Processing Finds

While in our interim spaces during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library modernization, Special Collections archival staff are busy processing new collections, which will soon be ready for research. In the past year, we have made available over 380 boxes of material. The work continues with thirteen different collections currently being processed. During our work, we often find items that pique our interest or that we think are really cool.

Recently, we discovered an interesting series of photographs of the redevelopment of Washington, DC’s Southwest Waterfront in the 1970s. The images were taken by the contractor, Corson & Gruman, as a part of their contract with the Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).

These images document the development process of the area, which Neville Miller, RLA chairman, said would be an “attractive asset for the city.” While that statement is debatable, these, and other images in the Redevelopment Land Agency Photograph Collection (Collection #166) document the process of progress in the city and give us a glimpse into a time when the area looked very different.

The image above was taken on May 4, 1972 and shows the completed Park #3. The park was located along the Washington Channel between 7th and 9th Streets SW. 40+ years later, this area has once again been developed – just goes to show how fast this city continues to change.

-- Mark Greek, Archival Collections Coordinator

Uncovering the Past in Forest Hills, D.C.

Last week I only had to walk one block north of Washingtoniana when I spotted it. Hiding behind a Rube Goldberg-like contraption of utility pipes and meters was a section of wrought iron railing painted battleship gray. Radiating out from a centered, vertically-oriented opening were lightning bolts that culminated in sunbursts.

"This is old and there has to be a story behind it," I surmised.

Arriving back at Washingtoniana, the first thing I did was to check the DC Government Office of Planning's HistoryQuest DC map. Typing in the address of the building resulted in discovering that it was constructed in 1948 and that the original owner was the Chevy Chase Radio & Electric Company. I realized immediately that this railing had to be part of the original business that opened at this address 70 years ago.

Next I conducted a search of the Evening Star newspaper database (available at any DC Public Library or remotely with a DCPL library card). Searching "4420 Connecticut" with the searched narrowed to just 1948 resulted in hits for two businesses at this address but neither of them were the Chevy Chase Radio & Electric Company.

Having recalled seeing another entrance at the south end of the building opposite the 4420 address imprinted on a canopy over an entrance at the north end, I searched for "4418 Connecticut." Quickly I found four advertisements that the Chevy Chase Radio Company ran between April and August of 1948. Next up was to search Washingtoniana’s Evening Star Photo Morgue and the Historical Image Collection to see if there were any photos of the building as it originally looked in 1948.

Nothing.

Next I consulted Forest Hills, an Images of America book published in 2006 by the Forest Hills Neighborhood Alliance. No luck there either.

Lastly, I ran a Google Images search for "Chevy Chase Radio Company" and, in addition to lots of photos of the actor Chevy Chase, found one black and white photo of a building titled Potomac Electric Power Co. But plainly visible on the building was signage that read "Dowd's Chevy Chase Radio & Electric Company." The poor quality photo was credited to Theodor Horydczak, whose photo archive (I knew) was housed in the Library of Congress.

Within seconds I was on the Library of Congress website, which had (unfortunately) the same poor quality exterior photo but included an interior image of the business as well. Both photos were taken by the photographer on April 15, 1948, the first month that Chevy Chase Radio began advertising in the "Star."

It's too bad that this nice example of wrought iron craftsmanship is not more visible to passersby on the sidewalk, but if it had been it probably would not have survived the past seven decades.

--Jerry McCoy, Special Collections Librarian

Poor People’s Campaign Photos Now Available on Dig DC

We are pleased to announce that over 600 Washington Star images documenting the Poor People's Campaign of 1968 and Resurrection City are now available on Dig DC. 

You can research DC Public Library Resources on the Poor People's Campaign and Resurrection City in the People's University Online Resource Guide. View the Washington Star images here. 

