Tag Archives: University Archives

Researching Student Life at the Archives & Rare Books Library

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1955 Cincinnatian yearbook

From the 1955 Cincinnatian

By Janice Schulz

While students enter college with the goal of gaining a formal education, a good bit of learning also occurs outside of the classroom. A university campus is in many ways like a self-contained community, providing students a place to live, study, work and socialize. Much of this lifestyle is student-driven, allowing students to build leadership, organizational, social and even political skills for use in life after university. At the same time, students react to and are affected by the wider world outside of the university.

The Archives and Rare Books Library has compiled a guide to its holdings that can be used to research student life at the University of Cincinnati. Research ideas are endless, but can include topics such as: Continue reading →

New University Archives Exhibit Highlights Fraternity and Sorority Life

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By: Janice Schulz

In a continuing effort to showcase student life at the University of Cincinnati, the Archives and Rare Books Library has created an exhibit documenting the history of fraternities and sororities from 1882 to today. Going Greek: Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Cincinnati offers a historical view into the development of the Greek system at UC and its growth (and growing pains) as it became a social vehicle at the University and then settled into the comfortable position it enjoys today.

Started in 1882 with the establishment of the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Greek system grew steadily in the following decades to become the primary social force at UC in the 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s. Political and social unrest in the 1960s forced the Greeks to redefine themselves and their values, creating a system more like what we know now. Continue reading →

Anniversary of the Sander Hall Demolition

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By Kevin Grace

It will be 20 years in June that UC’s high rise dormitory was imploded, an event noted by news media from around the world.  UC Magazine marks this two-decade anniversary with a video clip, photos, and eyewitness accounts of a Sunday morning filled with drama and dust: http://magazine.uc.edu/favorites/web-only/sander.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5wCl8SrHUI&feature=player_embedded.

To learn more about the history of Sander Hall, as well as other buildings on UC’s campuses, contact the Archives & Rare Books Library at 513.556.1959, by email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu, or by visiting our website at www.libraries.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

Committees of Vigilance

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By Lilia Walsh

An earlier article on the ARB blog on a “Mick and Mack” cartoon in University News referenced an intriguing entity: the Committees of Vigilance. These were official school clubs of upperclassmen, whose main purpose was to keep the freshman “in line” and enforce school spirit. They did this by paddling freshman at the start of the New Year, publicly humiliating them, and enforcing rules throughout campus during the year. To the current observer, this seems like school-sponsored hazing, and it was, more or less, though it is clear that this was a different time and a much different campus culture. Continue reading →

From Bremerhaven to the West End: The Papers of Arthur Herndon

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By Katherine Krueger

One of the best parts of being a College-Conservatory of Music student working in the Archives & Rare Books Library is learning about the history of UC, in particular CCM. The personal papers of tenor Arthur Herndon, one of the first African Americans to receive a bachelor’s degree from the College Conservatory of Music (1961), have now been processed and are available in the ARB library. Mr. Herndon was born in Cincinnati’s West End in 1932 and received his early musical training in school and church choirs. In 1946 at the age of 14, Mr. Herndon made his performance debut singing the role of the wren in Gabriel Pierne’s St Francis of Assisi in the Cincinnati May Festival.  Continue reading →

New University Archives Collection Documents Implementation of UC's Master Plan

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By Janice Schulz

There have been many times in the past thirty years when the campus community swore that “UC” actually stood for “Under Construction.” Indeed, since the Campus Master Plan was developed in 1991 with the planning assistance of San Francisco design firm Hargreaves Associates, we have been dodging orange cones, construction tape, and dirt piles in the quest for a campus that would enhance the educational value of the University.

The UC unit responsible for carrying out the Master Plan and for managing the physical environment of the University is the office of Planning+Design+Construction. Headed by the University Architect, Planning+Design+Construction handles capital and renovation projects, space management, environmental graphics, sustainability, real estate, and construction for all UC campuses. Continue reading →

Mick and Mack Discovery

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Written by Lilia Walsh

Recently, my job as student assistant in the Archives and Rare Books Library has led me to begin an inventory of all of the UC student newspapers in the collection. While trying to find when the title of the newspaper changed names from University News to The Bearcat in the 1900s, I stumbled across a humorous and perplexing cartoon featuring one of the marble lions which now stand in front of the McMicken building: Mick and Mack.

The cartoon, from the October 22nd, 1919 issue, is titled “Freshmen, Profit by Experience.” It depicts two freshmen pledging “never again” and standing in front of Mick or Mack, which has stripes across its body and a brush and bottle of acid paint remover at its feet.

Mick and Mack Continue reading →

The Archives & Rare Books Library makes the student bucket list!

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Written by Kevin Grace

See  http://www.newsrecord.org/living/college-living/pre-grad-bucket-list-race-begins-1.2444785.

Beyond the unusual however (and that includes a ghost and the jawbone of an ass), we’re the go-to place for UC history and everything associated with it,  along with primary source material in urban studies, local history, rare books, German-Americana, local government records and a wealth of other collections.  Come to us for help in doing your course-assigned research or ideas on how to make that paper really stand out for the best grade.  With our resources we can help students become critical thinkers.  For more information, go to http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

ARB Adds to Nancy Zimpher Collection

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Written by Janice Schulz

The Archives and Rare Books Library has added nine boxes of speeches covering the years 2003-2009 to its collection of Nancy Zimpher papers.  An inventory for the addition, accessioned as UA-11-01, can be found on the ARB website.  An OhioLINK finding aid is forthcoming.

ARB holds three additional collections of Zimpher’s papers: UA-06-07 includes papers and correspondence for the year 2006; UA-09-24 includes calendars from 2003-2009; and UA-10-01 includes speeches covering 2004-2007 as well as publications. Inventories and OhioLINK finding aids for all three collections can be found on ARB’s University Archives Collection Records page.

Are You Looking for Some Primary Sources?

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In the library, 1950If you are looking some primary sources, try searching the OhioLINK Finding  Aid Repository.  The site contains descriptions for over 700 archival collections at 46 institutions in Ohio including large universities, small colleges, community colleges, museums, historical societies, public libraries, and special libraries.  Guides to over 200 collections at the University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library and the Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions are also available through this database.  Additional finding aids are added every day. Continue reading →