MD: All right, good morning,
everyone, good morning.
I am Kimberly Powell, I'm
our Chief of Internship
and Fellowship Programs here
at The Library of Congress,
and we are ready to
begin our program.
So I don't know about
your commute this morning,
but mine was just beautiful.
I get a chance to take
the commuter train in
and I get a chance to look out,
and as I commuted in I thought
about how beautiful D.C. is
at this time of the year.
We do springtime a little
differently here in D.C.
because of those
lovely treasures we have
and everything is
vibrant and blooming.
Springtime is also graduation
season and our friends,
like our partners
at Howard University
and other universities
around the country are
preparing for graduation.
Well, we here at The Library
of Congress have been preparing
for a graduation of sorts
with today's program.
We are thrilled that each of
you has been able to make it
with us here this morning
to celebrate our
amazing three interns.
Many of us, I have
to tell you interns,
are wondering how
quickly this happened?
I remember very well back
in February we were just
introducing you to the Library
and taking that first photograph
and here we are today.
We quickly also learned that
these students are bright,
they are talented, they are
courageous, they are generous,
and you all have an opportunity
to learn a little bit more
about all of that during
the balance of this hour.
So the time has come for
us to reflect on the impact
and the accomplishments of our
inaugural Archives, History
and Heritage Advanced Internship
Program, and welcome to this,
our first reflection program.
So, interns, these are
exciting times at the Library
and you all have
contributed significantly
to our mission during
your short time with us.
We sincerely hope that your
internship has been meaningful,
that it's been gratifying,
thought provoking
and, yes, challenging.
We hope that you have a
better sense of the rich
and diverse collections we have
here at The Library of Congress.
We hope you understand better
how we organize and preserve
and make accessible our
tremendous treasures.
We hope that you have connected
with our staff members,
they are talented and
they are committed
to your growth and development.
We also hope that your research
skills have been further honed
and that you will come back
and bring faculty members,
other students, family and
friends to access The Library
of Congress and utilize
its treasures.
We also expect that you'll be
able to navigate our collections
like the expert scholars
that you are.
And, lastly but not leastly, we
would hope that your association
with The Library of
Congress is an enduring one.
Today is not an ending,
it's a beginning
of the continuous relationship
that we'll have with you.
And I just have to tell each
of you I really do
appreciate this opportunity
of having gotten to know
you and work with you.
I am amazed and I can't wait
to hear more during our program
about some of the things that
you've done and how you've grown
as a result of this great
work we've done here.
And, so that said, it has been
our great pleasure to work with
and learn with each of you.
And at this point with
all of that said I'm going
to have the great opportunity
to introduce our 14th Librarian
of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden.
[ Applause ]
>> Carla Hayden:
Well, good morning,
and when Kimberly said
great opportunity,
I said you couldn't have
kept me away with anything
because this program
is dear to my heart,
as someone who was born
on the campus of HBCU,
who has also been privy to
the fact that so much history
of people of color is
sometimes lost and misplaced
and not made accessible.
The opportunity to have interns
from Howard University to learn
about what opportunities there
are in archival professions,
I just caught their attention, I
should tell all the adults here
and there are young adults,
that for instance Beyonce
has a fulltime archivist,
that there are many,
many ways to think
about history and archives.
And our collaboration is
called Archives, History,
and Heritage Advanced
Internship, but it's also known
as AHHA, and it took me a
minute to put all that together,
but that's what it is,
the AHHA of being able
to make materials accessible
to open up a treasure chest
and be the person that is
going to find that letter,
that is going to find that film
clip, that is going to find
that recording of Bessie
Smith or whoever it is
and make it accessible is
one of the greatest gifts
that you could give to
the nation and the world
and generations to come.
This would not have
been possible, though,
without the generous
support of two people,
who I have the pleasure
of working with.
They are members of the
Library's philanthropic arm,
the James Madison Council.
And at first when I
talked to Mr. Craig
and Diane Welburn they
thought, they said, Carla,
what do you mean
paid internships,
African-American
history, I don't know?
But then as soon as they
said that they said, yes.
And so I just want everyone
to please give the
Welburn's a hand.
[ Applause ]
Because their relationship with
The Library of Congress started
because of their interest
in history and making sure
that history was accessible
and so their support
has made this possible.
So with each of the interns,
they're going to talk
about what they learned and
what they did, but we just want
to tell you all, all three of
you that this is now a place
for you to consider home.
