archivistrising321.blogspot.com

 Hi All, CMU Libraries Digital Strategist position is posted at https://www.jobs.cmich.edu/postings/38691. 

Carnal Kitchen. Hmmm, I thought. Sometimes you get a collection and something catches your eye. This was the case with me when Mike Van Houten donated a number of materials including rock bands and social and political issues important to 1970s CMU students. He donated a dittoed copy of a hand drawn flier for a community concert held in Mount Pleasant on September 26. I added the 1971 after doing some research. According to an article in CMLife of Sept 22, 1971, this was the first free community concert in a planned series, created by the Free Community Concert Committee, as a means to bring together all members of the community. The concert was held at Island Park. I'm sure there were other free public concerts in the past, especially around national holidays, but I'm guessing the committee was not composed of history majors. There are three bands listed as appearing at this first concert: Love's Alchemy, Carnal Kitchen and Mobius. It was Carnal Kitchen that caught my eye....

 Another awesome poster recently donated by Mike Van Houten of a band that played at CMU is one for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue! This poster includes an action shot of Tina during a performance. The band performed at Finch Fieldhouse on February 3, 1972. When I think of what Tina endured with Ike and the amazing performances she gave despite it, and how she reinvented herself, I really respect her. RIP Tina. The band is mentioned in two CMLife articles. "MU (Men's Union) presents 'Ike and Tina'", dated January 31, 1972, describes the band's history as an advertisement. Catfish is briefly described as a four man band from Ann Arbor, probably the opening act. "Ike and Tina Turner invite coed to attend tonite's Flint concert" article of February 11, 1972 describes how an engaged CMU coed from Greenville, Candi Hammond, could not afford to attend either the CMU or Flint concert. She told Ike this before the concert. He gave her his necklace to g...

Yesterday  donor and alum Mike Van Houten (CMU class of 1975) donated papers and CMU clothing from his time at CMU, 1972-1975. The paper documents sports, athletics, theatre, and social events at and affecting CMU during those years. On November 4, 1975 Gene Roddenberry spoke at CMU as part of the Program Board Presentations. Mike stood in line and got Roddenberry's signature! He was able to get the poster later. At that time it was common practice to slit the posters to try to prevent people from collecting them. You can see the slit from the center to the bottom right corner of the poster. We have other posters in the Clarke that are similarly slit. At least this was sharp knife so the poster doesn't have holes gouged into it. This is so cool! This is the closest I've ever been to real Star Trek history! And I get to touch it and house it and catalog it! I'm so geeked out! I don't go on about it, but I am a Trekkie, I love Spock, and always hoped and still do that...

Yesterday my students, Rebekah and Natalie, and I had quite an experience. We loaded my car with 100 flattened cubic foot boxes. We drove them to the Athletics complex and unloaded and made them into boxes. With help from four of the Athletics staff and students we moved the boxes down three levels to what was a handball court, now a storage room. The elevator only goes down one level. We then started boxing file cabinets and a table full of CMU Athletics' student athlete folders and photographs. It was hot and humid with no air flow. We packed about 25 cubic feet. We could not pack everything because three cabinets remain locked. While one is missing a drawer, the rest are completely full of records. Once those cabinets are unlocked, the Athletics students will pack their contents. Eventually, Facilities Management will move all those boxes to the Clarke. Yippee for collaboration. Everyone did a great job. This is the last of Athletics' historical physical records cache in the...