Cheese Day 2010!

The staff of SCPC and Tim and Don of SCL gathered for our 7th Annual Observance of National Cheese Day on Tuesday, Jan. 26th. What is Cheese Day, you ask? Well, at the end of every January, we choose a special day to observe National Cheese Day (officially, Jan. 20th). For details of our celebration and more pictures, see last year's post.

Don and Dorothy inspect this year's selection of cheese foods, including cheese soup, assorted international cheese selections, baked mac and cheese, black bean and cheese casserole, a cheese ball, and cheese dip. In the break room, we had our desserts -- cheesecake and chocolate chip cheese ball goodness.

This year, we added a feature to Cheese Day. We put together an exhibit of cheese-related documents from a few of our collections, including Workman, Hamby, and Gasque. Here, Kate, Lori, and Virginia prep the exhibit. (and thanks to Debbie for helping choose items!) It was a hastily-constructed exhibit but next year we'll have a head start with a few of this year's items.

Pictured here from the exhibit is a 1969 State Fair
Centennial Cookbook containing a recipe for Cheese Pie. Yum! Hamby and her firm, Bradley, Graham, and Hamby, worked on the State Fair ad campaign that year.

AND FINALLY
The annual playing of "The Big Cheese: Official Indoor Sport of National Cheese Day" closes out festivities (created by Laura Koser Christiansen, a former graduate assistant at SCPC).

Herb tosses out the Big Cheese to start the game while Debbie and Gabby look on.


Gabby has the final throw of her Gruyere playing piece but looks like it's Limburger that is closest to the Big Cheese while Bleu, Cheddar, and Gouda look on in defeat.


For next year's Cheese Day, we'll celebrate in our new home, the Hollings Library. We hope to convince our fellow Hollings Library and Thomas Cooper Library denizens to join in the festivities! Hopefully the flooring in our new space will allow for playing of our beloved "The Big Cheese."

Last exhibit before we move!

We recently put up our last exhibit in the East Gallery at Thomas Cooper. (The gallery is just inside the front doors to the left.) After May, we'll move to our beautiful new gallery in the Hollings Library!

“South Carolina Governors” offers a snapshot into the administrations of 11 men who have led our fair state since 1935. They are: Olin D. Johnston, George Bell Timmerman, Fritz Hollings, Donald Russell, Robert McNair, John West, James Edwards, Richard Riley, Carroll Campbell, Jr., James Hodges, and finally, Mark Sanford.

On the left we have one of Campbell's royal blue re-election t-shirts and the top notecard from a 1991 speech of his. On the right you'll see a colorful copy of Jim Hodges' second State of the State Address and some of Mark Sanford's campaign materials.

By February, there will be a video accompanying the exhibit, showing a few minutes of speeches, interviews, etc. of each governor at work (drawn from archival footage held by SCPC and Newsfilm Collections here at USC).

And FYI, many of these collections are open to research. Check out the finding aids for the collections of: Olin D. Johnston, George Bell Timmerman, Fritz Hollings, Donald Russell, Robert McNair, and John West.

SCPC closed Jan. 18th

SCPC will be closed on Monday, January 18th, for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We'll re-open on Tuesday!

Cheese!

The 3 delicious recipes shown here (Peanut-Cheese Loaf, anyone?) are from a 1950 "Family Fare" bulletin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The cover is stamped "From the Office of Olin D. Johnston U.S. Senator." The technicolor cookbook cover on the left is from 1972. It did not arrive via collection; rather, someone gave it to us because they knew of our annual cheese observance, if I recall correctly.

On that note...

SCPC is starting the year off right with our 7th annual observance of National Cheese Day on Tuesday, Jan. 26th. A little camaraderie, everyone? One of our student alums now at Clemson, Virengia Houston, tells us that the good archivists/librarians up there will be celebrating on the actual National Cheese Day, Jan. 19th. Aside from Clemson, alums and family members have started celebrations elsewhere including Norfolk, Atlanta, and Kansas City!

If you'd like to drop by our Pearle Warehouse at noon on the 26th and join in the fun, you are welcome. We always have visitors for this event. Just let us know you're coming! Participants are asked to bring a food that contains a cheese element. We will eat, chat, and then play "The Big Cheese," a game similar to bocce and created by a former student assistant here, Laura.

To get an idea of the merriment, check out last year's celebration.

