Category Archives: Featured Collections

Check out new content in the digital version of The Eagle

The digital collection of American University’s student newspaper is almost complete. We just added content covering the 2009-2010 through 2014-2015 academic years. This batch covers The Eagle’s transition to an online only format with occasional special print editions. These special editions were timed to come out right before special events such as All American Weekend and Commencement. The digital collection is available 24-7 and is browseable and full text searchable. Searching is based on OCR of the digital files so it is not always 100% accurate.

The 1952 editorial staff of The Eagle

Improvements to Eagle digital archive

American University Archives recently launched a new interface for the digital archive of The Eagle. We hope you will find the search interface more intuitive. You should get your results faster and it will be easier to scroll through them.

Advanced search options are readily available including analytics that show the distribution of your search results by date of publication.

From the browse page, you can read an issue like a traditional newspaper. You can easily zoom in on an individual article, navigate around the page, or scroll through the entire issue.

The new interface makes saving and sharing articles easier with print, email, social media, link and my collection buttons. You can download entire issues from the browse screen.

We will be adding a new batch of content 2009-2015 later this summer. We will make an another announcement when that content is live.

Cherry Blossom Prints

In honor of the National Cherry Blossom Festival which starts on March 20, AU Special Collections is pleased to feature two prints from the Charles Nelson Spinks Collection.

From: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji – Fuji Sanju Rokkei (1858) by Ando Hiroshige

From: 100 Views of Osaka – Naniwa Meisho Hyakkei (187-) by Utagawa Kunikazu

Digital editions of American University publications now available online in AUDRA

Over the years, American University has produced a variety of publications featuring rich content on campus events and programs. Administrative newsletters such as The American Reporter and The AU Reporter cover topics from the budget to faculty appointments to new regulations. Alumni magazines such as American Magazine and The Lodestar offer a window into campus through stories about current and past faculty and students. In addition to the student newspaper, The Eagle, and the yearbook, The Talon, AU’s student body has produced a number of publications over the years. We recently digitized the complete run of The Bald Eagle, AU’s humor magazine from the 1960s. Except for the student newspaper and yearbook, all of these publications can be found in American University’s Digital Research Archive (AUDRA) and are full text searchable and downloadable as pdfs.

Lodestar Spring 1964

American Magazine Summer 1987

American University commencement programs are available online

AU Archives is celebrating the launch of its newest digital collection, American University Commencement Programs. An almost complete set of AU’s commencement programs dating between 1915 and 2015 is now available online. The programs are full text searchable and individuals can download pdf copies. Additional information on the commencement ceremonies prior to 1925 including the program can found in The University Courier.

Procession to 1925 Commencement

If you click on the magnifying glass icon and select the “only in this collection box,” you can search just the commencement programs.

Storytelling through Japanese art

In addition to being beautiful, Japanese wood block prints present a wealth of information about Japanese history and culture. The newest exhibit on the third floor of Bender Library features works from the Charles Nelson Spinks and Dorothy A. and Charles A. Moore Jr. collections. The prints on display show details of Ainu daily life and seasonal ceremonies, provide guidance on visiting pilgrimage sites, and illustrate the traditional process of making Mochi.

The triptychs from the Moore Collection are composed of three individual prints that were joined together. They had been stored rolled for many years and could no longer be displayed flat. This fall we sent the two rolled prints from the Moore Collection to a conservation lab for humidification and flattening. Now visitors can now enjoy the prints in their entirety.

Mochi Making

Kabuki Actor Prints

The exhibit will be up through the end of the semester. The images will rotate so be sure to visit several times.

Gregg Jones Papers

One of the strengths of AU Special Collections is the history of journalism. In 2014, we acquired the papers of Gregg Jones. Jones earned his BA in Journalism at Northeast Louisiana University. He began his reporting career in 1981 at the Roanoke Times and World-News. In 1984, Jones moved to the Philippines and began freelancing for major British and United States newspapers, covering the 1986 presidential election, the People Power Revolution, and Corazon Aquino’s presidency. In 1988 and 1989, he interviewed New People’s Army guerillas for his book, Red Revolution. In the 1990s, Jones reported for the Washington Post in Mexico, the Arkansas Gazette and the Dallas Morning News. He moved to Bangkok in 1997 to head the Dallas Morning News’ Asia Bureau. Jones returned to the United States to work for the Los Angeles Times in 2002. He rejoined the Dallas Morning News as an investigative reporter and projects writer in 2004 and left in 2010 to become a full-time author. Jones has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and selected as a Fellow of the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada.

The Gregg Jones Papers consists of articles, book proposals, correspondence, interviews, manuscripts, notes, and radio broadcasts documenting his work as a journalist and author in the Philippines, the Asia-Pacific region, and the United States. Featured topics in the collection include: the California recall campaign, the New People’s Army of the Communist Party of Philippines, the Philippine-American War, Philippine politics, rural health conditions in Arkansas, and the abuse of steroids. For more information about the collection please consult the finding aid.

The Bill Gentile Photojournalism Collection

American University Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Bill Gentile Photojournalism Collection.

Bill Gentile’s career began in 1977. He worked as a reporter for the Mexico City News and for United Press International (UPI). He later became Newsweek Magazine’s Contract Photographer for Latin America and the Caribbean. He covered the 1979 Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua; the United States-backed Contra War in Nicaragua; the Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s; the United States invasion of Panama; the 1994 invasion of Haiti, the ongoing conflict with Cuba, the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His book of photographs, “Nicaragua,” won the Overseas Press Club Award for Excellence.

The Bill Gentile Photojournalism Collection (1983-2002) covers 16 Caribbean and Latin American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. The photos document agriculture, daily life, demonstrations, earthquakes, elections, religion, politics and women’s health. The countries with the most images are Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, and Nicaragua. Featured individuals include political leaders Violeta Chamorro, Manuel Noriega, and Daniel Ortega. Of note are images of the Miskito Indians and the Yanomamis. Also included in the collection are images of the Persian Gulf War and U.S. related topics such as border patrols, elections, prisons, and Puerto Rico.

Harvesting Sugarcane 1986

Miskito Indian Rebel, Yulu, 1986

Biography and History in the William F. Causey Collection

The next time you visit Bender Library stop by the second floor to see the most recent selection of works from the William F. Causey Collection. This collection contains first editions many of which were signed by the author or inscribed to Bill Causey.

Though Causey was an avid collector of literature especially crime and suspense novels, he also amassed a broad array of nonfiction titles covering early modern history to the present. He collected around his personal interests such as the Civil War and the Kennedy assassination as well as biographies and memoirs.

Featured in the display are scholarly works on American and European history and biographies of Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy and his brothers.

Bill Causey’s copy of this seminal work on the Civil War was signed by James M. McPherson.

19th Century Papal Bulls

In honor of Pope Francis’ visit to Washington, DC, AU Library Special Collections is pleased to showcase two items from the Hurst Autograph Collection:

Papal Bulls of Gregory XVI (1831-1846) and Pius IX (1846-1878)

Papal bulls were originally issued by the Pope for many kinds of public communication, but by the 13th century papal bulls were only used for the most formal occasions.

It is named after the lead seal (bulla) that was attached in order to authenticate it. The bulla has the heads of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul on one side and the Pope’s name on the other.

Close up of Lead Seal for Pius IX