By Noelle Charbonneau, Research Services Assistant
Since August, GVSU Special Collections has been working on a long-term project to digitize the Douglas R. Gilbert photography collection. Douglas Gilbert is a Michigan-based photographer known for his early images of Bob Dylan, Janis Ian, and other notable folk musicians. In his early years Gilbert worked as a photojournalist for a Michigan State University student newspaper, where he photographed events like the election of Governor George Romney. He also later worked as a photojournalist for Look Magazine in New York City. The Gilbert collection contains Douglas’s entire body of work, from Michigan landscapes and local history to photos of political protests, as well as people and places in New York and beyond.
Currently, the majority of the collection exists only in the original film negatives, which need to be scanned and processed for a digital collection. Scanning film negatives is a bit different than other types of scanning for a few reasons. For one, the negatives have to be carefully handled with nitrile gloves to reduce the risk of transferring oils from skin that could damage the film.
Archives staff must wear gloves to handle negatives
Secondly, no two types of film are the same. This may seem obvious, but it presents a challenge for getting the best possible scan from a negative. Our scanning software helpfully offers a variety of scanning profiles based on film type, which allows us to choose the best approximate settings for the image in question. However, the film in the Gilbert collection dates from the 1960s and 1970s and does not always have a modern equivalent to select from. If there isn’t an easy match to be found, we then have to do some research and a little bit of guesswork to match the tone and ISO of the original film to an available scanning profile.
ISO, also known as film speed, describes the film’s sensitivity to light, with higher ISO numbers reflecting higher sensitivity. This means that it takes less time for the film to develop a reaction to light than a less sensitive, lower ISO film. Gilbert’s photos are in black and white, which means that scanning the negatives with the wrong settings can result in too much light or too much shadow coming through in the positive image, reducing the image quality. Higher ISO film also results in grainier images than low ISO film. Scanning a negative with a different ISO profile than the film calls for can cause a discrepancy between image grain in the positive scan and the original negative.
Self-portrait of Douglas R. Gilbert, 1962
Left to right: Kodak Pan-X (ISO 125), Kodak Tri-X (ISO 400), Ilford HP-5 (ISO 400)
The above images demonstrate the subtle differences between scanning profiles for different types of film. The middle image was scanned using settings that match the original film type, Kodak Tri-X. The first was scanned with a profile that matches another Kodak film, Pan-X, a slower film than the original, which is slightly less grainy. The third image was scanned using a profile intended for Ilford HP-5 film, which is the same speed as the original Tri-X but has a different tone, resulting in a lighter image.
Matching the qualities of the film to the digital replication ensures that the composition and integrity of the original photograph is maintained across both physical and digital copies. This is important for guaranteeing that the image is presented to viewers as the creator intended, as well as making sure that any fine details, like textures, present in the original photograph come through correctly in the digital rendition.
One of my favorite aspects of working on the Gilbert digitization project was learning how to handle and preserve film-based materials both physically and digitally. In addition to developing knowledge and skills about archival best practices, the Gilbert project allowed me to learn more about visual history and the importance of maintaining the original qualities of visual materials. With proper digitization procedures, we are able to preserve the artist’s vision and present materials without interference or alterations.
Thoughts from the University Archivist & Digital Collections Librarian on where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going.
Over the past month I’ve been ruminating a bit on the topics of digitization, technology, and sustainability in archival practice. As I’m preparing to present next week on our participation in the JSTOR Community Collections pilot, I put together a summarized timeline of sorts, documenting the history of digital collections work in GVSU Libraries, specifically here in Special Collections & University Archives.
Digital collections work began in earnest around 2008, when we started our subscription to OCLC’s CONTENTdm. At that time, SCUA’s curator and archivist selected some very straightforward image-based collections to digitize and share. These collections had clear rights and permissions – either they were university property or in the public domain. Not long after, SCUA partnered the GVSU Veterans History Project, and began providing streaming access to the oral history videos he was collecting. While this sounds simple, it actually proved technologically challenging. You see, at that time, CONTENTdm could not handle streaming video. Luckily we have some really talented people on our team, and GVSU Libraries’ web services librarian cooked up CSS wizardry to connect the streaming videos hosted on another platform into the item records in CONTENTdm.
