Manuscripts Archives and Special Collections

Paging through 100-year-old articles of photogenic baby contests and agricultural weather reports, Rebekah Rahman felt she was serving something bigger than herself.  “There’s a lot of pride I feel when I finish an article because someone will use this. Someone will need this,” she said.  Since 2022, third-year Rahman has digitized newspaper clippings for the […]

“The special thing about working on an archive collection is that everybody who works there is a part of the history. You get to be the person that repairs the object so that someone can see it in 100 years.” Second-generation WSU alumna Mariah Boyle arrived at WSU in 2010 to pursue a master of […]

The grand opening of Dissmore’s. A family’s new washer and dryer. Weddings. Graduations.  Ralph Raymond Hutchison captured about 50 years of these milestones in black and white, but thousands of his photographs remained hidden. Some became brittle over time.  Until now.  WSU Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections initiated a project to digitize the entire […]

Jen Corrinne Brown was known as WSU Libraries’ “fishing girl.” She spent hours in Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections working on her dissertation in 2012, debunking fly-fishing myths about the Rocky Mountains.  “I’m just a storyteller at heart,” Brown said. “I want to tell stories that people think are interesting or might not know about.” […]

By Jay Lee For Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 15, WSU held many events to commemorate and reflect on the principles of King’s life and work, such as the Coug Caring Card Program, MLK Day of Service, MLK Film Series: “Selma” and For Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 15, WSU held many events […]

Vernon Gallup wanted something different. Something unique. Something no one else had. In 2008, he made history at the WSU Libraries by donating the largest single gift of rare books in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections’ 120-year past—about 20,000 volumes valued at $1.8 million.  “He had a love affair with his books. I’ve never […]

Growing up in southwestern Ohio surrounded by corn and crickets, Science Librarian David Luftig always saw agriculture as home.  In 2019, Luftig joined the Owen Science and Engineering Library as its first science librarian in two years. Transitioning from an engineering and physical science librarian at the University of Dayton to his current position opened […]

From riots over stuffed cougars to live animals smuggled on trains, the path to WSU’s beloved mascot was anything but linear.  The Washington Agricultural College’s football team began in 1894. Rather than repeating WAC’s long title again and again, regional newspapers gave the college nicknames like the “farmers” and “the potato diggers”—WAC’s first inklings of […]

Before walking across the stage at Beasley Coliseum, Ila Pinkham could hardly believe he was graduating.  For years, Pinkham looked up to his mother, father, and uncle, all of whom earned master’s degrees. He said college felt like just a step he should complete in his journey to something more important – “almost like washing […]

Whether she is nestled in WSU Libraries’ archives or traveling to England in search of paintings, English professor emerita Diane Gillespie brings the university’s collection of Virginia Woolf’s books to life.  For more than 40 years, Gillespie has studied the Leonard and Virginia Woolf Library, a collection of Woolf’s personal books and those of her […]