Library Newsletter Spring 2021

Message from the Library Dean Susan M. Ryan, Betty Drees Johnson Dean of the Library & Learning Technologies Heading to the Library between classes Inside:  The new Gallery duPont  Special Gift to the Archives  Mobile Workstations for Students  Trip Down Memory Lane  Mask Making in the Innovation Lab  The 1918 Spanish Flu at Stetson  Library Support Newsletter Spring 2021 Last spring, I wrote this newsletter from my home office as we all worked remotely and did our best to provide library services in a virtual environment. At the time, we faced the uncertainty of how a new pandemic would change our lives. A year later, the library building has been back open for the past 10 months, I am writing from my campus office, and I am pleased to report that we have safely supported the Stetson community both in-person and virtually this academic year. As the library has left 2020 behind and moved forward into 2021, we are taking stock of all we have learned from this challenging time. While the library has long been adept at providing online information, we have become even more confident in our ability to create online content that will help our students with their research. We have become more proficient with learning technologies that support our faculty and students who are still teaching and learning online, and we have gained a level of comfort in providing our in-person services in a way that keeps everyone safe and healthy. Our students know that the library is a place where they can come to find a quiet place to attend an online class, to study, to write papers, to seek help from a librarian, to make a face mask in our Innovation Lab, or do a research paper using our Archives and Special Collections. In this newsletter, you will also see students using our new mobile workstations on which groups can work together at a safe distance. We are already beginning to think about the next class of Hatters who will arrive in August 2021 and what Stetson and the library will look like for them. While it is impossible to know for sure, we envision more people in the building, more available seating, and much more personal interaction going on throughout the library. What we do know for sure is that we will never go back to how it was “before.” We now have new technology skill sets that will allow us to enhance our existing services in ways we might not have imagined before the pandemic forced everyone to consider new ways of teaching and learning. We hope to take the best of “before” and add new twists that will make our library better than ever. Introducing Gallery duPont 2 2 Did you know the duPont-Ball Library now has an art gallery? Gallery duPont was created as part of our strategic plan to update and revitalize the feel and functionality of library spaces. Adding art creates a comfortable and inviting atmosphere for our patrons. The exhibition space is an exciting opportunity to engage with students in a fresh way. The gallery will feature rotating exhibits from Stetson’s art collection, current students, alumni, faculty, and visiting artists. Our current show, Florida: Ghosts and Dreams, consists of two bodies of photographic work by Matt Roberts, Associate Professor of Digital Arts. The exhibit is on display now through March 28th. For students looking for cultural credit, you are in luck. Cultural credit will be offered for each exhibition, available for the duration of each show. Look for the QR code in the gallery to access an online form. Answer the questions on the form for cultural credit. Gallery duPont is located on the second floor of the library. If you have any questions regarding the gallery, our shows, or have a suggestion, stop by the front desk and ask for our curator, Matt Garrett. Fun Fact: The lettering for our Gallery duPont signage was created on 3D printers in the library’s Innovation Lab. Next Exhibit at Gallery duPont: Impression by Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Arts Madison Creech. MARCH 31st Cultural Credit Event 3 Earlier this semester, the library got a call from Helen Walkup Cairns, asking us if we would like to add her father’s Stetson baseball uniform to our Archives. Our answer was an enthusiastic, “Yes!” Helen did not know much about her dad’s time at Stetson, and we happily provided some details from our collections. Edwin “Snake” Walkup, class of 1940, wore the baseball uniform circa 1938, but he is also seen in a 1936 photo as a member of Stetson’s “Yearling” (freshman) football team alongside a newspaper article that reported “Baby Hatters Crush Tampa Yearlings.” A 1940 student newspaper piece reveals the origin of Edwin’s “Snake” nickname. A childhood friend from North Carolina began calling Edwin “Snake” after the