Archives & Special Collections Month
Bloomington, Indiana: October 2009
The Great Depression defined a generation of Americans. Their stories increasingly live only through the letters and photos, documents and memories they've left behind.
As a measure of today's economic uncertainty, the Great Depression provides a timely focus for IU's fourth annual celebration of archives and special collections.
Indiana University offers first-rate collections that support the university's mission. Archives and special collections offer extraordinary opportunities to advance research and teaching.
We invite students of all ages, parents, teachers, and the general public to attend any or all of the FREE events. The events are designed to introduce archives, special collections, and the vast quantity of materials that may be found throughout the community.
Events
| Dealing with Hard Times: Popular Music During the
Depression (Monday, October 5) |
The Great Depression in Black and White, Film
Series (Weekly, starting Tuesday, October 6) |
| Modern Art and Politics: Stuart Davis and the
Federal Art Project (Wednesday, October 7) |
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an
Iowa Farm During the Great Depression (Wednesday, October 7) |
| Conservation, Communities, and
Cameras (Monday, October 12) |
Farm Security Administration Documentaries, Film
Series (Tuesdays, starting October 13) |
| University Archives Open House (Tuesday, October 20) |
Annual World Day for Audiovisual
Heritage (October 27) |
| WPA Federal Radio Project Recordings and the
Sound Directions Project (Tuesday, October 27) |
Faces and Farms: Photographs of Rural America
in the Depression (Wednesday, October 28) |
| "Brother Can You Spare a Dime: Popular Music from
the Great Depression" (Thursday, October 29) |
Exhibitions |
Panel Discussion
Dealing with Hard Times: Popular Music During the Depression
When: Monday, October 5
Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Where: Monroe County Public Library Auditorium
What: While some Depression-era songs and singers offered entertainment and escape, others gave voice to the all-too-harsh realities of the times. Panelists will explore folk and country music of the South and West, hard-knock Blues of the '30s, and escapist Broadway show tunes by composers such as George Gershwin and Cole Porter.
Panelists: Glenn Gass, Constance Glen, and Andrew Hollinden from the IU Jacobs School of Music
Film Series
The Great Depression in Black and White
Wells Library and Black Film Center/Archive
When: Weekly
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Wells Library E174
What: Four films, two from the Wells collections and two from the Black Film Center/Archive deal with racial and economic inequality and injustices and show the resilience of people in tough times. The Black Film Center/Archive was established in 1981 as a repository of films and related materials by and about African Americans.
Films:
The Green Pastures Tuesday, October 6
American Madness Wednesday, October 14
I Remember Harlem: The Depression Years Wednesday,
October 21
Our Daily Bread Wednesday, October 28
Noon Talk
Modern Art and Politics: Stuart Davis and the Federal Art
Project
When: Wednesday, October 7
Time: 12:15-1:00 p.m.
Where: IU Art Museum
Gallery of Art of the Western World,
Doris Steinmetz Kellett Gallery of Twentieth-century Art, first
floor
What: Jenny McComas, the IU Art Museum's Class of 1958 Curator of Western Art after 1800, will discuss the museum's mural Swing Landscape in conjunction with Stuart Davis's work for the Mural Division of the Federal Art Project during the Depression.
Image Courtesy of IU Art Museum (detail)
Keynote Speaker and Reception: Mildred Kalish, author
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm
During the Great Depression
When: Wednesday, October 7
Time: Remarks: 5:00 p.m. Book signing and reception immediately following. (Borders will be selling books.)
Where: Monroe County Public Library Auditorium
What: Named by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2007, Little Heathens was written by first-time author 85-year-old Mildred Kalish, a retired college professor of literature, who remembers her childhood with vivid detail. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love wrote of Kalish in the New York Times that "her terrifically soaring love for those childhood memories saturates this book with pure charm."
Noon Talk
Conservation, Communities, and Cameras
When: Monday, October 12
Time: 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Where: Wells Library, E174
What: Librarian Bob Goehlert offers context for the month's film series and talks by providing background about the changing face of rural America.
