As promised, here are some sources that might help you along.
As you navigate Part I (or Part A, if you prefer alpha to numeric designations):
- FSU Historical Newspapers
The Bud Belle Collection (housed at the Pepper Library)[This turned out to be a dead end, after all -Dr. G]- Papers related to Katherine (Kitty) Hoffman, who was a FSCW alumnus returning to campus as faculty for 40 years. Of note, Hoffman witnessed the University shift its mission from teaching-focused to research-focused over the years.
- The American Association of University Women (AAUW) had a Tallahassee branch, active from 1923-1954. You might find related materials in MSS 1990-024, Box 565 -- particularly for evidence of a Creative Arts contest the AAUW sometimes hosted.
- The Susan Bradford Eppes papers span 1850-1949, and provide some insight into racial mindsets -- at least, into a single racial mindset. You might find relevant materials in 01/MSS 86-17. In some documents, Eppes wrote about attaining or preserving a “pure” history of the Confederacy and of North Florida's legacy within it.
- Rowena Diamond’s “History of the Florida State College for Women” and William Dodd’s “Florida State College for Women” offer aligning narrative accounts of FSCW in its earlier years.
- Finally, the Anvil Literary Society Papers -- 01/MSS 1992-009 -- are good to mine, especially for their club activity from 1915-1929.
As always, landing pages for the Heritage Protocol & University Archives and for FSUArchon (finding aid database) provide great first steps, depending upon whether you are a "searcher" or a "browser" by nature.
As you navigate Part II (or Part B):
- A JSTOR search might lead you to some fairly recent scholarship about FSCW alumni, or based on select FSCW alumnus records. See, for example, the bibliography in David Gold's "Eve Did No Wrong" -- College Composition and Communication 61.2 (Dec 2009). See also Shira Birnbaum's "Making Southern Belles in Progressive Era Florida" -- Frontiers 16.2/3 (1996). Finally, see Carol Mason's retrospective "This Ain't the English Department" -- Archaeology 53.2 (March/April 2000).
- To look comparatively at Tallahassee's Civil Rights involvements (if you decide to do that), you might find interesting parallels or divergences by browsing the Civil Rights Archives at Queens College, and Duke's digital collection on African American Women.
- The OCLC's ArchiveGrid project can also link you to records by, for, or about the figures or materials you are seeking, while the HathiTrust digital library offers full searching for words and names.
Explore widely, but do keep track of how you explore, what you find, and through what means -- as well as the problems posed by some sources over others. Ultimately, that will be of the most critical value to us next week.
-Dr. Graban
