College Archives (Smith College)

The Smith College Archives document the life of the College by collecting materials created by students, faculty, administrative and departmental staff during the course of their time here. The records in the College Archives can provide researchers with answers to specific questions or help them to understand broad social and cultural issues. The collections contain materials derived from:

The collection spans nearly 20,000 linear feet and is one of the contributing collections to the "The History of Women’s Education Open Access Portal Project" funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities.

History

Nina Browne, Class of 1882

Nina Browne received her A.B. from Smith College in 1882, her A.M. in 1885. After teaching for a year she went on to the newly established School of Library Economy at Columbia College (now Columbia University) on the recommendation of a former classmate. The school was established in 1887 by Melvil Dewey, then the chief university librarian. Browne later noted that "when the trustees decided to have the library school, no one of them had a notion that women would come. Because women came, that rule forbidding a woman to enter a classroom forced Mr. [Melvil] Dewey to find a place for the newcomers. He found it in this old building hitherto used as a storeroom.[1]"

Columbia did not grant degrees to the classes prior to 1889 and the library program was moved to the University of the State of New York (now SUNY Albany).[2] After being appointed State Librarian of New York in 1889, Dewey petitioned the university to offer a test to graduates from his early classes which required submitting to sixteen proficiency examinations, a compiled subject bibliography, and a thesis. Browne and one other student were the sole participants of this program. Browne was awarded a Bachelor of Library Science from the university in 1891.

She returned to Massachusetts and became an assistant librarian at Harvard and the Boston Athenaeum while working unofficially for the Smith College Alumna Association (Smith College Alumnae Association). A highly active advocate, she served as the Registrar for the American Library Association,[3] compiling their portrait index and travelling to London for the International Conference of Librarianship.[4]

In 1921 the Board of Trustees appointed Browne as the Archivist of the College. Until that time, between serving in her role as record keeper for the Alumnae Association and as a member of the close-knit community, she had been caring for the records largely through her own endeavors. She was given space within Neilson Library to begin a fledgling archive. In 1925 the college held its 50th Anniversary and hired Browne to act as project archivist and to exhibit the collection.

Margaret Storrs Grierson

Supporting the work Browne had begun, Elizabeth Cutter Morrow officially established the Archives of Smith College in March, 1940. As acting-president of Smith College, Mrs. Morrow advocated that "several institutions of higher learning, Amherst and Harvard [to mention only two] had set aside space and provided personnel not only for the preservation of documents related to the early history of the institution but also to preserve material which had reference to its development through successive periods, including the present, and included material connected with administrators, faculty members, and students[5]". In 1940 Mrs. Morrow appointed Margaret Storrs Grierson to the professional position of Archivist.

Present

Today the College Archives are actively used by researchers and incorporated into dozens of curricula. The College Archivist also serves as the institutional records manager and serves in an advisory role to administrative departments across campus.

Additional Materials

References

  1. ↑ "Nina Elizabeth Browne papers". Smith College Archives.
  2. ↑ Wyer, James. New York State Library School. Library Journal, Volume 46.
  3. ↑ "American Library Association Digital Archives". University of Illinois.
  4. ↑ Wedgeworth, Robert. "World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services".
  5. ↑ Leland, Marine (1957). "Clarifying the Nature and Functions of the Archives, The Friends of the Library, and the Sophia Smith Collection". Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

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