To many 21st century Americans, opera might conjure images of women in horned helmets belting out screechy songs in incomprehensible languages., and shattering panes of glass in the process. This stereotype has its origins in the German composer Richard Wagner’s operas with stories based in Norse mythology, and it is an exaggeration of only a […]
As part of Human Rights week, SCRC is sharing some items from a few of our collections that relate to either the protection of human rights or a neglect for them. The first is a report on the Virginia Council on Human Rights, which was established on August 7, 1987. The goal of the council included […]
In late December 1989 two young men, Page Chichester and Helmut Brinkmann, were drinking and watching a soccer match on television in the city of Bonn in what was then called West Germany. Brinkmann suddenly suggested that they tour East Germany, beginning the next day. The two stayed up all night planning their hastily-conceived trip. […]
Since January Special Collections and Archives staff have processed a portion of the East German Poster Collection thanks to a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. The first series-level finding aid on the political posters is available here. Project assistants Lauren Shutt and Sean Tennant cataloged each poster individually using spreadsheets that […]
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided Berlin as well as the three Western sectors of Germany from the surrounding area of Brandenburg. Originally composed of barbed wire, the Wall was 95 miles long and eventually 13 feet high and as wide as 100 feet.  It included a […]
