Selecting exhibit topics

The goal of the Libraries’ undergraduate student fellowship is to mentor students and introduce them to the wide variety of careers in academic librarianship.

“Throughout the fellowship, we work one-on-one with the students to develop their interests,” said RaD Collections’ Instruction Coordinator Sean Babbs. “At the end of each fellowship, the students have a choice of what kind of project they would like to work on involving materials in the collection. This year, they were all interested in developing exhibits.”

“When I got to explore the collection, I was really interested in the pieces that were not books,” said O’neil. “RaD primarily has a lot of books in its collection, but also houses other tangible cultural artifacts that shines light on a lot of historical contexts that in many ways books cannot do.”

The subject of O’neil’s exhibit centers on the board game Gay Monopoly. “It is a silly, yet really cool piece of queer history,” explained O’neil. “I thought it would be a fun item to display, highlighting the diversity that the RaD collection has to offer, but also felt that it was important to show with a lot of anti LGBTQ+ legislation getting passed, reminding onlookers that queer people have always existed and will continue to in the future!”

For Elli’s exhibit, she was drawn to the Bakelite purses in RaD. Bakelite is one of the first plastics and was often used for fashion accessories, art, home appliances and many other practical uses.

“I’ve always been incredibly drawn towards aesthetics and the role fashion has played throughout history,” shared Elli. “Whether as a status symbol, a form of self-expression, or an artistic representation, fashion transcends culture and time as a depiction of the human spirit and our creativity. The moment I discovered the purses in our collections, I felt as though I was holding a piece of history that told so many stories.”

Shell decided to take a different direction on her exhibit to focus on slavery documents and indentured servitude after Debbie Hollis, head of Instruction & Outreach Section in RaD, showed the students a recently acquired group of documents about Portuguese ships that brought people from China to the Caribbean to work.

“I was drawn to these documents because I hadn't known that any of that happened and the history of it just interested me,” said Shell. “[For my exhibit], I picked a document from 1857 that had a list of enslaved people, an departure manifest from a Portuguese ship in 1867 that was bringing people from China to work as indentured servants on sugar farms in Havana, Cuba, and an indentured servitude contract from 1805 for a minor named Sarah Smith.”

Assembling the displays

The next stage after selecting their materials and topics was to work with Conservator Hillary Morgan to assess the condition of the materials to ensure they were fit for display and librarians in RaD to set up the display cases.

“So much goes into setting up displays, from item assessment, getting approved to use and fill display cases, setting up and positioning those cases within the library, how the item is displayed and what information is given to the viewer,” said O’neil. “I initially thought that the process of setting this up would feel like a boring research project, but it was actually a really refreshing creative project that I enjoyed doing. It helped reinforce my ideas about how spaces like libraries and museums should display their collections to the public in ways that engage their interest while still being educational.”

Elli faced a unique challenge with the Bakelite purses.

"Unfortunately, one of the purses was damaged in storage, so that’s when I began working with Hillary in preservation who was eager to get involved,” said Elli. “She had never worked with Bakelite and the decision of whether to mend or attempt full repair required lots of research on Bakelite and chemicals that would be best suited. After she decided to maintain as much of the original structure as possible, she proposed that creating custom supports for the lids and broken handles would be our best attempt.”

“Considering the purses are quite different from paper/published works in our collections, I was sometimes in slightly uncharted territory of how to proceed and who to look to as mentors,” said Elli. “This added yet another layer to the display I’ve learned so much from. Despite the challenges, Dulce, Sean, Debbie and Hillary have all been amazing supporters, and I’m extremely grateful for their willingness to help.”

Taking advantage of opportunities

Before visiting RaD for class, the three students were not aware of what a unique resource RaD offers and because of the fellowship opportunity, they were able to dive deeply into the collections, exhibit curation, preservation and historical research.

“I've definitely taken away the fact that the library has a lot more to offer students than I think anyone knows,” said Shell.

“Overall, I have learned to take advantage of any opportunity that arises in my CU experience because you truly never know what will come of it,” said Elli. “I’ve made many incredible connections and had the privilege of learning about many niche areas of librarianship I’ve never considered. The community within the building and the unique learning opportunities have helped me expand my studies and become more involved in other aspects of the Boulder community. I hope that by installing these displays, we can help RaD reach a larger demographic of students and show them all that Norlin and its employees have to offer.”