The children of a disabled miner stand in the doorway of their home in this photo used by President Lyndon Johnson to publicize his War on Poverty program.

Procter Reagan and his son Terry stand outside their home in the Dogwalk community in Fentress County, Tenn. He is staring at two reporters who have just walked up the hill with his son Charles, who had been held in a Nashville jail for months without charges.

Unforgettable images of coal miners and their families in Appalachia have been donated by award-winning photojournalist Jack Corn to Vanderbilt’s Special Collections, bolstering the libraries’ collected works of journalists and providing a vivid historical reference for this important social era.

Corn’s works helped explain the lives of the Appalachian people to the rest of the country before the era of the Internet. His image of three children on the porch of a dilapidated home became the face of President Johnson’s War on Poverty, helping Americans see the people behind the severe poverty and desolation that plagued the region.

“This is an important chapter in history, and people ought to know about it,” Corn said. “Donating these photographs to the Vanderbilt Library is the right thing to do. I want people to understand this small niche of history.”

Albert “Ab” Newberry with his two sons Albert Ray and Bobby in Crawford, Tenn., by noted photojournalist Jack Corn.

With a framed portrait of John F. Kennedy at his side, Ed Marlowe, paralyzed from a roof fall in a coal mine, gazes out his window to see who is approaching the house.

“Jack’s photographs document an important part of the nation’s history, a part that many would like to sweep under the rug,” said Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell. “His collection will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, sociologists and art historians.”

“Jack Corn’s exceptional talents and insights bring to light the lives of those miners whose hard work heated our homes, even while their families paid a terrible price,” Provost Richard McCarty said. “These dramatic images tell the story more clearly than any text I could imagine.”

Children made do with what they had for playground games. Outside the one-room Buffalo School, Shirley King plays “jump stick” as Wayne Overton holds the branch.

Coal miners in Wise, Va., head into the elevator at shift change. Each carries a federally mandated water jug and a lunch pail.

Corn’s photography career began at The Tennessean, his hometown paper, where he rose to chief photographer and worked with John Seigenthaler and Jim Squires. Corn later became director of photography for the Chicago Tribune and then photojournalist-in-residence at Western Kentucky University.

“As a journalist, I teamed with Jack Corn on many assignments and came to understand his unique ability to capture—in a flash with a single photograph—the essence of a human interest story that I had struggled to write,” said Seigenthaler, chairman emeritus of The Tennessean and founder of the First Amendment Center. “So often, the written word seemed wasted beside Corn’s work. Viewers of this collection will see art that bespeaks joy, pain, anger, elation, dejection, faith—and so much more. His photographs now enrich the life of the Vanderbilt library as they once enriched the newspapers in which they were published.”

Corn began documenting life in Appalachia through newspaper assignments and then on his own. In 1973, he participated in Documerica, a monumental photodocumentary project to record changes in the American environment. For the project, Corn focused his lens on the plight of the American coal miner. He later wrote, “I submitted a plan to photograph the effects of coal mining on both the environment and the people who mined the coal.”

Assisting in curating the Corn exhibit was senior Emily Cook, the library’s first Heard Fellow. The fellowship program is for seniors and graduate students interested in participating in strategic library projects, and it is one of the important ways that the library reaches out to students for input.

One of Vanderbilt’s most well-known graduates, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (BA’62) and his wife, Honey Alexander, have made one of the most important donations in the Jean and Alexander Heard Library’s history by giving their pre-Senate papers to Special Collections.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (BA'62)

The collection contains a wealth of historical documents from Alexander’s political campaigns, his two terms as governor, Honey Alexander’s roles as wife, mother, first lady and advocate for family causes, along with the senator’s correspondence with close friend and author Alex Haley. Papers from Alexander’s tenure as president of the University of Tennessee and U.S. secretary of education are also included.

Sen. Alexander (left) and Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos share a light moment at the September opening of the exhibit.

