Doing research in an archives:
Archives are the permanently valuable records of an institution. Often they are unique - one of a kind items.
Archivists decide to keep items that have legal, financial, informational or historical information about the institution.
Because of their uniqueness, archivists often have to take special care with those objects.
Most archives will prohibit food and drink, will ask that you use pencil, and will ask that you use care in handling materials. We will usually ask you to put away your backpack or briefcase.
We'll pull materials for you as you request them.
Archives develop finding aids to help you locate the parts of a collection you'd like to use. We're also happy to talk with you about your topic to help you find other materials that you might find useful.
Many archives have limited hours. For smaller archives, it's always best to make an appointment. You would not want to travel to a place only to find out they are only open in the morning, or afternoon, or two days a week.
Wofford's archives contains the permanently valuable records of the college. That includes publications, office files, trustee minutes, faculty minutes, registers, catalogues.
In 1963, Wofford, like every other private college in South Carolina, was segregated.
In 1963, both Clemson and the University of South Carolina desegregated under court order.
Furman University in Greenville was considering admitting Black students, but the state's Baptist Convention directed that they delay their decision.
At Wofford, the Board of Trustees established a study committee to decide the college's path. President Charles Marsh prepared a confidential memo for the committee stating the possible effects of the decision.
After several months of study, the Board voted on May 12, 1964 to admit all qualified students regardless of race. Wofford thus became the first private college in South Carolina to desegregate.
Reaction came in the summer in the form of letters - some supporting, some opposing. Those letters are part of the Marsh Presidential Papers.
Special Collections consists primarily of about 10,000 books of various origins: founding or early faculty, literary societies, campus libraries prior to the Sandor Teszler Library, a press in Kentucky, a local collector, etc. Highlights include books from the 1500s and 1600s, but most of the collection dates from the late 1700s and 1800s, with strengths in math, science, religion, history, and classical languages.
Special Collections also includes in archival collections, stereographs, post cards and ephemera, a collection of books and prints by Leonard Baskin, and several objects, all of which have various provenance, sometimes with Wofford associationss, sometimes simply generously gifted without an apparent institutional connection.