Champions, 1917
Champions, 1917 from Boston Latin School

The Boston Public Library went to town in October, adding three new collections and adding new items to three existing collections, for over 1,000 items total.  But Digital Commonwealth did not neglect its smaller members.  Boston Latin School, Sturgis Library, Weymouth Public Libraries and Wilbraham Public Library all added from 1 to 952 items to the Digital Commonwealth universe.

This includes the image on the left.  We know these five young men and two coaches were champions in 1917, but of what?  No matter how much I enlarge the photo, I can’t make out the inscription. The athletes are wearing heavy wool sweaters with their shorts plus pretty gnarly socks.  The only hint is the surprisingly-impressive-for-a-high-school trophy.  The Roman (Greek?) god appears to be holding what looks to me like a crew oar crowned with a laurel wreath.  I vote for crew champions.  What do you think?

 

Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School Photograph Collection – 15 items

Boston Public Library
Colonial and Revolutionary Boston (Collection of Distinction) – 2 items added to existing collection
George Bellows (1882-1925). Prints and Drawings – 158 items added to existing collection
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). Etchings – 114 items
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction) – 1 item added to existing Collection
Thomas Prince Library and Collection of the Old South Church – 46 items
Victoria Woodhull Martin Papers, 1883-1927 – 776 items

Sturgis Library
Stanley Smith Deed Collection – 952 items

Weymouth Public Libraries
Weymouth Public Libraries Historical Photograph Collection – 3 items added to existing collection

Wilbraham Public Library
Wilbraham Town Archives Photographic Collection – 1 item added to existing collection

State Street looking toward Pleasant Street in the 1950s
State Street looking towards Pleasant St. circa 1950s from The Snow Photograph Collection

The Daily News of Newburyport recently published articles on October 22, 2019, Museum program focuses on historic photo collection, and October 24, 2019, Museum unveils extensive photo archive, about the  Historical Society of Old Newbury, Snow Historical Photograph Collection. Both articles report on a lecture on the highlights of the collection.  Both also mention that this extensive collection of photographs was donated to the society in an uncatalogued state.  The Society volunteer team sorted and catalogued the photos.  It was two years before they were able to send them to Digital Commonwealth for digitizing.

Now you can enjoy these wonderful photos on Digital Commonwealth at any time of the day or night.  Just follow the links…

Boston City Council meeting recording, April 15, 2015
Boston City Council meeting recording, April 15, 2015 from City of Boston Archives

We have no newly-added collections this month (the dreaded technical difficulty prevented this), but we do have formats that you may not have checked out yet.  Go to the Explore tab on the Digital Commonwealth home page and select Formats. These are arranged by the numbers, so Photographs are at the top of the list followed by Letters/correspondence and then Documents.

But scroll down and you soon come to Film/video.  Of the 28,400 items here, 23,135 are from the American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection.  This collection of public media was amassed by WGBH and the Library of Congress to preserve at-risk materials.  There are also tapes from local TV news programs and Boston City Council meetings.

Audio icon
Audio recording icon from Audio recordings (nonmusical) format

Next on the list are Objects/artifacts.  These range from clothing/costumes to furniture to jewelry to samplers.   Some items are unique, like the Aeolian harp from Historic New England or the Native American beaded pouch from the Perkins School for the Blind’s Tad Chapman Collection.

Proceeding further down, we come to Audio recordings (nonmusical).  These are easy to spot by their speaker icon (right).  Most of these are also from the American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection, but there are several local oral history collections, too.  What about music?  Well, keep scrolling.  That’s listed as Music (recordings).  While some of these also have speaker icons, some are pictured with images of old-fashioned audio cassettes.

Digital Commonwealth: it’s not just pretty pictures.