Film Series
Farm Security Administration Documentaries
Wells Library and Black Film Center/Archive
When: Tuesdays
Time: noon
Where: Wells Library E174
What: The two Depression-era films in this series, one about the Dust Bowl and the other about the importance of the Mississippi, were selected to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Documenting the Face of America, produced in 2008, shows how FSA photographers chronicled the New Deal and Great Depression.
Films:
The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936; 31 min.) October 13
The River (1938; 25 min.) October 20
Documenting the Face of America (2008; 60 min.) October
27
When: Tuesday, October 20
Time: 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Where: University Archives, Wells Library E460
What: Tour the University Archives and view exhibits and films of old IU football and basketball games in the Archives conference room.
October 27 marks the annual World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, designated by the UNESCO General Conference to celebrate the moving image and recorded sound heritage in all countries.
Presentation
WPA Federal Radio Project Recordings and the Sound Directions
Project
When: Tuesday, October 27th
Time: 12:00–1:00 p.m. Reception and tours of the Archive afterwards
Where: Archives of Traditional Music, Morrison Hall 006: The Hoagy Carmichael Room
What: Alan Burdette, director of the Archives of Traditional Music, will play recordings from the WPA Federal Radio Project and discuss their efforts to document disappearing aspects of American culture. Those efforts are mirrored today in the Sound Directions Project to save these now rapidly deteriorating recordings.
Noon Talk
Faces and Farms: Photographs of Rural America in the
Depression
When: Wednesday, October 28
Time: 12:15-1:00 p.m.
Where: IU Art Museum, Gallery of Art of the Western World, Doris Steinmetz Kellett Gallery ofTwentieth-century Art, first floor
What: Librarian Bob Goehlert will discuss the policies ofthe New Deal's rural antipoverty agencies-the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration-using photographs focusing on agrarian land and life during the 1930s.
Image Courtesy of IU Art Museum
Performance and Reception
Brother Can You Spare a Dime: Popular Music from the Great
Depression
When: Thursday, October 29
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Where: Slocum Room, Lilly library
What: Christopher Goodbeer of the IU Jacobs School of Music will sing selections from the vast sheet music collections at the Lilly Library, including "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries," "We're in the Money," and "Hallelujah I'm a Bum."
Exhibitions
"We introduced Americans to America": Books on FSA Photographers from the Fine Arts Library Collections
When: October 3-November 1
Where: Fine Arts Library, Foyer
Depression-era and WPA posters
Where: Herman B Wells Library, East Tower and Reference Reading Room (first floor)
See also: http://www.indiana.edu/~libsalc/newdeal/
Before and After Pictures: FSA Photographs and the New Deal
When: Through March 2010
Where: IU Art Museum
Gallery of Art of the Western World,
Doris Steinmetz Kellett Gallery of Twentieth-century Art, first
floor
What: The upcoming coming 75th anniversary of the Farm Security Administration (1935-1944) offers an ideal opportunity to showcase a small selection of works from the IU Art Museum's holding of over 800 Depression-era photographs. These pictures reflect the dual purpose of the FSA's photographic project: to garner public support for the agency's economic initiatives by documenting the lives of those less fortunate (particularly in rural America) and then to show how well the New Deal programs were working. More images from this collection can be seen on the IU Art Museum's website at http://www.iub.edu/~iuam/online_modules/fsa/fsa.html
Books about the Depression Era from IU Press
Where: Herman B Wells Library lobby
Just Around the Corner: Resources for the History of the Great Depression
Where: Lilly Library, Lincoln Room
What: An exhibition of materials illustrating daily life, popular culture and government relief programs of the Great Depression.
WPA Projects in Bloomington and Monroe County
Where: Monroe County History Center
When: Through November 8
IU During the Depression from University Archives
Where: Herman B Wells Library lobby
