Today is World Digital Preservation Day!

Today we celebrate World Digital Preservation Day, which occurs on the first Thursday of every November. The day is meant to celebrate digital preservation and raise awareness of the challenges inherent in the task of recording human memory that exists in a digital format.

An interesting case for digital preservation exists in the Charles Furlong papers (Mss-197). Charles Wellington Furlong was the first American to explore the southernmost part of the Americas, the interior of Tierra del Fuego, in 1907 and 1908; we've blogged about him before. While there, he made wax cylinder recordings of the Onas and Yahgan peoples talking and singing. Obviously, there is no easy way to play a 100+ year old wax cylinder recording in the modern world. Even if there was, it is possible that the fragile, decaying media would only have one play left before it disintegrates, so one had better be prepared to capture the audio when it is being played. There is also a chance that the attempt at playing the item would destroy it before any audio could be heard.

Instead of potentially damaging the wax cylinders by playing them, we sent them to a specialist who digitized the recordings by taking extremely-high resolution photographs of the cylinders using a laser, and then played the digital file from the high-resolution digital images! Although the audio quality is scratchy and echoey, the recordings can now be heard.

The digital files for this collection include hundreds of files, including exotic file formats like .bri (used for 3-D modeling) and .trk files (used for workflows tied to proprietary and unique software packages). However, the images of the cylinders are also saved as more accessible .jpg and .tif files while the audio recordings are also available as .mp3 files. We have made all of the files, like this one for example, available online to researchers. The files are checked for viruses, re-built from scratch (in a process called recharacterization), and given a checksum by Preservica, our digital preservation system, which also synchronizes the files with our description system. 

In honor of World Digital Preservation Day, a lighthearted look at the world of intangible zeroes and ones is available by way of a physical object: a photocopied zine! They are available at Rauner Special Collections, the circulation and welcome desks of Baker-Berry library, and the Book Arts Workshop. If you'd like to examine an actual wax cylinder, come to Rauner and ask to see one from the Charles Furlong papers (Mss-197).           

                    

The Outsiders

Outsider: a person who does not belong to a particular group.

What does it mean to be an outsider? For the women who arrived at Dartmouth in 1972, it meant stepping foot on a campus that wasn’t created for them. How do you find a safe space in a place you’re not wanted? For some women at Dartmouth it was found in a journal, a room, and a shared sense of isolation.

By the early 80s, women still lacked a support system, and despite other schools already having implemented a Women’s Resource Center, Dartmouth still hadn’t given these women solace by providing a place for “organizing programs and speakers for the community, providing information and referrals, centralizing diverse women’s groups, and supplementing academic women’s studies programs” (Womyn’s Review). Despite the absence of support, women used a room in Robinson Hall and considered this the ‘center.

In 1981, the unofficial ‘center’ became a refuge—an outsider’s sanctuary. A journal sat on a table, inviting women to write down their thoughts. In the very first entry of this journal, a student writes:

“This room has become my haven from the madness and cynicism of the world. I come here sometimes when I feel an intense desire to be alone and read a book, or when I’m feeling lonely and introspective…”

Recurring themes in most of these entries were loneliness, pain, and isolation. With the option to remain anonymous, these women wrote about the struggle of being a woman at Dartmouth. One student in particular wrote about her frustration with counseling at Dartmouth:

“I am angry that counselors at Dick’s House aren’t interested in dealing with my pain of being a woman at a place like Dartmouth or listening to me discuss my joy/confusion/pain of being involved with women or my struggle to be politically active. Instead, they would rather ask how many orgasms I had with my male lover and whether I always wanted to be a sex object to my father.”

Throughout my research, I’ve noticed the strong association between feelings of isolation and its negative effects on mental health. For women, this isolation at Dartmouth was both physical and emotional. The lack of support systems—both institutional and social—created the feeling of being outsiders, leaving these women to fend for themselves on a campus not made for them. One woman describes the journal as“a selfish present to myself- I was feeling depressed and came up here to write…”

These reflections by women students during coeducation show how women at Dartmouth were left battling not just with external hostility, but with the internal toll of their isolation. The unofficial Women’s Resource Center—and the journal within it—became a place where they could at least begin to tackle the loneliness and frustration that came with being left outside of the main bubble.

To read the journal, ask for DO-61, Box 6591 at Rauner Library. To read the Womyn's Review, request D.C. History HQ1101 .W6692.

