An Archival Tail
If you think of the collections of University Archives as being predictable,
think again. University Archivist Martha Mitchell and her staff are never
sure what they may lay hands on next. Take the rat for example.
The tail...er...tale of the rat began during a mundane session of sorting
and cataloging. In working her way through the papers of the late Professor
of Biology J. W. Wilson, Mrs. Mitchell came across a rather grimy envelope.
"Luckily, I didn't put my hand into it," she dryly related. Instead
she shook the contents onto a table. Out came pencils, erasers, a small
pair of scissors and the rat. Quite clean. Quite dissected. Very flat. "He
almost looked like a little rug," mused Mrs. Mitchell.
Once the initial surprise wore off it was back to business as usual. The
venerable rat, aged 75 years or so, was placed in an acid free envelope
and filed with Hope Burgess' paper of 1926 of which the rat was the star
subject.
Although fate wasn't kind to the rat, it smiled on Miss Burgess and Professor
Wilson. They eventually married.
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