Week 2: Peace Collection at Swarthmore College

I’ve started researching the Peace Collection at Swarthmore College for this project. The Peace Collection is a collection of materials related to the anti-nuclear war movement and intersects with my research interest of the weaponization of energy for warfare – particularly against Native populations directly and indirectly (disproportionate resource extraction from Native lands).

This is the link to the overarching special collections at Swarthmore which is located 30 minutes from Philly by train at 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081: https://www.swarthmore.edu/libraries/special-collections

General contact information for archival staff is:
archives@swarthmore.edu
(610) 328-8477 (main library number)
(610) 690-3386 (special collections)

Anyone can visit the archive if they schedule an appointment 9am-4pm sans 12-1pm for the library’s lunch break. Photographs can be taken of the materials in the collection and photocopies/scans can be made of the collection materials – sometimes with the assistance of special collections staff and sometimes by special collections staff if the materials are fragile.

There are a number of resources available to make the research process simpler, including a link to finding aids that give a useful breakdown for researchers to locate specific materials they are interested in engaging with: https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/challenge?destination=%2Frepositories%2F7%2Fclassifications%2F7.

There is an “ask a librarian”, but the institution is clear that librarians can only provide general reference information and guidance to navigating the collection – not in-depth research.

Here is the link to the online database for the entire collection: https://www.swarthmore.edu/libraries/digital-collections.

Here is the link to a number of additional resources that the library provides researchers: https://www.swarthmore.edu/libraries/research-scholarship.

Interestingly, the library provides specific guidance for researching individuals here: https://www.swarthmore.edu/libraries/how-to-research-a-person-college-archives.

In addition to subject specialist librarians and varied citation tools and guides, my favorite resource that the library offers, which unfortunately is only offered on specific days in-person is a series of special learning sessions called “30 minutes on...” where students can visit and learn about a specific collection or topic in a crash course kind of format. I love this idea and I think it would be incredibly useful for the archives at NYU to do.

The archive is also available via worldcat, with the Peace Collection available specifically here: https://search.worldcat.org/libraries/3951.

As someone who has worked quite extensively with special collections and archives, I was very impressed with how Swarthmore’s library operates – specifically their extensive breakdown of their collections and clear dedication to access even when they are a private institution which I don’t usually associate with a proficiency in access.

Speaking of, one of the benefits of this being a private institution is that Swarthmore library has benefited from large donations of materials – including rare books with an associated, designated rare book room. For this reason they also have extensive digital resources and subject specialist librarians which I definitely associate with a more generous amount of financial support.

One thing that I am working on in association with this collection is identifying specifically revolutionary war collections that I’d like to research in to stay consistent with the goals of this internship. My first lead is the collection of Quaker materials that are available in the special collections and I am interested in identifying the dimensions of the relationship between the Quakers and the Native peoples in this area.