An Introduction to Student Research Findings

The mission of Rollins College Archives and Special Collections is to acquire, preserve, and make accessible unique and rare materials that document the history of Rollins College and the Central Florida community. Our holdings include a wide range of physical and digital materials open to both the Rollins community and the general public. The faculty and staff of the Archives is thrilled that the primary sources in our collections are used in a classroom setting to engage students, develop their critical thinking skills, and help construct disciplinary knowledge. We work day in and day out to ensure that our collections and activities support faculty teaching and student learning at Rollins.

To that point, the next nine blog posts will summarize the archival research work of students in Dr. Claire Strom’s Researching American History (HIS204) class during the Fall of 2018. Students in this class explored a series of original research questions about life for African Americans in Winter Park and/or at Rollins College before, during, and after integration. Each of these student scholars worked closely with Olin Library archival experts to find and interpret a variety of primary source materials from historic collections. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these stellar professionals — Wenxian Zhang and Darla Moore — for the steadfast support and guidance they offered students at various stages of the research and writing journey. I am really honored to be part of such a fantastic and skilled archives team.

Each of the following posts provide relevant images with captions, a summary of the student’s main thesis and supporting points, and references to appropriate archival resources. All students who consented to sharing their work have posted content on this blog. A full list of archival sources uncovered during the course of the 2018 ACS Diversity Grant will also be posted before the end of the current grant cycle. The most representative and illustrative artifacts utilized by students will be flagged for future digitization, so that they might be available online to the public. Future updates about digitization efforts and other continued grant activities will be posted in 2019.

– Rachel Walton, Olin Library Archivist and Librarian