Brown University Library News

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University Library is pleased to announce that Hannah Gribetz ’15 is the recipient of the seventh annual Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Library Research, generously funded by Douglas W. Squires, ’73. This award, established in partnership with the Office of the Dean of the College, recognizes undergraduate projects that make extensive and creative use of the Brown University Library’s collections, including print and primary resources, databases, and special collections.

Hannah is a Classics concentrator from New York City and a sister of the Alpha Delta Phi Society. Her paper, “Clock-keeping Guide to the Maintenance of the Grandfather Clock of the Brunonian Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi: Including a History of the Clock, and of Eli Whitney Blake III, in Whose Memory it Was Given,” began with a simple inquiry into the dedication attached to a grandfather clock that sits on the stairwell landing in Goddard House. This led her to the University Archives where she began an in-depth study of Eli Whitney Blake III, Class of 1888, his family, and his connections to Brown.

As Hannah’s instructor, Joseph Pucci, explains, Hannah has “…an ability to read humanistic texts creatively, and an equal ability to speak and to write about them in cogent ways…The paper is beautifully written and takes full advantage of Hannah’s skills in hunting down sources, both archival and living, in order to articulate an innately interesting life betokened now by a beautiful clock.”

A PDF of Hannah’s paper is available for download and reading here. The Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Library Research is awarded every spring. Information about the 2014 award contest will be available in fall 2013.

Contact: Jennifer Braga |  401-863-6913

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