(Image by Bob Schumaker: People Arriving to Resurrection City, May 1968

Finding Gems in the Edward Fletcher Photograph Collection

Special Collections Volunteer Irene Kellogg recently came across this 1947 photo of the Bradford Barbell Club in the newly acquired Edward Fletcher Photograph Collection. Irene, a photographer herself and a longtime friend of the Fletcher family, shares her thoughts on working with this collection in a piece titled, “Finding Gems in the Edward Fletcher Collection: A Volunteer’s Viewpoint:”

Gathering the donated collections of a body of work and organizing a myriad of media topics for library users is no small task, but an outsider might believe it to be so.  My first initial introduction to the process entailed working on one phase of a photographic collection. The boxes appeared to contain carefully prearranged prints with or without their medium format negatives, which had to be verified. I entered a small amount of information on each item, such as location, subject, and possible dates, if not provided. Finally, I added brief descriptive data about the images into a spreadsheet. This preliminary identification work and data entry was not difficult. It was part of the learning foundation for me. The more mundane and pioneering work was yet to come in the learning process. It would center on the tasks relating to the actual accessioning process. I understood this to mean finding out how much ‘stuff’ has to be stored – in linear feet. Believe it or not, I was really looking forward to tackling those 27 boxes of photographic material that had been shipped from Tacoma, WA to Washington, DC on February 17, 2018.

Ergo, my personal discovery of what may appear as a straightforward project has opened the door to a variety of learning, as well as discoveries. It certainly is fortuitous that I got the assignment of working on the Edward Fletcher Collection.  I truly believe that there is some cosmic force that started a simple query to Ray Barker, DC Public Library Special Collections Archivist. I asked if the division might be interested in seeing photographic samples of the historical works done by a deceased photographer, Edward Fletcher. Fletcher was one of the founders of the FotoCraft Camera Club, founded in 1937 and officially established in 1940.

My next task was helping the archivist with the accessioning of the Edward Fletcher Collection. Now, we’re reopening the 27 boxes I helped to pack in Tacoma, WA. The first step in a structured process was work! Why? Well, it is simple: this time I had time to look – really look – into the hastily packed boxes.  It was not a task of just transferring items again from one container to another. “Astounding!” was all I could think.  I was handling slides, albums, and images of Joe Louis, Nat King Cole, and Lena Horne. In addition, I had to transfer the mostly organized negatives of Howard University; Nannie Helen Burroughs; the Langston Terrace Golf Tournament; Thurgood Marshall; the NAACP; Pearl Bailey (who lived in NE, DC) and her husband, John Pinkett; the YWCA, etc. I was looking quickly, but nonetheless, I was looking at all before me. Something caught my eye all of sudden; it was an envelope marked “YMCA – weight lifters, 1947.” Here was a crown jewel, I thought to myself – a gem among so many other gems.

For background, the Bradford Barbell Club was officially started in 1947. The Club moved to the Anthony Bowen 12th Street YMCA (it was known as the colored Y). One should realize that back then, during this period, the nation’s capital was still segregated. Young men could not compete in local DC weightlifting championships. Jim Bradford was recognized outside of DC as an up-and-coming weight lifter. Later, this strong man won the silver medal in both the 1952 and 1960 Olympics.  

In 2008, I was hired as a photographer for the Bradford Barbell Club’s reunion. They met on November 9, in Washington DC at the Navy Yard.

So, not only am I a volunteer and explorer, but I have also touched in real time some of the lives of the people represented in the Edward Fletcher Collection. How lucky can one person be?

-- Irene Kellogg, DC Public Library Special Collections Volunteer, as well as citizen, photographer, member of the FotoCraft Camera Club, and friend of the Fletcher Family

The Poor People's Campaign Collection is now live on DigDC. This 1968 movement was initiated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to support the efforts of American poor people advocating for economic justice. Many of the activists lived in temporary housing they constructed on the National Mall in an encampment known as Resurrection City. Dr. King was assassinated in April 1968, during the Poor People's March on Washington. This was his final major campaign. Learn more and browse materials from this collection here.

The Washington Free Press Collection is now live on DigDC ! 

The Washington Free Press Collection contains issues of the underground newspaper the Washington Free Press published from 1967 to 1969.

The WFP was a radical leftist independent newspaper that began publication in Washington, DC in 1966. An early member of the Underground Press Syndicate, it was best known for its homemade aesthetic and psychedelic illustrations and coverage of the counterculture, poverty, recreational drugs, student activism, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and police brutality. An entire issue of the paper was devoted to the October 21, 1967 anti-war demonstration later known as the Pentagon riot.

The WFP was founded in 1966 as an inter-university newspaper to cover the civil rights and anti-war movements. The paper ceased publication in the summer of 1966 after the first four issues and was resurrected in the spring of 1967 as an “underground” paper published by an editorial collective out of a communal townhouse. The first issue of the reconstituted WFP was published March 26, 1967. The WFP was Part of the Liberation News Service, which for a time operated out of the same house, and served as a wire service between underground papers across the country. The last issue of the Washington Free Press appeared mid-December 1969. Several former WFP staff members went on to found the underground newspaper the Quicksilver Times in mid-1969.

