SCUA Staff Stars!
SCUA staff Carolyn Shankle and Audrey Sage both won well-deserved UNCG Staff Star Awards on February 2/21/2024!
The Staff Star Award recognizes outstanding service and dedication on behalf of the UNCG Staff Senate and the entire UNCG community. We are lucky to have Carolyn and Audrey in SCUA!
Book Talk
University Libraries and Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives will host a book talk by authors Hal E. Pugh and Eleanor Minnock-Pugh, on their book Naomi “Omie” Wise: Her Life, Death and Legend on March 21, 2024 at 3:30 PM, in the Oakley Room of Alumni House on UNCG’s campus. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/88jfn52e.
Naomi Wise was drowned by her lover in the waters of North Carolina’s Deep River in 1807. Her murder has been remembered in ballad and story for well over two centuries. Mistakes, romanticization, and misremembering have been injected into Naomi’s biography over time blurring the line between reality and fiction. The authors of this book, whose family has lived in the Deep River area since the 18th century, are descendants of many of the people who knew Naomi Wise or were involved in her murder investigation. This is the story of a young woman betrayed, shedding light on the plight of impoverished women in early America and the inner workings of the Piedmont North Carolina Quaker community that cared for Naomi and her daughter and kept their memory alive.
Doc Watson’s version of the ballad can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-CGqAdW2vE
A Ghost Tour so Cold The Spirits Froze
On the coldest evening in January, Carolyn Shankle led an select group from the Alumni Leadership team on the UNCG Campus Ghost Tour. While everyone enjoyed the tour they all agreed that the next tour would be scheduled when it was warmer.
Curators’ Talk
Join us on February 29 at 3pm for a presentation by archivists Kathelene Smith and Patrick Dollar as they discuss the curation and installation of “Give My Regards to Broadway: 6 Plays.” This exhibit, located in the Hodges Reading Room, features six musicals that originated on Broadway and are either playing now or have been on stage within the last year. Most of these have won multiple Tony Awards and you will probably be familiar with them all!
Welcoming Alumnae Back to Campus
On Friday, January 26th, University Archivist Erin Lawrimore assisted Interim Director of Alumni Engagement Beth Carlin in hosting the UNCG group from the River Landing retirement community in High Point. The UNCG group consists of UNCG alumni and former faculty/staff who now live in River Landing. During their visit, the UNCG group took a bus tour of campus and learned about many of the changes that have taken place to the campus facilities in the last 50 years. After the tour, they enjoyed a lunch in the Oakley Family Reception Room at the Alumni House.
Welcome to Matthew Berdon!
Matthew Berdon is the new project archivist who is processing and digitizing the Loewenstein-Atkinson Architectural Firm Records. Matthew is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science. He also has a BA in Classical and Medieval studies from Bates College. Matthew is an enthusiastic scholar of library science and academic librarianship with a professional background in DEIA work in academic libraries. He has experience researching and developing library guides, building academic library collections, and working collaboratively to meet long-term goals. Additionally, Matthew has experience in archival settings scanning, cataloging, and providing metadata to archeological materials. He enjoys playing board games in his free time, as well as watching and discussing vintage movies. Matthew is also an avid reader of non-fiction and books addressing contemporary social issues. A fun fact about Matthew is that he has sailed close to 10,000 miles in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean.
Community Outreach
On February 22, 2024, Kathelene Smith spoke to the Thursday Study Club in Asheboro, NC about SCUA’s Collections.
And we made some time to celebrate Mardi Gras with king cakes and, of course, beads…
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