The staff members that
you've worked with,
and I just saw Dr. Sybil Moses
[assumed spelling] just come in,
who has been saying what is the
original research they're going
to be doing and all of this.
So you have now people that will
be following you and nudging you
and just keeping up, but
you have that support
at The Library of Congress.
So, welcome.
[ Applause ]
>> Jaquelyn Chin: Which mike?
Okay. Hello, welcome.
I just want to say thank you
to Dr. Hayden, the Welburn's,
and my family and mentors
for coming here today.
Thank you for taking the time
out of your schedules
to be here.
So my name is Jaquelyn Chin and
I'm a Senior Psychology Major,
graduating soon from
Howard University.
The project that I was assigned
to this internship period
was the Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater.
And to introduce the
company a little bit,
Alvin Ailey was named
by Congress
as the official Cultural
Ambassador to the World.
And while I am a
Psychology Major,
so I originally wasn't
interested,
I did know the importance of
archiving black culture and knew
that it was important to
have black people part
of that movement and part
of archiving black culture.
And so, I'm a little nervous.
And so to introduce the
collection, I wanted to start
with the [inaudible]
with answering,
once I first got here.
So the question was
what is in here
and what is an Alvin Ailey
collection, why is it important
to researchers, to academics,
to students everywhere.
So what I first started with
was finding content in order
to [inaudible] the company I
thought it was important to look
into the time period
that we began in,
when the Alvin Ailey Dance
Theater began, the 50s and 60s,
and what that looked
like for America
and for black history
and culture.
And that guided my goals
throughout the rest
of the internship period.
So the first picture at the
top is from the very famous
and the very well-known
work, Revelation,
and it shows this image
of [inaudible] a journey
of spirituality and archives,
how black people have grappled
with our past in the country
through our spiritual
time in church.
This is, of course, in
the Alvin Ailey archive.
The second picture is
from Night Creatures,
which is a performance that
I saw at the Kennedy Center.
And then the third picture is
actually from our collection
from the program section.
So I wanted to bring this
up because I wanted to point
out that the company
actually started
as the [inaudible]
Ailey Company.
And to me what that said was
the company was at first named
with Carmen de Lavallade because
she was more famous than Ailey.
So as a message to artists
everywhere you might not start
as the headliner, but of course
Ailey's company is now 60 years
old, has the Ailey American
Dance theater, the Ailey School,
the Ailey Extension and
provides free dance lessons
to the public, beyond
his death in 1989.
And so the importance of
going and getting started
with whatever resources he
had very much touched upon me
from the jump.
And so now to introduce the
collection a little bit more.
I touched upon what the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater is,
and so as far as what's
in the collection,
there are moving images,
diaries, scrapbooks,
photos, correspondence.
So while originally I thought
I'd just be looking at videos
of people dancing all day, I
found much more information
and much more that was relevant
to what I wanted
to bring out of it.
So the first picture is again
from one of the early works
of Revelations and there's
Alvin Ailey in the picture,
along with Ella Thompson
Moore [assumed spelling]
and Myrna White [assumed
spelling].
The second picture is from
the production of Roots,
which Alvin Ailey put together
to commemorate black history
and culture, and I thought it
was interesting to look at it
because in the very top you
can see that it says Jazz,
the Heartbeat, Jazz is a Moving
Song, or something like that
and then he just crosses
it out and leaves it
out of all the rest
of the productions.
And so seeing that kind
of artistic process
and the time it takes to produce
something like a Revelations,
so produce something like a
Roots that lasts through time,
having the persistence to work
through that artistic process
I thought was also important.
So a little bit into
the presentations.
>> I just need you to
move the microphone.
>> Jacquelyn Chin:
I'm sorry, no problem.
I started with the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater,
of course, but as I was going
into his archives I realized
that his collection was
only part of the story.
So to talk about black
dance and, of course,
black American dance you have
to talk about Katherine Dunham,
who also is the matriarch
of black dance.
She was a cultural
anthropologist and got her Ph.D.
and was also the owner
of a dance company,
the Katherine Dunham
Dance Company.
I'm sorry?
[ Inaudible ]
>> Jacquelyn Chin: Oh, yes, so
my first week that I was here
at the Library we actually
had the opportunity to present
to the Ailey Dancers, so they
came in around this room,
we were showing them all
these different artifacts,
showing them pictures of Ailey.
