McConnell Library Archives

Win $400 in the 2011 Winesett Book Collecting Contest!

Do you collect books? We want to hear about your collection!

The 2011 Winesett Book Collecting Contest is now accepting submissions from RU students who love books and book collecting. Just tell us about your collection and you could win $400 (First Prize) or $300 (Second Prize).

The deadline for submissions is Friday, November 4, and winners will be announced at the Winesett Book Collecting Contest Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 14.

For more information, please contact Gene Hyde, Archivist, at wehyde@radford.edu or 831-5692, or refer to the Book Collecting Contest Website: http://library.radford.edu/archives/bookcontest.html

Digital Collections now contains more than 1600 historical RU photos

Archives and Special Collections has now posted more than 1600 historical RU photographs to RU Digital Collections (actually, the total is 1671 as of this writing). This has been a combined effort, and many thanks are due to the Archives’ student workers Amanda Lilly, Ian Carlow, and Paige Nolen, as well as our graduate assistants Jerry Frech and Aili Wang. These students did the majority of the scanning required to digitize these materials and post them online.

In addition to the photographs, Digital Collections includes digitized and searchable copies of the Beehive yearbook from 1961-2005, as well as a selection of documents from the Archives, including writings by John Preston McConnell, early Board of Visitors (then Board of Trustees) minutes, and Radford College: A Sentimental Chronicle Through Its First Half-Century, a 1971 history of Radford. We will be adding even more photos, Beehive yearbooks, various RU publications, and other documents to Digital Collections over the coming year.

Here’s a sample of what’s been added:

A new swimming pool on the Radford campus, 1927. It was located between Whitt and Reed Halls.

First Aid training for Radford students during World War II.

Elizabeth Taylor’s visit to Radford

Radford President Donald Dedmon, Virginia Senatorial candidate John Warner, and actress Elizabeth Taylor on the campus of Radford University, May 1977, accompanied by faculty, staff, and students.

Actress Elizabeth Taylor, who died on March 23 at age 79, was married to John Warner from 1976 until 1982. Taylor accompanied Warner on a visit to Radford in May, 1977, prior to his election to the U. S. Senate. Warner was elected to the Senate from Virginia in 1978 and served until 2009. Taylor, of course, enjoyed a long career in film and on the stage that included such roles as 1943’s National Velvet (filmed when she was 12), the film version of Tennessee Wiliiams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) , Cleopatra (1963), and her 1966 Academy-award winning performance in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Elizabeth Taylor, John Warner, and Donald Dedmon, May 1977

Sources: The photos are from the Radford University archives, the information about Elizabeth Taylor is from the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (accessed through McConnell Library’s online Gale Virtual Reference Library)

Some writings by and about John P. McConnell on his birthday

McConnell Archives and Special Collections has digitized a number of speeches and writings by and about Radford’s first president, John Preston McConnell, in celebration of his birthday on February 22. Follow the links to read these materials from the Personal Papers of John Preston McConnell.

McConnell was officially appointed as Radford’s first President during the third meeting of the Board of Trustees on October 3, 1911. At that time he was a professor at Emory & Henry College and had already given a number of speeches. He described his philosophy of higher education in a speech to the Southern Educational Association in 1909. A copy of this speech, entitled “The Ethical Function of the College,” is available here.

John Preston McConnell his family, c. 1917. Front row: June (McConnell) Graybeal, John and Clara (Lucas) McConnell, Annie Ginsey McConnell. Second row: Henry Clay Graybeal (son-in-law), Robert Lucas McConnell, Carl Hiram McConnell, and John Paul McConnell �

McConnell’s personal papers include a brief biographical sketch of McConnell, with edits that might be in his hand. The document is untitled and dates from around 1926. This biographical sketch discusses his interest in the role of education to uplift the “intellectual, moral, and cultural ability” of leaders in his native Appalachian region. It also notes his interest in the “conservation of natural resources in the Appalachian Region.” The author or source of this document is not recorded.

McConnell often wrote and talked about subjects dear to his heart. The editor of the Grapurchat requested a brief statement on “My Favorite Avocation.” Dr. McConnell’s response? “Communion with nature and nature study.” On another occasion he gave a speech describing his love of astronomy, which he called “the most entrancing of any of the studies one can take in the scientific work.” He also had a fondness for the various mineral springs found in the Appalachian Region, and delivered a speech on that topic in 1933.

In addition to serving as Radford’s president from 1911 until 1937, Dr. McConnell was active in various state educational associations, served on the directors’ boards of several local banks, and was a leader in various civic groups. He was very interested in the well-being of Southwest Virginia, and was a member of Southwest Virginia, Inc, a group that stressed economic development in the region. The Archives and Special Collections have Dr. McConnell’s official and personal papers available for research.

