{"id":1886,"date":"2015-08-12T17:46:35","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T17:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/libraryarchives\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2019-04-10T17:51:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T17:51:07","slug":"where-to-find-the-freshest-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/2015\/08\/12\/where-to-find-the-freshest-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to Find the Freshest Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Students examining records in the Archives (photo by Scott Cook)<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week, The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> featured an article about the survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima and their efforts to preserve and share their memories with others (“Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivors Pass Their Stories to a New Generation”<\/a>). I was surprised to read that some survivors have entrusted their memories of this event to \u201cdenshosha”:  younger people who are designated to speak on their behalf and tell their stories.<\/p>\n

Hiromi Hasai, who was 14 years old at the time of the bombing, is one such survivor.  According to the Times<\/em>, he would like denshosha to also relate the stories of witnesses who are no longer alive, but whose accounts of the bombing, collected soon after the war, are preserved in the archives of Hiroshima’s Peace Museum. \u201cThere are all kinds of records, but how many people actually seek them out?\u201d Mr. Hasai says, adding, \u201cThe freshest memories are stuck in an archive.\u201d<\/p>\n

This statement strikes a particular chord with me.  As an Archival Specialist, one of the first lessons I learned from our Archivist is that our role is to preserve and provide access to the archival records, then let them speak for themselves<\/em>. And I have found that they do:  a photo, a letter, or a news story from long ago–to an archivist, these are “primary sources”:  items from eyewitnesses or participants in history, offering a firsthand account of events. But such a technical term fails to convey the powerful impact these records can have on those who encounter them in the Archives.<\/p>\n

A photo of a relative, seen for the first time; a letter in a family member’s handwriting; or a story published long ago in our student newspaper, The<\/em> Sandspur, <\/em>can be profoundly moving to our visitors. The term “archive” may sound a bit dull and lifeless, but actually, it’s a place alive with voices and memories, where an event or a person from the past often seems to spring vividly back to life for a moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The “Rollins Reminiscences” files (left)<\/em><\/p>\n

Some of our earliest students and faculty have left behind written reminiscences or letters describing their days at Rollins. I have shared some of these memories in our blog posts over the years, such as those of William Webster Lloyd<\/a>, who taught class on the very first day the College opened. He later recorded his reaction to his first sight of the new, unfinished campus:  \u201cThe non-existence of the college buildings shown on the prospectus of Winter Park was a chilling shock.”<\/p>\n

I also sympathized with the story of Henry “Hank” Mowbray<\/a>, class of 1897, who waged a tough campaign to have the College colors changed to blue and gold, in the hope of winning the heart of his classmate, Marie. More than 50 years later, he wrote, \u201cIt still brings tears to my eyes, and today I hope to your eyes, that after all this labor of mine, for her, the ungrateful Miss Marie transferred her affections from me to my rival, Ernest Missildine. How bitter life is!\u201d<\/p>\n

We are lucky to have some of these early voices preserved on reel-to-reel audiorecordings, and that we have a machine in working order to listen to them. It was exciting to play one of these last year<\/a> and clearly hear the voice of Ida May Missildine (one of the two members of the first graduating class of 1890) reminiscing about her student days, when Rollins had just been founded. And I find it moving to hear the voice of Pres. Hamilton Holt <\/a>delivering his last speech at Rollins, as he left the presidency after 24 years.<\/p>\n

There are many more Rollins memories saved in this format that we have yet to hear.  (Today such interviews are saved in our Oral History Archive<\/a>, which is much more accessible.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Some of the reel-to-reel recordings in the Archives<\/em><\/p>\n

The work of an archivist, is, of course, a human undertaking and therefore imperfect. Not everything makes it into the record; some stories will be lost. Sometimes sources contradict one another. But this human aspect of the Archives is also the source of its emotional power:  whether amusing, inspiring, or heartbreaking, each photograph, document, or recording has its own story to tell. Give them your attention, and they will speak to you.<\/p>\n

~ by D. Moore, Archival Specialist<\/em><\/p>\n

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Students examining records in the Archives (photo by Scott Cook) Last week, The New York Times featured an article about the survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima and their efforts to preserve and share their memories with others (“Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivors Pass Their Stories to a New Generation”). I was surprised to read that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":375546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[156,157,213,254,269,297,300,329],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hiromi-hasai","tag-hiroshima","tag-memories","tag-peace-museum","tag-primary-sources","tag-rollins-college-archives","tag-rollins-reminiscences","tag-the-new-york-times","wpcat-1-id"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1886"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375958,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions\/375958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}