Posted for Arielenny Perez '26, recipient of a Historical Accountability Student Research Fellowship for the 2024 fall term. The Historical Accountability Student Research Program provides funding for Dartmouth students to conduct research with primary sources on a topic related to issues of inclusivity and diversity in the college's past. For more information, visit the program's website.

Happy Sukkot! / Chag Sukkot Sameach!

This year, the Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins at sundown on October 16 (Tishrei 14 in the Hebrew calendar.) If you're not sure what Sukkot (pronounced "soo-coat") is, Rauner happens to have a text that explains it in vivid, poetic detail. Written by Henry Ware, Jr., and published in 1837, "The Feast of Tabernacles: A Poem for Music" is set in ancient Jerusalem during the Temple period on the final day of Sukkot. Ware prefaces his poem with a short "Advertisement" in which he lays out his intentions for writing the poem and explains the holiday for a gentile audience:

The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three great festivals of the Jewish people... It took place in the autumn, at the gathering-in of the corn harvest and the vintage, and continued for seven days; during which time the people dwelt in booths, formed of branches of trees, to commemorate their ancestors' dwelling in tents in the wilderness.

Though Ware writes in the past tense, Sukkot still is very much a major Jewish holiday that takes place in the harvest season and involves temporarily living in a sukkah or booth.

"The Feast of Tabernacles" describes the scene at the Temple on Sukkot, with the ancient Israelites waving symbolic plants, burning incense, and preparing an animal sacrifice:

Wave the willow and the palm !
Bow the knee, and chant the psalm !

Throng the holy altar round !

Bid the lofty courts resound !

Now let the morning sacrifice begin !

Fire the rich censer ! Let the incense rise

In rolling clouds of fragrance, till it fill

The Holy Place

Another book of ours includes depictions of some Sukkot customs. Printed by the Stinehour Press in 1995, Maḥzor = Mahzor Corfu is a partial facsimile of an illustrated 18th century prayer book produced by the Jewish community of the Greek island of Corfu, containing the liturgies for the three major festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot) and Shabbat. It also contains some charming illustrations of Sukkot scenes. On the left is a man holding a lulav (palm, willow, and myrtle branch) and etrog (citron). On the right are four men sharing a meal under the thatched roof of a sukkah.

To see "The Feast of Tabernacles," come to the reading room and request Smith J pam.vol. 35:12. To see Maḥzor = Mahzor Corfu, request Presses B667mahz

Finding John Rae

John Rae was one of the more controversial figures in the history of Arctic exploration. Working for the Hudson Bay Company, he explored and mapped vast regions of the Arctic, which should have made him a hero. But he developed habits the British found disturbing. He started dressing like the peoples indigenous to the North and he even learned to make temporary shelters using ice and snow--like the people who LIVED there and knew what they were doing! The British preferred to bring their own ways into a new environment and maintain proper decorum even if it often meant death.

But it was Rae's discovery and reporting of the remains of the John Hope Franklin party that really got him in trouble. He found clear evidence that the party had perished but also that they had done the unthinkable and resorted to cannibalism. When he reported this back to England, the press first sensationalized his claims, then turned against him. How could we trust this suspicious character who lives like a savage? Charles Dickens lead the charge--ridiculing and lampooning Rae to ensure that the truth he found would remain in doubt.

We have two very special maps in our collection hand annotated by Rae. They chart his discoveries and document his incredible achievements. They also show a man holding grudge, quietly raging against the world that would not acknowledge his rightful place in the pantheon of great explorers.

To see the maps, ask for Stef G3270 1878 .S7 (pictured above) and Stef G9780 1855 .G7 1876.

A Slaver's Schematic

Much is known about the British and American abolitionist pamphlets and newspapers that circulated in Europe and North America during the early 1800s. One example, abolitionist Thomas Clarkson's 1808 schematic of the slave ship Brooks, depicted enslaved Africans crammed together in the hold like cargo containers without any room to move. That infamous engraving appears frequently in publications, presentations, and exhibits about the Middle Passage.

Here at Rauner, we have a publication, Affaire de la Vigilante (1823), with a similar engraving that was made by Charles-Philibert de Lasteyrie. De Lasteyrie was a founding member of the Society of Christian Morality, a group that started in 1821 with the aims of abolishing the slave trade, improving the conditions of French prisons, and providing aid to refugees, among others. Although this pamphlet is anonymous, it's a safe bet that it was written by a member of the Society, if not by de Lasteyrie himself.

