Hutchins Library News Blog

From Tim Binkley, Head of Special Collections and Archives:

Michael and Carrie Nobel Kline Field Recordings Preserved by Berea College and CLIR

In 2019-2020, Berea College Special Collections and Archives conducted a Recordings at Risk digitization project to preserve and provide online access to more than 700 audio and video recordings created by folklorists Michael and Carrie Nobel Kline. The focus of the project was to save field recordings made between 1994 and 2006 documenting families and communities in an area that stretches from Parkersburg, West Virginia to the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The resulting digital archive (https://libraryguides.berea.edu/KlineCollectionGuide) comprises a diverse selection of oral history interviews, personal reminiscences, historical presentations, music performances, and radio programs. These recordings document life experiences in neighborhoods, religious congregations, businesses, factories, mines, farms, ethnic social clubs, singing societies, and music ensembles. Some recordings reflect on Native American life, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, slavery, the Underground Railroad, later African American experiences, natural disasters, and fading technologies and crafts. Ethnic groups represented include those that are rarely associated with the Appalachian region, despite their long presence here: Jews and immigrants from Asia, Latin America, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.

All materials in the digital archive are part of a larger collection of folklife and music resources donated to Berea College Special Collections and Archives by the Klines for scholarly study. The preservation process included migrating data off magnetic tape and other recording media and storing digital master and access files on secure servers. Audio Archivist Harry Rice managed the grant project in consultation with Special Collections and Archives staff. To enhance discovery of the data, Hutchins Library director Calvin Gross and colleagues Ann Cinnamond and Jessica Hayden assisted by creating individual item records in the Berea College Library catalog and in OCLC Worldcat.org.

Recordings at Risk is a national regranting program administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to support the preservation of rare and unique audio, audiovisual, and other time-based media of high scholarly value through digital reformatting. The program is made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.

“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated,” Woodson said of the need for such study.

In 1926, Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History(ASALH) launched a “Negro History Week” to bring attention to his mission and help school systems coordinate their focus on the topic. Woodson chose the second week in February, as it encompassed both Frederick Douglass’ birthday on February 14 and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12.

Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history.

Decsription from:

History.com Editors. “Black History Month.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 14 Jan. 2010, www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month.

Zorthian, Julia. “Black History Month: How It Started and Why It's in February.” Time, Time, 29 Jan. 2016, time.com/4197928/history-black-history-month/.

Carter G. Woodson by Burnis R. Morris

Call Number: 973.049 W898zm 2017

This study reveals how historian Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) used the black press and modern public relations techniques to popularize black history during the first half of the twentieth century. Explanations for Woodson's success with the modern black history movement usually include his training, deep-rooted principles, and single-minded determination. Often overlooked, however, is Woodson's skillful use of newspapers in developing and executing a public education campaign built on truth, accuracy, fairness, and education. Burnis R. Morris explains how Woodson attracted mostly favorable news coverage for his history movement due to his deep understanding of the newspapers' business and editorial models as well as his public relations skills, which helped him merge the interests of the black press with his cause. Woodson's publicity tactics, combined with access to the audiences granted him by the press, enabled him to drive the black history movement--particularly observance of Negro History Week and fundraising activities. Morris analyzes Woodson's periodicals, newspaper articles, letters, and other archived documents describing Woodson's partnership with the black press and his role as a publicist. This rarely explored side of Woodson, who was often called the "Father of Black History," reintroduces Woodson's lost image as a leading cultural icon who used his celebrity in multiple roles as an opinion journalist, newsmaker, and publicist of black history to bring veneration to a disrespected subject. During his active professional career, 1915-1950, Woodson merged his interests and the interests of the black newspapers. His cause became their cause.
 

Black Pioneers by William Loren Katz

Call Number: 977.004 K19b

Out of a past little noted in history texts comes this tale of African American pioneers in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. These pathfinders were slaves, poets, runaways, missionaries, farmers, teachers, and soldiers. For these African Americans, the frontier meant freedom, and from the earliest times, some seized liberty by joining Indian nations.As Southern slaveholders tried to pass laws to make slavery legal in the West and territorial legislatures wrote "Black Laws" that limited basic rights to white settlers, African American pioneers became freedom fighters. From Ohio to Kansas they battled slavehunters and developed Underground Railroad stations. Black families built their own schools and churches and created unique forms of protest to ensure their advancement.Historian William Loren Katz reveals a frontier saga that has often been buried, glossed over, or lost.
 

