Diving Into Carleton’s Archives

If you’ve taken a tour of Carleton, then you’ve definitely seen or heard about Gould Library (the Libe). Split into five levels, the Libe is a place where many students do work, hang out or usually some combination of the two. What a lot of people don’t know about the Libe is it’s also the home of Carleton’s Archives and Special Collections. As a history major, I’ve spent a lot of time down there this term, so I thought that I would walk you through what the special collections are and they’re such important elements of two of my history classes.

Carleton Archives

One of the two major spaces on the first floor of the Libe are the Carleton Archives. Here is where they store anything relevant to Carleton – old Carletonians, yearbooks and even meeting notes. I spent a lot of time here my freshman year to research campus history for my Archaeology project. They’re also always looking for student publications, so if you have anything student-created, be sure to drop a copy off!

Special Collections 

Special collections focus on broader history than just Carleton. There are medieval books, zines for the 90s/00s and everything in between. If you book an appointment with them, you can find primary source material that can be really helpful for a project or paper. You can also learn all about preserving special documents (there’s even a special HVAC system just for the storage room).

My Archives Class

Currently I’m in a class called “Excavating Archives,” where we learn about the creation and maintenance of archives. We’re looking at some of the broader collections in special collections, such as artist books and zines. We’ve gone down a couple times to get a closer look at specific collections to discuss as a class. Although I am not using this resource for my final project, a lot of students are working really closely with Jackie Beckey, the special collections librarian, to find sources for their finals.

Irish Public History Project

I chose to do the public history final for my Irish history class. This means that I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the Irish songbooks and newspapers that are housed in special collections. It’s been really cool to apply the history we’ve been learning in the classroom to specific artifacts from the early 20th century. We’ll be putting some of these objects on display this Tuesday for our public history presentation!

So many classes make use of the Carleton Archives and Specials Collections, it’s not just reserved for history majors! If you have time to make an appointment, you should definitely stop by and see for yourself. You never know what cool piece of history you might uncover!

Kate (she/her) is a junior History  and Theater double major from the Bay Area, California. She loves Carleton’s artsy community, and is involved in the Vocal Studies Program and occasionally the Experimental Theater Board when her fight choreography skills are in high demand. Kate’s favorite places on campus are the practice rooms, either in Myers or the Weitz, where she can sing or play the ukulele. She loves the campus during all the seasons but thinks nothing could compare to the beautiful colors of Northfield in the fall. When not in class, you can find Kate either petting the nearest cat or forcing her friends to watch bad movies in a study room.