In the Mountains: Discovering the John Muir Papers at the University of the Pacific

"We are in the mountains and the mountains are in us." ~ John Muir

A few months ago, I went to Colorado to visit friends and hike a few mountains, with my trusty copy of The First Summer in the Sierra in my bag. Obviously Yosemite is far from the Rockies, but reading John Muir's lyrical descriptions of the mountains he loved made the trip even more enjoyable. Besides being a fellow Badger (On Wisconsin!), John Muir was an environmentalist and conservationist ahead of his time. He founded the Sierra Club and was the main mover-and-shaker behind the formation of the National Parks, and used his writings and influence to save many natural features of the American landscape. In short, he was awesome.

I've been a John Muir fan since watching Ken Burns' documentary on the National Parks several years ago. My husband and I have visited Muir's birthplace in central Wisconsin, we're proud members of the Sierra Club, and we've read most of his books. So imagine my excitement when I discovered that a large percentage of John Muir's papers, including his journals from that fateful trip in Yosemite, are available to view online through the Digital Collections of the Holt-Atherton Special Collections at the University of the Pacific.

The John Muir Papers feature correspondence from 1856-1914 (both digital images and transcriptions) and his journals from 1867-1913, which include his "thousand-mile" trek to the Gulf, his first summer in the Sierra, a trip to Alaska, and his travels through South America. Some of these later formed the basis of his books.  The papers also include a collection of photographs of Muir and a collection of his drawings- grand, detailed landscapes that were also later used in his books.

His journals are my favorite because he riddled them not only with his notes and impressions but also with spectacular sketches and drawings. While many of the sketches are included in his published books, as anyone who loves archives knows, seeing them "in the flesh"- even through a computer screen- can create real giddiness. Examining the records also allowed me to see his development as a naturalist in a way that is impossible to see in the books he published years later. Flipping through the pages, I can picture him in my mind's-eye, perched on a ridge overlooking the Yosemite Valley, scribbling away furiously. His energy, his passion, and his earnestness are all evident in his loopy, scrawling handwriting.

I also greatly enjoyed the photographs of Muir, many of which I had not seen before. While there are many portrait shots, the best are the ones of Muir in the wilderness he loved: hiking, gazing out at the landscape, sitting at the base of a sugar pine. One of my favorites is Muir standing by a pine tree, holding a pinecone. His beard can't hide the huge boyish grin on his face, like that of an excited kid on Christmas morning. (You can see the photo for yourself right here.) I am so glad I found this collection, for it has allowed me to see the world as Muir did, a great gift for those of us who seek to learn from his experience and his wisdom.

Milwaukee Neighborhoods Photos and Maps

Let's take a trip east to our neighbor Milwaukee. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, like all universities in the Wisconsin System, has their own archive. UW-Milwaukee's University Archives is situated within the library system on the campus, and so their site is accessed through the library site. They have several different collection areas, including university records and community records. Today I'll  be highlighting the Milwaukee Neighborhoods Photos and Maps digital collection.

 I think this collection perfectly captures the Wisconsin Idea in archives. Here you have a collection that is bringing together many images from Milwaukee's neighborhoods and acknowledging the best and worst Milwaukee has to offer. The article that accompanies this collection explains the fierce loyalties Milwaukee natives have to their neighborhood and the great flavor each neighborhood brings to the city. The article also acknowledges that these distinct neighborhoods have at times enabled poverty and segregation. The University Archives are doing a great job with this collection in not censoring the past, but trying to tell the whole story of the city of Milwaukee. Below is the map users click on the view images from specific neighborhoods. I had a great time clicking on different neighborhoods and perusing through the images.

Here's a photo of a wedding party circa 1940. As you can see below the archive has assigned metadata to the photo (more metadata than what appears in this screen shot). Metadata is literally data about data, and is used to help locate items in a search. All the terms assigned to these images are metadata that help archivists and users locate the images they're interested in. The metadata and descriptions are also vitally important  for creating context for the user. A lot of these images have specific addresses, it would be great to see them uploaded to Historypin.

Below is a better representation of the metadata assigned to the images. This site is a researcher's dream because the metadata is so rich.

 

A great benefit of this collection is you can follow the urban sprawl of Milwaukee as the city expanded. The further you get from the city center, more buildings and facilities are new construction.  This is a great collection and the University Archives are doing a service to Milwaukee and Wisconsin by making this collection accessible online. A researcher can easily access a wealth of knowledge remotely, making the reach of the archive so much greater than in the pre-digital era. 

Finally, the Milwaukee Neighborhoods site suggests to users that if they like what they're seeing, they might also like the American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection

and the "Greetings from Milwaukee" digitized postcard collection. Boy were their recommendations right, what fabulous resources to browse.

Check it out!

 [Post created by Laura Farley]