The Washington Free Press offices were repeatedly searched by local law enforcement and the FBI. Several of the paper's distributors and the paper itself were charged with possession and distribution of obscenity. Most notably store owner Marshall Woodruff was charged with possession of obscene material over the publication of an R. Crumb cartoon. All convictions related to WFP obscenity were eventually reversed, though several exonerations came after the paper's demise.

The issues presented here are from the personal collections of Washington Free Press co-founder Art Grosman and drug columnist Pete Novick. Grosman digitized the issues and donated the digital copies to DC Public Library for publication. We believe this to be a full run of the paper as it was reconstituted in 1967 beginning with Volume 2, Issue 1. Please contact us if you have any additional issues that would complete our collection.

This collection contains some nudity, violent imagery, offensive language, and frank depictions of sex and drug use.

The Washington Free Press was published by a collective until it ceased publication in 1969 and its intellectual property is not known to have transferred to any other entity.

Sources:

Save the Date! DC Home Movie Day 2017: “America on the Move: Road Trips, Travel, and Family” is co-presented by the Smithsonian and the DC Public Library (DCPL) at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Home Movie Day was founded in 2002 as a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking. Home Movie Day events provide the opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience of their community, and to see their neighbors’ in turn. It’s a chance to discover why to care about these films and to learn how best to care for them. DC Home Movie Day 2017 offers an opportunity for the participants to have their home movies on otherwise inaccessible and/or obsolete film and video formats inspected by the Smithsonian's professional media conservators and screened for the public in the NMAAHC Family History Center. This year’s DC Home Movie Day will also feature “America on the Move” home movie highlights from the film and video collections of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the DC Public Library.

For more information: https://goo.gl/FwLHYa

Special Collections staff has recently been working on improving the organization and description of our Ephemera Collection. The collection is chock full of items that would delight any paper, print, and typography lover.  A recent favorite is this 1874 dance card booklet from a reception of the Americus Yacht Club (possibly of New York City).

The Society of American Archivists defines ephemera as 

Some other recent ephemera highlights below include programs from the Society of Washington Fakirs (an art club), a card of censure from Washington Public Schools and a brochure for “George Washington’s River... a new water pollution film.”

Often when we are processing a collection we come across an item that causes our inner “History Nerd” to take over. Sometimes these items have historical implications, but more often than not they don’t change our view of history or alter the established historical scholarship, they’re just … well … Cool.  While rehousing items in the “Artificial and Ephemeral Collection (Collection 060),” I recently ran across this note from Noah Webster, yes that Webster, who is writing to William Seaton and Joseph Gales in 1832 to subscribe to the National Intelligencer.  Seaton and Gales were the publishers of the National Intelligencer, but what is most interesting to me is that he wanted the paper delivered to his home in New Haven, Connecticut. Guess it just goes to show that our local news has always been national news. — Mark Greek, Archival Collections Coordinator  

DCPL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS HONORS GO-GO AND CHUCK BROWN

The DC Public Library Special Collections Department celebrated and honored the legacy of go-go music as DC history, and the late Chuck Brown (“The Godfather of Go-Go”) with a series of events at the Woodridge Neighborhood Library and Langdon Park (also known as “Chuck Brown Memorial Park”) from August 15 – August 20.

On August 15th, local DC music journalist Marcus Dowling presented “Go-Go as DC History,” a panel discussion that utilized five iconic go-go songs from DC’s legendary “Chocolate City” to address the genre’s past, present, and future.  The city’s economic, political, social, and cultural past was examined with those who made the songs, as well as those they influenced. The discussion showcased what aspects of the music and the times best defined America’s Capital City. The program generated 24 attendees. Panelists included Jamal Gray, curator of Uptown Art House; journalist and NPR contributor Briana Younger; and Geronimo Collins, host of “All the Fly Kids” podcast.

