PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (April 4, 2023) – The Special Collections & Archives Department at Prairie View A&M University has received a $450,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The funds helped establish the Digital PV Panther Project, which aims to eliminate the silences and erasures surrounding the history of PVAMU.
The project is taking deliberate and conscious steps towards what Princeton University digital archivist Jarrett Drake calls “a radically inclusive historical record.” By preserving, processing and promoting research in the archives, the project will begin to eliminate the silences and erasures surrounding the history of PVAMU.
T. DeWayne Moore, Ph.D. scans a few programs from 1970s blues festivals on the newly acquired Epson V850 scanner. (Photo: D’Asia Johnson, 2022)
“Due to institutional priorities and a lack of resources, most historic manuscripts and media collections documenting the lived experience at PVAMU remain unprocessed in their original boxes and inaccessible to researchers,” said Assistant Professor of History T. DeWayne Moore, who serves as principal investigator for the NEH grant. “But we plan to rehouse them in acid-free boxes, digitize them and make them open to the public.”
According to Moore, there are five main unprocessed collections. They contain multitudes of unexamined materials about important yet obscured chapters in university history. They include:
- The Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, which contains over 100 linear feet of reports, photographs and maps detailing efforts to improve the quality of life in rural, Black communities from the 1920s to the 1970s;
- The PVAMU Educational Conference Collection, which contains programs, audio recordings, and documents about the annual education conference at PVAMU from the 1930s-1960s;
- The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents Collection, which contains records pertaining to the administration and policy direction of the System’s eleven universities;
- The Prairie View Interscholastic League (PVIL) Collection, which contains documents and photographs about the PVIL from its inception in 1920 as a separate African American high school competition organization from the all-white University of Texas Interscholastic League until 1970, when it formally disbanded; and
- The manuscript collection of Wilhelmina Delco, which consists of more than 130 boxes of official documents, reports, memorabilia, correspondence, letters, memos, newspaper clippings and photographs of this dedicated African American leader who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1974 to 1995.
“This project makes storytelling about the past possible at PVAMU,” said Moore.
Archival Assistants Hannah Harden & Noah Jackson examine a map of the city of Prairie View from the 1980s. (Photo: T. DeWayne Moore, 2022)
The project was developed in collaboration with John B. Coleman Library Director Musa Olaka and University Archivist Phyllis Earles. It supports the university’s relatively new R2 Carnegie Classification (Doctoral University; High Research Activity). It also supports historical initiatives initiated by Former President Ruth J. Simmons, including the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice and the African American Studies Program in the Marvin D. and June Samuel Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences.
“We hope to inspire more scholarly research using the archival collections,” Moore explained, “and make the campus and local community aware of renewed historic preservation efforts. We also hope to attract contributors to our blog, conduct interviews with stakeholders and inspire confidence in those who may wish to donate their manuscript collections. Most importantly, we want to invest the campus and community in the project and establish a viable infrastructure of support to ensure the project’s longevity and sustainability.”
The grant is part of a $1.9 trillion effort, named the American Rescue Plan, initiated by President Joe Biden. According to the NEH website, the independent federal agency received $135 million “to provide emergency relief to institutions and organizations working in the humanities that have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.”
A Groundbreaking Job for Students
Harden and team leaders, Lindsay Boknight (center) and Jackson, process the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection. (Photo: T. DeWayne Moore, 2022)
Moore has begun using the grant to hire PVAMU students seeking valuable, real-world experience and knowledge about the processes required to preserve the past.
“Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities need to recognize the importance of investing in, celebrating and elevating under-researched historical experiences through archival preservation,” he said. “The Digital PV Panther Project engages students in conversations about history and how it can be preserved.”
Beyond the development of already existing skills, Moore said the employment opportunity allows students to build a line of communication with accomplished professionals at PVAMU, such as Scholarly Communications Librarian Henry Koshy, who directs digital preservation and administers the library’s digital content management system, bepress. In collaboration with the archives, Koshy has digitized 100 years of university documents and made them available on the Digital Commons, PVAMU’s online repository of archives, research and scholarship.
“I wanted to create paid positions for students, introduce them to a network of professionals who will share their experiences, and provide training in digital humanities, creating a space of intellectual exchange that expands student consciousness on campus,” said Moore. “The students also serve as public ambassadors for the project, and student-driven enthusiasm will push the project and its audience to continue to grow over time.”
Jackson directs a social media and marketing campaign and digitization of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection. (Photo: T. DeWayne Moore, 2022)
Students hired for the project are diving deep into the archives, promoting research using the collections on social media, and helping to reclaim the stories of those who have been historically silenced and marginalized. The students are showcasing their research, documenting their progress, and educating the community about the collections on the project’s website, www.pvpantherproject.com.
A Way Forward
Plans are underway to install touchscreens on campus, showcasing the curation of exhibitions from the Digital PV Panther Project. Using the PassItDown platform, visitors will be able to utilize a fully responsive design, offering story mapping, interactive timelines and user-generated stories. A dynamic rotation of exhibits will encourage stakeholders to visit the library and keep coming back for new content.
“Our mission is to build the most comprehensive collection on the African American experience in Texas to eliminate historical silences and encourage better citizenship through exploration and reflection on our quest for a more just, inclusive and sustainable society,” Moore said. “It has been made clear that the legacy of slavery and segregation remain salient at PVAMU and in Waller County. By drawing attention to efforts of voter suppression and absent student representation, the Digital PV Panther Project will place a light on the injustices of the past—as well as the present—to help shape a better future.”
To learn more about the Digital PV Panther Project, visit www.pvpantherproject.com or follow along on social media at instagram.com/digitalpvpantherproject, twitter.com/digpvpanther, facebook.com/digitalpvpantherproject and linkedin.com/showcase/the-digital-pv-panther-project. Meet each member of the team here.
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