Risking Everything: The Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964

1964 was a critical year for the Civil Rights Movement, seeing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-352) and the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It was also the year of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, which was a campaign to register African-American voters and support equal rights.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Summer Project, the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) has launched a new digital collection, which draws upon its substantial archival holdings of civil rights organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), as well as activists, including Amzie Moore, Mary King, and Howard Zinn. The collection contains over 25,000 pages of manuscript material and images, and offers complementary resources for educators.

In addition, WHS Press has published Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer Reader, an anthology of documents from the project. Its editor, Michael Edmonds, is featured in an interview in the video above. To learn more about the Wisconsin Historical Society, visit its website, and peruse its many online collections.

People for Bikes: Join Today

People for Bikes began as Bikes Belong in 1999, and currently advocates for greater safety and opportunities for bicyclists throughout the United States. At the state level, the Iowa Bicycle Coalition also works to improve safety and develop transportation and recreation networks.

The Buck Starts Here

The United States Mint issued a new commemorative one-dollar coin for Herbert Hoover in its presidential series on June 19, 2014. Herbert Clark Hoover [1874-1964] was the 31st American president and served from 1929-1933. The only president from Iowa, Hoover hailed from West Branch, where the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The new coins are being minted in Philadelphia and Denver, and are currently available for sale via the U.S. Mint's online shop. A first day of issue coin cover will be available July 10, 2014.

2014 Seed Savers Exchange Conference

Registration is now open for the 34rd annual Seed Savers Exchange Conference and Campout to be held July 18-20, 2014. The event will feature numerous speakers, workshops, and other activities on the grounds of Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa. A full schedule can be downloaded here [pdf]; early registration ends June 15.

Quad Cities Criterium 2014

The 49th annual Quad Cities Criterium, sponsored by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club (QCBC), took place on Memorial Day, May 26, 2014. After many years in Moline and Rock Island, this year's event was staged for the first time in the Village of East Davenport, Iowa.

The all-day event featured men's and women's races in various age classes, as well as a children's race. The men's pro class was won by Daniel Holloway of Morgan Hill, California, and the women's pro class was won by Gwen Inglis of Lakewood, Colorado.

Founded fifty years ago in 1964, the Quad Cities Bicycle Club is one of the oldest and largest in the United States, with over 1,200 members. The QCBC organizes many events, including the upcoming two-day Tour of the Mississippi Valley (TOMRV), which began in 1978 and currently draws 1,500 riders a year. In addition, a large contingent of club members rides on the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). More information about the club's activities and membership is available on the QCBC website.

Kiva 101

Since Kiva was founded in 2005, it has networked with 250 Field Partners in 75 different countries to provide $566,835,175 in microloans to 1,317,699 borrowers. To date, the Common Curator has made 101 loans through Kiva to small entrepreneurs in 64 countries. Kiva loans are interest-free and the overall repayment rate is currently 98.86%. As loans are repaid, most Kiva lenders choose to reloan their funds to new borrowers of their choosing.

Visit the Kiva website to learn more about microfinance and how the lending process works, as well as the many milestones in Kiva's history as an organization dedicated to alleviating poverty around the world.

Book Collecting Contest for College Bibliophiles

Entries are now being accepted for the 2014 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. Begun in 2005 by the Fine Books & Collections magazine for young bibliophiles, the competition is now jointly sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, as well as the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

A number of contests are currently held at colleges and universities around the U.S., with Swarthmore College's competition being the first in the 1920s. College-level students from all educational institutions, however, are encouraged to participate. Entries for this year's competition are due by May 30, 2014. Contest rules and further information are available at the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America website. Winners of the last several years can be viewed here: 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. Update: Winners for 2014 have also now been announced.

MayDay 2014: Saving Our History

Since 2006, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) has designated May 1st as MayDay, or a day of action for both individuals and organizations such as archives, libraries, museums, and historical societies to improve their capacities to deal with emergencies that can threaten or destroy historical collections. The ravages of natural disasters such as the tornadoes and hurricanes of recent years are just some of the physical risks facing cultural heritage institutions.

Although the landmark study, A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections (2005), systematically documented that most institutions lack an adequate disaster preparedness plan, the SAA has worked to mitigate these deficiencies. The SAA web site provides recommendations for MayDay activities, as well as a compilation of resources, including technical literature and tools, disaster plan templates and examples, tutorials and courses, bibliographies, and other resources.

May 1st, of course, is also International Workers' Day, which serves to commemorate the anniversary of the Haymarket Affair in Chicago. The eight-hour workday was a central demand of the Chicago labor movement in the 1860s, and a week-long, city-wide strike began on May 1, 1867. The strike collapsed, but the issue remained, with the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1884 calling for workers to take direct action and begin observing the eight-hour day on May 1, 1886. More on IWD can be found in the Common Curator post, the 125th Anniversary of the Haymarket Affair.

The Surf Zombies: It's a ... Thing!

Practitioners of the tsunami school of surf music, The Surf Zombies have recently issued their fourth album, It's a ... Thing!. A medley video of their latest tunes can be viewed on YouTube.

Their first album, the self-titled Surf Zombies, appeared in 2008, and was followed by Something Weird in 2009, with Lust for Rust being released in 2012.

Their latest album can be purchased on CD Baby. For those interested in seeing the band perform live, the Surf Zombies will be appearing at Torque Fest 2014 in Dubuque, Iowa at 7 pm, Friday, May 2, 2014.

