It’s been a long time coming, but we are very excited to announce the launch of our newest digital collection, The Hood-Williamson Digital Collection on Serpent Handlers of Southern Appalachia.  The Hood-Williamson archives, held in the Special Collections of the library, is a very important and unique collection of primary source videos documenting the serpent handling churches of Southern Appalachia.  The videos see quite a bit of in-house use from researchers and we field many requests from researchers all over the world who are interested in the collection.  Until this point however, we have been unable to offer any remote viewing options to the global audience for this collection.

The launch of the online collection will be completed in installments, the first of which is now live and available for use.  As the collection statement indicates, the full collection will “consist of a range of the available materials covering several years of services at each church and all of the interviews Drs. Hood and Williamson conducted.”  This initial installment includes 4 church services from the legendary Jolo, West Virginia Church of the Lord Jesus and 6 interviews with serpent handling practitioners.  The digital collection will grow over time to include around 40 church services (in their entirety) and  35 interviews with serpent handling practitioners.

We highly recommend using either the Google Chrome or Internet Explorer browser to view the videos.  Selecting another browser may result in significant playback delays. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on the collection via email at archives@utc.edu or by giving us a call at 423-425-2186.

This post was previously published on the UTC Special Collections blog.

Election season!  In the mad rush that typifies the start of the Fall semester, it’s possible that you may have missed all of the election-year hubbub to date.  Whether you have missed all the action or are just ready for the political season to be over with, your friendly neighborhood librarians/archivists are here to help.  Our Fall exhibit, Campaign & Presidential Memorabilia, is now open and poised to alleviate that political season malaise.

Browse your way through buttons, stickers, license plates, letters & documents, and photographs that represent the right, the left, and points in-between.  Start downstairs on the library’s first floor to see presidential letters and photographs.  Slip on upstairs to the Special Collections (on the 2nd floor) to see the rest.  Stay tuned for library-made, vintage-inspired campaign button giveaways as we get closer to the November elections.

In case you are the student (faculty member, community user, etc.) who likes to access our resources from the comfort of home, we’ve got you covered too.  We have created an online exhibit  that is serving as a companion to our in-house political exhibit.  Visit the online exhibit here or check out all of our digital collection here.  Though there are some duplicates, you’ll have to visit both exhibits to see it all!

This post was previously published on the UTC Special Collections blog.

The Special Collections in Lupton Library will be closed Wednesday through Friday of this week, May 16-18 (but is open Monday and Tuesday, May 14-15). The department will reopen on Monday, May 21.

Originally posted on UTC Special Collections and Archive.

If you frequent our library’s Special Collections blog, you are likely familiar with Emma Bell Miles. Emma was an artist, writer, poet, naturalist, and feminist who made an imprint upon the Chattanooga community with her artwork and writings during her short life (1879-1919). Emma has been the subject of many scholarly articles and presentations, a book, and last year, a symposium exploring Appalachian culture and nature named in her honor.

We are pleased then to announce a new digital exhibit that brings together elements representing Emma’s creative output and her family life. The Life and Works of Emma Bell Miles includes photographs of Emma and her family, paintings and drawings, book illustrations, short stories, and select pages from her personal journals. We invite you to explore the world of Emma Bell Miles and contribute by sharing your comments and stories via the comments section that appears with each exhibit item.

If you have questions about any of the items you see, please contact us at archives@utc.edu. For detailed descriptions of all of our original Emma Bell Miles holdings, please see our online finding aids for the Jean Miles Catino Collection and the Kay Baker Gaston Collection.

This post was previously published on the UTC Special Collections blog.

Spring exhibit time has arrived in the Special Collections!  As our country is in the midst of commemorating the Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the Civil War, we are pleased to bring you an exhibit that explores Civil War literature written for children and young adults.  The exhibit, For the Ages: Selections from the Prevost Collection of Civil War Fiction for Young Readers,  includes material recently donated to us by Dr. Verbie Prevost of UTC’s English department.  Dr. Prevost has kindly provided a collection statement narrative (which accompanies the exhibit) that details how she came to amass this unparalleled collection.

Out of the 500 plus books in the collection, we have chosen to exhibit a selection that highlights  1) material referencing local places or by local authors; 2) books representing a broad time period; and 3) popular authors and series in the young adult Civil War genre.  Along with the books, we have included other Civil War related artifacts from our collections.

For the Ages: Selections from the Prevost Collection of Civil War Fiction for Young Readers will be showing in the Special Collections until the end of the Spring term.  We would love to see you there!

This blog post was previously posted on the Special Collections blog.