Out in the Cold; No Fire for Warmth

This morning around 10 a.m. the subtle and reassuring fire alarm blared garishly through the old warehouse, gently warning us that we needed to hasten out to the parking lot. Of course, this week Columbia is experiencing some of its coldest weather so far this winter, and the temperature in the parking lot was maybe 35 at the time, punctuated by a lovely whipping wind. Here you can see Gabby, Lori, and Kate bundled up against the elements...

In a few minutes, the Campus Police arrived to start searching the building for any actual cause for the alarm to blare so insistently. As we waited, a small squad from the Fire Department arrived in a baby fire truck. We figured they saw the alarm was coming from 720 College Street and said, "Oh, it's them again. The Pearle Building always sends out false alarms. Break out the baby engine..."

Don't get us wrong, we greatly appreciate the Campus Police and the Columbia Fire Department. It was just kind of humorous to see the little stubby engine arrive. Eventually, we got the all-clear; no fire today, thank you. And it took no time at all for the denizens of SCPC to trample back inside to the relative warmth of our dear old drafty warehouse. Ah. Good times.

2009...A Year In Review

Look what happened at SCPC this year...

Rapid progress in construction of the Hollings Special Collections Library
We should move in April. Cross your fingers! Soon, we will be only a short walk across an enclosed bridge to Thomas Cooper Library, our library colleagues, and potential researchers (in the form of the thousands of undergrad students who inhabit Cooper Library each day)! Check out more pictures.

Processing
For our fine and valued researchers, we put online many new or revised finding aids, including the papers of Lester Bates, Barbara Moxon, Charles Appleby, Robert Hemphill, and Bruce Littlejohn. Counting the collections brought in this year, we are incredibly close to that magic number of 100 collections.

Researchers
We welcomed researchers from far and wide. Along with researchers from our own university and from universities around the Southeast, we had students from England for extended stays and two political scientists from California State University, Channel Islands who were awarded the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Research Award. Of course, we also helped many folks via phone and email.

Student Assistants
We love our student assistants (funded through endowed support), and SCPC would not function well without them. This year, they helped with researchers, research requests, arrangement and description of collections, and many more tasks, always with great attitudes all around. Our students in 2009 were:

*Graduate students Debbie Todd, Gabrielle Dudley, Virginia Blake, Julie Milo, and Allison Hughes. -- We said goodbye to Allison (pictured above with Herb Hartsook, SCPC boss) and Julie (pictured below with Debbie in their workroom) in the summer. They graduated with an MLIS and took positions in Atlanta and Florida, respectively. We get to keep Debbie, Gabby, and Virginia at the start of 2010 as they continue working toward their degrees.

*Undergrad Mai Nguyen graduated in December and is off to do great things like attending law school. Our last undergrad went off to law school, as well. Go pre-law students!

*Graduate intern Katie Thompson of Long Island University received our 2009 Schuyler L. and Yvonne Moore Summer Internship. She spent six weeks here, processing the papers of Mary Kelly, a leading figure in the SC League of Women Voters.

Pictured here in July at Julie and Katie's farewell party, from L-R: Lori, Mai, Katie, Debbie, Julie, and Dorothy

Exhibits
We put up many exhibits in our gallery at Thomas Cooper Library, including:

• A nod to the changing administration in Washington led us to set up an exhibit based on material from the collections of Ambassadors John West and David Wilkins and cabinet officers Jim Edwards and Dick Riley.
• We celebrated the centennial of the NAACP by displaying material from the papers of Modjeska Simkins and I. DeQuincey Newman.
• We enlightened folks about SCPC's Oral History Program.
• We filled a case with memoirs and biographies written by our donors.
• Holiday cards...this year's cards were sent and received by Joe Wilson.

In February, we displayed material from the Fritz Hollings Papers at the SC Book Festival in conjunction with a talk between Jack Bass and Sen. Hollings. It was one of the last of many events promoting Hollings' new book, Making Government Work. Also this year, we digitized 200 documents and audio records from the Hollings Papers and placed them online in "Fritz Hollings: In His Own Words."

Oral History
Oral History helps fill gaps in the documentary record and enriches many research experiences. This year, SCPC completed a major oral history with Jim Edwards, began a project with Joe Wilson, and continued a project with former Butler Derrick staffer John Gregory.

That completes our journey through 2009. Those were merely some of the highlights. On to 2010 and all the progress it will bring!