However, as our collections grew in both size and popularity, we faced a different kind of hurdle. Money. Eventually we reached the cap for our subscription tier with CONTENTdm and faced a dilemma – pay a large one-time lump sum plus an increased annual subscription fee to move up to the next tier, OR migrate to a different platform.
By this time, the libraries had added an exceptionally talented and energetic digital curation librarian, who was concerned about the increasing need to preserve all of this new digital content. Thus we embarked on testing a then-new technology, Preservica, which was positioning itself as an all-in-one access and preservation option for digital cultural heritage materials. However, over the next few years, with some staffing changes in both the realms of collection development and technology support for digital collections, somewhat drastic changes were made to our program. In 2016 GVSU Libraries made the decision to abandon the migration to Preservica and focus on developing its own digital collections platform, using the open source Omeka Classic software, hosted on a server run by the university’s own Information Technology (IT) department. Our digital preservation librarian also wanted to focus on using open source tools to perform the digital preservation work necessary to ensure long-term access to these materials.
Over the course of 2016-2017, a small team consisting of myself, the digital curation librarian, digital initiatives librarian, and two support staff migrated the entirety of our digital collections. The bulk of the collections migrated to the new Omeka platform, while a few select collections were migrated to the libraries’ long-established institutional repository. During this migration, we added very little to the collections – only those additions we were obligated to add due to partnership and grant-funded projects.
Since 2017, the libraries have experienced even more staffing changes, while still growing our collections. These days, digital collection are still running on Omeka. But we no longer have the support of a digital initiatives or digital preservation librarian – so naturally we’re doing more with less.
Oh yeah, and about digital preservation… in 2020 the faculty line most recently held by our vacated digital preservation librarian was eliminated. This meant that all of the hands-on, highly technical digital preservation work he’d been doing with open source tools would not be picked up by anyone with a similar skillset. Instead, pragmatism won out, and we made the decision to move digital preservation activities back to Preservica – so that we could lean on the software and expertise of their team to ensure long-term access.
So that’s where we’ve come from – and now for a more recent bit of digital collections excitement. Last month the server on which our Omeka software runs was hit by a cybersecurity incident. I don’t have many details about what transpired, but a number of other systems across the university were affected besides ours. This meant our digital collections were down for about two full weeks. Eventually IT moved it to a more secure server and restored limited access, but the search function that we had improved was still broken.*
Even so, while the digital collection site is technically functional, it remains a challenge to use. Each page takes longer than 20 seconds to load – an eternity in web time! Our folks are still working on it – but we have no idea when full functionality will be restored.
On the collection development side of things – we’re also scaling back our commitments. While they’ve been truly fruitful in the past, partnership projects are tremendously time consuming undertakings from a project planning and management standpoint. Even though much of the labor of digitization, oral history recording, and sometimes transcription is managed by our partners – it still falls to us to ensure that we have quality metadata that adheres to library standards and best practices, provide quality controls, ingest the collections into our systems, and provide long-term preservation. Going forward, we’ll be far more selective of the projects we’re undertaking, and never do more than one at a time!
* Mere moments after publishing this post, we received word that the search function had been repaired! Incredible!!
As far as digitizing our own collection goes, we have new movement on that front. Current digitization projects include photographs from our Robert H. Merrill papers and Douglas R. Gilbert papers.
Merrill was a Grand Rapids-based civil engineer and amateur archeologist. Over the course of his career, from the the early 1900s to the early 1950s, Merrill “worked as a surveyor, photographer, and laborer for archaeological expeditions in areas such as New Mexico, Alaska, Mexico, Italy, and Panama. He was interested in the application of engineering methods to archaeological fieldwork and notably developed a photographic mosaic tower to take vertical photographs of excavations. He was an amateur photographer and extensively documented his work and travels.”
Standing on the marble terrace, Temple of Heaven, China. Photograph by Robert H. Merrill, 1919.
This is a tremendously exciting collection, and one of my personal favorites. The collection was acquired in 2019 and processed earlier this year by our adjunct archivist, Adrienne Rife. Adrienne recently accepted a full-time position at the Mercantile Library in St. Louis, and we couldn’t be more proud of her.
