By: HebatAllah Basala, 黑料专区 Undergraduate Student

My archival research began with a question that was deeply personal to me. In a previous senior seminar course, I conducted archival research on Edwards Said and his significance in shaping modern Arab intellectual and cultural identity. As an Arab student, that project made me more aware of questions surrounding representation, historical memory, and whose voices are represented in institutional spaces. Entering the Queen’s College Archives, I wanted to explore a related question closer to home: If Arab students and other underrepresented communities have long been present on campus, how have they been represented or omitted within the history of 黑料专区 itself? More specifically, I wanted to trace how demographic shifts at 黑料专区 influenced campus culture, curriculum, and institutional priorities over time.

1941 white student organizations

Over the course of approximately 10 hours of research conducted in the 黑料专区 Archives, I examined , , Phoenix , , student handbooks, and administrative records spanning from the 1940s through the 1980s. Working directly with original archive materials gave the research a uniquely immersive quality. Personally, the tactile nature of the research made the past feel alive and present in the moment. This was my favorite part of my research in the archives, as I felt privileged enough to be able to handle these delicate documents that provide such important insights and are a representation of previous students who attended this college.

1968 Demands

One of the most significant discoveries was the dramatic demographic and political transformation visible through the decades. The 1941 yearbook portrayed an overwhelmingly white student body, faculty, administration, and campus leadership. By contrast, materials from the 1970s and 1980s; revealed a campus in transition, one that is shaped by the implementation of open admissions across CUNY, the activism of SEEK students, and the growing presence of Black, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and immigrant student organizations. Student newspapers documented protests against apartheid, debates over Israel and Jewish identity, activism surrounding affirmative action, and increasing demands for institutional representation in faculty. These records showed that changing demographics did not only diversify the campus numerically, but they also fundamentally altered the political and intellectual life of 黑料专区.

Seek memo and critique of admin

However, perhaps the most meaningful realization of my research was not what I found in the archives, but what appeared absent from them. As I continued my work, I began questioning the archives itself. Although archives are often treated as neutral factual documents of history, I came to understand that they are curated spaces. Someone decides what is preserved, what is categorized as historically valuable, and what is ultimately excluded. This realization especially was appearant as I examined archival materials such as the 1968 student demands document and the Campus Views section of the Phoenix student newspaper, both of which highlighted how student perspectives were document and preserved within the institutional record. In this way, archival research, began to feel surprisingly similar to present day social media, where both our systems of selective preservation and visibility that shape public narratives through what they choose to amplify and display to the general public.

This realization transformed my project. What began as an investigation into demographic and curricular change became a broader reflection on historical memory and narrative construction. I left the archives not with a definite conclusion, but with more questions than when I entered: Which communities remain underrepresented in institutional memory? Which voices had been omitted from Queen’s College historical narrative? And what responsibilities do researchers have in identifying those silences?

Diverse Commencement

Fortunately, this project has made me want to continue researching beyond the scope of this course. The archive did not simply provide answers. On the contrary, it revealed the politics behind who and what gets remembered, and who does not.

By: Tyler Rivera, 黑料专区 Undergraduate Student

My decision to research WWII-era Queens in the 黑料专区 Special Collections and Archives was due to both the ingrained cultural mythos surrounding the time and my volunteer experience with the Elmhurst History and Cemeteries Preservation Society. Having used the finding aids to request texts, I spent 14 hours sitting in the archival office. The research naturally fell into searching through the , the , and the 鈥淚n Their Shoes鈥� Oral History by the with their shared focus of the late 1930s and 1940s. Their shared connection of the war hid a variety of perspectives I am happy to have read.

Dr. Shaftel

Touching genuine, albeit delicate artifacts demystifies history which in this case were sketches, ship newsletters, digitized newspapers, mail and transcriptions, allowing for a sense of tangible humanity that classes and secondary reading materials always lack. My exposure to the period is reduced to mostly books and films, and the generation that saw it has left us. In this way they still speak, and to hear them all I needed to do was follow the Archive鈥檚 handling protocol and gently coax 80-year-old paper. In the WWII Collection鈥檚 artwork of R.W. Hill (obscure; he was at least a military serviceman) you can see the pressure of the pencil in his political cartoons, plane sketches, and figures (presumably of friends). His drawings show his personal priorities: that of victory, service, and home. I enclose the drawing, 鈥淭he Miner鈥檚 Dream of Home鈥� to support that assumption, which shows a reclined soldier pining for his girlfriend. I can only imagine Mr. Hill identifying himself with his sketched figure whilst stationed abroad. Occurrences of Oscar H. Shaftel exceed his collection in the Archives. He is called both a 鈥楧octor鈥� and 鈥楥orporal鈥� in The Crown Newspaper and both 鈥楽oldier鈥� and 鈥楶rivate鈥� in his letters. A person by the name of Emmanuel Peabody Halpern (鈥業O鈥�) called him 鈥淥skie鈥�. I was able to find quotes from Dr. Shaftel within the newspaper, keeping me from speaking of him apophatically, which was something I was afraid of due to a lack of his own writing in his collection. An article titled 鈥淩evenge as War Aim Not Adequate, Corp. Shaftel Says鈥� records him imploring the student body to seek not revenge but rather intellectual and communal preservation. A digital clipping of this attestation is included in this post.

