20/02/08

14:30 Chris Witmore and I visited the University Archives in the John Hay to inquire about obtaining more of the photographs in a higher resolution. We discovered there were also some interior photographs of RI Hall that I had not seen last time because they are of the period when the building housed the taxidermy collection, and so are filed under 'M' for Museum. Ray Butti, whom I had talked to previously had emailed me to let me know that he had found some other documents relating to the building, and I will definitely want to scan those in as well. They are hand written documents from 1839 concerning the proposed building of RI Hall, with five documents concerning the subscriptions from Rhode Islanders, and one providing a specification of the mason's work for the proposed edifice. We decided to photograph the documents and photographs to avoid being charged for the scanning. We were introduced to the University Archivist, Jay Gaidmore, as we were leaving. He was very interested in the project, and expressed interest in getting access to the wiki when it's complete, because such a thorough documentation of RI Hall would be in the interest of the University Archives as well. He did not think it would be a problem for me to scan in the materials I needed if I did it myself to avoid taking up the time of the archivists. This would be a better option that photographing everything, and so I will make arrangements to go in and do that myself.

22/02/08

15:00 I had emailed Jay about coming in to scan, and I collected all the materials that I need to scan together. There are a high number of photographs of the building, and so I am selecting the ones that would be most relevant, and that are not already in the online Josiah collection. Scanning the photos and documents in at 1200 dpi means that it will be possible to zoom in on the material. It also means the scanning process takes a long time.

16:30 Ray brought out some prints of the early campus that are in the collections here, and solved a small mystery that had been bothering me. One of the prints I had already found on Josiah, but it was strange because RI Hall was located in a different place. Ray said that it had been done after the completed plans for the building had been drawn up, but before the building was actually built. The artist knew what the building would look like but oriented it in the wrong place.

25/02/08

9:50 The exterior stucco of RI Hall was supposed to be tested today, but I just received an email from Sarah saying it was being delayed until tomorrow. I was planning to go investigate this before class at 11, but instead I am going to go over to the John Hay to get a scan or two done before then.

12:00 The statue of Caesar Augustus had come up in my Roman Art and Archeology class, and I had mentioned that it had originally been in front if RI Hall until the 1950s. Coincidentally, I was talking to Jacob, one of my friends outside of class about it, and he told me that it had been moved because of the hurricane that had resulted in one of the arms being broken. The logic behind the move, apparently, is that there are no trees on Wriston Quad that could potentially damage the statue. Interesting.

14:00 I attended the architects meeting in the Joukowsky Institute with Sue Alcock and Sarah Sharpe. I had seen the proposed plans before, but it was really interesting to hear the architects talk over all the details and issues that have not been decided upon, and get a sense of how the building is evolving and changing even in this early stage. The issues discussed included practicality issues such as where to locate the mailboxes, something that had not yet been taken into account, as well as issues of aesthetics and design. The materials for the walls of the seminar room on the first floor was an issue that was focused on a lot, as well as the use of wall space for display purposes. This is important in any academic building, but perhaps particularly so for a discipline that is so focused around observation, artifacts and images. The Joukowsky Institute has an extensive collection in various media, and they will want to display some of it around the building, which is interesting because this is similar to the function of RI Hall when it acted as a museum for the taxidermy collection. In a way, the building is returning to this earlier functionality. Another topic was the piece of sculpture proposed for the second floor that would act as a device for dividing up the space comfortably, and dispersing the light. It would be located in the graduate student area, and the architects saw it coming to act as a definitive aspect of the grad student experience in the Institute. This was an interesting concept to me because as an undergraduate I don't often think about grad student life in a lot of detail, but it seems to be making the study of archeology in the Institute much more of an experience, as supposed to merely an academic pursuit. In this way, the building is taking a more definitive role in shaping the students' experience and making it very site specific.

notebook- spring 2008