Snake Doctor insects that lived around the North Carolina creeks. The name stuck all the way through his Stetson days. While at Stetson, Edwin was a member of Pi Gamma Mu, the national social sciences honorary, and he went on to receive a B.S. degree in business administration. After graduation, Edwin joined the military to serve in World War II, working in field artillery and then becoming a flying cadet at Thunderbird Field. He flew 35 B-17 missions during the war. Edwin was in the Army Air / U.S. Air Force for 11 years after the war during which time he was promoted to Captain. Edwin was married to Mary Elizabeth Walkup and had two children, Helen and her brother Edwin, Jr. He and his family settled in McIntosh, Florida where he managed or owned lumber companies in and around Gainesville. He served on the McIntosh Town Council for 27 years. Edwin Walkup passed away in 1996. We thank his daughter Helen for thinking of Stetson as the right place for her family’s treasured baseball uniform. Do you have Stetson memorabilia you would like to donate? Email Susan Ryan, [email protected]. Special Gift to the Archives 4 Answering a Call for Help Noting a need for physically-distanced group work spaces due to COVID-19 restrictions, librarians brainstormed on the type of electronic workstation that would work for our students. The best idea was a mobile group workstation - a large screen TV mounted on a mobile base on which students could display and work on group projects from a safe distance. Our sincere thanks to Rich George (‘76) and John Haire (‘68) who immediately stepped up to make these workstations a reality. Students now have a safe and effective way to work together in the library during the spring semester. Both Rich and John and their families have long supported Stetson and the library and both have always been especially interested in student-centered initiatives. Above and bottom right: Students work together safely on one of our two mobile workstations. 5 You may have seen in the news that actor Hal Holbrook died recently. A few weeks ago, Netflix sent us Holbrook’s Mark Twain Tonight at my request. Seems like a sort of a Twilight Zone coincidence on several levels. My putting the DVD selection in my queue was a bit of nostalgia. When I was at Stetson, my on campus job was at the university’s Stover Theater as general carpenter, electrician and jack of all trades. The university booked Hal Holbrook for a one night show of Mark Twain in the winter of 1966. His advance man came to the theater about a week in advance with the requirements to make the show work. There was a floor plan laying out the set (furniture, curtains, etc.) and a lighting plan. The latter involved me as I was tasked with hanging the lights with the correct color filters and getting the circuits right so the matched lights could be raised and dimmed together. The advance guy had a binder three or four inches thick with the lighting plans starting with the very best, state-of-the-art venues like Carnegie Hall as Tab A. Our old, Depression Era theater was about Tab ZZ! Even so far back among the choices, I still had to crawl around in the attic stringing cables and wrestling lamps to get the lighting correct for this famous show. On the afternoon of the show, Mr. Holbrook arrived. Everyone got to shake hands with the star, and then he wanted to do a cue run-through. This involved his standing on stage and giving the cue lines from the script to activate (me) changing the lights to illuminate this part of the stage and then another. Remarkably, he did not need to check a script or any notes. He seemed to know what Tab ZZ would call for, and we went through the rehearsal easily. By now, it was about 5 o’clock. The rest of the theater staff, both faculty and students, left to eat dinner prior to curtain. The head of the theater department, Bruce “Coach” Griffiths, took me aside. He told me to stand by in case Mr. Holbrook needed anything. Someone would bring me a sandwich, but I was to stay and solve any problems for the guest. As a pro, Hal Holbrook traveled with his own makeup apparatus. Not only a tool box with the latex, hair dye, pancake, wigs and pencils needed for his aging makeup, but also his own mirror set. It was a three panel fold out mirror rig with a perimeter of light bulb sockets. I showed him into Coach’s office and pulled tables and desks to places suitable for his use. Each of the three lighted panels had its own electrical cord to power the bulbs. We put his array of bulbs into the many sockets and looked around to plug them in. The 1930s layout of the office space included one, count it - one, two-plug wall outlet. Three plugs, two outlets… As head electric guy, I knew that all our extension cords were in