Scrapbooks portray life at Radford College during World War II

Frances Hilt Graham Trent graduated from Radford College in 1945, and lived on the Radford Campus while the United States was fighting in World War II. Mrs. Trent kept two scrapbooks while at Radford, and she recently donated her scrapbooks, Beehives, and other memorabilia to the RU Archives. Her scrapbooks document life at Radford during wartime, including such items as ration books, information on blackout regulations, and dating regulations for Radford College students. Some items from the Francis Hilt Scrapbook Collection are shown below, and are on display in the McConnell Library Reading Room.

Frances Hilt’s senior picture from the 1945 Beehive.

War Council, from the 1944 Beehive

The front of Frances Hilt’s war ration book.

The back of the war ration book.

Student regulations were framed in the context of wartime, as outlined in the Student Government Regulations below. “The college student of 1943-44 has been selected for unusual opportunity in the war effort. We are the front line defense of tomorrow’s civilization.” Notice the sections on “Entertainment of Army Personnel” and “Blackouts and Air Raids.”

Three Questions for High School Seniors

“Three Questions” were asked in this State Teachers College Bulletin from 1931. This was part of a series of recruitment pamphlets produced during the Great Depression and mailed to students in Southwest Virginia.

Some highlights from this 1931 pamphlet:

Radford College trained “16 per cent of all the Virginia teachers – 2,002 of those teaching in 1930 were trained at Radford.”
Radford stressed leadership – “Take the course that qualifies you to be a leader among educated women.”
Radford stressed independence for educated women: “Ten million women are gainfully employed in the United States today. Of these only 17 per cent are in the professions. Every woman must be educated to earn her own living.”
There were a wealth of “besides books” opportunities at Radford, including a “mandolin and guitar club” and over 16,000 volumes in the library.

Highland Summer Conference streaming videos online!

Nearly 200 streaming videos from the Highland Summer Conference are now available on the McConnell Archives and Special Collections website.

The video content includes readings and interviews with some of Appalachia’s finest writers. Featured authors include Marilou Awiakta, George Ella Lyon, James Still, Sharyn McCrumb, Silas House, Denise Giardnia, Fred Chappell, Ron Rash, Bill Brown, Robert Morgan, and many more. The earliest video posted is Cratis Williams from 1978. More streaming content will be added over the summer.

The Highland Summer Conference has been held on the Radford campus for over thirty years. This year’s Highland Summer Conference features readings in McConnell Library during the weeks of June 7-11 and June 14-18. Readings are on the fourth floor of McConnell Library, at start at 7:30 PM. All readings are free and open to the public. This year’s featured writers are:

Pamela Duncan – Tuesday, June 8.
Dot Jackson – Thursday, June 10
George Ella Lyon – Tuesday, June 15
Charles Swanson – Thursday, June 17

For more information contact Bud Bennett, Radford University Archives Supervisor, at brbennet@radford.edu, or Theresa Burris at the Appalachian Regional Studies Center, at tburriss@radford.edu

Summertime at Radford College

Students swimming in the campus pool

Summertime often brought many folks to the Radford College campus, and leisure activities were interspersed with academic life during the summer. Here are a few photos of summertime fun from the 1940s.

Picnic time!

A day at Claytor Lake

Don't forget your milk and straw!

Lounging beside the Radford College pool

Dean M'Ledge Moffett enjoys a picnic

All photographs are from the RU Archives. For more photos from the Archives, check out our online photography collection.

“State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Radford” established March 10, 1910

Happy Birthday Radford University! To celebrate, we have posted some material from the Archives documenting the first few years of Radford.

Views, from 1913, prior to the first classes being offered at Radford.

Radford was established by an Act of Assembly on March 10, 1910 by the following legislation. This copy of the Act was inserted in the first book of minutes from the Board of Trustees. The first Board chair was W.T. Baldwin, and George B. Cassell was secretary of the Board (note the “Roll of Members of Board” written in Cassell’s handwriting) .

A copy of the Act of Assembly that established what we now call Radford University, page 1.

Page 2, Act establishing State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Radford

Act of Assembly establishing Radford Normal School, page 2.

The Board of Trustees (which was later called the “Board of Visitors”) met four times between July 1910 and November 1911. They were charged with some very basic and very critical responsibilities: draft bylaws for the Board, select a site for the campus, purchase property, solicit bids for planning the campus buildings, and other tasks. Scanned copies of the first four meetings of the Board of Trustees are available here.

Radford would open its doors for classes in September 1913 after several years of hard work. Between 1910 and 1913 the Board of Trustees hired John Preston McConnell as president, who hired a faculty and staff, established a curricula, built the Administration Building (later Founders Hall), found housing for students, and began to recruit students for the new Normal and Industrial School for Women.

In order to promote the school a small photo album entitled Views was published in 1913, prior to the first school session. The cover of Views is pictured above, with some photos from Views below. The 1913 issue of Views and the 1920 edition of Views (which includes photos of student life at Radford) are available here.