And we thought, oh,
they'll be really interested
in these old photos of Ailey
because they'd never seen
them before, but it turns
out they were much
more interested
by the Katherine
Dunham FBI file.
And I thought that
was important to bring
up because this is a woman
who was a Cultural Ambassador
of the US, again had her Ph.D.,
was a black American
dance owner,
but she had this really
-- and you can see it,
come to the collection, this
really heavy stack of FBI files,
like digging into
her personal life.
And so thinking about
how dancers,
especially black dancers have
always assumed a political role
and have been targeted in
different ways for that.
And so for us, thinking in the
future about what that means
as we archive black
history and culture.
And thanks to Mitch, one
of our other Librarians,
actually also uncovered a
photo of John Leone Destine.
And so Alvin Ailey is
America's Culture Ambassador,
he's Haiti's Culture
Ambassador, and his work served
to destigmatize voodoo, the
African religion of Haiti.
But, of course, I wouldn't
have found that or came upon
that unless I had started with
Alvin Ailey or had the work
of the, had the help
of the Librarians.
And so as it comes to curating
materials I found it important
to be able to put into context
the, to put into historical
and cultural context the
development of black dance.
So again to touch on
the Library resources,
again before I had started
this internship I wasn't super
familiar with the Library,
but since coming here
and since spending
a couple weeks
with the staff I found
particularly helpful was the
Library staff.
So when navigating the
reading room, the reference,
and talking to the reference
Librarians they were the ones
who helped me put up my first
blog post introducing the Alvin
Ailey collection.
And as we went on the tours
of the different Divisions,
being able to see how different,
this helped me realize how
different materials would
be archived.
So while, of course, I
initially kind of assumed, oh,
Music Division, it's going to
have everything Alvin Ailey,
realized that that's
not to be true
and that's not always
the most effective way
to archive different materials.
So having different means
of preserving, moving images
versus music, versus the
sheets is all part of this way
that we preserve
American history.
I also had the opportunity
to stop
at a popup panel called the
Performing Black Womanhood,
run by one of the Kluge fellows,
and there you could actually
see this big slave trade map
and it documented
the different ships
that were coming
during the slave trade,
which I thought was very timely
because it's the 400-year
of return since the first
African-American slaves came
to the country.
And so being able to see
that and kind of think
about where we are, but also
where we have to go in terms
of black history and
culture and how we tie it
in with American history was
I think an important thing
to consider.
How am I on time?
Okay. As I was looking into
the collection I found a couple
of ongoing issues that
I thought were important
to keep considering.
So one was this idea
of the psychology
of the black experience,
which was a course that I took
at Howard, but of course
something that I kept thinking
about as I was returning
to this work.
And it's kind of debated,
this idea that there
is a black experience,
but for me I thought it was
important to continue looking
into it because even if I
was reading a correspondence
between Alvin Ailey and one of
his dancers there's this idea
that African-Americans and
that black descendants pass
on information in certain
ways or are more rhythmic,
use more oral traditions
and use more movement.
And so seeing that on its
different levels I thought was
important to keep considering.
Also, in this letter, this was a
fan of Alvin Ailey's that wrote
to him, Joan Goldstein, and
she basically presents him
with this really
interesting query which talks
about Franz Kafka and how
he was a famous writer
who wanted all his works burned
upon his death, very dramatic.
And so she writes to Alvin Ailey
and asks him what would you do
if you were Franz Kafka
and would you have asked
that upon other people?
And so this made me
think of that idea
of individual expression
versus collective need.
So Alvin Ailey had an integrated
dance company at a time
when there was this whole
black power movement
and one could argue that
the community called or kind
of asked upon him
for certain things.
And different artists
decided to respond
to that call in different ways.
And so it just made
me think of that idea
about how much a person
owes to their community
and to preserving their
materials for others to see,
versus how much they
owe to their self
in preserving their artistic
need and artistic vision.
And also thinking, of course,
about how the arts are
always connected to policies
and politics, especially
once we looked at artists
like Nina Simone and Max Roche
[assumed spelling] throughout
the selections.
And then bringing up this idea
of uncomfortable conversations,
which really just touches upon
this idea that as archivists
and as researchers, as
academics being able to talk
about the uncomfortable
parts of collections.
So we did find black face
on the Caldwell collection
and which I also
thought was timely
because of what's been going
on in the media lately.
But so again thinking
about who is archiving
and who is preserving
these materials
and how we're telling
these stories.
