By Greta Kuriger and Bob Vay

Wouldn’t we all love to step back in time more than 20 years and see what our office looked like back then? In the rapidly changing world of libraries and information management, even five years is a lifetime.  Imagine going back twenty-two years.

A frame from An Introduction to Fenwick Library showing a 1989 touch screen.

This recently-discovered video is an instructional piece on using George Mason University Libraries‘ Fenwick Library, which is on the university’s Fairfax campus.  It features a white jeans and suspenders-clad scholar navigating the different departments of the library in search of material on presidential use of the media back in 1989. With the help of library staff he is instructed in the use of the cutting edge technology of the time and he is thus equipped to travel to the stacks, access microfilm, visit Special Collections & Archives, and finally, check out some books. Although the way we access the many resources the library has to offer has changed dramatically since the creation of this video, there is no still no substitute for visiting the library in person.

The film was found in the recently re-processed George Mason Universities libraries records. The collection consists of materials documenting the history and activities of the University Libraries and is a part of the University Archives.  This video adds to our knowledge of how researchers accessed the library and interacted with library staff over twenty years ago.

Our researcher prepares to check out books at Fenwick's circulation desk.

The original video is on 1/2″ VHS tape and contains a significant amount of  video noise, or “snow” as they used to call it back before the days of dvd’s and digital television. Hence the digitized video, along with a small loss of video quality due to compression from encoding, is of less-than-desirable quality.  Still the audio is very good, and viewers should be able make out most of the action in the film.

Part one of the two parts can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GMUArchives#p/a/u/1/I2LyWYGjOUg

Agnes McCall Parker was the founder and director of the Parker School of Etiquette, Personality, and Speech in Washington, D.C. In this photograph from August 1953, Ms. Parker shows a group of her students the proper way to pour tea from a correctly set tea table. This photograph is from the Oliver Atkins Photograph collection, one of two collections currently being processed with a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. This photograph demonstrates Ollie Atkins’ distinct talent. For example, he captured everyone in the crowd by using the reflection in the mirror. The photograph is also an excellent example of early 1950s culture. The grant provides funds so that staff can discover these unique images and make them known to researchers.

Oliver F. Atkins Photograph Collection, Box 13, Folder 22

Edith McChesney Ker, often referred to as Edie, was an avid photographer of wildlife and nature.  She dedicated her life to traveling around the world taking photos and writing journal entries about her experiences. In the course of her career, Ker participated in more than 70 professional photographic camping safaris in Africa, including expeditions with primatologist Jane Goodall. She also served as president of the Society of Woman Geographers from 1997 to 1999. Born in 1924, she died in 2003. GMU is home to the Edith McChesney Ker collection.

Both of the images below are from her trip to Churchill, Manitoba in 1985.

Edith took many photos of polar bears during this trip.

Photographer Jack Rottier

Last spring, Robin Rottier, a Mason psychology student and Preservation Assistant working in the library, donated a collection of thousands of slides, negatives, and prints taken by her father Jack Rottier. Jack Rottier worked as a photographer for the National Capital Region of the National Park Service from the early 1960s until he retired in 1975.

The collection consists of images from in and around Washington, DC with a decidedly naturalistic approach characteristic of Rottier, an avid outdoors-man. The focus of his work may seem to be the impressive architecture and what it stands for, but Rottier makes a point to give the natural surroundings  equal weight within the composition. His work serves as a reminder of just how beautiful our city is; both in terms of architecture and greenery. There are many shots of  monuments, parks, events on the Mall, and some stunning aerial shots of the metro area. He also photographed many important figures in Washington such as Richard and Pat Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lady Bird and Lyndon Johnson and some celebrities including Liz Taylor and Bob Hope.

Robin Rottier as a young girl, photo taken by her father Jack is not part of the collection

Rottier came to the Washington area around 1950 and worked as a photographer for the American Forest Products Industries. He later joined the Commerce Department where he photographed trade fairs overseas, and then the Bureau of Land Management in the Interior Department, where he worked until transferring to the Park Service.  Throughout his life Rottier was an active member of the C&O Canal Association. Over the course of his career with the Park Service he contributed to the photographic record of Lady Bird Johnson’s beautification program, the development of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna. He passed away in 1988.

We feel very fortunate to have received this collection and it has already become quite popular. WETA will be using several of Rottier’s Washington Senator’s images for the upcoming documentary on Washington in the 1970s set to air on February 22 at 9pm. The Rottier collection is also a nice companion to our Ollie Atkins and Charles Baptie collections,  which heavily document the Washington area from the 1940s-1980s. Please take a look at the Jack Rottier Photograph Collection and look for new posts in the coming weeks to explore some of the particular events that Rottier captured.

Here are some  images from the collection:

Ladies enjoying Lafayette Park in the Spring

Lost between the moon and Capital City