This Veteran’s Day marked the one hundred year anniversary of the armistice signed between Allied and Central Powers of World War I at Compiègne, France to end fighting on the Western front. The conflict resulted in an unprecedented level of death and destruction as the products of industrialization–airplanes, tanks, submarines, machine guns, and poison gas–were deployed as modern machines of war. Alongside these new technologies photography played a more central role than ever before in documenting the war. The Photography Collections at UMBC include a large group of photographs from World War I that were distributed as press images by the news bureau Underwood and Underwood. Documenting every aspect of the conflict, from training drills to life in the trenches, from explosions on the front to the burial of fallen soldiers, this archive provides valuable historical evidence, and demonstrates how photography brought the realities of the battlefield into people’s homes.  

Whereas photography had been present at conflicts during the nineteenth century, including the Mexican-American War, Crimean War, U. S. Civil War, and Paris Commune, slow exposure times and cumbersome equipment meant that the action of battle evaded capture by the camera. Instead, portraits of soldiers and views of the aftermath of battlefields stood in for the events of combat. Due to the high cost of photographic printing, the images that circulated in newspapers and magazines hewed to traditional methods of illustration, and artists translated photographs into woodcuts or lithographs that could be more easily reproduced. With the development of halftone printing in 1881 and later advancements in film speed and more portable cameras, the action of battle was captured in photographs for the first time during World War I and distributed quickly on a global scale through news agencies and the press.

Soldiers carried small and easy-to-use Kodak brownie and vest pocket cameras with them to the front, sending home pictures that documented an individual experience of the war. Meanwhile, armies employed staff photographers who provided documentation for military use. For example, the American photographer Edward Steichen served as chief of the Photographic Section of the American Expeditionary Forces and produced aerial photographs of the Western Front from a birds’ eye view. His photographs served as reconnaissance for strategic positioning and tracked German movements. Most nations did not allow press photographers embedded on the battlefield, so the photographs disseminated through news media came directly from the military. Many of the photographs distributed by Underwood and Underwood bear stamps indicating the date that they passed review by government censors. Published images were also accompanied by explanatory captions, which can also be found on the verso of many of the photographs in UMBC’s collection. The information received by readers back home was thus shaped by the military’s official point of view along with that of the news source.

The World War I photographs in UMBC’s Special Collections encompass a wide variety of subjects, including scenes from the trenches and more light-hearted moments of camaraderie among troops. While many of the images are visually striking, their ability to convey clear information about the events of the war often rests on the text that accompanies them. It can be difficult to tell the difference, for example, between a training maneuver and the heat of battle. What do we make of a portrait of a man wearing a strange knitted balaclava or a glamorous woman in nurse’s uniform holding up a sash covered in military insignia? In the case of the former, the caption informs us that this man is a sailor wearing woolens knitted by women volunteers from throughout the United States, who supplied their own yarn and their time to the war effort. In the latter image, Detroit society girl and New York concert singer Marjorie Kay displays the 154 decorations that she collected while serving as a nurse in the U. S. Army Ambulance Corps. The stories told by these photographs—and about the “war to end all wars”—are manifold.

-- Beth Saunders, Curator and Head of Special Collections & Library Gallery

To view these World War I photographs and others from the Underwood and Underwood archive in person, stop by the Special Collections Reading Room in the Albin O. Kuhn Library, open Monday to Friday 1:00-4:00pm and Thursday 1:00-8:00pm.        

Special Collections is excited to announce that processing of the Society of Protozoologists records (Collection 13) has recently been completed to include new materials. An updated record of the collection can now be viewed online.

The Society of Protozoologists records are among the holdings of the Center for Biological Science Archives (CBSA) at UMBC. The collection includes files that document the development and growth of the Society of Protozoologists (currently known as the International Society of Protozoologists) from its founding in 1947 to the 2010s.

New materials include correspondence, reports, meeting notes, publications, newsletters, media, photographs, and financial statements. The process included rehousing received materials into acid-free folders and boxes and integrating the materials into the existing collection.

Additionally, two new series were created out of existing and newly received materials. Series VII: Media, Photographs, and Artwork contains figures, photographs, and audio files produced or held by the Society of Protozoologists. And Series VIII: Committees contains correspondence and reports relating to the Society’s various committees including the Business Advisory Committee, the Constitution and By-Law Committee, and the Education Committee. In total the collection is now arranged in eight series: History; Executive Committee; Membership; Meetings; Publications; Affiliated Societies; Media, Photographs, and Artwork; and Committees.

The completion of this project is due to the help of Special Collections student assistants Graham Johnson and Riley Auer and graduate assistant Sarah Huston. To learn more about the Society of Protozoologists records or to view these materials, check out the new finding aid or stop by and view the collection in person at Special Collections!

Many thanks to Sarah Huston '17, who served as a graduate assistant in Special Collections from 2015-2017. Sarah assisted with the rehousing of the collection and wrote this post. Thank you, Sarah, we miss you! -- Lindsey Loeper, Archivist

In partnership with Maryland Traditions and the Maryland State Arts Council, the Special Collections department is excited to make available the Jason Pate collection. Special Collections student assistant Riley Auer assisted with the processing of the collection and prepared this blog post. Thank you, Riley!