So, finally in the end,
my lessons learned were research
takes a significant amount
of initiative and a significant
amount of understanding
who you're talking
to at a given time.
So while in the beginning I
had kind of very little context
to run with I did learn
that on any level you can
as a researcher try
to be a leader.
And so with our Music
Division tour that was
where I had the opportunity
to lead part of it,
bring out different parts of
the collection and tell a story.
And then, to end this off, while
first again I didn't see myself
in my work as trying to go into
clinical work as being relevant
to this, I realized that
having a multidisciplinary lens
and bringing that to the work
of archiving and to the work
of research is necessary
because again it's this idea
as archivists, as librarians
we're telling a story
and we're deciding how that
story is told and remembered
and so thinking about that
as we move into the future.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Libby Smigel: Greetings.
I'm Libby Smigel, who was
Jaquelyn Chin's mentor
in the Music Division.
I'm a Dance Specialist here.
And I hope that her report
gave you a small glimpse
into the kind of excitement that
she brought to me especially,
but to the whole Music Division
by having this opportunity
to have someone who
didn't just care
about where Ailey's feet were,
which I think is
extraordinarily important.
And while I have taught
dance and have a background
in academic, academe,
for me having this
monumental collection,
which keeps on giving
because the company continues
to send us materials, I had
been thinking that the way
into this collection was someone
who wasn't a dance person
or even in performing arts.
And when she was telling
me when we interviewed her
about her course, Psychology
of the Black Experience,
I was like this is the
person, this is the person
who is open enough to not
know much at all except
through her dance friends
that Ailey was a great artist
and extraordinary and jumped
high and all those things,
but that in fact this was going
to be a source of
some significance.
And I believe that she
certainly refreshed me
and we have come back
to this collection
with newfound excitement.
And what she also did
was not just stick
with the Ailey company
materials,
but had that curiosity to make
connections across collections
that sometimes we
as the librarians
or the archivists don't have
time to find and it's giving me
that sense of hyper texting
our collections in a way
that I think is going
to be really exciting.
And I thank you, Mr.
and Mrs. Wellborn,
for what you have
offered in this experience
because it was a
dream come true for me
and I think it's
going to continue.
So our next person,
our next intern,
AHHA intern is Brittney
Meadors, who had her position
at the American Folklife Center.
[ Applause ]
>> Brittney Meadors: Hello.
My name is Brittney Meadors.
I'm a Master Candidate
in Classical Voice
and International Affairs
at Howard University.
And thank you for
allowing me to speak today.
This spring semester I had
a tremendous opportunity
of working in the
American Folklife Center.
I worked with two collections --
the Bruce Jackson and
Diane Christian collection
and the Pete Welding collection.
Today I will talk about
the collections in detail,
my responsibilities, as
well as my reflections
with the enrichment
programs that I attended.
So my responsibilities with
the Bruce Jackson collection
included rehousing materials.
It's important to rehouse
documents to keep them
from facing, from tearing,
basically any damage.
This was a great
developmental task for me
because I did not have
previous knowledge at all
with archiving documents
and rehousing materials.
With this responsibility I also
created a container list online
that will be used for
finding aid for researchers.
Oh, and I'd like to go back --
in this photo you see a
film and a film container.
This was dated March 1974
and it features poker
games and telephone talk.
So there were some interesting
findings with this collection,
there were some taboo
jokes that were often dark,
as well as some prison
environment relationships.
I also viewed some interviews
and performances that they gave.
This first joke on here
says it's okay for a priest
to kiss nuns, but don't get in
the habit, one chased a priest
around a church and
caught him by the organ.
Here's the photograph of
a list of songs that some
of the prisoners composed
while they were in prison.
The first one is by Thomas Poleg
[assumed spelling] titled I've
Got Stripes Around My Shoulder,
it was written in 1965,
I assume he's talking about
the prison wear stripes
that he had to wear.
The second collection I worked
with was the Pete
Welding collection,
it consists of over 700
extensive audio recordings
of oral history, so these are
interviews and performances
from jazz and blues,
ragtime performers.
Pete Welding, himself, was an
American archivist, historian
and producer, he specialized
in jazz and blues music.
Some of the interviews and
performances I looked at was
from Howlin' Wolf,
Thomas A. Dorsey,
these were prominent musicians
in the 1960s and the 1970s.
My responsibilities for these
included listening and logging
to the audio recordings,
I logged over 90 of those.
This required precise
descriptions
of the musician's relationships,
their music and their career.
