More Than Memorabilia

When University Archivist Abra Schnur began working at Trinity University in January 2020, one of the first projects she tackled was sorting through massive amounts of duplications of yearbooks and courses of study bulletins. With the limited space the Special Collections and Archives division of Coates Library has to work with, Schnur has had to be selective with the materials that are accepted.

“We’re not set up like a museum where we can take a lot of three-dimensional items,” Schnur explains. “We had an abundance of the beanies that the first years would wear, a lot of t-shirts from various events, and common materials like that, but I noticed that there’s room to really develop materials from under-documented student organizations and alumni materials that show institutional impact through life and career experiences.”

As an example of alumni materials that the Archives desires, Schnur points to the papers of Walter Huntley Jr. ’71, M’73, who was the first African-American trustee of Trinity and has been extremely influential in the urban and economic development of the city of Atlanta.

“That’s what I feel the ideal university archives should be,” Schnur says. “It’s not just Trinity memorabilia, but it answers the question ‘How did Trinity set this person up to succeed in life based on what they learned here?’”

Schnur has spent almost two years working on the Archives’ Learning About Learning collection. The Learning About Learning Educational Foundation was a nonprofit organization developed out of Trinity theater director and alumnus Paul Baker’s philosophy and instructional course, the “Integration of Abilities,” which focused on the development of the creative potential of children through integrated arts. The foundation started in 1971 at Trinity with Jearnine Wagner and several Trinity students, and it created educational activity kits and other teacher training materials. Once the foundation closed in 1986, these Trinity alumni went out and continued to foster these concepts. Now, the Archives not only has material from the 15 years the foundation was active but also the material that the alumni donated from the projects they worked on after it closed.

“Because these women were thinking about legacy and ensuring this material is retained in the history of Trinity, you can see the continuation of the Baker philosophy. To really preserve that impact in the Archives is something important and, frankly, pretty cool,” Schnur says.

If members of the Trinity community are interested in donating materials to the Archives, Schnur encourages them to have a conversation with her.

“The best approach is to talk it out. Are you somebody who really does feel that coming to Trinity set you up for the things you’ve accomplished in life? We’ll talk through that and then see how we can represent that in an archival collection, whether that’s a series of personal papers, family papers, institutional records, or documents from your career,” Schnur says.

After materials are donated to the Archives, they go through a quarantine process. This is true for both physical and digital materials to ensure there are no environmental concerns like mold, unwanted critters, or undetected computer viruses. The collection then goes through the inventory process. The Archives tries to maintain the original order of how items were received, but if there is no donor-created structure, archivists create a structure that would be most efficient for a researcher to find information.

Schnur collects material for the Archives with the intent that it will be used.

“We’re not closed off. We’re open and available for everyone to use. We really do want our collections to be used by the Trinity community and the public at large. We don’t want you to donate something, and then it never sees the light of day,” Schnur says.

Special Collections and Archives aims to play a key role in Trinity’s vision to become a national leader in interdisciplinary and experiential education.

“Libraries are going to be more and more distinguished by their special collections moving forward,” Schnur says. “So, how do we set ourselves apart here at Coates Library? It’s by those unique collections and our extensive archives.”