Today is my last day at Tufts DCA, and I keep dwelling on all the things I love about this place. There's what I I love about Tufts University; today on my way into work, as I walked past the straw bales they put against trees so local kids sledding down the hill won't hurt themselves, I thought about how one of the things that drew me to Tufts in the first place was how it is a member of the surrounding community. There's also DCA, and everything I will miss here. Of course there's the people and the work and everything that we've accomplished in the time I've been here, but let's face it, it's easier to blog about my favorite elements from our collections. Therefore I present for you:
Deborah's list of five treasures she's enjoyed finding in our collections, in no particular order:
- "Outerbridge Horsey". I know this record doesn't look like much but I am so fond of Mr. Horsey. He's my favorite name in the entire A New Nation Votes project. One thing I love about the Outerbridge Horsey family is that they understand how truly wonderful the name is: Outerbridge Horsey VII is alive and a practicing architect in Georgetown.
- "Dog with sign protesting new dorms", 1978. How can anyone not love this beautiful dog, who is very adamant that there should be no dorms.
- "The Ginger-Beer Man", 1890. This gregarious fellow has been my go to image for testing search for years.
- "Marine Technology Transfer and the Law of the Sea", 1984. This is a doctoral dissertation, submitted to the faculty of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, by the current dean of the Fletcher School. In between that dissertation and his current position as Dean, he was NATO Supreme Commander Europe. I am always so fascinated by the non-academia experience of the Fletcher faculty.
- I don't have any particular favorites from the This I Believe collection, but I like the collection so much not just because I'm proud of how much work we put in to making this audio + transcript interface have lovely usability and accessibility, but because the content in general makes the 1950s real to me. Here's a nice sampling: Annie Fisher, 1954, Nazrat Farooki, 1954, Vita Sackville-West, 1953, Yaroslav Chyz, 1952, Louis Brandeis, 1952, Violet Bonham Carter, 1952. What I love about This I Believe is how it blends famous people and regular Joes so seamlessly, without any presumption by either the show or the speakers that the two classes of speakers are any different from one another.
Diane Pilson, November 1979