I actually had the opportunity
to attend an archives forum
discussion here at the Library,
which talked about exploring
archival relationships.
So basically with that I
learned of the importance
of including the
lineage of relationships
of musician's teachers
and mentors,
and all of that's important
to include in the audio logs
because the decision
I make in including
that information determines how
easy it is for this to be used
as a finding aid in the future.
With this collection there are
also some interesting findings.
As a professional musician
myself I really enjoyed
listening to the audio.
The first interesting finding
was a six-part concert series
with Johnny Otis.
He was an American
musician, composer,
producer and talent scout.
He often featured new
talent on his radio show.
And I appreciate that
Johnny Otis recordings
because he was adamant about
giving new musicians a chance
to be recognized, which I
also think Pete Welding did
with his interviews
and performances
by giving these musicians
a chance for their voices
to be heard and also
to be preserved.
My favorite interview was an
in-depth four-part interview
with Pete Robinson, he
was a jazz band musician
for a band called Contraband.
He told his story of
his personal journey
from classical music to pop
music, which I also related
to as a musician because I also
started in classical music,
learned the technical aspects
of it, you know, found my way
with it and learned
also about pop music.
So with this next slide I've
included two audio recordings.
The first is from Robert
Wilkins, he's a blues musician,
and in this clip he talks
about the importance
of what makes a blues song
actually a blues song,
and you'll hear him explain it's
the inward feeling that you have
and the sadness that
you experience
that is transposed into song.
[ Music ]
>> Brittney Meadors:
I think there's audio.
Should I exit out of this?
[ Music ]
>> Brittney Meadors: Oh, okay,
that's part of the audio.
Okay, so now we'll hear the
audio from Robert Wilkins.
>> That was in honor
of Earth Day.
>> Brittney Meadors: Okay.
[ Audio Clip ]
>> Brittney Meadors: Yes,
so I thought that was great
to include in the presentation
because it gives you insight
to what a composer felt and
the audio that I listened
to as I was working
on this collection.
The second clip is
from Big Joe Turner,
he's the musician
pictured on the right,
he was a blues-jazz musician.
In this you'll get to hear a
little bit of his song titled,
Shake, Rattle and Roll.
[ Audio Clip ]
>> Brittney Meadors: Okay,
and then on the left
here is a song list
from the Johnny Otis Show of
just some of the performances
that they did at
the Ash Grove in LA.
So I used this in correspondence
with the audio, I would use this
as part of my audio logs.
The big part of my internship
here was attending the cultural
enrichment activities.
I attended the events
at the Music Division,
the Manuscript Division, and the
AFC, American Folklife Center.
At the Manuscript
Division it was a privilege
to view the personal diaries
of the Presidents
and the First Ladies.
During the Folklife
presentation I learned
that folklife is the context
surrounding the material
and the creative intent.
And at the Music Division I
was exposed to musical scores,
literature and music analysis
which was really great for me
to see, especially
as a musician.
I also attended several
lectures at the Library --
African-American Passages,
Black Lives in the 19th Century,
it was conducted by Jesse J.
Holland, who he's the Journalist
and Novelist of the
Black Panther,
as well as Black Men
Built the Capitol.
He discussed the importance
of Presidential manuscripts
being digitized
so everyone can have access
to it and not just researchers
and historians, but US citizens.
I also attended a lecture
on the polarization
and political discourse in the
US, they pinpoint the beginning
of political discourse around
1964, the Civil Rights Movement.
So I thought it was essential
for me to go to these events
because I learned more
about black culture,
Civil Rights Museum
and my history.
At the beginning of the semester
I attended the New Acquisitions
display of the 100 of the
Library's finds from 2018.
I conversed with the
Near East Section leader,
she showed me her pictures of
the silk road that she took
and compared them to the model
there, such as being able
to network with people at the
Library was a great opportunity.
I went to the Exploring the
Early America's Exhibition,
I learned interesting
information there
about the Aztecs and the Mayans.
And then the picture here, The
Strange Fruit from Nina Simone,
I got from the Music Division,
that piece was revolutionary
in itself with racism
and the lynching going
on to African-Americans.
And so again those events were
important for me to attend
as a black person and also
to support black culture.
So connection to the future,
I plan on continuing a
role in culture diplomacy.
I love to be an advocate
for performing arts
and have an impact, and
the impact that they have
on diverse cultures and
promote mutual understanding.
