Summer Journals

I went back to the Welcome Center and I definitely feel like I have made some great progress with my research.  I am almost halfway through researching through the files that the Welcome Center has and it is quite exciting. I know I can get this done in time since I'm flying through all these files.  Even better is that it's almost the weekend and I can relax and not have to think about this project.

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I went to the Welcome Center after a hiatus at the beach on Tuesday.  I found some information at the Welcome Center that I was not even purposefully looking for it.  I was looking through the miscellaneous section in one of the file cabinets trying to see if I could find any information on one scholarship and I ended up finding information on one of the more interesting scholarships’ donors.  This is such a nice treat after a one day vacation; I hope this continues and that way I won't have to worry about screaming from frustration.

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I went back to the Welcome Center today to see if there was a folder that I missed that held the Armand Hammer information.  I was lucky enough to find that folder because it had so much information.  I finally found the connection that he had with Randolph-Macon; it was with Senator Hugh D. Scott who went to R-MC and he dealt with international relations like the Soviet Union, which Armand Hammer had some connections.  Finding this information was a huge relief because I think it would have bothered me until I found the connections that Mr. Hammer had with R-MC and why he wanted to donate to the college.  Now I don't have to worry about pulling my hair out trying to find the answer.  Even though I found an answer, I still want to scream with all that is left.  I feel as if SURF is going to end before I know it and, knowing me, I won't be ready when it does end.

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I may have hit a brick wall with my research on the Armand Hammer Scholarship Fund.  There was nothing in the Welcome Center when student worker and I were both looking for his folder.  So I went over to the College Advancement House in hopes that I might find more information.  I found a little bit, but not much to really find out why he donated to the college.  It was very discouraging.  I did photocopy the little information that they had about him and put that in my folder.  I noticed that they had some folders that had information about other individuals that I knew I would eventually research, so I looked through those files and photocopied any necessary information.  I went back to the library and discussed the possible dead end with my advisor and it was agreed that I should keep this scholarship in the back of my mind and return to it later.  I went back to my room, where I left the Armand Hammer book to see if I could find anything that I had missed when I read it earlier.  I still could not find any connections.  I think I might have to leave this scholarship alone and move on with the others.

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I finished searching in the Yearbooks and I cannot believe all the information that I found over the past several days.  I realized this after all the information that I wrote down on note cards and on sheets of paper, which I typed up to have more than one copy, along with the amount of information that I have photocopied.  I know my next step is to go through those files in the Welcome Center and hope that I find all the information that I need without much of a headache.  Even though I have organized the information by typing it up and filing it away in appropriate alphabetical order, it still feels disorganized.  I have so much more to do, it just seems as if it is a never ending process.

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I continued my research in the Yearbooks, and I should finish tomorrow or Wednesday.  So far I have found a lot of information about some of the individuals.  I have a few people who were not in the Yearbooks of their graduation year, but were in previous yearbooks.  I guess some people did not want to have their senior portrait taken; I will just have to use the information that I found in the previous years.  I believe that the files in the Welcome Center will have more information about the scholarship and why, but not much about the individual.  I really need both to make the overall connections and trend mapping, but it seems that I might have to make do with what I have.  I'm begining to feel overwhelmed and stressed, but I should be able to make it to the weekend to have a mini-vacation.

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I started my day continuing my research through the Yearbooks.  Later on in the day, I went to the Welcome Center today to see the files that are stored there, thanks to Sarah Hendricks for paving the way and allowing me to gain access to vital information for my project.  I could not believe how much stuff they had in the boxes and in file cabinets.  I went through some folders along with my advisor Laurie who looked through some of the files for me and took some notes on some of the individuals.

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I did some more research in the Yearbooks, writing down graduation years and activities and/or fraternities the men belonged to.  I also listened to some of the recordings for the Special Collections Oral History project, because a couple of people I am researching were interviewed for that project and they both briefly mention their scholarships and why they started it.  Apparently a short answer of because of the amount of support and help she got from the college was what I got out of the recording.  That simple answer has more background because of story behind the help from faculty to get a competitive scholarship.  The other person donated money because his father was an alum of R-MC as well and he wanted to give back to such a wonderful college.  It seems as if simple reasons are behind such generosity; I hope this becomes a trend because it makes my researching much easier.

I do like the different styles of yearbooks because it keeps things interesting, but there are definitely years where the information is much better.  1918-1950s the yearbooks have a lot of information, but the yearbooks after that seem to not have as much information about the students.  Not all yearbooks are created equally, go figure.

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I finished my church research and began my research in the Yellow Jacket Yearbooks.  I have uncovered a lot of research information about the individuals and churches that I still feel like I will be way ahead of schedule.  I did some reading research on an individual named Armand Hammer because he has no connections to the College, as far as anybody is aware of.  I am hoping that his autobiographical book will mention his philanthropy, especially with R-MC in particular.

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What a day.  I reviewed my list of endowed scholarships to see if I was sure about researching them.  My advisor Laurie told me that I had a great selection and Sarah told me that it was great too.  Another positive for this research project.  So I began looking through new and old alumni directories to see if these people were still alive, if they went to this college, and/or if they had family who went here as well.  After going through that tedious process, I did some research on the Methodist Churches who donated money to the College.  Some of the information was boring and so I skimmed right over it, but other information was fascinating.  For example, Samuel C. Hatcher was a very important figure in the Barton Heights United Methodist Church.  He was that church’s first preacher while he was attending R-MC and getting his degree in ministry.  He later became an important figure for R-MC because he has a scholarship named after him, he served as a temporary president of the college after the death of one of the presidents, he was an administrator for the college for several decades, and he was a trustee.

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It is the end of the first day of research and it was ok.  I started compiling a list of scholarships that I will research.  It sounded easy, but it ended up not being so.  I knew for certain that I was going to research 3 scholarships that I had received at one time or am still receiving.  It took a lot time reading what is already posted under the scholarship name from the online list.  Then I had to eliminate several because of the huge amount of information that was already there, thanks to the information that I got from Sarah Hendricks and Laurie Preston.  After that, I had to go back and finally pick the ones that I was going to research.  I came up with a list of around 50, which is 20 more than what I proposed I was going to research. I look forward to the next day of research and I hope this project runs smoothly.

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