Digitized Collections in SC&A

Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) creates and maintains representative digital collections for an increasing amount of its holdings. SC&A has been engaged in digitizing of archival materials in its collections since 1994. It considers these activities important as they promote both access to and preservation of the collections.

	The Virtual Exhibit Hall The Virtual Exhibit Hall allows SC&A staff to display multiple digital exhibits and make them all accessible from the same location. The Virtual Exhibit Hall runs on Omeka, a software created by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
	George Mason University: A History This digital exhibition is a collection of essays describing persons, places, organizations, and events in the history of George Mason University. George Mason University: A History features digital objects from the collections of the University Libraries which help illustrate the narratives, much like photographs in a printed historical monograph. Many of these digital objects are indeed photographs of persons and places in the institution’s history, but the site also features single- and multi-page documents, and audio and video recordings.
	Sesquicentennial Civil War Documents Project As part of the "Intellectual Underpinnings of American Civil War" project sponsored by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), George Mason University Libraries and other ASERL-member libraries are creating a shared digital collection of archival materials created between 1850 and 1865. This project was conceived to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. The Special Collections & Archives department of the University Libraries will be digitizing select documents from three of its collections: The Milton Barnes Papers, 1853-1891, The Alexander Haight Family Collection, 1764-1967, and The Northern Virginia Civil War Images Collection, 1853-1914.
	The Oliver F. Atkins Photograph Collection Consists of approximately 60,000 images that extensively document American political and cultural history from the 1940s through the 1970s. Most of the images that document American political life date from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s when Atkins worked as a photographer for the Saturday Evening Post and then later as the personal photographer to President Richard M. Nixon. The bulk of the American cultural documentation is from Atkins work in the 1950s and early 1960s on specific stories for the Saturday Evening Post.
	Arthur E. Scott Photograph Collection Collection contains photographs taken by Arthur E. Scott, a photojournalist and photo-historian for the U.S. Senate. Arthur E. Scott, widely known as "Scotty" on Capitol Hill, first covered the United States Congress in 1935 as a photographer for the Washington Times. Later, he worked for International News Service and United Press International. In 1955, he became the photographer for the Republican Senatorial Committee where he served for the next twenty years. During his last year with the U.S. Senate, he was the official photo-historian for the Senate Historical Office. There he set to work on a project he had advocated for many years: collecting a likeness of every person who had served as a United States senator. His collection reflects the entire forty-years of Scott's association with Congress.
	President Lorin A. Tompson Scrapbooks Dr. Thompson served first as Chancellor (1966-1972) of George Mason College of the University of Virginia and then President of George Mason University (1972-1973). Two scrapbooks compiled by Thompson contain newspaper clippings, notes, photographs, invitations and other documents, and ephemora.
	Manuscript Book of Culinary and Medicinal Receipts, in Several Hands, Inscribed at Front "Elizabeth Fairfax Hir Book 1694" A cookbook belonging to Elizabeth Fairfax and date 1694. Features forty-nine manuscript pages of recipes for Seventeenth Century dishes.
	GMView: George Mason University Video Yearbooks As publication of the George Mason University Yearbook ceased in 1988, GM View: The George Mason Video Yearbook was born. Mason had maintained a print version of the yearbook since 1965 under various names (i.e. Advocate, By George, Patriotism, and others). GM View has been in continuous publication since 1989. Though each year's production is different from the others, they all have maintained the same basic format: a length of about 30 minutes; and coverage of university sports, greek, and campus events (such as Mason and Patriots' Day, International Week celebrations, graduations, etc).
	GMU Archives' Photostream on Flickr A selection of images from the George Mason University Photograph Collection, which contains over 12,000 color and black and white photographs, including prints, contact sheets, and negatives, taken between the 1950s and 1999. The collection includes images of student life, campus architecture and construction, campus events, faculty and staff, performances, and art.
	Attacking Complex Problems: The Life and Work of Dr. John N. Warfield Warfield began his intellectual career studying electrical engineering and mathematics. This led him to work with early computer prototypes. Besides math and electrical engineering, Warfield became interested in group pathologies. He began to look at how and why people make decisions - especially in situations that involve a great deal of complexity. This led him to develop Interactive Management, a computer assisted process designed to help groups manage complex problems unique to their organizations. Materials in this omeka exhibition date from 1944 to 2009 and include manuscripts, photographs, video, and audio segments.
	Broadus Bailey French Revolution Print Collection Print engravings of the French Revolution by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault (1737-1831). Berthault created the engravings from drawings by Jean-Louis Prieur (1759-1795). These images begin with the Estates General meeting before the Revolution officially begins and continues through until just after King Louis XVI is executed.