The Library helped
me advance this
by first giving me
experience working
in the Federal Government,
the job that I'll be doing
requires Government work.
I experienced firsthand
materials
in the American Folklife Center,
working with diverse cultures.
I mean there's no
other better place
that I could have
been to learn that.
And I also experienced
the holistic approach
with the enrichment activities.
I attended things about
politics, about black culture,
about music, literature, all of
these things were intertwined
in my internship here.
So I sincerely thank
everyone who had a part
in making this internship
possible,
the valuable knowledge I gained
and my overall experience here
at the Library has
been unforgettable.
Thank you for hearing
me speak today.
[ Applause ]
And now my mentor, Ann Hoog
from the American Folklife
Center will be coming up.
>> Ann Hoog: Thanks,
Brittney, that was great.
I'm Ann Hoog, I'm a
Folklife Specialist
at the American Folklife Center,
and I have a little speech.
I just want to, there was
one thing that Dr. Hayden,
you mentioned at the beginning
about the Beyonce archives.
Just this morning I got an
e-mail from a former intern
at the American Folklife Center,
she interned probably three
or four years ago in
the processing section,
and she was looking to see if
I could provide a reference
for her for a job that
she was applying to.
And I was looking at the job
she was applying to and it said,
the National Stock Exchange
Archives, I was reading
and I was like, oh,
she's going to work
for the New York Stock
Exchange, no, she was working
for the archives,
the archives are
out there everywhere,
even on Wall Street.
Anyway, working with these
unpublished ethnographic
collections at AFC can
prove to be very challenging
in providing access
to its content.
Materials often come
with minimal description,
often handwritten notes
scrawled on audiotape boxes,
which were often done at
the time of the recording
and are full of abbreviations
and incomplete
and inaccurate descriptions.
These artifacts, the tape boxes,
are also not easily discoverable
on their own except by
looking at the actual box.
One of the tremendous
results of Brittney's work was
to make the content of these
audiotapes discoverable
by creating audio logs
full of rich information,
including the dates
of the interviews,
names of the musicians,
place names and song titles.
This work can often be tedious,
I think Brittney listened
to more than 90 interviews
in this collection,
wearing headphones
for hours and hours,
but there is a great reward.
Not only for the Library now
having rich descriptive content
and being able to provide
immeasurable assistance
to the public wishing to learn
more about this collection,
but for Brittney, herself, with
her Graduate studies in Music
and International Affairs.
These archival collections
intersecting these same worlds
of the humanities
and social sciences,
that have musical performance
and the stories behind
the music, the musicians
and the worlds from which
those traditions emerged.
So I now have the pleasure
of introducing our next Howard
University intern, Ife Adeniyi.
[ Applause ]
>> Ife Adeniyi: Hello.
How is everybody doing?
>> Good.
>> Ife Adeniyi: Good, good,
good, nice to see everyone.
I want to say thank you
to The Library of Congress
and to everybody
who played a part
in giving us the opportunity to
be a part of this initiative.
My name is Keshad Adeniyi.
I go by Ife.
I'm a first-year Doctoral
Candidate at Howard University,
and I was given the
opportunity to apply
to this particular
internship because of my Chair
at Howard University
who found a way
to make it here,
Dr. Nikki Taylor.
And we were discussing
my research,
currently my research
focus is on the experience
of black people traversing
to the Union territory
during the Civil War,
what we understand
to be contraband.
And I come into the work as
an activist who had done a lot
of work inside of
facilities domestically
and internationally
at all levels.
And it's the land in which
I look at the experiences
of black people who
were fighting on behalf
of the Union Army, some who were
impressed into the Union Army.
And we were speaking about
how critical it is for me
to be sound as an archivist or
as someone going to archives,
and this opportunity came about.
And so I reached out and
I applied accordingly,
and I'm grateful
for the opportunity,
the experience thus far has
taught me on many levels how
to go about reading
and understanding how things
are being compiled, you know,
finding aids and how
to search through
and sift through information.
And I've been given the task
to look at Ann Tanneyhill,
who was critical to the
National Urban League
and their development
as an organization.
She was born in 1906 in
Boston, Massachusetts,
and she began working with the
organization as early as 1928,
the local organization in
Springfield, Massachusetts,
and moved to the
National Headquarters
in about I think 1931.
What you see on the screen
right now was a quote
from Ann Tanneyhill where it
says it was not until I learned
of the National Urban League
that I learned of negro history
and that I became
proud of my race
and became conscious
of being a negro.
