SCA Featured in Society of Ohio Archivists’ Archives Month Spotlight

October is American Archives Month, and to celebrate, the Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA) Advocacy and Outreach Committee is spotlighting archives around the state that house materials related the theme of the poster, Land, Water, & Air: Transportation in Ohio.

Visitors to Special Collections and Archives enjoying an exhibit of original materials from the Wright Brothers Collection.

As the home to one of the world’s most complete collections of material by and about the Wright Brothers, the inventors of sustained, controlled, powered flight, we were naturally one such archives that they thought to highlight!

SOA’s post, “Ohio Archives Month Spotlight 1: Wright State University” features a brief overview of Special Collections and Archives, such as where and how to reach us; touches on some of our transportation-themed collections, such as the Wright Brothers Collection, Dayton Electric Railway Collection, Canal Society of Ohio Collection, and the Charles Wald Collection; and includes a Q&A interview with Jane Wildermuth, Head of Special Collections & Archives.

Just a reminder, you can search the listings for all of our available collections, any time, on our collection guides web site.

Thanks to our friends at the Society of Ohio Archivists for helping us spread the word about our unique and wonderful collections!

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Archives Featured in Oakwood Register

Extra! Extra! We were featured in the Oakwood Register newspaper on July 5 with an article about our Louis Lott architecture photos.

The article, “Wright State archive preserves architectural images of early Oakwood, Dayton : Archivists hope to identify homes photographed by prominent local architect,” focuses on the Louis Lott Architecture Negatives Collection (SC-381). Over 200 images from the collection are available online in CORE Scholar.

Check out the Oakwood Register article here (see page 8).

Thanks to the article, we have already had multiple readers contact us to provide identifications to some of the previously unidentified homes featured in the online gallery.

If you have additional information about any of the photographs, the best way to share that with us via email at [email protected], and be sure to include the item identifier number (e.g., sc381_01_04_03) or URL (e.g., https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/special_sc381_photographs/25/) for the particular image.

If you are interested in seeing the records that have been recently updated based on additional information submitted by users, search the collection for the word thanks (or click this link).

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Grant Conserves Rare Books by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We are pleased to share that 11 of our rare, first-edition books by Paul Laurence Dunbar can now be more safely viewed and studied after undergoing conservation treatment. Nine books of poetry and two books of short stories, all inscribed by Dunbar – a prolific writer from Dayton who died at the age of 33 in 1906 – were conserved. The conservation project was supported by a Library Services and Technology Act Conservation grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, awarded by the State Library of Ohio.

For more details, please see the Wright State News Room article “Wright State Special Collections and Archives conserves rare books by Paul Laurence Dunbar” (by Bob Mihalek, June 28, 2023).

You may also be interested in our earlier post about this project.

Learn more about our Paul Laurence Dunbar collections. Please contact us if you have questions!

Archivist Toni Vanden Bos applies her always-gentle touch to one of the freshly conserved Dunbar books. Toni was instrumental in securing and facilitating the grant funding that made the conservation work possible. (Photo courtesy WSU News Room)

This project was supported by federal Institute of Museum and Library Services funds, granted through the State Library of Ohio. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of IMLS or the State Library of Ohio, and no official endorsement by either agency should be inferred. We sincerely thank the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the State Library of Ohio for making this project possible through the LSTA Conservation grant.

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