Once she finished processing, Adrienne proceeded to digitize many of the photo negatives in the collection. Initially we selected the negatives because they needed to packed up for long term storage in our cold-storage freezer. Digitizing the negatives first meant that we wouldn’t need to pull them out for research use, rather we can rely on access to the digital surrogates. Now we’re working on the metadata for the 1,400 or so images we’ve scanned so far. After that, we’ll move on to scan and describe about 1,000 glass lantern slides that are also in the collection.
Construction of the north end of culvert 109, New York State Canal System. Photograph by Robert H. Merrill, 1909.
If you’ve visited our Digital Collections site in the past few years, you’ve likely seen some of Douglas Gilbert’s photos. Gilbert’s photography career spanned from around 1960 to about 2010. He worked professionally and freelance for magazines such as Look and Life, and some of his works are held by the Library of Congress.
We’ve already digitized some of his more iconic photos, including those of musicians Bob Dylan, Janis Ian, Iggy Pop and Buffy St. Marie.
Bob Dylan. Photograph by Douglas R. Gilbert, 1964.Janis Ian. Photograph by Douglas R. Gilbert, 1967.Iggy Pop. Photograph by Douglas R. Gilbert, 1970.Buffy St. Marie. Photograph by Douglas R. Gilbert, 1964.
While crunching the numbers to plan this particular digitization project I came to a stunning conclusion – even if we only selected roughly 30% of Mr. Gilbert’s 35mm negatives to digitize, depending on the staff-time dedicated to this project, it could take us as long as 10 years to complete! It’s truly a massive undertaking. However, I think we can find some ways to streamline and find efficiencies by having our support staff member focus on metadata while students perform scanning.
If you’ve stuck with the post this far, I appreciate your taking the time to read through! I’d hoped to shed a little light on what our processes look like, and all the work that actually goes into providing online access to our collections. It’s very much a team effort. And as much as I’d LOVE to “just digitize everything” we just don’t have the resources to make that dream a reality.
Also, if you’ve tried to use our digital collections here in the past month or so and found it frustrating, or worse, non-existent – we’re sorry! We’ve been frustrated too. It’s upsetting to see something you’ve worked so hard on disappear in the blink of an eye. Rest assured, though, that all of the contents you were used to finding in our digital collections are still around and available at request by getting in touch with us. That’s what digital preservation is all about!
Archival photograph collections are filled with glimpses into everyday life and, occasionally, historic events.
The Great Flood of 1913 began with storms. Tornados raced across Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan and Indiana, followed by torrential rainfalls. From March 23 to 26, storm-related flooding led to disasters across central and eastern portions of the United States.
In Indiana, some areas received 6 inches of rainfall in 24 hours. The White River rose, destroying Indianapolis’s Washington Street bridge, which served as the main connection point over the river.
Aftermath of 1913 flood at Williams Dam, taken by D.J. Angus
Donald James (D.J.) Angus was an amateur photographer. He worked on the design and installation of the hydraulic plant and distributing system for the district at Williams, Lawrence County, Indiana. Angus photographed the flood damage inside the plant.
The flood was estimated to cause about 100 fatalities in Indiana alone and left 7% of the state’s population homeless. Although Angus’ photographs document only a tiny fraction of the total damage the storms and flooding caused in Indiana, they help us better understand and visualize the aftermath of such a widespread natural disaster.
White River above Williams Dam in 1913 flood, taken by D.J. Angus
Online market places like Amazon have made every day shopping affordable, fast, and convenient. Now imagine you could order a ready-made dream home online. The house would be built based off a set of models available, but could be customized to your exact preferences. Want granite countertops and two fireplaces? Or how about a neon yellow kitchen and hardwood floors? Consider it done, and ready to order. Now this is not a service available to Amazon customers (yet), but from 1906 to 1987 you could do almost exactly the same thing through a catalogue from The Aladdin Company (Aladdin Homes).
