digitization of the course catalogs is a helpful step as the university prepares for the Middle States re-accreditation process.

Besides the obvious purpose of outlining educational requirements, the course catalogs also reveal a picture of the university as it once was.  The catalogs, dated between 1893 and the current academic year, are a wealth of historic information about faculty employment, calendars, campus infrastructure growth, academic and student life regulations (rules that seem comical today), student clubs and social activities, athletics, and support services. In my opinion, the catalogs have long been undervalued, and it is my hope that the new, digitized format of the catalogs will make them more accessible and better appreciated. Take a look for yourself here: https://desu.dspacedirect.org/handle/20.500.12090/399.

This month marks the end of the first year in the digitization effort.  All in all, there are now 131 volumes of yearbooks and catalogs available. It has been a transformative year  as reference questions involving these materials are being answered with greater speed and in many cases, patrons are discovering independence in pursuing their interests.

But wait! There's more! Be on the lookout for digitized Board of Trustee minutes to start appearing soon.