Given the impact volunteering at UMBC’s Special Collections had on me over the fall semester, I felt compelled to return in the spring. And so I did, diving back in with a sense of familiarity and an ever-growing curiosity that led me to new and unexpected aspects of archival work. At the heart of this curiosity was the recognition that archival work is a form of care – care for people, their stories, and the spaces that hold them.
My duties for the Maryland Traditions Archives (MTA) remained largely consistent from the fall. I continued to hone my processing skills, this time pivoting to an Oella Company records box in Collection 348 with materials related to the George Ellicott House Restoration Project. Meticulously sorting through correspondence, fact sheets, and meeting notes deepened my understanding of the persistence and resilience involved in historic preservation, work driven by the dedication to maintaining a building so vital to the region’s history. Archivists in Special Collections embody that same dedication, whose daily efforts reflect care and stewardship for people and their histories. In addition to processing, a few unexpected tasks came up. I helped prepare materials for an archiving class by reviewing folders for sensitive content and supported the lighting setup for a photoshoot with Gef, Special Collections’ resident mascot, both of which reflect the quiet, behind-the-scenes efforts that contribute to the purpose of the archive.
What I found most meaningful this semester, though, was the opportunity to volunteer at MTA’s “Digitization Day,” an event focused on preserving the histories of Baltimore’s American Indian community. Sitting beside Susan Graham, Special Collections Librarian, in the South Broadway Baptist Church, I interviewed a community member while she scanned their documents. I was honored to learn the history behind the certificates, programs, and pictures the community member brought. Even after the event, as I transcribe the interview, I am struck by the narratives shared—an experience that will stay with me far beyond my time at UMBC.
Samantha DiNatale and Susan Graham, Digitization Day 2025
Volunteering at Special Collections was a way to more deeply engage with my own research – to dig deeper into the methods I used for various projects. Now, it feels like a way to serve broader historical justice. Through processing records, preparing archival materials for instruction, and helping preserve community memory, I’ve come to see archival work as a research tool and a form of care. I am deeply grateful to Maryland Traditions Archivist Mark Breeding and the Special Collections team for their mentorship, trust, and generosity this year. What I have learned and experienced is invaluable.
This post was written by graduate student volunteer, Samantha DiNatale, M.A. ’25.
Over the course of 50 weeks, from October 1979 to September 1980, the “To Say Their Own Word” prison program invited scholars, journalists, social activists, and incarcerated audience members to discuss various topics surrounding the United States’ carceral system and its social consequences. Some of the issues covered throughout the program included U.S. fascism, capitalism, the prison-industrial complex, and government surveillance. The “To Say Their Own Word” prison program collection consists of 29 videos of these presentations at the then Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore, Maryland.
The program was a collaborative effort between Marshall “Eddie” Conway, Brenda Vogel, and sponsors, including the National Endowment for the Humanities and Correctional Libraries of the Maryland State Department of Education. Conway was himself incarcerated as a political prisoner when he helped organize the educational outreach program. Brenda Vogel was a librarian with the Maryland Department of Education who collaborated with Conway and wrote the grant to fund the project. Eddie Conway’s work as a leader of the Black Panther Party before being incarcerated provided him with the background to organize to improve the lives of himself and his fellow inmates. At the time, the Maryland Penitentiary was known for its brutality and low literacy rate. As Conway got into the prison movement, he worked to make change, including advocating against beatings by guards and creating a library, newsletter, and radio program.
Through the “To Say Their Own Word” program, literacy levels among the incarcerated men at the Maryland Penitentiary increased, with some going to school and graduating from college. In the words of Conway, “We decided to develop a larger university style people’s program in the prison that would help educate prisoners that weren’t necessarily involved in the local politics, but would bring them abreast of what was going on locally, nationally, and internationally.”2 For the organizers of the program, the goal was to provide this university-level program to the men at the Maryland Penitentiary and acknowledge the talent, intellect, and ability among the incarcerated men by allowing them a space to speak and share their thoughts.3
The videos in the collection were digitized by The Real News Network (TRNN) from the original Maryland State Department of Education VHS tapes, and are now hosted on the UMBC Special Collections’ Vimeo. In another collaborative effort, much like the original “To Say Their Own Words” program, TRNN, UMBC’s Special Collections department, UMBC’s Public Humanities program, and the Baltimore Field School partnered to develop programming around the collection. Excerpts from the oral history interviews conducted were featured at a free public event on April 26, 2023. Additionally, the Baltimore Field School provided funding to summarize the contents, which is available in each video’s description. Each video begins with the speaker’s presentation on their topic and ends with the incarcerated audience members providing questions, comments, and reflections. A few of the presentations centered around media portrayals of incarcerated people and life in the carceral system. The discussion from January 14th, 1980 featured Eddie Conway and Brenda Vogel along with 4 other panelists to discuss the movie Fugitive from a Chain Gang and the book I Am a Fugitive From A Georgia Chain Gang!. The final presentation of the program centered on Convicts 4 with Constance Goldman, a correspondent for National Public Radio, and the audience reflecting on the movie.