I think this quote really
highlights how she was thinking
of herself, how she understood
her work as an activist
with the National Urban League.
That quote is from a speech
that she gave at the tail end
of her life on her experiences
as a leader who traversed
through that specific
organization.
She come from a background of
a family, of people who seemed
to be interested
in the experiences
in undercutting the
black plight,
the black were dealing
with from the start.
And for her, you know, she moved
through the educational system,
she got her degree from Simmons
College, and then as she moved
in the National Urban League
she got her Master's Degree
in Vocational Guidance
at Columbia University Teachers
College, and this really helped
to move her along and helped
to impact her trajectory
with the National Urban League
in which she became the
Vocational Guidance Director,
which I think is one of
the more explicit or one
of the more what I would say
is what she'll be remembered
by the most as it
relates to her work
within the National
Urban League.
For those of you who don't know,
the National Urban League
is an activist organization
that helped to support and
undercut the black plights
of black people generationally.
Ann Tanneyhill was working
I guess in contention
with the great migration, right?
Black people were fleeing from
the South, they were running
from the terror of Jim Crowe
and they were looking to find
out how they can help
black people as they get
into these new areas,
specifically
around job placement, education.
Ann Tanneyhill was very
passionate about this,
she does the work for decades
and even after her retirement
in 1971 she continued
her efforts
to work alongside the
National Urban League to try
to help black people,
specifically black youth.
And I think that's where I
connected with her the most,
as stated a lot of my
activist work has also been
with black youth, black
youth who are implicated
under the law, black
youth who are imprisoned
or who are incarcerated.
And so I find that
work to be important
because our youth are very
critical to how we're thinking
about the future, very critical
about how we're impacting
the future.
And so I was impressed by that
as it related to Ann Tanneyhill
and her commitment
and dedication,
and it just reminded me that
it's something that I need
to be steadfast in and something
that I should remain focused on.
Her writings, I feel
like were very exemplary
of who she was as a person.
The personal papers of Ann
Tanneyhill is comprised
of speeches, proposals, scripts,
reviews, but I think another way
to understand Ann Tanneyhill
was that she was also a scholar.
You know, when she got materials
she read through them with fine,
very detailed, very interested
in how she could help evoke
her understanding of the work.
I was reading the speech
by her where she stated
to keep the proper perspective
I use the word negro,
which to me meant that she
was very, she understood
and very much so like the
implications of her race
and what that meant to
her as an activist even
at the latter part
of her career.
Also, because I am a writer, I'm
a poet, and I think when we use
that work as a way to continue
to mobilize I think it
strengthens our scope,
and it seemed to be very
clear for Ann Tanneyhill
to be detailed around that.
Another part of the Ann
Tanneyhill papers is the family
papers, which is comprised
of a lot of good information
that I think researchers
would be interested in.
More importantly,
the Golden Rule Club,
which is an organization
spearheaded by her mother,
at some point her older
sister also was a President
of this organization, Ann
Tanneyhill also followed suit.
It was an organization that
looked to help black people
in the Massachusetts area, and
I found that to be important
because I think it speaks to
the emphasis behind her work
with the National Urban League,
I think it explains
why she's coming
into the work the
way that she is.
She's also the granddaughter
of William Grayson,
who was a self-emancipated
ex-slave, and I thought
that that was critical also.
Lastly, which is the
highlight for me,
was how Ann Tanneyhill was
thinking about activism,
which is critical to me.
As you hear in my thread of
explaining Ann Tanneyhill,
for her activism moved
beyond this tangible idea,
she's very much so interested in
what archiving meant to activism
and preserving the history.
And that's not something that
I guess I really understood
until coming into Howard
University as a historian
and understanding it on
a like intimate level.
Throughout her career she
does a lot of things, right,
historical societies, historical
commissions, she's doing work
with the Massape [assumed
spelling] Native Folk
Preservation, she
also is helping
with preserving her
grandfather's history
with the black archives, who
was the first black printer.
And then, lastly, with
the National Urban League,
the National Urban League
had a publishing company
where Ann Tanneyhill
sought to help publish one
of the first common
books on negro history,
which is the image you see
on the screen right there,
by Matthew Henson, and
she also was very critical
in understanding how we
could preserve his history.
And to me that really
impacted the way
in which I'm thinking
about myself.