“Honey and I felt that the archives should reflect the voices of the countless Tennesseans who have worked with us to raise educational standards, attract industry and build confidence among the state’s residents,” Alexander said. “To support this, Vanderbilt’s libraries have already begun an oral history project recording the stories of those who played major roles.”

The collection speaks richly of Alexander’s two terms as governor, which began in 1979 when America was still pulling itself out of the Watergate quagmire and struggling to regain confidence in its political leadership. Alexander’s pre-Senate papers reflect the challenges that Republicans across the country faced during the 1980s along with the opportunities in education and business development that he and other state leaders identified and moved forward.

(above) Nissan CEO Marvin Runyon and Lamar Alexander shake hands as the first Sentra rolls off the production line in March 1985. Alexander was instrumental in drawing both Japanese manufacturing and the auto industry to Tennessee. (top of page) As Tennessee’s governor, Lamar Alexander addresses the crowd at his inauguration in January 1983.

Sen. Alexander relaxes on a porch swing in Henning, Tenn., with author Alex Haley. It was here that Haley first heard the stories that led to his book Roots.

Sen. Alexander demonstrates an interactive display for (counterclockwise from bottom left) Memphis attorney and former Alexander state commissioner Lewis Donelson, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Alexander’s Deputy Chief of Staff and State Director Patrick Jaynes at the exhibit opening.

“Sen. Alexander’s unique set of experiences as governor, U.S. secretary of education, university president and presidential candidate comprise an archive that will be a national treasure mined by scholars for generations,” said Connie Vinita Dowell, dean of libraries. “This is clearly one of Vanderbilt’s most important collections.”

Dean Connie Vinita Dowell chose this topic for the first major exhibit in the newly renovated Central Library.

Tommy and Dick Smothers (above) starred in the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” one of the most controversial TV shows of the Vietnam War era. The post-WWII demand for cheap transportation led to the creation of the tiny egg-shaped BMW Isetta (right), the first “bubble car.”

“This exhibit marks the beginning of a new exhibits program designed to bring to the Nashville community as well as those on campus a glimpse of the remarkable collections of Vanderbilt’s libraries,” Dowell said. I am grateful to Celia Walker (director of special projects), Jody Combs (assistant dean for information technology), our bibliographers and our Special Collections staff whose expertise made the exhibit possible.”

The exhibit brings a uniquely Vanderbilt perspective to the memorable era. “Our focus is on nationally significant stories that are drawn from our own collections,” Walker says. “Drawing on the rich resources of the library’s Special Collections, the exhibit examines the Vietnam War, civil rights, the space race, and the way communication changed through television and motion pictures. Utilizing interactive technology, the exhibits also take a look at what life was like at Vanderbilt during the Sixties and explore the challenges and triumphs that marked the decade.”

With the perspective of a half-century, the Sixties will be remembered as the decade that changed our nation—when we reached for the stars and struggled to find the meaning of equality.

The exhibit will continue through August 13, 2011.

President John F. Kennedy spoke at Vanderbilt’s 90th anniversary convocation on May 18, 1963, saying, “If the pursuit of learning is not defended by the educated citizen, it will not be defended at all.” Below, new touch screens in the Central Library help tell the story of The Sixties, and Cary Grant on the set of That Touch of Mink, directed by the late Delbert Mann, a Vanderbilt alumnus and trustee emeritus.

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy (center), flanked by Andrew Young, Bernard Scott Lee and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaks at a press conference following the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Top right, Delbert Mann’s casting notes from That Touch of Mink. Bottom right, a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Apollo VII, the first manned Apollo mission, was crewed by Donn F. Eisele (left), Walter M. Schirra and Walter Cunningham. Their October 1968 flight featured the first live TV broadcast from a manned spacecraft.

Longtime NBC President and Chairman of the Board Julian Goodman, whose accomplished news career includes the Huntley/Brinkley years and the Nixon/Kennedy debates and beyond, has deposited his papers in the Vanderbilt Libraries Special Collections.