Eddie Conway “To Say Their Own Word” movie panel
Other panels spoke to national and international concerns such as Askia Muhammad’s talk “Cultural Imprisonment: The Effects of Foreign Policy,” in which the discussion focused on genocidal conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia as well as the weaponization of United State foreign policy. There were also two panels revolving around women for the final presentations in 1979. The first video features the audience posing questions to Professor Nijole Benokratis on topics such as the power dynamics between gender roles. The second, from December 17th, is another talk centered on media with Alfie Brown speaking on the conceptualization of women through the film I Want to Live and the image of the white American woman incarcerated in the 1950s.
Askia Muhammad “To Say Their Own Word” presentation
The To Say Their Own Word prison program collection provides an important glimpse into the prison organizing movements of the 1970s, and the importance of having one’s voice heard. Saleem El-Amin, a former participant of the program, remarked that “When people listen and you feel like you’re a part of something, it gave you a chance for change. I think it kind of kept us in touch with our humanity, really.”4
The videos in the collection can be accessed through the Vimeo landing page and the Additional Information Descriptions in the collection’s Finding Aid on the UMBC Special Collections website.
This post was written by Annyah St. Louis, ’23, history, M.A. ’25, history, a graduate assistant in Special Collections. Thank you, Annyah!
Musa, Mansa. “How Maryland Inmates Organized for University-Level Education in Prison.” The Real News Network, September 8, 2023. https://therealnews.com/how-maryland-inmates-organized-for-university-level-education-in-prison. ↩︎
Musa, Mansa. “How Maryland Inmates Organized for University-Level Education in Prison.” The Real News Network, September 8, 2023. https://therealnews.com/how-maryland-inmates-organized-for-university-level-education-in-prison. ↩︎
Musa, Mansa. “How Maryland Inmates Organized for University-Level Education in Prison.” The Real News Network, September 8, 2023. https://therealnews.com/how-maryland-inmates-organized-for-university-level-education-in-prison. ↩︎
Musa, Mansa. “How a 1970s Prisoner-Organized Literacy Program Changed Maryland’s Penitentiaries.” The Real News Network, April 25, 2023. https://therealnews.com/how-a-1970s-prisoner-organized-literacy-program-changed-marylands-penitentiaries. ↩︎
Sources
Conway, Marshall, and Dominique Stevenson. Marshall Law: The Life & Times of a Baltimore Black Panther. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2011.
Day, Susie, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Brother You Choose: Paul Coates and Eddie Conway Talk About Life, Politics, and The Revolution. La Vergne: Haymarket Books, 2020.
When someone asks me to explain my job, my go-to answer is that I work in a book warehouse. Admittedly, it is flawed as explanations go. First, the book part is not strictly accurate. The department’s holdings are far more eclectic than just old books. Photographs, fanzines, old pamphlets, newspapers, and papers from scientific associations are a few examples of the items I work with. Second, the labor involved varies beyond the purely physical. Though much of my job involves moving, storing, and organizing objects, it also requires non-physically intensive duties like data entry, office work, and writing blog posts.
So why do I always start with physical labor when explaining my job? There are two reasons. First, it surprises people. Truthfully, it surprised me too when I started working here. When people think about archives, they do not think of physical labor. Archivists are professionals; people who work with their brains rather than their hands. Yet I worked with my hands just as much—if not more—than I talked to our researchers. Indeed, the customer service aspects of the job directly relate to physical labor. Researchers come to our reading room to read something, something that needs to be found, retrieved, and prepared for public consumption. Second, I enjoy physical labor more than any of my other duties. There is something satisfying about tracking down a single item in a sea of others, filling up a cart with all the items needed for a class, or reorganizing a shelf so that a new edition can fit in its proper location.
The importance of physical labor in archival work raises essential questions about keeping the job accessible. Since 2010, the profession has strongly pushed to ensure the rights of archivists with disabilities. The Society of American Archivists (hereafter the Society)—the leading professional association for archivists in the United States—published a series of guidelines to make the archives an accessible workplace. The Society recommended reforms to the hiring process, building space, and employee policy to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. Though these guidelines are certainly a step in the right direction, two significant factors limit the full implementation of these reforms: space and technology.
Regarding space, Special Collections only has limited rooms available to store items. This means that certain storage areas are narrow, particularly in one room. This would likely make it difficult for someone in a wheelchair to navigate. Compounding this is the older nature of the technology we use to retrieve and store items: hand cranks to move certain shelves, slightly rickety step stools to retrieve objects on higher shelves, and push carts to move items across the complex. These tools are hardly the most accessible for archivists with physical disabilities. Given the financial resources of the archive and the university, these are the resources we need to work with.
As someone with a diagnosed disability, I have some firsthand experiences with the frustrations that sometimes come up on the job. One of the stronger parts of being autistic is never quite knowing where I am in space. The way I like to explain it is that everything I see is tilted at a 25-degree angle. So, everything always seems either closer or further away than it is. This spatial distortion is problematic when trying to ensure I do not crash a loading cart into the main room door. Likewise, physical writing is difficult for me. Even something as simple as filling out a series of call slips to mark an item’s location can become painful. That said, I have no plans to change my duties at Special Collections. These tasks are essential for the archive’s functioning, and I enjoy them. However, the ability to power through a disability is a privilege not everyone possesses. Thus, UMBC Special Collections must continue to do all it can to ensure that the work remains accessible to every potential archivist, student worker, and volunteer.
