In 2016, Professor Allison Schuette (that’s me!) received an @NEHgov Enduring Questions grant to create a course she called “Who’s My Neighbor?” She got interested in this question doing a story collection in Northwest Indiana, a region with quite a storied past, one in which we haven’t always been good neighbors. In fact, some still question whether or not it’s possible to be good neighbors today.

Her work on this story collection (Flight Paths) made her want to think deeply about how people have defined what it means to be a neighbor. Does our sense of responsibility change depending on how large we make the neighborhood? Are there conditions that make it easier or harder to be good neighbors?

She created this course to ask students to help her explore these questions. Neighbors of Valpo is one means by which we’ll share what we’re learning and who we’re meeting.

Drop by our Tumblr house any time! We love to meet new neighbors. 

Scan Day Success!

We received some great digital collections this past Saturday at our first Scan Day event for 2016, including:

Promotional photos of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jesse Fuller, Tuli Kupferberg (Fugs), Odetta, and many more!

Hand- and type-written set lists from the Music Box Supper Club, like the one pictured above from the Mekons, November 2015

Local radio station materials, like a bumper sticker from FM-108 WDMT

Help Us Preserve Rock and Roll History!

On Saturday, June 18, from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Library and Archives will host our second Scan Day event at the Music Box Supper Club, 1148 Main Ave, Cleveland. For Scan Day, we ask rock fans and collectors to bring in photos, handbills, programs, and other flat rock and roll memorabilia—8 1/2” x 11” in size or smaller—to be digitized. Your items have the potential to be included in the Rock Hall's permanent collection; those related to the history of Northeast Ohio popular music are of particular interest, but we welcome you to bring all materials related to rock and roll. Please note, the Rock Hall does not collect ticket stubs or press passes, but we will digitize the items to preserve them for you.

All participants will receive:

A voucher for a free admission ticket to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

A complimentary USB drive with digital, preservation-quality image files of their items

Archival-quality sleeves to help preserve your original materials

A copy of the Library and Archives' zine Preservation: 88 Lines About 44 Techniques

Reservations are recommended to ensure shorter wait times. Please contact the Library and Archives at (216) 515-1956 or [email protected] to schedule an appointment or receive more information.

Library and Archives will provide up to 15 scans onto a complimentary USB drive. If the materials fit the collecting policy of the Library and Archives, the owner of the materials will have the opportunity to donate not only the digital files, but the original materials as well, subject to applicable law and Museum policies.

Participants must redeem their vouchers at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Box Office and use their tickets by Monday, June 27.

From 1925 to around 2000, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science was home to several dioramas depicting South American animals and scenery.  These dioramas were taken down when construction began on the West Atrium.  While the dioramas themselves no longer exist, the Photo Archives department at DMNS takes great care to ensure that images from the museum's past are saved for the future.