The Black Campus Movement by Ibram H. Rogers

Call Number: 378.198 R726b 2012

This book provides the first national study of this intense and challenging struggle which disrupted and refashioned institutions in almost every state. It also illuminates the context for one of the most transformative educational movements in American history through a history of black higher education and black student activism before 1965.

 

 

And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Call Number: 821 A584a Copy 3

Maya Angelou's unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS's American Masters.   Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.   Thus begins "Phenomenal Woman," just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelou's third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh--and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it.   "It is true poetry she is writing," M.F.K. Fisher has observed, "not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes."
 

The Black 100 by Columbus Salley

Call Number: 973.049 S168b 1993

"Who are the most influential African-Americans that ever lived?" "Any such list is subject to passionate discussion and debate. It is within this controversy that readers are educated about the full breadth and depth of the African-American experience." "After extensive thought and research author and educator Dr. Columbus Salley has selected the 100 most influential African-Americans of all time, and then ranked them according to their contributions to the struggle for equality." "As a result, the Black 100 is a unique compendium of the most significant African-Americans, past and present. Dr. Salley identifies 100 black women and men as the collective giants on whose shoulders African-Americans stand in their unending quest for full economic, political and social equality." "The Black 100 is not a debate on the "most talented" or "most famous" Black Americans, but is a listing - and ranking - of those who have had the greatest impact on the progress toward complete participation in our society. Here are the 100 who have fundamentally altered the ways in which millions of Americans - of all races - live today." "It is fascinating to read how the author ranks the influence of some personalities as opposed to others. Who is first? Who is last? And why? The list of names in The Black 100 reads like a history of African-Americans over nearly 400 years. To name just a few: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, Booker T. Washington, Fannie Lou Hamer, Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby." "Dr. Salley reveals the unique contributions of each of the 100 to African-American history." "The Black 100 is one of the most provocative and informative books ever written on this subject. It will be endlessly debated, discussed and scrutinized. A compellingly readable contribution to an understanding of our history, it will prove to be an essential book for all students and teachers in the field - as well as for a vast reading public of all colors - for many years to come."

 

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases.

Description from:

“Baseball.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 June 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball.

Baseball's Pivotal Era, 1945-1951 by William J. Marshall

Call Number: 796.357 M369b

Publication Date: 1999-02-25

With personal interviews of players and owners and with over two decades of research in newspapers and archives, Bill Marshall tells of the players, the pennant races, and the officials who shaped one of the most memorable eras in sports and American history. At the end of World War II, soldiers returning from overseas hungered to resume their love affair with baseball. Spectators still identified with players, whose salaries and off-season employment as postmen, plumbers, farmers, and insurance salesmen resembled their own. It was a time when kids played baseball on sandlots and in pastures, fans followed the game on the radio, and tickets were affordable.

¡Beisbol! by Jonah Winter (Photographer); Bruce Markasen Rodriguez (Introduction by)

Call Number: 796.357 W785b 2001

Publication Date: 2013-04-01

Baseball, known as America's favorite pastime, is a favorite sport in Latin America as well. In this fascinating and colorfully written collection of profiles, author/illustrator Jonah Winter -- following the success of FAIR BALL , his earlier book on the Negro Leagues -- gives us a guide to Latino heroes, including little known pioneers of the sport. Readers learn stats and anecdotes about fourteen players including Dolf Luque, the Cuban pitcher who became the first Latin American star in the major leagues; Roberto Clemente, the legendary Puerto Rican outfielder of the 1950s and 1960s; and Felipe Alou, the first full-time Dominican star in the majors who later became the first Latin American Manager of the Year.

Mathletics by Wayne L. Winston

Call Number: 796.015 W783m 2009

Publication Date: 2009-09-28

Mathletics is a remarkably entertaining book that shows readers how to use simple mathematics to analyze a range of statistical and probability-related questions in professional baseball, basketball, and football, and in sports gambling. How does professional baseball evaluate hitters? Is a singles hitter like Wade Boggs more valuable than a power hitter like David Ortiz? Should NFL teams pass or run more often on first downs? Could professional basketball have used statistics to expose the crooked referee Tim Donaghy? Does money buy performance in professional sports? In Mathletics, Wayne Winston describes the mathematical methods that top coaches and managers use to evaluate players and improve team performance, and gives math enthusiasts the practical tools they need to enhance their understanding and enjoyment of their favorite sports--and maybe even gain the outside edge to winning bets. 

The Baseball Reader by Charles Einstein (Editor)

Call Number: 796.357 B2989 1980

Publication Date: 1980-05-01