Who we are
The Fall 2022 class, “Archival Storytelling,” at Skidmore college, explores how history happens through engaging with collections — their creation, preservation, organizing and access. This semester, we learned Secretary Hand to transcribe, then translate, several documents in the Patricia-Ann Lee Collection, and prepared updated catalogue information and a finding aid for future researchers to use. Then, we researched stories to be told from the documents — their content, the process of researching, and their origin, or provenance.
Whose expertise shaped our project
The class benefited from the insights of many people on and off campus, including Wendy Anthony and Jane Kjaer (Special Collections) on conservation and exhibition, British historian and professor emerita Carole Shammas (USC), Professor Durba Ghosh (Cornell University), and Rebecca McNamara, Kara Jefts and Evan Little (Tang Teaching Museum). We had support the History Department funds and chair Tillman Nechtman. Professor Lee provided insight into the documents’ provenance. Two Scotsmen helped us sound out two sasines by reading the finished transcriptions aloud.
We also benefited from student expertise in design, map-making (GIS), collections work, Shakespearean England, Outlander knowledge, and more. In a project like this, individuals could bring previous coursework, skills honed in history and other disciplines, and non-academic experience to shape the form and content of the stories we found and researched.
November 1 (Exhibit) and 3 (Collections)
with Assistant Curator Rebecca McNamara, Collections Registrar Kara Jefts, and Education xx, Evan Little