The Aladdin Company logo from Catalogue No. 33 Second Edition 1922
Founded by two brothers in Bay City MI, Aladdin Homes manufactured over 75,000 houses pre-cut houses around the country. Variety, locally sourced lumber, and “Readi-cut houses sold by the Golden Rule” were the selling points of their business. Aladdin advertised the superiority of their “Readi-cut” homes claiming that their “exact and sound architectural design”, and use of “modern power-driven machines” made them more efficient and cost effective.
The homes could be ordered through a catalog that showed all the designs and floor plans of each house the company could build. After selecting the design for your house, you could set it up with add-ons and customizations to add flair. Homes from The Aladdin Company were also very reasonably priced. To put things into perspective, during the early 1920’s the prices of their homes ranged from $674.50, to as high as $6,441. This was a time where the average family annual income was around $3,300 dollars, so building precut houses was very affordable for families.
Price list from Catalogue No. 33 Second Edition circa 1922
Walking through the neighborhoods of Michigan you’ll see that The Aladdin Company wasn’t the only contender in the catalogue to manufactured homes business. One such competitor was the Miller & Zeilstra Lumber Company, established in 1934. Their catalogues looked very similar to ones from Aladdin Homes, with floor plans, basic information on the home style, and pictures of the homes all included. Depending on the decade the catalogue was printed, actual photos may have been used, or they may have included artfully drawn renditions of future homes.
Miller & Zeistra Lumber Co. 1952 Miller & Zeilstra Lumber Co. catalogue 1956
Spears Lumber Company, with a lumber yard in Grandville MI, was another such catalogue that specialized in many types of buildings: from cozy summer cottages to garages. Over the years many of their buildings were given names like: The Cliffwood, The Gorman, and The Wingate. No matter where families got their homes from, and what creative names they were called, the companies that made these houses have left a mark on the history and landscape of Michigan. So, while we wait for Amazon to eventually pick up the slack, you may be able to find a Gorman or Wingate on Zillow as you search for your next home.
Spears Lumber Co. Catalogue CoverSelected Small Homes catalogue from Spears Lumber Co. 1937
Rosedale Library is a bit of a mystery. A story paper series published by Street & Smith in the early 1880s, the Rosedale Library has all but disappeared in modern collections. There are approximately four examples currently extant in institutional libraries with publication dates from 1880-1882.
Printed without pricing or consistency, Rosedale Library may have simply served as a promotional tool for soliciting subscriptions to more popular Street & Smith publications, like their flagship New York Weekly. In fact, the publishers seem to have leaned on a “bait-and-switch” strategy. In each of the surviving Rosedale Library issues, there are opening chapters to 2 or 3 stories with the “continuation” to be found in a specific number of the New York Weekly.
Ad for the New York Weekly
What is a Story Paper?
A story paper is a serialized publication full of stories and illustrations primarily geared towards children or adolescents. They were most popular between World War I and World War II. In the United States, story papers were more commonly referred to as “dime novels”. Dime novels became a catchall phrase to refer to story papers, pulp magazines, and other popular fiction printed in inexpensive paper bindings.
The publications typically consisted of around 8 pages released weekly and costing about 5 or 6 cents an issue.
An illustration from “But Only Once a Wife”
Street & Smith
Francis Street and Francis Smith ran one of the biggest publishers for American dime novels. Beginning in1855, Street & Smith published a variety of pulp fiction, comic books, and sporting magazines until the company was bought out in 1959. Street & Smith purchased the New York Dispatch (which would become New York Weekly) in 1858.
Street & Smith published some of the most popular dime novels (more accurately called “nickel weeklies” at that time) including: New Nick Carter Weekly, Tip Top Weekly, Buffalo Bill Stories, Jesse James Stories, and Brave & Bold Weekly. Many of these dime novel stories featured private detectives or Wild West settings.
In the mid 1960s, Grand Valley students didn’t have to go far to enjoy winter sports. When the university first opened, a portion of the ravines on the north end of campus was used by students for skiing. The hill overlooked the Grand River making it a beautiful place to visit even outside of the winter months.
As the student population increased, several expansions were added to the ski slope including a tow rope to bring skiers back up to the top of the hill and, for several years, a nearby ice skating rink. In 1967, a few years after students had been using the ski hill, three members of the Board of Control donated $2,500 for the construction of the ski chalet. Construction was completed quickly, and the ski chalet was open for student and club use in March of that year.
