University Archives

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Author: April C. Armstrong *14

  • Demystifying Mudd: Summer Student Employees

    By Himaayah Agwedicham ’20 and Jasper Gebhardt ’20 Student Assistant for Technical Services: Himaayah Agwedicham ’20 This summer, I’ve worked as an assistant under Lynn Durgin, Special Collections Assistant for Technical Services. I process and review the records for senior theses, alumni files, and doctoral dissertations. Generally, I work most closely with the influx of…

  • Princeton’s Summer Trips Across North America

    Although traveling significant distances is routine for many Princetonians these days, traversing North America was not always as easy as it is now. Our records reveal a variety of both academic and pleasure trips over the years that have used horses, trains, cars, and bicycles to reach their destinations. Most of the lengthy North American…

  • Demystifying Mudd: Remote Reference Assistance

    Though we’ve welcomed thousands of researchers for in-person research at Mudd Library, that isn’t always an option for everyone. They might have conflicts with our operating hours, live far away, or just want to check in with us before they visit to find out what’s available on their topic. In that case, we respond to…

  • Demystifying Mudd: Imaging Services

    There are two ways patrons can order digital copies of materials held in Mudd Library: They can identify the scans they need when they are visiting us in person, or they can email us to request a copy. From an outside perspective, it seems we offer two kinds of scans: A high resolution scan that…

  • Demystifying Mudd: Reprocessing

    By Nicky Steidel ’18 This summer I have worked on reprocessing the Triangle Club Records, representing just one slice of the the holdings in Mudd Library.    Triangle Club prides itself on being the “the oldest touring collegiate original musical comedy organization in the nation” and boasts a whole cast of well-known alumni, including F.…

  • “Studying Is Fine, but Living Has Been Another Problem”: Mary Procter *71 and Coeducation at Princeton

    Earlier this year, I began telling the story of the female graduate students who paved the way for undergraduate coeducation at Princeton University starting in 1961. This blog continues that story with a focus on Mary Procter *71 (often misspelled as Mary Proctor *71) and her unusually influential role while a Princeton graduate student. Procter…

  • Demystifying Mudd: In-Person Research

    A lot of what happens when someone comes to Mudd Library for research is invisible to our visitors, who usually only see our lobby and reading rooms. Our library is open to the public, so you don’t have to be affiliated with Princeton to visit. Researchers are required to register before signing in and using…

  • Meet Mudd’s Annalise Berdini

    Name/Title: Annalise Berdini, Digital Archivist Responsibilities: As Digital Archivist, I am responsible for the ongoing management of the University Archives Digital Curation Program. This generally involves evaluating how we acquire, process, and preserve our born-digital records and crafting policy to support those actions. This involves a lot of preservation tool research and testing, communication with…

  • Demystifying Mudd: The Curatorial Pickup

    By Phoebe Nobles “This must be the unglamorous part of working at the archives,” said our donor as we hauled a giant box of empty boxes up the stairs to his office. In fact, no! The “pickup” is among the glamours of archival work. Our team of three left the loading dock of Mudd in…

  • Meet Mudd’s Michelle Peralta

    Name: Michelle Peralta Title: John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Archival Fellow Educational background: From San Diego State University, I have previously earned a bachelor’s degree in European humanities with a minor in classical languages, as well as a master’s degree in history. This summer, I am finishing up my very last class to complete my master…