Saturday was the third of six meetings for the archives class I’m taking this semester. Despite the massive hand cramp incurred by the mid term, it was by far the most enjoyable class yet, largely because we got to do some hands-on work with the collections. Well, hands-mediated-by-white-gloves, anyway.

Ok, so wading through yellowed newspaper clippings on the off chance of finding some interesting ephemera is not most folks’ idea of a good time. But I had a blast, and found a photo of an Oklahoma City women’s choir for my trouble. By their clothes I’d guess the picture was taken in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s, but it was a little difficult to see details because of the size of the picture and the lack of a magnifier.

The other particularly neat things in the box I went through were programs to two traveling theater productions: Wagner’s Parcifal and the stage version of Ben-Hur. The former was in pretty bad shape — very brown, and the cover was crumbling — but the latter was beautiful: the cover still white, the colors bright, and the ribbon binding still in good shape.

Oh, and those gloves? The instructor had this to say about them:

We launder these until they become holey, and then they become part of the religious collection.