	George Mason University Facilities Planning Documents (1960-2007) George Mason University has been expanding for over fifty Years. From its humble beginnings in an eight-room elementary school in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia with an enrollment of seventeen students to its three campuses with over thirty thousand students and staff five decades later, Mason has demonstrated enormous growth in a very short time. The documents in this collection come from both physical and born-digital collections of the George Mason University Facilities Planning Department, many of which are held in Special Collections & Archives, University Libraries.
	The John N. Warfield Digital Collection A collection of selected materials from the John N. Warfield Collection. Warfield began his intellectual career studying electrical engineering and mathematics. This led him to work with early computer prototypes. Besides math and electrical engineering, Warfield became interested in group pathologies. He began to look at how and why people make decisions—especially in situations that involve a great deal of complexity. This led him to establish Interactive Management, a computer assisted process designed to help groups manage complex problems unique to their organizations. Materials in this collection date from 1951 to 2007 and include manuscripts, photographs, video, and audio segments.
	George Mason University 40th Anniversary Exhibition Archival materials from: Simplicity, Permanence, and Economy: The Origins of George Mason University's Fairfax Campus, an exhibition by George Mason University Libraries done in Fall 2004. Materials document the planning, construction, and dedication of the Fairfax Campus during the years 1957-1964.
	Madness @ Mason: Documenting a Dream Season An electronic archive of artifacts, printed materials, and other items which document the George Mason University Men's Basketball Team's 2005-2006 season and NCAA Tournament Run. It was conceived by the University Libraries' Special Collections & Archives department (SC&A) during March 2006 with the purpose of preserving items related to the 2005-2006 season and facilitating greater access to them through the World Wide Web.
	C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Digitized Map Collection Donated to George Mason University Libraries in September 1978 by the Mann family, the C. Harrison Mann Jr, Map Collection comprises ninety-six maps and eighteen rare atlases ranging from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and is housed in the Special Collections & Archives department. Though the majority of the maps Mann collected are of Virginia, there are many pertaining to other parts of the United States and the world in the collection.
	The Planned Community Archives: Catherine A. Baum Digital Collection A core collection of materials drawn from the George Mason University Libraries’ Planned Community Archives (PCA) Collection, which features manuscripts, photographs, posters, blueprints, artifacts, and other items of interest relating to the planned community or new town movement in general and Reston, Virginia in particular. Catherine A. Baum, a 1981 Mason graduate in Management was president of the Washington division of Drees Homes. She has been a resident of Reston, Virginia for over 30 years.
	1893 Southwest Photographs Photographs dated 1893 taken by an unidentified photographer, and which appear to document a train trip beginning in New Orleans, Louisiana and ending in Grand Junction, Colorado. These photos were originally part of a photograph scrapbook. Collection was acquired by SC&A in 2003.
	The Randolph H. Lytton Historical Postcards of Fairfax, Virginia Collection Serves as a window on the not-so-distant past for the City of Fairfax, Virginia. It features mainly Fairfax businesses, institutions, government buildings, and other places of interest. Many of the cards depict Fairfax places of lodging, particularly those along the Route 29 / Route 50 corridor. The collection contains about 200 color and black and white postcards.
	1972 Richard Nixon Campaign Photographs Part of the Oliver Atkins White House Photograph series, this set of photographs documents President Richard M. Nixon's 1972 Campaign. Atkins Photograph Collection contains photographs, negatives and contact sheets dating from 1943 to 1974. The images, numbering nearly 57,000, are representative of his work with The Saturday Evening Post and the United States government as official photographer to President Nixon.
	The William Nicoson Newspaper Columns Part of a larger collection of materials donated by William Nicoson to the University Libraries. His collection, in turn, is part of the Planned Community Archives, which includes voluminous materials on Reston, Virginia. Access to information about these collections is available from Planned Community Archives and William Nicoson Papers.


	The Federal Theatre Project Materials Collection Contains nearly one thousand different 35mm slides taken from original posters. These images are of the original designs used on posters to advertise FTP plays in many different American cities from 1935 to 1939. The online collection contains electronic versions of each of these images indexed by title, author, subject, theater, place, date, and related names. There are also additional documents from this and other GMU FTP collections in the Federal Theatre Project Collection housed in Special Collections & Archives' Luna content management system.
	Reston: Planned Community Archives Documents the development of Reston through images, textual materials, maps, sketches, and other archival materials. Focuses on people, themes, and organizations key to Reston's history as a planned community. Areas covered in this collection are housing, health care, education, public services, parks, recreation, population, and Lake Anne ( the first housing group).
	The Virginia Civil War Archive Includes illustrations produced for the Harper's Weekly during 1861-1865 and which relate specifically to the Commonwealth of Virginia's involvment in the Civil War. 100 images have been scanned for research and study by students and scholars. The images reflect the unfolding events and drama of the war as well as the superb artistry of the Weekly's many artists.