Ski Chalet in the 1960s
Starting in 1966, during the first few weeks of the winter semester Grand Valley hosted the Winter Carnival. This two week celebration of winter made full use of the season with ice carving, skiing, and dog sled competitions. The ski chalet was also used for winter-themed lectures, like President James Zumberge’s talks about his Antarctic expeditions. The ski slope was the central hub of this event bringing the Grand Valley community together.
Students being pulled up the tow rope
The ski hill was free for students to use and equipment was available to rent. Occasionally the ski club would section out time for private practice, but for the most part, the hill was a way for students to take a break from classes during the winter months.
After several decades of use, the ski slope was closed and both the ski chalet and tow rope were removed. None of these structures remain today.
While spending a lot of time at home, many of you might be cleaning out old closets, basements, and attics and exploring hidden away boxes full of forgotten treasures. The popular KonMari cleaning method famously asks us to examine our possessions to keep only what “sparks joy” and discard what does not.
Donation of WWII materials
While you are cleaning and considering the joy found in collegiate mementos and a multitude of old textbooks and photographs, we ask you to consider: What sparks joy for archives?
In other words, before you pack it up or throw it away, think about whether there might be value in it for archival research. Did you have a family member who served in the military? A relative who pioneered in a career field? Did you attend Grand Valley State University? Did you collect ephemeral materials related to West Michigan? All of those – and many others! – might be reasons to consider donating and spreading the joy.
Joyful Findings
Marie Kondo on her Netflix series “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”
Archivists love to receive donations of people’s stories. What items in your home tell stories about your family? Consider donating:
Old family photographs and scrapbooks (especially if people and places are identified and/or dated)
Letters (especially if both sides of the correspondence are present!)
Grand Valley State University related items (event flyers, posters, memorabilia, etc.)
Old or rare book series
Remember, archivists cannot ascribe monetary value to your items, so if you are looking to have old things valued prior to donation, check with an appraiser.
What to Discard
Marie Kondo cleans up cords
Well, this can be a more complicated question to answer, and when in doubt consider consulting with an archivist first. Some examples include:
Old newspapers: Many of these are available online and the archives are kept by the paper publisher.
GVSU course catalogs and yearbooks (Most archives will already have multiple copies of these).
Textbooks
Items that are in very poor condition. If an item has mold, for example, it can easily contaminate nearby items which makes it risky for archives to keep.
It Still Sparks Joy…For You
Marie Kondo tidies up
Many items might fall into the category of “donate later”. Some items still hold sentimental value and you may not wish to part with them right now. And that’s totally fine! To keep your valued items in the best condition for the future – whether that’s in your family or in an archive – consider the following:
What’s it kept in? Items that are crammed together risk being damaged. Similarly, leaving tons of space in a box may cause paper items to fold and bend at strange angles. Think about the size of the storage container, how much other stuff surrounds it, and what the container is made of. Tightly closed plastic containers, for example, can trap moisture and gasses inside, causing photographs to stick together or items to become discolored or fragile.
How is that container being stored? Basements and attics, while common storage locations, can be more susceptible to pests and mildew. Make sure valued treasures aren’t kept in damp locations, and keep them off the floor!
Is there information that explains the value? You may have a wonderful family photo album, but you might be the only one who knows who everyone in the pictures are! Consider writing labels on the back of the photographs or in margins of scrapbooks to help future family members (or archivists!) identify who’s who and why this memory was important to you.
Does it require special technology to view or use properly? Technology becomes outdated very quickly! Are there backup copies available? Contact an archivist for recommendations about how to digitize or preserve your materials.
Mathias J. Alten was a 20th century impressionist painter. Born in Germany in 1871, Alten eventually moved to the then-developing town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He began his artistic journey exploring landscapes and subjects around the world while other famous artists like Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh did the same. The impressionist artistic style originated in the 19th century, and many impressionists, like Alten, continued to explore the perspective and composition of impressionism even as new artistic techniques were rapidly emerging. Alten painted over 2,500 paintings during his travels in and outside of Grand Rapids.