On Saturday, August 19th, which was also “Chuck Brown Day” in the District, the Library hosted two film screenings related to Brown and go-go:  The Legend of Cool Disco Dan and Chuck Brown Live at the 9:30 Club.  The Legend of Cool Disco Dan is the story of black Washington DC told from the perspective of Danny Hogg (Cool "Disco" Dan). The film starts with his birth during the civil rights era and follows his life in parallel with the rise of go-go music through the 1980s. It also touches upon local DC politics and the rise and fall of Marion Barry. Despite ending up homeless, Cool "Disco" Dan used graffiti to escape the social problems that plagued the District during this violent era, which had become infamously known as the “Murder Capital of the United States.”  Cool "Disco" Dan ends up as a cult character of DC and his name becomes a symbol of survival during DC's most trying years.  The day was poignant, as the film screening was held at the same time as a memorial service at the 9:30 Club for Hogg, who passed away on July 26, 2017.

At the conclusion of the film screenings, it was time to move to Chuck Brown Memorial Park to enjoy good music and warm weather.  Partnering with the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, the DCPL table/tent was staffed by Margaret Gilmore, Eric White, Janette Graham, and Derek Gray, in which attendees signed up for library cards, participated in free giveaways, learned about the Go-Go Archive and signed up for its email list, and moved rhythmically to Experience Unlimited (E.U.) and the Chuck Brown Band!

The series concluded with another panel discussion at the Woodridge Neighborhood Library. William Reynolds, Business and Finance Administration Officer at the Smithsonian Museum’s Lemelson Center for Innovation and Invention, who has also hosted programs there on the impact of go-go in DC, moderated the program which focused on Chuck Brown’s influence from the perspective of individuals who actually knew and performed with him. The speakers included Kevin “Kato” Hammond, author, and owner of “Take Me Out to the Go-Go (TMOTTGOGO)” Radio, Magazine, and Website; Tom Porter, educator and former Program Director at WPFW (89.3 FM); and Bryan Mills, saxophonist (with Secret Society), and former member of the Chuck Brown Band.

Look for more exciting new developments with the DCPL Go-Go Archive! Established in 2012 after Brown’s passing, we are seeking to continue to build it and need your help.  You can read more about the Archive and the types of items we want to add by visiting www.dclibrary.org/chuckbrown.  If you are interested in donating to the collection and/or wish to be added to our email list, please contact Derek Gray, Archivist at (202) 727-2272 or derek.gray2@dc.gov.

The Potomac Boat Club Photograph Collection now online documents competitive and social events at the Georgetown rowing club from its 1869 founding through the late-20th century.  Donated to the George Peabody Room Collection at Georgetown Neighborhood Library by the club in 2015, the collection has been was digitized in its entirety and is now available in Dig DC, DC Public Library's repository for digital archival collections. The collection is composed primarily of photographs that include images of winning crew teams, practices and races on the Potomac River, celebrations such as annual oyster roasts, and images of the club’s two boat houses on the Georgetown waterfront (at 3141 and 3550 Water Street NW), as well as and a set of early 20th century architectural drawings of its current location. Also included are panoramic photographs of attendees at the club's annual social gatherings. 

Notable events documented in the collection include the burning of Dempsey's Boathouse in 1961, a 1936 flood of the Georgetown waterfront, and the sinking of the "Recreation" at the Club's annual regatta on August 14, 1904, which resulted in 10 deaths.

Rest in Power to civil rights activist and comedian Dick Gregory, 1932-2017.

The Hilda Mason Collection includes materials from Gregory's 1968 Presidential Campaign. Among his many accomplishments, Gregory ran as the write-in candidate on the Freedom and Peace Party ticket, with Mark Lane as his running mate. He obtained over 47,000 votes. In March 1969, Gregory held one of several inauguration events at Morgan Community School in Adams Morgan, during which he established himself as "President-in-Exile." An inaugural ball and a New Party town meeting followed. Gregory discussed his campaign platform in his 1968 book, "Write Me In."

DCPL Special Collections Librarian Jerry McCoy recently stumbled upon documentation of a tragic event in DC history in our collections.  He shares this story:

The PBC photograph collection has been digitized in its entirety and will soon be available on Dig DC.

 A story of friendship like this must be shared...

"Two months after D-Day, Percy Crowley found me in a field near Omaha Beach, France. He took me to Joe Allen, and then to Robert Caldwell. Rob, Percy, and I were last photographed together in 1924-25 at Delaware Avenue and I Street S.W." -Joseph Owen Curtis

Both photos are part of the Joseph Owen Curtis Photo Collection and can be found in Dig DC :

http://digdc.dclibrary.org/…/coll…/p16808coll6/id/339/rec/20

http://digdc.dclibrary.org/…/colle…/p16808coll6/id/14/rec/14