Jason Thomas Pate (1915-1960) first aired his radio station, WASA, on May 15, 1948 in Havre de Grace, Maryland. It was the first broadcasting station between Baltimore, MD and Wilmington, DE playing 500 watts and eventually expanded to some 1500 watts before its sale to KME in 1992. After a sudden heart attack, Pate died in 1960 leaving two radio stations, WASA and WHDG, in the care of his wife, Virginia Forwood Pate Wetter. Although Pate Wetter had no previous broadcasting experience, she accepted the role of President of WASA (1960) and CEO of the Chesapeake Broadcasting Company (1985), parent company to WASA, and continued her husband’s legacy with the help of her son Jason David Pate.

WASA made its fame by establishing itself as an authority on folklife in the Appalachian and Chesapeake Regions. Influential artists such as “jubilee” singers the Little Wonders, banjoist Ted Lundy, country gospel singers E.C. and Orna Ball, singer and banjoist Ola Belle Reed (1916-2002) and her brother, guitarist Alex Campbell (1923-2013), also made frequent appearances performing traditional folk and bluegrass music. Reed and Campbell, natives of Ashe County, North Carolina, quickly rose to local fame by performing at various music parks, alongside other musicians, and on local radio stations, such as Pate’s stations. Reed later began a successful solo career leaving a legacy that has inspired artists such as Tim O’brien, Marty Stuart, Del McCoury, the Avett Brothers, and more. In 2015 Clifford Murphy, Henry Glassie, and Doug Peach published a book and two-part audio collection titled Ola Belle Reed and Southern Mountain Music on the Mason-Dixon Line (UMBC catalog record). The book and recording, based on research compiled by Glassie in the 1960s and recent fieldwork by Murphy, Glassie, and Peach, documents the careers of Ola Belle and Alex, and their many projects and contributions to the genres of bluegrass and folk.

A selection of materials from the Jason Pate collection:

Today a large collection recordings from WASA can be found within the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress, and, here, at the UMBC Special Collections. Thanks to efforts by Murphy, then the director of Maryland Traditions (the state's folklife program), UMBC proudly holds several Maryland folklife collections including the Jason Pate collection which features over 1,000 audio recordings from WASA and WHGD whose axillary contents include fan letters to Pate, club mailers, guitar lessons, artist posters, and more. After 2 years of careful photo-documentation, cataloguing, and detailed processing, the Jason Pate collection has been processed and is open to the public.

For more information about the individuals Jason Pate hosted on his radio shows, including those mentioned above, see the Jason Pate collection finding aid or contact the Special Collections department.

Reference list for the attached image, left to right, top to bottom:
Thank you note from “The Ernest Tubb Record Shops”, (Coll123_0364)
“Queen Elizabeth’s Cake” Recipe, (Coll123_1194)
January 10, 1977 Letter from E.C. Ball, (Coll123_0109)
Ola Belle Reed recording dated September 23, 1975, (Coll123_1051)
Ola Belle Reed & Maiwers Mountaineers Recording, (Coll123_0362)
“Beverly King Sings and Plays the Blue Ridge Hills” 45 record, (Coll123_1255)
“The Ralph Stanley International Fan Club” insert, (Coll123_0064)
View of “Campus Challenge, Tape #455”, (Coll123_0188)
Chuckie Reed, Ola Belle Reed + Friends recording dated July 10, 1976, (Coll123_1524)
“Flatpicking” sheet music, (Coll123_0055)
Interior of a tape container lid, (Coll123_0064)
“Mountain Music Shindig; Vol. 5, No. 5” mailer, (Coll123_0041)
View of “Mountain Music Shindig” tape container interior, (Coll123_0364)
“Stanley Brothers Old Time Tape Club” insert, (Coll123_0064)

As UMBC celebrates its 50th anniversary, the university has a chance to reflect on its young but textured past. A new exhibit in Special Collections, Presidents, Past & Present: A Biographical Portrait, explores the lives and leadership of UMBC’s five university presidents and chancellors. These hardworking, intelligent men came from various backgrounds and achieved extraordinary success despite some facing tremendous odds. The personality and passions of each of these leaders has seeped into the character of UMBC, creating the diverse, bright, creative and entrepreneurial community that can be seen today. The exhibit includes the Ralph Coats Roe Award gold medal, awarded to Dr. Hrabowski by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2015.

Presidents, Past & Present is curated by Tucker Foltz, a graduate student in Historical Studies. Materials are from the University Archives and Special Collections department. Exhibit assistance was provided by archivist Lindsey Loeper, and Special Collections student assistants Krystyna Dyadyura, Rakshith Gowda, and Jenn Montooth.

On display in the Special Collections Reading Room, March 1 - April 1, 2016. Available Monday-Friday 1-4pm, Thursday 1-8pm, or by appointment.

• Several collections of UMBC faculty papers in the University Archives
• The Baltimore Sun photographs collection, featuring approximately 750,000 photographs produced for the Baltimore Sun and Evening Sun between the 1930s to 1990s
• Several additions to the Science Fiction Manuscripts collection, including manuscripts of works from notable authors including Isaac Asimov and Roger Zelazny