Due to the library's shortened hours of operation during the intersession period, the SCRC will be open from 12 pm - 3 pm this Saturday, May 18. We will resume our normal schedule on Monday, May 20.
Senator Kent Conrad has announced his intention to donate his papers to the George Washington University upon his retirement at the end of the 112th Congress. Read more on a new website devoted to the collection: http://conradpapers.gwu.edu/
@GWUArchives: @gwhatchet We think this is worthy of some further investigation. What do you think? http://t.co/IbfmJcurkP
@GWUArchives: May 22, 1977: Sarah Tilghman Hughes, judge who swore in President Lyndon B. Johnson, addressed the @gwlaw graduating class.
@GWUArchives: From the NEA Collection @gelmanlibrary. See signed letter by @newtgingrich & other law makers supporting Dept. of Ed. http://t.co/VmG9KyEud3
@GWUArchives: May 21, 2006: President George H. W. Bush & First Lady Barbara Bush were #GWU commencement speakers. via @gwhatchet http://t.co/jqTYRAwfbl
@GWUArchives: @GWHillel Did you know we have a collection documenting Jewish student life at #GWU dating back 1916? Clippings, admin files, event flyers
@GWUArchives: Hope #GWU students continue taking pics for @GWCherryTree. Never know when we'll need a pic of the next BOT Chairman http://t.co/SDX4TC50qq
@GWUArchives: After her AWESOME commencement speech it would be a great idea for @kerrywashington to follow @GWUArchives to keep up with #GWU history.
@GWUArchives: May 20, 2006: @GW_Golf placed 23rd in the NCAA East Regional. This year was the teams first bid to the tournament in over 60 years.
The Special Collections Research Center's mission is to collect, preserve, and make accessible primary resources and rare or unique materials to all researchers regardless of institutional affiliation.
The Special Collections Research Center is located on the seventh floor of the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library of George Washington University, 2130 H Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20052. Regular service hours are Monday - Friday, 10 am to 6 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to 3 pm.
Due to the library's shortened hours of operation during the intersession period, the SCRC will be open from 12 pm - 3 pm this Saturday, May 18. We will resume our normal schedule on Monday, May 20.
As part of our Washingtoniana collections, the Special Collections Research Center features the records of many local businesses. One of the more unusual of these collections is from Joseph F. Birch and Sons, the oldest undertakers in Georgetown.
First a cabinet-making company founded in the early 1820s, Birch and Sons switched to coffin-making in 1842 and for many years was the only undertaking firm in Georgetown. During the Civil War the company handled the remains of many soldiers killed in battle, and its undertakers were instructed in the newest techniques of embalming.
The Birch and Sons collection consists of five ledgers, a number of individual documents, and one medal. The ledgers contain hundreds of pages of business accounts from 1848 through 1889, documenting the families with whom they did business and the services they rendered.
Anyone studying Washington history, the Civil War, or 19th century funeral customs will find interesting material here. For more information on the collection, check out the finding aid at: http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2056.xml.
The Teamsters Labor History Research Center hosted the third annual Celebration of the William Taylor Papers on April 18, 2013. William Taylor (1931-2010) was a civil rights advocate and a pioneer of desegregation. Taylor began his career working for Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, assisting with civil rights cases in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. He later led the investigations into racial discrimination that laid the groundwork for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. In 2002, Taylor helped draft the No Child Left Behind legislation, working to close the achievement gap in American schools and ensure a quality education for all students. The Taylor papers were donated to Gelman Library’s Special Collections Research Center in 2011 and contain a collection of materials representative of Taylor's lifelong work as a civil rights attorney, politician and advocate for equality.
This year’s celebration featured a panel discussion on “The Struggles to Obtain Diversity in Education.” Speakers at the event included: Cynthia Brown, a former colleague of William Taylor and current Vice President of Education Policy at the Center for American Progress; Elizabeth Lodal, retired principal of Thomas Jefferson High School; and Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux, Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration, GWU. Professor Michael Feuer, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, gave a welcoming address and introduced the speakers. The event was sponsored by the Graduate School of Education and Human Development and the Special Collections Research Center.
To learn more about the William L. Taylor papers please see the online research guide to the collection: http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2287.xml