Class Notes Goes on the Road: Medieval Manuscripts in South Carolina

This week, we are pleased to feature a guest post from Anne Causey, Public Services Assistant for the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. When I joined the Small Special Collections Library eight years ago, I realized how much … Continue reading

Observations on the Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Citizen Scientist Reports from 1824

For the last two weeks, I have been, well, geeking out as cicadas have begun appearing in my heavily wooded neighborhood in Charlottesville. I’ve seen two waves of the little beasties emerge from beneath the shrubs outside my cottage, and … Continue reading

The ABCs of Special Collections: C is for

Welcome to our third installation of the ABCs of Special Collections!  We give you the letter: C is for “Calithump” Webster’s defines “calithump” (variant spellings callithump and calathump) as a somewhat riotous parade, accompanied by the blowing of tin horns … Continue reading

This Just In: A Happy Reunion!

Here at U.Va. Thomas Jefferson looms large both on, and under, Grounds.  It is only fitting that the Small Special Collections Library holds one of the world’s best collections of Jefferson manuscripts.  Some form part of the U.Va. Archives, for … Continue reading

Class Notes: Finals Week Edition with Media Studies’ Sports, Media and Society

Earlier this spring semester, about 40 undergraduates from Allison Wright’s media studies course Sports, Media, & Society came to Special Collections Library for an orientation on finding primary sources.  They were preparing for an assignment that required them to select … Continue reading

The ABCs of Special Collections: B is for …

Welcome to the second post in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library  alphabet series!  And the letter is… B is for born-digital B is for “born-digital,” the term we use in the archival profession for materials that were … Continue reading

Walter Whitman, before Leaves of Grass

This week, we feature a guest post from Special Collections staff member George Riser: When Walt Whitman released his ‘idiomatic book of my land’ in 1855, he was thirty-six years old. Leaves of Grass, then twelve untitled poems in free … Continue reading