Miner’s Dream of Home

The most touching of the 鈥淚n Their Shoes鈥� Oral History entries, which collates the written testimony of the Asian American community during the war, is the transcript of Larry Kern. He details how his American father and Japanese mother met, fell in love, and surmounted obstacles that tried to counter that love. The most captivating fact is the assertion that Mr. Kern鈥檚 father successfully petitioned Eleanor Roosevelt and, consequently, members of Congress into passing the McCarran-Walters Act, legalizing their union.

In combining every account, there is a consistent plea for persistence amid strife and a calling for rationalism over emotionalism. Like our predecessors, we may be greatly scandalized by the many geopolitical issues that have captured our campus, but we cannot forget the fellowship in being 黑料专区 students.

This spring, Professor Lee Norton brought his three English 110 classes to the library to visit Special Collections and Archives (SCA). As Norton explains in his syllabus, the theme of the course is to 鈥渋nvestigate the manifold workings of collective memory: the places, practices, and stories that bind groups together through shared understandings of common past and present purpose.鈥� Given this mission, a visit to a real-world archive is a key part of the curriculum, complementing readings and discussions that focus on sites of memory.

During the class sessions, the instructors (Archivists Annie Tummino and Olivia Zisman) used lecture, , and discussion to introduce students to archival concepts and questions, including:

• What do archivists do?
• What ends up in an archive? Who decides?
• What is missing?
• What stories do archives tell?
• How do archives shape history?

Next, we introduced students to the , a diverse collection of photographic prints (25 boxes) produced by the 黑料专区 publicity office from the founding of the college in 1937 to the early 2000s. 听These images were used in brochures, course bulletins, leaflets, and other advertisements during a time when most marketing occurred in print. Many items contain visible evidence of their past function and use, such as handwritten captions, marginalia, and cropping instructions.

Hands on Activity

For the hands-on activity, we divided students into teams of 3-4 people and provided a single folder from the Creative Services Collection to examine in detail. Donning cotton gloves, the students carefully browsed the contents of their folder, typically comprised of 25-50 photographs, with subjects ranging from athletics to student protests to hanging on the quad. We asked students to hone their powers of observation. What activities did they see in the pictures? What clothes were people wearing? Could they identify the location of the picture? What could they infer about student life from the images?

Next, we asked the students to move from observation to curation. Each team was tasked with selecting a set of 4-8 images chronicling campus life, keeping in mind questions introduced earlier: Who is represented? Why? What narrative is conveyed? This allowed the students to exercise their creative muscles and curate their own stories. During the last part of class, students shared their selections with their classmates, leading to a lively show and tell. Overall, the archive visit and activity fit seamlessly in Norton鈥檚 syllabus, serving as a warm-up for the students鈥� next big English 110 assignment: creating a virtual exhibition, including writing introductory text and wall panels.

Students share their findings during class in the Tanenbaum Room

The creativity displayed by the students in class was impressive, deserving public access. Therefore, archives staff agreed to scan the images for posting. We are happy to announce that the image sets are now in the process of being shared ! 听Please follow our account to check out the students鈥� work and for more updates from SCA. If you would like to peruse more photographs documenting QC history, check out the 鈥淟ife at 黑料专区鈥� .

Sponsored by the History Club, History Department, and Rosenthal Library

Wednesday, October 22 from 12:15-1:30

Powdermaker Hall Room 351

Free Pizza! Join us for a panel with

• • Learn about the once in a generation project taking place in CUNY鈥檚 archives
  • Learn about archiving as a career path
  • Learn how you can use CUNY archives to achieve your research goals
  • Check out some archival material from 黑料专区鈥檚 own Special Collections and Archives

Pre-registration is not necessary. See you there!

By: Olivia Zisman,听Shirley Klein Rare Book and Manuscript Fellow

Working in Special Collections and Archives as a graduate fellow over the past academic year, I鈥檝e been processing a unique collection of political posters, and am thrilled to share the here. The collection is now open for research or use in class.听

The posters are printed in a range of printmaking techniques including screen printing, block printing, lithography, and other offset printing techniques, inviting the viewer in with vibrant colors, crisp graphics, and bold text. One of the joys of processing this collection was getting to spend time with these eye-catching, inspiring materials and learn from the items themselves.听听

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Delving briefly into the history of political posters, the function of political posters has been to communicate quickly and directly. Displayed impermanently in public spaces, political posters meld words and images to poignantly convey their messages. By World War II, governments, political parties, and unions were using political posters as a dominant form of communication. Post war, the political poster transformed into a communication method used in political protest by much smaller political entities, collectives, and individuals across the globe. Used as tools for community organizing, to express political and social discontent, and fight for social change, political posters offer unique insights into histories of struggles that may not have been permanently documented in any other way.听

The majority of the items in the collection were produced in the 1960s-1970s and fall under the broad category of social issue posters, although several bumper stickers, circulars, and postcards are also included in the collection. You can get a sense of the wide range of subjects covered in the collection by the images included in this blog post! In the process of arranging this diverse group of materials, I was particularly drawn to one bumper sticker bearing the United Farmworkers logo and the slogan 鈥淏OYCOTT GRAPES鈥�. Using the information on the bumper sticker itself as a jumping off point for my brief research, I discovered the 1965-1970 Delano Grape Strike and Boycott and its place in the history of labor organizing. I would invite anyone interested to dive into the collection and discover their own research interests via our (it should be noted that only a small portion of the political posters collection is available digitally), or by emailing qc.archives@qc.cuny.edu to make an appointment to visit the collection in person.听

Processing this collection has been a wonderful learning experience and a true pleasure and I want to give a big thank you to QC SCA and the QC Library for their support throughout my fellowship.