Affaire de la Vigilante documents the capture of La Vigilante, a French slaver, by the British Navy on April 1, 1822, off the coast of Africa. The 345 enslaved people on board were liberated and then escorted to Sierra Leone. France had banned the slave trade in France itself in 1818, but would not require the same for French colonies until 1848. One scholar has suggested that France's lack of zeal in pursuing anti-slavery legislation for their colonies was because, in their minds, they connected the ban of slavery at home with Napoleon's defeat.

To explore a rare French abolitionist pamphlet, and to examine the schematic of La Vigilante, come to Rauner and ask to see Rare HT985 .A32 1823.

"I am now confused": The Complexity of Divestment

The student protest movement against apartheid in the 1980s was arguably one of the most memorable events on campus during the latter half of the 20th century. Most people who know of the movement understandably associate it with the attack on the student-built shanties on the Green during the early hours of January 22nd, 1986. That assault, and the national news attention it raised, was a flashpoint for the Dartmouth community about whether college divestment from companies doing business in South Africa would have an impact on apartheid or not. Three and a half years later, Dartmouth had completely divested itself of business connections to companies still working within the apartheid regime. A few years after that, apartheid in South Africa was eradicated.

Although 1986 was a significant year for Dartmouth in terms of anti-apartheid protest, discussion and debate over divestment as a meaningful lever for global political change already had been occurring on campus for several years. On January 21, 1980, the Student Council passed a resolution calling on the college "to divest itself of and join the boycott of all investments in firms with commercial ties to apartheid in South Africa." Optimistically, the Student Council's resolution envisioned this process concluding by May of 1981.

Three years later, divestment had not occurred but the topic was still of interest to the Dartmouth community: on May 17th, the Tucker Foundation sponsored a debate on divestment between Dartmouth professors Hoyt Alverson (Anthropology) and John Hennessey (Economics/Tuck). According to an account published by the Dartmouth, both speakers emphasized that they were "appalled" by the white minority government in South Africa but they disagreed on the most effective way to eliminate it. Alverson argued in favor of making a statement against South African apartheid through the College's investment policies; he pointed out that the country was a product of Western investment and therefore we are responsible for its current state. He also argued that US business investment in the country had not made life better for Black residents because it was primarily capital and not labor-based. Moreover, Alverson emphasized that US investment was used as justification for the continuation of the racist system of governance. Although Dartmouth alone would likely not have a measurable effect on US or South African policy, Alverson believed that the gesture would matter if other institutions also participated.

Hennessey countered by claiming that divestment is virtue-signaling and an empty gesture. He argued that selling off Dartmouth stock in those companies would simply make those shares available for purchase by someone else who might not be as concerned with the state of South Africa: "To divest is simply to give up the right to vote and participate in company policy formulation." Instead, Hennessey recommended that the college put pressure on those companies to change their policies and on Congress to regulate those businesses more strictly. He then asked, "What is moral purity? Does it mean refusing to touch all money with any South African ties?"

In a letter written to Hoyt Alverson after the debate, Professor William Dougan (Economics) concisely summarized the two perspectives: "You do have the 'symbolism' argument in your favor, and it is formidable. Hennessey's point, which is valid, is that in opting for a symbolic gesture you are forgoing an opportunity to exert more substantive if less visible effects." At the conclusion of the debate Fred Berthold, the acting Dean of the Tucker Foundation, likely spoke for many people when he said, "About three weeks ago I was an ardent advocate of total divestment....I am now confused."

To see documents related to the debate, including the letter from Dougan to Alverson, come to Rauner and ask to see the "Debate on Divestment folder from the Records of the Vice President and Treasurer (DA-2, Box 7880, "Debate on Divestment").

Exhibit: Bloody Books - Pulp Fiction in Victorian England

This exhibit presents the panoply of cheaply printed serial fiction that flooded the literary markets in early Victorian England. The British working class, increasingly literate and increasingly urban, represented a new market for reading material that catered to their interests and was affordable.

In response, savvy publishers began to print cheap magazines, long serials, and novels in parts during the 1830s and 1840s that were aimed initially at working-class men and then later at a juvenile audience. These texts were almost unwaveringly sensationalist and derivative in terms of content, often plagiarizing popular Gothic romance novels or summarizing lurid tales of true crime, ripped straight from contemporary newspaper accounts. These provocative and violent stories often sold for a mere penny an issue, and British society initially used a blanket term to describe the exceedingly popular but highly ephemeral genre: "penny dreadful".

The exhibit was curated by Morgan Swan and the poster was designed by Sam Miles. It will be on display in the Class of 1965 Galleries in Rauner Special Collections Library from September 16 through December 13th, 2024.