March is National Women's History Month

This year's theme for National Women's History Month is: "Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics."  In honor of the month, Special Collections at TSU's Robert J. Terry Library has installed an exhibit that features information about National Women's History Month, items from the Heartman Rare Books Collection, and a video presentation from the Barbara Jordan Archives featuring the late astronaut Sally Ride.  Ride was the recipient of the Juanita Kreps Award in 1995, and the awards ceremony includes remarks and congratulations from Jordan. 

Please come by the library during the month of March to see the exhibit--and be sure to stop by the archives and say hello!

For more information on National Women's History Month, click here.

For more information on Women's History Month (administered through the Library of Congress) click here.

Happy birthday, Barbara Jordan

February 21, 2013, marks what would have been Jordan's 77th birthday. Though we are past the 76th year mile marker by one year, we thought it would be fun to mark the occasion with some rare images from Jordan's participation in the Constitutional Bicentennial (1776-1976) planning events.  Jordan was active in fundraising and promotion for both national events and Texas state events for the Bicentennial. Below are images from Jordan addressing the House of Representatives in 1974 concerning the upcoming Bicentennial  (including a rare color image of Jordan at the podium), and a shot of a 1976 commemorative medal given to Jordan and other Congressional members that is housed in the archives museum.

Jordan addresses the House, September 24, 1974.

September 24, 1974

The House adjourns, September 24, 1974

Commemorative Bicentennial medal, 1976

National Prayer Breakfast

Today is the 61st annual National Prayer Breakfast. The event, which is actually not just a breakfast but a series of meetings, luncheons, and dinners, was established in 1953 by President Eisenhower. The Breakfast is designed to be a forum for political, social, and business leaders to assemble and build relationships with each other. Every president since Eisenhower has spoken at the National Prayer Breakfast, and over the years the event has inspired many communities (civic, religious, and political) to hold similar events. 

Jordan attended the 1978 event (presided over by President Carter) and offered the Prayer for National Leaders.

For more information on the National Prayer Breakfast, please visit http://www.waleadership.com/national-prayer-breakfast.

Black History Month 2013

This years's theme for Black History Month is "At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington."  2013 marks the 150th anniversary of both the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, and the 50th anniversary of the historic "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom."  The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) developed this year's theme with the idea that these two events, so many years apart, are connected and converge under the common threads of freedom, equality and justice. 

TSU's Special Collections and the Barbara Jordan Archives have installed a few exhibits at the Robert J. Terry Library to celebrate Black History Month.  Our exhibits (featuring books, documents, periodicals, newspaper articles and photographs from Special Collections) will remain on display through the month of February.  Our main exhibit on the library's first floor features videos from the National Archives that discuss the role of the National Archives in preserving the history of both the Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington; one of the videos is a series of rarely-seen newsreel footage of the March, featuring music by Joan Baez and Marian Anderson, as well as footage of Dr. Martin Luther King's historic speech.

We invite you to stop by the library to see the exhibits.   For those of you who cannot come in person but would like to see the videos from the National Archives, please visit the links below:

Preserving the Emancipation Proclamation

The March on Washington in Photographs

The March, part one

The March, part two

The March, part three

Happy Holidays from the Barbara Jordan Archives

Part of our mission at the Barbara Jordan Archives is to educate people about Jordan’s life and legacy, but we also have an obligation to teach students, scholars and the public at large about the value and necessity of archives as a way to preserve our history and our culture.  And yes, archives are often are taken very seriously as repositories for bodies of work and storehouses of knowledge.  But every now and then we have to remind ourselves of the more lighthearted side of archival work.  What better time than the holiday season?

This year, we thought it would be fun to find some holiday-themed materials in the Jordan Archives.  As Jordan was known for being a private person in a public setting, finding these materials was not easy—but we managed to find a few fun and interesting items that point not only to the busy professional life of the Congresswoman, but how in demand her time was even during the holiday seasons.  Click here to download the virtual exhibit (you will need Office PowerPoint 2007 or newer to view the exhibit, or download PowerPoint Viewer here for free).  Or, if you’re in the area, stop by and see the actual exhibit at the Robert J. Terry Library through the end of December 2012.

