10/03/2018
The Fall 2018 semester is off to a great start here at the USM Libraries at the University of Southern Maine !
We are so glad to have a familiar face back Special Collections, our fantastic Graduate Assistant Andrea Harkins. Andrea is processing the Gerald Talbot Collection (which you can learn more about below). She is finding all sorts of fascinating items as she works - here she is to tell you more!
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The Special Collections department, on the 6th floor of the Glickman library, is a resource here for you. Housing rare materials, including books, manuscripts, photographs, and artifacts, you will find material for your research needs, and far more. For example, this letter signed by Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as this poem by a school student, are two of many unexpected treasures found in the substantial Gerald E. Talbot Collection.
As a Graduate Assistant I have been working to organize the materials in this collection so that they are available to you. While doing this work I have come across an incredible amount of material that I've realized could be useful not only to students interested in history and political science but also in areas such as women's studies,art, and child development/education, etc.
The two items I chose to share with you today struck me because, despite the large amount of civil rights and Martin Luther King material I have worked with in this collection, I was still surprised to find a signed letter from MLK to Gerald Talbot. I also was moved by the words of the children who, in a school contest for MLK day, wrote what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant to them. After reading these children's words I paused to think about what we do have to be thankful for (due to the work of people such as MLK, Gerald Talbot, and so many more) as well as the work that still needs to be done as the civil rights landscape continues to be shaped.
To find out more, visit us on the 6th floor or at https://usm.maine.edu/library/specialcollections