Mathias Alten in his Grand Rapids Studio, 1900’s
Alten started as an apprentice for a local artist, Joseph Klein, in the town of Marpingen, Germany. In 1889, after three years of apprenticing, Alten’s family immigrated to the United States, passing through Ellis Island. Settling on the West Side of Grand Rapids, he worked at one of the many booming furniture factories till he met and married Bertha Schwind. A year later Bertha gave birth to their daughter Eleanor, the first of three daughters. Despite his growing family, Alten continued to pursue his artistic aspirations. Six weeks after his second daughter Camelia was born in 1898, Alten left to study in Europe, visiting and painting in Vatican City, Rome, Florence, Naples, Genoa, Alexandria, and Paris. Finally returning to Grand Rapids after nine months abroad, Alten created his first studio and began teaching lessons.
Left: Mathias Alten in Europe, 1898-1899 ; Right: (Left to Right) Bertha, Eleanor, Viola, Mathias, and Camelia Alten, 1900’s
Alten gave studio giving lessons on Tuesday and Friday evenings while improving his mostly self-taught artistic ability. Alten exhibited paintings all at the Michigan State Fair, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, Toledo Museum of Art, and National Academy of Design, New York. Alten traveled abroad for a second time in 1911, this time with Bertha and his children. They visited the beach of Scheveningen, Netherlands, where he captured the harbor appeal of a small coastal Dutch town. Alten’s artistic style and composition became brighter as he captures the essence of his subjects. This often required him to be on site with his subject, rather than painting in a studio environment.
“Working directly from nature lends strength and color to the work. Studio work is necessary for certain types of work but never as interesting to me as working under the open sky.” – Mathias Alten
The Grand River, 1904
As a Grand Rapids resident, Alten took from the nearby views of the Grand River and its valley. However, many of Alten’s paintings also illustrate his travels in the U.S and Europe. Subjects of his paintings include locales such as Old Lyme, Connecticut; Laguna Beach, California; and Tarpon Springs, Florida. Traveling all across Europe, Alten painted numerous depictions of bridges bounding over beautiful rivers, windmills sprawled across the Netherlands, and collective farmlands and animals. Alten was never without inspiration for his work. After an entire lifetime of a career of canvases and sketches, Alten passed away in his home in Grand Rapids in 1938.
Lake Michigan, 1930
Painting every day of his later life, Alten amassed a large collection of styles and subjects over the years of his travel and experiences. He took his family on numerous excursions to nearby attractions and local beaches to find the next subjects of his paintings. The value of Alten’s artistry has been captured today in Grand Valley’s expansive collection of his work and documentation of his professional and personal life.
Grand Rapids was a large part of Alten’s career and life. The George and Barbara Gordon Gallery displays over forty pieces of Alten’s work. A digital archive of Alten’s work held at Grand Valley State University is available through the GVSU Art Gallery. Biographical stories and additional information about the life and career of Mathias Alten is available at GVSU’s Special Collections.
When Grand Valley College began, the administration focused on building a successful liberal arts program before implementing any official sports programs. GVSC did offer intramural club sports for students who did wish to join a team. In addition, all students were required to take a physical education course. These physical education classes were mainly just basketball games played inside an old barn on campus property. Nearby fields were used for other physical education activities, while also being used for intramural teams as well, some being football, basketball, softball, track and golf, plus more.
Intercollegiate sports came on the scene for Grand Valley in 1964, with the organization of the first cross country team. It wasn’t until 1968, however, that women’s sports became a part of the Grand Valley legacy. Joan Boand was a faculty member in the physical education department. She first coached the softball team in 1968, and within the next few years she was also coaching teams in basketball and volleyball. She was given the opportunity to award Donna Sass Eaton the first female athletic scholarship in the State of Michigan for softball in 1974.
Left to right: Jim Scott (wrestling coach, GLIAC conference commissioner), Joan Boand (women’s basketball, softball, and volleyball coach), and President Lubbers.
Grand Valley joined the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) in 1972., Two years later, the women’s tennis team won the 1974 GLIAC tournament. The following year, both men and women’s basketball won their respective championships. Throughout the entirety of the 1970s Grand Valley’s women’s softball remained a powerhouse, winning multiple games and qualifying for a variety of GLIAC tournaments. As for the late 1970s, the women’s rowing team dominated the state, winning three Michigan Rowing Championships consecutively.