This post was written by Yoni Isaacs, ’22, history, M.A. ’26, history, a graduate assistant in Special Collections. Thank you, Yoni!
The Walter Orlinsky collection of Baltimore Public Works Municipal photographs is now available in the UMBC Digital Collections. The Walter Orlinsky collection contains 196 photographs on lantern slides showcasing the city of Baltimore at the turn of the century. The digital collection includes 147 of the 196 images from the Walter Orlinsky collection, featuring political campaign advertisements, public works, city improvements, Baltimore cityscapes, and drawings of Union soldiers. The total collection encompasses the 1890s to 1930s. The bulk of the materials, including those in the digital collection, highlight work undertaken by and propaganda for James H. Preston (March 23, 1860 – July 14, 1938), the 37th Mayor of Baltimore. Preston served as mayor for two terms from May 1911 to May 1919, extending the boundaries of Baltimore and expanding the population.
Portrait Photo of James Preston in a Suit
Before and After Photographs of Alleyways in Baltimore
Preston’s tenure as mayor occurred during the Progressive Era, typically defined as spanning from the 1890s to the 1920s. Following waves of mass migration and immigration, the era was rife with social and political reform, including an interest in “cleaning up” and modernizing cities. Preston’s time as the mayor of Baltimore was no different, with civil works improvements and the modernization of roads and infrastructure as major goals, as highlighted in many of the images in the digital collection. Photographs of people, buildings, and construction promote the development of Baltimore in the early twentieth century and the political campaigning that went along with these changes.
Campaign advertisement for James Preston that reads, Vote for Preston and Progress.
The political campaign advertisements in the Walter Orlinsky collection highlight improvements under Preston, using words such as progress and efficiency to entice voters to support him for mayor. However, much of Preston’s “progress” involved racist housing covenants and the forceful removal of African Americans. In 1917, during Preston’s time as mayor, the Supreme Court ruled that residential segregation ordinances like the one adopted by the previous mayor in 1910 were unconstitutional. According to the Supreme Court, such ordinances were unconstitutional because they restricted the freedom of homeowners to sell to whomever they wanted, rather than any infringement on the rights of African Americans to reside wherever they wished.In response to the ruling, Preston instructed city inspectors and health department investigators to cite anyone who rented or sold to Black people in predominantly white neighborhoods for code violations. Preston Gardens is one site where Preston’s policies and “improvements” led to the destruction of African American communities in the 1910s. Explore Baltimore Heritage provides more information about the impact of Preston Gardens and the St. Paul Street improvements on the Black Baltimore community.
Campaign advertisement for James Preston that reads, Preston Stands for Progress Why Change?
Special Collections holds other materials that provide more information on the development of Baltimore in the twentieth century. The Baltimore Book, part of the Arnold Collection of the UMBC Special Collections, was published by the City of Baltimore in 1912, during Preston’s first term as mayor. As a “response to the demand for accurate information concerning Baltimore, its resources, its general development, and its municipal activities,” The Baltimore Book provides a report on a variety of topics, including Baltimore’s sewage system, parks, industries, living conditions, markets, and history. This report from the Baltimore government is a perfect resource to learn more about the people, places, and work highlighted in the Walter Orlinsky collection.
Campaign advertisement for James Preston that reads, Vote for Preston and Progress.
New Public School #22. Preston Administration.
The Walter Orlinsky collection is now available online for browsing through the UMBC Digital Collections. The Baltimore Book and other sources on Baltimore’s development throughout the twentieth century are available by appointment and walk-in through the UMBC Special Collections reading room, which is open Monday through Thursday. If you have any questions, contact Special Collections at speccoll@umbc.edu.
This post was written by Annyah St. Louis, ’23, history, M.A. ’25, history, a graduate assistant in Special Collections. Thank you, Annyah!
Sources:
Campaign advertisement for James Preston that reads, These improvements must continue and with your help Baltimore will be a Great Modern City.
Coyle, Wilber Franklin. The Baltimore Book; a Resume of the Commercial, Industrial and Financial Resources, Municipal Activities and General Development of the City of Baltimore. Baltimore: Summers Printing Co., 1912.
Pietila, Antero. Not in My Neighborhood : How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City. Ivan R. Dee, 2010.
On December 9, 1910, the Baltimore government passed an “ordinance for preserving order, securing property values and promoting the general interests and insuring the good government of Baltimore City.”
– “…innovation was the use of government legislation to achieve systematic, citywide race separation.” (23)
Rothstein, Richard. “From Ferguson to Baltimore: The Fruits of Government-Sponsored Segregation.” Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law 24, no. 2 (2015): 205–10. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26408163.
Ware, Leland. “Plessy’s Legacy: The Government’s Role in the Development and Perpetuation of Segregated Neighborhoods.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7, no. 1 (2021): 92–109. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2021.7.1.06.
