Among Friends Volume 14, Number 2, Spring 2000

Most of the people who come to the John Hay Library proceed directly to the circulation desk then into the Reading Room.  They don't look to the right at another pair of glass doors which lead to the University Archives.  Behind those doors is the repository for official records of Brown University, University publications, dissertations, manuscripts, photos, graphics, tapes and videos about Brown.  Presiding over this vast and varied collection is University Archivist, Martha Mitchell.

Fifty years ago on Halloween, Martha, newly graduated from Tufts University, answered an ad to replace a Special Collections staff member who felt the job was ruining her eyesight.   Martha became the third person of a three person staff.  Half a dozen years later she was named Assistant Archivist but continued to work with all the other collections.

A few years later Martha decided to attend McGill University Library School - in part because McGill promised that along with the Library degree came an orange lined hood trimmed with white rabbit fur.  Upon graduation, and receipt of the prized hood, Martha had her choice of four or five library positions.  A chance reunion with a Tufts classmate convinced Martha to stay in Providence, marry her classmate and replace the Pembroke librarian.  After a year she left Brown for a second time to start a family.

Six years later, after the death of her husband, Martha was back in Archives which was now separate from the other collections.  She has remained there ever since.

The past twenty three years have been busy ones.  Archives now has a full time staff of two and houses 128,000 various items ranging from William Williams diploma to a circa 1800 baseball uniform to post cards, phonograph records  (remember phonograph records?), negatives and Carberry clay pots.  In 1985 Martha, with then BAM Associate Editor Jay Barry, published A Tale of Two Centuries:  A Warm and Rich Pictorial History of Brown University.  In 1993 Martha published The Encyclopedia Brunoniana, the ultimate Brown reference book with more than 660 articles about Brown's academic departments, faculty and staff members, building, traditions and history.

Archives is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m..

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