Women’s softball game, 1990s
The 1980s saw a rise of swimming and basketball for women’s athletics. In 1984, swimming and diving were introduced for men and women for the first time at Grand Valley. Kristen Campbell lead the school being the first person to qualify for the national championship in swim, for both men and women. In 1988, the women’s basketball team qualified and played in the NCAA division II tournament for the first time, although they lost the game.
Left: Basketball, 1981; Right: Swim, 1990s
The 1990s were a time of change for Grand Valley sports. Women’s coach Joan Boand retired, the Meadows Golf course opened, and women’s soccer was added to the available team sports. Joan retired with over 500 wins under her belt coaching the volleyball team to six conference titles. Her legacy was followed by Deanne Scanlon, who continued down the path of success, leading the Lakers volleyball team to a 24-11 record in 1995. To finish up the 1990s, there was an increase in the number of scholarships for women’s golf, along with the first full time coach, Lori Stinson in girl’s golf. In 1999 a new track and cross-country coach was hired, Jerry Baltes. That same year Baltes was hired, the women’s cross-country team placed fifth nationally at the NCAA National Championship.
The 2000s brought only victory and positive change within the women’s sports world at Grand Valley. The volleyball team continued to dominant, advancing to their first NCAA final four tournament in 2001. Although they ended up losing in the semi-final against South Dakota State, the team had made it farther than ever before. Four years later in 2005 the volleyball team qualified again for the national championship, this time held at Kearney, Nebraska, where Grand Valley won its first national title in a women’s sport. In 2006, women’s basketball took home a national championship win as well.
With only about fifty years of women’s sports history, Grand Valley has seen many successful women’s teams. More recently, women’s volleyball won their 17th Crossover tournament in 2015; women’s tennis, cross-country and soccer all won their respective GLIAC tournaments in 2017; and the women’s softball, golf, swim and dive, cross-country and soccer teams all won in GLIAC tournaments in 2019. Not only the teams are celebrating victories, either. Jerry Baltes is also set to receive a 20-year award in 2019 for his time spent working with the athletics program.
We’ve come to the end of Season 2! We’re wrapping up with a little bit more about John’s life in service and what he did after the war.
To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.
The letter featured in Episode 13 is available below:
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, June 13, 1865
It takes a long time for the Civil War to be officially over in every state and territory. In this episode we take a look at how the end of the war actually came about.
To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.
Letters featured in Episode 12 are available in full below:
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, March 15, 1865
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, April 9, 1865
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, April 17, 1865
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, April 6, 1865
Once again we’re talking about medical needs during the Civil War. This time, we investigate what the U.S. Sanitary Commission was all about.
To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.
Letters featured in Episode 11 are available in full below:
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, July 30, 1864
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, March 12, 1865
In this episode we’re talking about the roles of Black men and women in the military during the Civil War.
To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.
Letters featured in this episode are available below:
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Apr. 12, 1864
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, February 25, 1865
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, March 3, 1865
Episode 9 is all about the election of 1864, in which only 25 states participated!
To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.
The letter featured in Episode 9 is available below:
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Dec. 27, 1863
We couldn’t resist talking about how the mail system worked! While delays in communication were a common theme in Season 1, John hasn’t talked too much about the mail yet. In Episode 8, we take a look at how letters were delivered, especially as troops moved into enemy territory.
To the Letter is a podcast brought to you in collaboration with University Libraries and the eLearning and Emerging Technologies Department’s Digital Studio at GVSU. On this podcast, we bring correspondence from GVSU’s Special Collections alive. In each episode you will hear (in their own words!) letters written by the people who lived through history and the stories behind them. John Bennitt is voiced by Matt Ruen, Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator at University Libraries.
Letters featured in Episode 8 are available below:
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Nov. 8th, 1863
Letter from John Bennitt to his wife Lottie, Dec. 3, 1863
(Notice in the December letter that John wrote in both directions to conserve paper!)
GVSU Special Collections & University Archives 