Three Little Words

Valentine’s Day has a reputation for being shallow. It is ridiculed for its materiality (the flowers! the expensive gifts! the obligatory chocolate boxes and sentimental notes!) and vilified as a poorly-concealed corporate moneygrubbing scam. Beyond our suspicion of Hallmark, though, is a more instinctual conviction about the holiday dedicated to love – we feel it Read More …

Struggle Against Disease and Discrimination: The Jesse Peel Papers

MARBL is pairing with Southern Spaces, a peer-reviewed, multimedia, open-access journal published in collaboration with the Robert W. Woodruff Library of Emory University, to publish short features on MARBL collections, events, and exhibits that tell the history of spaces and places in the US South. These posts investigate the geographical, historical, and cultural study of Read More …

Processing Fun: Samella Lewis’ Subject Files

“Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals” is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to arrange and describe the personal papers of nine African American women writers, artists and musicians. Collections included in the project are the Pearl Cleage papers; additions to the Delilah Jackson papers; the Samella Read More …

News Center records open in Emory University Archives

Called variously the Emory News Bureau, News Services, Information Services, and the News Center, one office has long handled press and publicity at Emory, and its records are now open for research in the Emory University Archives. They include mostly subject files on Emory-related topics and people. The collection is a fantastic new entrée into Read More …

The Scott Family Scrapbooks: Challenges & Complexities of Conservation Treatment

Rare scrapbooks that document African American life in the United States from 1890-1975 are being preserved with support through a “Save America’s Treasures” (SAT) grant. The project is a collaborative effort with Emory University Preservation Office, Digital Curation Center, and the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL). The SAT grant is awarded through the Read More …

A Goodly Heritage: The William L. Dawson Papers and a Mother-Daughter Duo

My mother, Dr. Paula Whatley Matabane, an Atlanta native, has been on a life-long, genealogical mission to dig up the roots of her family. Archives are her trenches. Despite the fact that I’ve been working in MARBL for awhile now as a graduate assistant and have used various African American collections in my scholarly research Read More …

Processing Fun: Graduate Student Introduction

  “Revealing Her Story: Documenting African American Women Intellectuals” is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to arrange and describe the personal papers of nine African American women writers, artists and musicians. Collections included in the project are the Pearl Cleage papers; additions to the Delilah Jackson papers; the Read More …

Civil rights leader shares experiences registering voters in 1960s Selma

Civil rights leader Rev. Bernard LaFayette Jr. stopped by Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library on Dec. 3 to discuss his experiences and new memoir in a conversation led by Carol Anderson, associate professor of African American Studies at Emory. Lafayette, who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national program director for the Read More …

Preserve & Protect: The Benefits of Polyester Encapsulation to preserve the John Larkin Smith (1882-1936) Scrapbook

Rare scrapbooks that document African American life in the United States from 1890-1975 are being preserved with support through a “Save America’s Treasures” (SAT) grant. The project is a collaborative effort with Emory University Preservation Office, Digital Curation Center, and the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL). The SAT grant is awarded through the Read More …

Voices from the Classroom: Artists’ Books

MARBL staff love to collaborate with instructors to incorporate manuscripts, archives, and rare books in to the classroom. Students are able to connect with history and the creative process in a deeper way as they read first-hand accounts of the Civil Rights movement, compare early drafts of literary works, or contemplate the meaning of artists Read More …

Opening for Joe Louis exhibit drew a crowd curious to know more about the boxer

The Robert W. Woodruff Library held an opening event on Nov. 13 for the exhibit “Joe Louis Barrow: A Life and Career in Context,” presented by the Race and Sports in American Culture Series (RASACS). The panel consisted of three people: Pellom McDaniels III, faculty curator of African American Collections at the Manuscript, Archives, and Read More …