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 “investigate the manifold workings of collective memory: the places, practices, and stories that bind groups together through shared understandings of common past and present purpose.” 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, video, 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 Creative Services Collection, a diverse collection of photographic prints (25 boxes) produced by the Queens College publicity office from the founding of the college in 1937 to the early 2000s.  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’s syllabus, serving as a warm-up for the students’ 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 on our Instagram page!  Please follow our account to check out the students’ work and for more updates from SCA. If you would like to peruse more photographs documenting QC history, check out the “Life at Queens College” collection on JSTOR.