Category Archives: Cool Collections

Hidden Gem: Travelogue of Juliet Bestor Coleman, 1833

Posted on July 18, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Everyday Life, Southern History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

While we have a lot of large, impressive digital collections in Acumen, sometimes the most interesting things come in small packages. In 1833, about thirty years before the Civil War, 24-year-old Juliet Bestor traveled from her home in Connecticut to … Continue reading →

Audio Digitization: a look at the Rohlig process

Posted on June 4, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Audio, Cool Collections, Digitization, Music, Software, Work Flow | 2 Comments

Audio Digitization is a completely different type of mole hill than Image Digitization. There are different concerns, such as playback speeds, distortion, clipping, etc. There are also different types of technical metadata needed, such as track begin and end times. … Continue reading →

Life Studies of the Great Army

Posted on April 22, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Books, Civil War, Cool Collections | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

One of our great small digital collections is Life Studies of the Great Army, a book of etchings depicting scenes from the Civil War. Published in 1876, it features the work of Edwin Forbes, a relatively well known landscape artist. … Continue reading →

A Civil War Perspective: Benjamin Gaston

Posted on April 8, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Civil War, Cool Collections, Newly Online, Small Collections, War | Leave a comment

Benjamin J. Gaston served as a first lieutenant with the Independent 2nd Battalion Alabama Volunteers and as a private in the 10th Alabama Cavalry.  He wrote several letters to his parents, and sometimes his brothers and sisters, between 1859 and … Continue reading →

“Go Local! Using Digital Archives as Alternative Textbooks in First Year Writing”

Posted on April 8, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Industrial, Outreach, Southern History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sara Whitver (First Year Experience Librarian), Kate Matheny (Digitization Outreach Coordinator), and Jennie Vaughn (Graduate Student Administrator, First Year Writing Program) will be presenting on this great topic at the Association of College & Research Libraries 2013 annual meeting in … Continue reading →

Lasting Impressions

Posted on January 25, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Ephemera, Foreign Language, Newly Online | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What do pamphlets from the late 18th c. French Revolution and fliers in support of a radical professor in the 1960s and 70s have in common? They were printed and handed out by people supporting radical causes, and they are … Continue reading →

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) 2012: People

Posted on December 3, 2012 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Research, UA History | Tagged | Leave a comment

When I was writing my doctoral dissertation, I always wondered, “Will what I do seem interesting to anyone else?” After a survey of theses and dissertations published at the University of Alabama over the past year, I feel a lot … Continue reading →

Native American Heritage Month

Posted on November 20, 2012 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Foreign Language, Small Collections | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Did you know November is Native American Heritage Month? The W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library houses some really interesting collections pertaining to the Choctaw Indians living in Mississippi and Louisiana at the turn of the twentieth century. The Choctaw … Continue reading →

How to build a Homecoming float

Posted on October 24, 2012 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Photographs, UA History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Homecoming 2012 is now in full swing, with the theme Timeless Traditions. In preparation for the parade on Saturday, many folks around campus are putting the finishing touches on their floats. Our fraternities are old hands at this, as we … Continue reading →

Featured Collection: Roland Harper Railroad Timetables

Posted on September 20, 2012 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

You never know what you’ll encounter in a large manuscript collection! Even the seemingly predictable might surprise you. The Hoole Special Collections Library holds a wealth of manuscript material from eminent botanist Roland Harper. Among his papers, you would expect … Continue reading →