Special Collections and University Archives would like to welcome students, faculty, and staff back to SDSU for Fall Semester 2008!Special Collections is, quite simply, the coolest place on campus! We are home to over 60,000 rare books, over 500 manuscript and archival collections, and half a million other items like photographs, postcards, prints, and ephemera. We are also the home of the San Diego State University Archives. Special Collections is your first stop to discover awesome primary sources on the history of San Diego and dozens of other subjects. Stop by our website to explore our holdings using the Finding Aid Database and the Library's Catalog, then stop in our Reading Room to experience the materials hands-on and up-close. Don't know what you need to see? Stop in to consult with one of our librarians, and we'll match you with the collections best for your research.
We're looking forward to an exciting and busy year in Special Collections. We have several fascinating exhibits coming up to watch out for. "Nate Harrison, The Life, Legend, and Legacy," produced in collaboration with Dr. Seth Mallios and his SDSU Historical Archaeology Field School, this fascinating exhibit will be on display beginning September 15th. Using artifacts from Dr. Mallios' excavation of Harrison's cabin site, the exhibit explores the legends surrounding an African-American pioneer who lived on Palomar Mountain in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
In October, we'll be hosting a reprise of the popular summer exhibit, "Lost and Found" as part of the San Diego Festival of the Book (co-sponsored by UCSD Mandeville Special Collections Library and San Diego Book Arts). On display will be the work of Michele Burgess' Art of the Book I and II students, who created amazing book arts objects using materials from the Library's compact shelving area. Join us on October 17th from 3-5pm, when these books with their new dustjackets and inserts will be placed back on the shelves for a unique interactive exhibit opening! And if you can't make it to the opening, look for these creations on display outside Compact Shelving from October 21-December 31, along with other ingenious student work from Art of the Book classes.
To celebrate Black History Month in February 2009, we'll be featuring an exhibit on the history of African Americans in San Diego. Produced through Presidential Leadership Fund grant, this exhibit will use captivating selections from several newly processed collections (Reverend George Walker Smith Papers, Alpha Pi Boule Records, Carlin Integration Case Records, Leon Williams Papers, and Records of the School Integration Task Force). Stay tuned for news about upcoming lectures, tours, and other events associated with this exhibit.
We'll also be hosting over ten classes in September, from the Departments of Art, History, Rhetoric and Writing Studies, English, and Theatre. We're really looking forward to meeting new students in these classes, showing all the amazing materials we hold here, and teaching strategies for how to find and use them effectively! If you're a faculty member interested in bringing your class to Special Collections, please contact us--we'd love to have you!
Images are from the University Archives Photograph Collections, and show Registration Day in the mid-1950s, the new SDSC site in 1929, and the University Training School in 1905.