Have a wonderful holiday season from the Barbara Jordan Archives, TSU Special Collections and the staff of the Robert J. Terry Library!

Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation honors Jordan and other historic Houstonians

The Barbara Jordan Archives was honored recently to be approached by the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation to help with an art work project involving the late Congresswoman. Since 1989, The Fifth Ward CRC has made strides to revitalize and reinvigorate Houston’s historic Fifth Ward through community service, housing developments, art installations and beautification projects, and partnerships with businesses, philanthropic enterprises and political representatives. 

Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee and Tory Gunsolley of the 
Houston Housing Authority admire the art work installed in 
bus shelters along the Lyons Avenue corridor.  

The Fifth Ward CRC was recently involved in a three-day service project in partnership with Starbucks Coffee Company and the Fifth Ward community.  The event took place during Starbucks’s Leadership Conference held in Houston that was attended by over 10,000 volunteers—5260 of whom helped to transform part of Houston’s historic Fifth Ward along Lyons Avenue.  The volunteers worked on projects such as clearing vacant lots, power washing homes, paint scraping, and working with small business owners on their store exteriors, just to name a few.  The Fifth Ward CRC helped design an art installation in a Metro bus shelter paying tribute to Congresswoman Jordan, Congressman Mickey Leland, and other movers and shakers of the Fifth Ward’s rich and vibrant history.  The Barbara Jordan Archives contributed an iconic image of Jordan taken in the Fifth Ward from the late 1960s as her political career was just beginning.  The Fifth Ward CRC project was very meaningful to Jordan’s life and legacy as she was born and raised in the Fifth Ward—and in fact, Jordan’s law office was right on Lyons Avenue in the early 1960s.

From left: Mayor Annise Parker, Metro CEO George Grenias,

 security personnel, and Jason Few of Reliant Energy. 

We salute the Fifth Ward CRC for their hard work and continued dedication to the revitalization of the Fifth Ward, and thank them again for honoring the legacy of Barbara Jordan.  To learn more about the Fifth Ward CRC, please visit their website at http://www.fifthwardcrc.org/ and their Facebook page here.  

American Archives Month

It's October, and that means it's American Archives Month!

American Archives Month, established by the Society of American Archivists in 2006, is a collaborative effort by professional archivists and archival repositories around the
nation to highlight the importance of materials and records of enduring value--this includes things like photographs, manuscripts, letters, newspapers and advertisements, family records, business records, diaries, audio/video footage, artwork, trophies, etc.

Note the shipping label on the case.

American Archives Month affords the Barbara Jordan Archives the opportunity to highlight some of the more rare and unusual materials in the collection that fall outside of the typical paper manuscript and photographs commonly found in many archival collections.  For example, the most unusual (and certainly the heaviest) item in the Jordan Archives is a 1970s JVC videocassette recorder, complete with a steel-cornered traveling trunk.  These video recorders were among the first to be produced for use by the general public; up to then such equipment was only available to television stations or the wealthy. This particular model recorded and played back 3/4-inch U-Matic tapes, the forerunner to the more common 1/2-inch VCR tapes that most people born before 1990 are familiar with.  It's not known exactly what Jordan's purpose for owning such a machine, though Jordan was known for paying close attention to current issues discussed on political pundit shows (CBS Sunday Morning, Meet the Press, or the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, for example); in the days before 24-hour cable news channels and the internet, it's likely that Jordan wanted to keep as connected as possible to the political news of the day.  And there are over 100 U-Matic tapes in Jordan's collection (currently being prepared for digitization) that attest to the fact that the machine was indeed put to use.

What makes this piece of equipment so unusual is that Jordan apparently traveled with it (the protective case still has an identification label affixed to the front), which is even more impressive considering the size and weight of the machine. The recorder alone is about 40 pounds, while the wood and metal case adds at least another 60 pounds, and the case itself measures roughly 2 feet by 3 feet by 1 and 1/2 feet.  One could surmise that the recorder must have been an important tool for Jordan for her to purchase one and then to travel with it, at what must have been a considerable cost.

So, archives are not always just about old papers, faded photographs and dusty file boxes.  Digging a little further can sometimes yield some interesting buried treasure.