use. What to do? Well, Coach had said to make sure Holbrook had what he needed. So, out came the claw hammer. I punched a hole in the drywall to gain access to the next room right near the wall outlet in that room. Solved! Holbrook watched me with some evident amusement. Then, he set about his prep. I was leaving when he invited me to stick around and keep him company, unless I had something to do. I did not. So, I pulled up a chair, and we chatted about this and that as he gradually assumed, not only the appearance, but also the entire mien of a 70 year old Sam Clemens. By the time he pushed back his chair, wearing the white suit, white hair wig and posture of Mark Twain, I was sure he was MT. He chatted as if he was a man in the late Victorian era, not modern. He was entirely in his character to my eyes. By now, it was time to take him to back stage so he could start the show. As the curtain was pulled back and I pushed up the levers to raise the stage lighting, he turned and winked at me. As you can tell, I have never forgotten Hal Holbrook and our evening together. A Walk Down Memory Lane: Recollections by Ned Ricks (‘68) Mask Design in the Innovation Lab 6 Staff from many departments came by the Lab to make custom masks including Public Safety (below) and Athletics (right). Students designed their masks and some came back and brought friends to make their own. Melissa Fleming of the library staff created custom-designed face masks for the women’s basketball team for their trip to the ASUN tournament. 7 According to the Florida State Board of Health, Florida lost more than 4,100 residents to the Spanish flu and 75 people died of the virus in Volusia County in 1918 alone. Library Dean Sue Ryan and Archivist Kelly Larson dug through the tens of thousands of pieces of correspondence and ephemera that make up the general files in the Archives to try to discover the Stetson experience during the world’s last major pandemic. Buried in University correspondence, personal letters, scrapbooks, and diaries, staff uncovered information that often mirrored what we have experienced during the last year. Some of the most helpful information was found in correspondence between longtime Stetson professor G. Prentice Carson, who was working on campus at the time, and his former student alumnus Rubert Longstreet, who was serving in the military during World War I. Separated by a century, striking parallels define the two pandemics: the rapid rate at which the viruses infected people worldwide; the high death toll; the promotion of dubious cures; the conflicting views on practices to reduce the spread of the virus; controversial mask ordinances; the closures of schools, churches, and courts; and the heroics of healthcare workers. At Stetson, parallels also occurred, including the significant disruption to University operations and finances; the outdoor classes; the strict cleaning protocols; the isolation of those with active cases; and the exhaustion of those people trying to manage the disease on campus. COVID-19 has been called a once-in-a-century event, and these first-hand accounts from the University archives show that, indeed, we are re-living a bit of Stetson history from a century ago. A detailed article on the library’s Spanish flu research will appear in the next issue of Stetson Magazine. The 1918 Spanish Flu at Stetson University G. Prentice Carson Rubert Longstreet Want to share a Stetson memory with us? Send us a note: duPont-Ball Library Stetson University 421 N. Woodland Blvd., Unit 8418 DeLand, FL 32723 Phone: 386-822-7181 E-mail: [email protected] 8 Are You Interested in Supporting Our Library? Did you know that more than 50% of our operations budget comes from donors? We would not be the innovative, forward-looking library that we want for our students if not for our supporters. If you are interested in making a financial contribution to the library, we encourage you to consider a donation to either the duPont-Ball Library Enhancement fund, or one of our endowments. (1) Enhancement Fund: Go to stetson.edu/administration/development/library.php (2) Endowments: Go to stetson.edu/administration/development/library.php and use the drop-down designation menu to choose one of our endowments. (3) Other Gifts: Go to stetson.edu/administration/development/library.php and use the drop-down designation to choose “other” and specify how you would like your gift used. (4) Gifts by Mail: Make check to “Stetson University,” specify the gift, and mail to the address below. Want to know what’s happening here? Follow us on Social Media: Facebook.com/StetsonuLibrary Twitter: @StetsonuLibrary Instagram: stetsonu.library Thank you to our alumni, friends, and supporters! Photos courtesy of Chris Finkle and Debbi Dinkins