Log 7: Learning about the themes of Special Collections, Waterhouse Collection, Carl Hertzog, Leona Washington Project and rare books. Small history on printing

Nicole James

Jul 7, 2024

5 min read

Updated: Jul 19, 2024

June 7th UTEP Library

Special Collections

TiJeat Berry; Supervisor Joy Urbina and Claudia Rivers

Special Collections Staff

Claudia

Susannah

Gina

David

Yvette

Anna

Laura

This is a thematic collection that focuses on the Southwest; some exceptions include the military collection, which spans from Ancient times to the present. This part of the collection used to be highly utilized by Ft. Bliss' Sgt. Major Academy, and some of the special collections include manuscripts from Ft. Bliss retirees. Other information collected includes physical copies of old newspapers some of which are bound into books, UTEP history theses and dissertations, directories, Tom Lea Project, and maps. This department is also in charge of the historic art on site and across the campus.

Most visitors to the 6th floor are researchers; one of whom was looking at a Sandborn Map of El Paso; this item was quite large and so heavy that it took 2 people to carry it out. Once the researcher had left I was able to examine the book and Claudia told me that they used to be used for insurance purposes and you can discern the type of material a house was constructed with by the colored paper.

Inside of Sandborn Map, the different colors represent materials used to build the house

I was able to recognize some of the streets in the city that date back to the early 1900's. Here is a link to Library of Congress digital Sandborn collection: https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/

The special collections has a set of typewriters which they used to create the finding strips that are placed with items on the shelves. These strips are long and skinny so only a typewriter is able to get the Call numbers onto the length of the material. There are some books in the collection that have the standard spine labels, but you cannot put these on rare books due to potential damage. As a result, these books have slips of cardstock that is put into the book with a slip sticking out as a location aid.

Susannah H., the assistant archivist, states that the most important process the archives are undertaking is knowing what inventory they have, which allows them to have intellectual control. She and others mentioned the copyright issue revolving around the fact that the special collections do not own the copyright so anybody who uses pictures or information from any of the items must either not use it for monetary use or obtain permission from the person who owns the copyright.

Me holding the publication before filing it. Behind me are the stacks of one of the thematic collections

A periodical publication within the Barbara Dent Collection

Holding one of the items in the Barbara Dent Collection. This collection included letters, documents, newspapers, obituaries, pictures, catalogs, and microfiche on the medical history of El Paso.

Today, I added to the inventory:

Dr. R.F. Stovall's article was sent to Barbara Dent as a response to her request for information on him; it was sent to the Deming public library on April 6th, 2009.
1934 article by Martha Burdick Ament regarding a raid by Geronimo in Deming c. 1866; Barbara Dent requested the information because of the local names that were mentioned.
The folder labeled Dr. R.F. Stovall Article-Geronimo's Last Raid includes articles about the individuals mentioned in the said: R.F. Stovall, Sam Watkins, and Marthan Ament, the author of the article.

Barbara Dent created this filing system for her data and gave it to the special collections as is. When processing the data into the collection, the archivists try to stay as close to the donor's data and filing system as possible.

Special Collection Items

A piece of Cuneiform being shown to me by Susannah. Carvings still visible and can be felt.

Above is a piece of Cuneiform! That I got to hold. It is in one of the extra storage rooms that houses special collection items. It was so wonderful to hold a few documents that are centuries old to 3,000 years old. This is being held by the assistance archival collections archivist Susannah.

1 of the images of the Leona Washington Project of black El Pasoan's in history.

Above: Is a photograph from from the the Leona Ford Washington Collection. This collection contains photographs of African-American El Pasoan's going back to the early 1900's.

Plates that were used with the printing press that is housed in the Carl Hertzog room

Above: These are some of the plates that were used for the printing press that is stored in the Carl Hertzog room. They have substantial weight; the librarians stated that at one point it was suggested to melt them down and create something else, but that suggestion was never taken up. Below: you will see one of the cases that has these plates split into different fonts.

This case contains the plates used for the printing press. This particular case has over 20 drawers with different fonts including Condensed Sans Serif and Ultra Bodoni Italics

Handwritten notes sent to Barbara Dent as part of her collection. Blue ink, cursive, spiral notebook

Return to the Barbara Dent

Project

Returning to my work with the Barbara Dent collection, these are some of the notes that she obtained during her project. Notes included the births and death of people, the activities of doctors in El Paso and into New Mexico. Below is another example of descriptors of a raid done by Geronimo that involved a shootout and was experienced by one of the doctors or his wife.

Short description of a Geronimo Raid experienced in El Paso area

A lot of these folders incorporated the activities of the spouses who were involved in a group called The Woman's Auxiliary to Texas Medical Association,

While the main aspect of my job was to transport the information, letters, images, journals from acid to acid free folders, transcribe the titles onto the folders; as I continued to do this job I did learn some interesting things about El Paso and how Barbara Dent conducted her research, thru interviews and letters and even collected interviews conducted by others and third parties.

Returning to copyright, when a researcher comes to the collection the archivist or the assistants will bring them the boxes that contain the information about a person, or event. The researchers can use the Finding Aids online or in the books in the collection to determine what products they would like to explore. Below: are example of the boxes that the assistants brought out to a couple who are doing research. The collection does not own the copyright so if there is no specific note stating that another person is allowed to reuse the data, or pictures, the researcher will have to reach out to the copyright owner for permission.

5 document boxes, and 4 research boxes brought from the cages to the collections department for researchers. Student worker is writing on two of the research boxes. 1 of the researchers is standing behind her.

Tigua Indians

I asked the library assistants and archivist about any activity they have with the Tigua Indians which are the only group of American Indians still in El Paso. UTEP is in the West of El Paso, and the Tigua reservation are on the far East side. The UTEP has a Judaica, Military, and poetry collection, and I wondered if there were any plans to incorporate a collection dedicated to the Tigua Indians. I was told that members of the tribe had come to tour the collection so that they could develop their own archives on the Tigua Reservation that would be controlled by their members and not a University. As a federal institution and depository, the department is sensitive to the tribe being circumspect of heavy involvement from them. So far all they have done is given a tour to provide an idea of how to arrange materials and use limited spacing.

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