Kickstarting the Morbid Anatomy Museum

Spearheaded by Joanna Ebenstein, creator of the Morbid Anatomy blog in 2007, the Kickstarter campaign for the new Morbid Anatomy Museum located in Brooklyn, New York has just surpassed its goal of $60,000. There is, however, still another five days to contribute to this worthwhile project, which will:

. . . feature permanent and temporary exhibitions, a café/bar, a gift shop, an expanded library and more ambitious programming. It will be a beautiful and inspiring space to foster our unique international community of supporters, friends, artists, rogue scholars and like-minded enthusiasts; a place which enshrines that which we hold dear, a place to study, to delight; a place to “meet the others.”

To learn more about this ambitious undertaking, visit the Morbid Anatomy Museum project page on Kickstarter. Ebenstein, along with co-editor Colin Dickey, recently concluded another highly successful Kickstarter project with the publication of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, a well-illustrated and handsomely-produced volume of essays on a number of fascinating topics.

#NotABugSplat

The above image is an on-site installation in Pakistan. Produced by an artist collective, the large scale of the portrait is intended to put a visible human face on potential targets of drone missiles, which are sometimes referred to by drone operators as "bug splats." More information on the project is available at the #NotaBugSplat website.

Plant a Tree, or a Million, for Arbor Day

To commemorate Arbor Day, check out the free PDF version of The Forest Where Ashley Lives, an educational book about the value and care of urban forests, written by Mark A. and Ashley L. Vitosh, and illustrated by John L. Smith. Intended for elementary school readers, the text has won an Arbor Day Foundation Education Award. The book is also available in print from the Iowa State University Extension online store.

The Laughing Song and Hallelujah among Latest Entries to the National Recording Registry

In the twelfth year of the National Recording Registry, Librarian of Congress James Billington has announced 25 sound recordings as the official entries for 2013, stating: "These recordings represent an important part of America’s culture and history. As technology continually changes and formats become obsolete, we must ensure that our nation’s aural legacy is protected. The National Recording Registry is at the core of this effort." Under the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, selected recordings must be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and at least ten years old.

In chronological order, the selections for 2013 are as follows:

1. "The Laughing Song" (single)—George Washington Johnson (c. 1896)
2. "They Didn’t Believe Me"—Harry Macdonough and Alice Green (1915)
3. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" (singles)—Bing Crosby; Rudy Vallee (both 1932)
4. "Franz Boas and George Herzog Recordings of Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Dan Cranmer (1938)
5. "Were You There" (single)—Roland Hayes (1940)
6. "The Goldbergs": Sammy Goes Into the Army (July 9, 1942)
7. "Caldonia" (single)—Louis Jordan (1945)
8. "Dust My Broom" (single)—Elmore James (1951)
9. "A Night at Birdland" (Vols. 1 and 2) (albums)—Art Blakey (1954)
10. "When I Stop Dreaming" (single)—The Louvin Brothers (1955)
11. "Cathy’s Clown" (single)—The Everly Brothers (1960)
12. "Texas Sharecropper and Songster" (album)—Mance Lipscomb (1960)
13. "The First Family" (album) (1962)
14. Lawrence Ritter’s Interviews with Baseball Pioneers of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century (1962-1966)
15. Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson (Nov. 22, 1963 – Jan. 10, 1969)
16. "Carnegie Hall Concert with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos" (album)—Buck Owens and His Buckaroos (1966)
17. "Fortunate Son" (single)—Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)
18. "Theme from ‘Shaft’" (album)—Isaac Hayes (1971)
19. "Only Visiting This Planet" (album)—Larry Norman (1972)
20. "Celia & Johnny" (album)—Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco (1974)
21. "Copland Conducts Copland: Appalachian Spring"—Aaron Copland (1974)
22. "Heart Like a Wheel" (album)—Linda Ronstadt (1974)
23. "Sweeney Todd" (album)—Original Cast Recording (1979)
24. "The Joshua Tree" (album)—U2 (1987)
25. "Hallelujah" (single)—Jeff Buckley (1994)

The full National Recording Registry currently numbers 400 recordings, and can be viewed here. The Registry solicits nominations for inclusion on the registry; further information on the criteria and procedures for making nominations is available at the Registry website.    

Play It Hard: A Tribute to Norman Borlaug

Biology Fortified and The International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) have produced a tribute video to Nobel Laureate, Dr. Norman Borlaug, who would have turned 100 on March 25, 2014. For further information on Borlaug's work, see the related Common Curator post, Statue for the Green Revolution.

Statue for the Green Revolution

A newly commissioned statue by the State of Iowa was unveiled today in the U.S. Capitol Building's National Statuary Hall to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug, known as the father of the Green Revolution [video]. An Iowa native, Dr. Borlaug [1914-2009] spent his career developing disease-resistant and high-yielding wheat varieties and other cereal grains that greatly increased food production around the world. His work is estimated by some to have saved as many as one billion people from starvation.

Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, and later received the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of Science, the only American to have ever earned all four honors. In his Nobel Lecture, entitled "The Green Revolution, Peace, and Humanity," Borlaug stated:

. . . the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world. Yet today fifty percent of the world's population goes hungry. Without food, man can live at most but a few weeks; without it, all other components of social justice are meaningless. 

In 1986, Borlaug created the World Food Prize to recognize those who have "advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world."

The Borlaug statue, shown above, was created by artist Benjamin Victor. Each state is permitted two statues in National Statuary Hall; the statue of Borlaug will replace James Harlan, and will join Samuel Jordan Kirkwood's statue, which was installed in 1913 by Vinnie Ream, the first woman and youngest artist to receive a U.S. Government commission. She is known for her statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Capitol Rotunda.