Earlier we spoke about archiving
our history and what that means
for this generation and what
people are doing currently
to archive what their journey
is and their lives currently,
and I think Ann Tanneyhill
helped me
in this opportunity helped me
to think about what that means
to me and my colleagues,
my peers, et cetera.
I'd like to end by
saying thank you
for giving me the opportunity
to speak and thank you
for giving me the opportunity
to be a part of The Library
of Congress, it's been
astounding, I've learned a lot.
It's my mentor job and very,
very critical to my development
and thinking about archiving,
and I want to say thank you.
Next, I would like to
introduce Pang Xiong
and she'll be speaking on behalf
of the Manuscript Division.
Thank you again.
[ Applause ]
>> Pang Xiong: Welcome,
everyone.
Through this new collaborative
internship between the Library
and Howard University,
Ife helped the Manuscript
Division analyze, arrange,
conserve and describe the
papers of Ann Tanneyhill.
Working with Ife on the
Tanneyhill papers taught me
that activism and leadership
come in different forms
and happens on different fronts.
There are those who
stand on the front lines
and then there are those,
like Ann Tanneyhill,
who work behind the scenes
to move the movement forward.
Because of this internship
researchers can now use,
learn from and be inspired
by the Ann Tanneyhill papers.
And for all three
interns I want you to know
that you helped advance
the Library's mission
to preserve human knowledge,
American history, and the spirit
of American determination,
perseverance and resilience.
To all the supporters thank
you for furthering the progress
of knowledge and helping
to preserve history
for future generations.
Next up is my co-mentor from
the Manuscript Division,
Meg McAleer.
[ Applause ]
>> Meg McAleer: Hi,
good morning.
When I introduce myself as
an Archivist I always have
to follow it with an analogy
to ward off those blank
stares that you get.
So what I usually say
is that it's a lot
like being an archaeologist,
except we dig in paper instead
of in dirt, but I'm
changing my analogy.
Archivists are conversation
starters,
when we do our job well
conversations absolutely explode
as scholars and exhibit goers
and the merely curious
interact with our collections.
But in order to do our job
well we need to open ourselves
up to conversation at
every phase of our work,
we need to invite
young historians
in to challenge our
assumptions and open us
up to new possibilities.
And, Ife, you did this for
us and we listened deeply.
So what I very much hope
and what Pang hopes is
that this is only
the opening act
to what will be a very long
conversation between us,
and we thank you a lot.
And now I'd like to actually
introduce a dear friend,
who is also the Program Manager
for this internship,
Linda Moreunus.
[ Applause ]
>> Linda Moreunus: So
actually I'm not going
to stand here very long because
we don't have too much time
before we enjoy a bite to eat
and a cup of coffee or tea
and have a chance to meet
one another informally.
But I just wanted to recap
very quickly and thank Jackie
for her presentation, Jacquelyn,
for her presentation about Ailey
and that I learned about
how he remained open
to the creative process
throughout the various stages
of his innovation and that
she learned to appreciate
that different materials, such
as paper-based sheets of paper
and moving images and audio,
are treated so differently
and why they're treated
differently
to preserve them
here at the Library
and other cultural
heritage institutions.
From Brittney, she talked a
little bit about preservation
as well when she was
rehousing collections
and she learned how rehousing a
collection helps to preserve it
from fading and tearing and so
that researchers can handle the
actual original materials safely
in our various reading rooms,
and that archival relationships
when creating a guide for
researchers listing what is
in a container of records or
papers that it's important
to document the teachers,
the mentors that came before
that individual artist so that
not only the artist's work
but the context for that
artist's work is available
to the researcher.
And then, finally, Ife, I
liked that you said you learned
about what reading
means to a scholar
and that is understanding
the underlying way
in which a collection
is compiled so that
as a researcher you are
informed about how to go
about scholarly work in a
collection and the importance,
of course, in the
contribution of Ann Tanneyhill,
and as Meg said that,
or actually it was Peg
who expressed how activism
can take place well behind the
scenes, as well as the
forefront of the stage.
So thank you for your
presentations, and I wanted
to say that it was personally
very gratifying to get
to know you and work with
you, and I hope I see you
in our reading rooms
in the future.
Thank you very, very much, and
to the mentors and the Divisions
who sponsored these interns.
[ Applause ]
>> And to Mr. and Mrs.
Welburn who made the stipends
for their internship possible.
Thank you, all, very, very much.
Have a bite to eat, a cup
of coffee or a cup of tea.
[ Applause ]