amorgan2@stanford.edu's blog

If you’ve visited the main Stanford University Libraries web site in the past month, you’ve probably noticed some major changes. An entirely new site based on the Drupal content management platform launched at the end of August.

This week, Stanford University Libraries Director of Communication & Development Andrew Herkovic hosted a library tour for staff from the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities (JGC), based in the School of Education here at Stanford. As stated on its web site, the center “partners with communities to develop leadership, conduct research and effect change to improve the lives of youth.”

"What's the strangest thing in the archives?" As an archivist, I get that question a lot. My answer is always the same: the Thomas Welton Stanford apports, which are a part of the Stanford University Objects Collection in the University Archives.

Earlier this year, the University Archives (via Jerry McBride, Head Librarian of the Music Library) acquired the archives of the late electronic music pioneer Max V. Mathews, including papers, digital files, and audio recordings. A finding aid to the collection is available via the Online Archive of California.

The Stanford University Archives recently published an updated finding aid to its collection of University web sites. Currently the collection includes captures of over 500 sites on the stanford.edu domain, totalling about 400 gigabytes of content.

Last month Daniel Hartwig announced the acquisition of photographer Ira Nowinski’s print and digital images of the 2006 Stanford Powwow. In celebration of the 41st annual Powwow (which begins on Friday, May 11 and runs through the weekend), selected images from the collection are now on display in the Bender Room exhibit cases on the fifth floor of the Green Library Bing Wing.

The Stanford University Archives is pleased to announce the publication of a finding aid to the Robert Hofstadter papers via the Online Archive of California. Robert Hofstadter was a longtime member of the Stanford University Department of Physics and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1961) for his work on electron scattering.

Last week, students in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) course “Rhetoric and Stereotyping: The American Indian and Others” visited the Barchas Seminar Room to view items from the University Archives related to the Stanford mascot controversy.

Gaities Program, 1928.
Stanford Publications and Ephemera Collection (SC4000)
Stanford University Archives.

Since 1911, the Ram’s Head Theatrical Society has celebrated the annual Big Game contest between Stanford and Cal with an original musical program. To commemorate the 100th birthday of this campus tradition, staff in the University Archives have created an exhibit of programs, posters, and other memorabilia from Gaieties past. It’s on view from now through the end of Fall Quarter in the Bender Room, on the fifth floor of Green Library’s Bing Wing.

We are happy to announce that the Stanford University Archives has received a grant from the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics (AIP), to support the arrangement and description of the Robert Hofstadter Papers.

Robert Hofstadter, circa 1961 (Stanford Historical Photograph Collection #14311)