DHS: Other Projects

Aside from my work on the Garrett-Cremer Collection, I've processed several other collections at the Delaware Historical Society's Research Library.

The Wilmington Garden Day Collection

September 2022

One of my first projects at DHS involved putting the final touches on collections that students had worked on for Leigh Rifenburg's class the previous spring. The Wilmington Garden Day Collection offered a short, simple way to get my feet wet, as it only spanned two document boxes and was nearly finished--all I had to do was place photographs in envelopes and finish a finding aid. Its photographs shed light on Wilmington's historic houses and the families who opened them for public display.

Wilmington Garden Day still exists, and still offers their yearly charity showcase.

The front cover of a booklet from Wilmington Garden Day, 1982. Most of the booklet is yellow, but it also includes illustrations of flowers in blue, green, and orange. Text in blue reads "Wilmington Garden Day 1982."

Although most of collection spans photographs dating to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, it also includes ephemera like this 1982 booklet.
Photo by Chris Loos, courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

A close-up of a VHS tape, with a label reading "Unedited video tour of Kay Lahusen's photo exhibit, Nov. 2002. Narrator: Judith Armstrong. Filmed by: Dennis Mahoney."

The Diamond Edge Foundation Collection included some videotapes, including this one of an exhibit by lesbian photojournalist Kay Lahusen.
Photo by Chris Loos, courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

The Diamond Edge Foundation Collection

September-October 2022

Another "finishing touches" project focused on the papers of the Diamond Edge Foundation, a non-profit from the late 1990s and early 2000s that sought to educate Delawareans about the LGBTQ community. It opened a window into an understudied field: LGBTQ activism in Delaware. My work involved rehousing documents per the collection's original order, as well as integrating formerly-embargoed material.

The John Ward Collection

October-November 2022

DHS Chief Curator Leigh Rifenburg and I almost literally stumbled on this set of typescripts, ephemera, and other documents, which belonged to Wilmington native and Philadelphia Gay News journalist John Ward. The papers provide some of the best insight into Delaware's LGBTQ communities, their social lives, and their political activism during the 1980s and 1990s. It also includes information on Wilmington local history.

John Ward collected many things related to LGBTQ+ life and politics, but some of my favorite includes the ephemera from gay-owned businesses in Rehoboth Beach. This stellar (ha!) brochure comes from Rehoboth's famous Blue Moon restaurant.

Image courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

A black-and-white photograph of a mobile x-ray bus in Wilmington. In front of the bus stand about twelve people who worked on the bus. A sign in front of the people reads "Free Chest X-Rays--Food Handlers," and credits the Delaware Department of Health and the Anti-Tuberculosis Society.

The Anti-Tuberculosis Society Collection offers excellent insight into the histories of Black Delawareans, from their struggles to obtain quality healthcare at the segregated Edgewood Sanatorium to their service work in mobile x-ray buses.
Image courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

The Delaware Anti-Tuberculosis Society Collection

November 2022; March 2023

Previous students had already processed this collection, which spans photographs, letters, and administrative materials from the Delaware Anti-Tuberculosis Society. My task, then, lay in scanning this material, adding metadata, and uploading it to DHS's Digital Collections. You can check out my work here!

The Mordecai S. Plummer Collection

March 2023

The Plummer Collection offered a nice break after the huge Garrett-Cremer Collection, as it only filled up one metal box. Yet it still proved fascinating, and in my arrangement I uncovered letters from prisoners, newspaper articles, and a story about an escaped prisoner, a reform-minded warden, and an experimental "Honor System" at the brutal New Castle County Workhouse.

Perhaps the most haunting object in the collection, this crucifix belonged to Ernest Thomas, one of over a dozen Black men executed by the State of Delaware in the twentieth century.
Photo by Chris Loos, courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

A crucifix made of a silver metal with a dark wood inlay, resting on tissue paper.

The center label of an aluminum transcription disc. The label is grey, includes the address of "Audio-Scriptions, Inc." and information on the recorded audio. This disc included a speech by Delaware Senator Daniel O. Hastings on May 4, 1936.

Photo by Chris Loos, courtesy of the Delaware Historical Society.

Odds and Ends

You never know what you're going to find in an archive! As I was reshelving some boxes one day, I stumbled across a record album, probably from the 1930s or 1940s. Inside were nearly pristine transcription discs--like a vinyl record, but cut from pure aluminum, and used for at-home recordings and professional networks. Aluminum is very soft, so it's far too easy to damage this medium, and they also tarnish easily. This disc, which includes part of a speech from Delaware Senator Daniel O. Hastings, came from pioneering New York radio station WEAF and still has a mirror-like polish.

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