“The addition of Julian Goodman’s papers affirms Vanderbilt’s standing as an international resource for American news and the American view of history,” said Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell. The Goodman papers are one of the anchors of our growing holdings of news leaders and political figures who shaped the news and lived at the center of so many important events of our time. Goodman’s archives are especially significant for us because their papers relate to and support the content of the Vanderbilt Television News Archives. All together, these print and media collections are a mark of distinction for Vanderbilt University.”

Goodman, now 88, sees the media world as a different planet today—an unending news cycle, hundreds of cable networks, outspoken commentators, millions of websites. But he is philosophical about the technological revolution of better communication, faster reporting and fierce competition.

“There are more opportunities to be inaccurate now,” he says. “But there are plenty of people to correct you. Your competition will correct you.”

Goodman’s papers reflect the business of broadcasting from 1945, when he started as a news writer, through his 1979 retirement at the helm of the network. The content of the collection
will support and inform how scholars understand the NBC news broadcasts of the early years of the Television News Archive, particularly the period from 1968 to 1974. John Seigenthaler (founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt, former editor, publisher and chairman of The Tennessean, and founding editorial director of USA Today), agrees that Goodman’s collection will complement the focus of the archives.

“For more than three decades, Julian Goodman’s work and leadership at NBC were a vital force in shaping, enlivening and enhancing the culture of our nation’s communications media,” Seigenthaler said. “The gift of his papers to Vanderbilt is an archival treasure. The documents will enrich the work of researchers seeking to understand the unique impact television had on our society, our government and our politics in the second half of the 20th century. Constitutional scholars will find Julian’s courageous stand for rights of free expression of particular interest.  The papers provide yet another dimension to the magnetic appeal of the TV News Archives created by Vanderbilt more than 40 years ago.”

Goodman, a native of Glasgow, Ky., became NBC’s youngest president at 44. He was chief of network news during its heyday, nurturing the talent of star newscaster David Brinkley and overseeing one of the great anchor teams in TV history, Brinkley and Chet Huntley. He pioneered the TV newsmagazine format (ahead of 60 Minutes) with the award-winning David Brinkley’s Journal in the early 1960s.
During the 1960 national election campaign, Goodman produced the second broadcast of “The Great Debates” between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon and later earned a spot on then-President Nixon’s infamous enemies list.

The nearly four decades of Julian Goodman’s NBC career, from 1945 to 1979, reads like a course in modern American history.

Honors have been heaped upon Goodman during his long career. In 1974 he was honored with a George Foster Peabody Award for his “outstanding work in the area of First Amendment rights and privileges for broadcasting.” In 1976 he received broadcasting’s most prestigious honor, the National Association of Broadcaster’s Distinguished Service Award, for his work as a “broadcast journalist, program innovator and industry leader.” He has also been honored in the academic world, winning the Distinguished Alumni Award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Outstanding Alumnus of Kentucky award from the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education.

Brinkley summed up the career of his close friend and longtime boss on the national news upon the occasion of Goodman’s retirement in 1979.

“Julian Goodman came to work at NBC in 1945 as a news writer, back in the days of steam radio (“steam radio” was a term coined in the U.K. in the early 1950s to describe radio as old-fashioned in comparison to television) when the news was read by announcers,” Brinkley said. “Well, from there he rose to president and board chairman of NBC and to becoming one of the most admired and respected people in broadcasting. Along the way, he, as much as anyone, helped to make NBC News and all television news, a useful and reliable service to the public.”

Goodman and his wife, Betty, live in Jupiter, Fla.

Vanderbilt Professor William Luis unearthed the bold image above from the Olivella collection. He believes it may have been used as a cover on an early edition of Manuel Zapata Olivella’s famous novel, Chango, el gran putas.

In the photo above, Olivella is shown making a presentation.

The library has acquired the papers of Manuel Zapata Olivella, the 20th century’s most important Afro-Hispanic narrator, according to William Luis, Chancellor’s Professor of Spanish. Olivella was a doctor, anthropologist, folklorist, diplomat and writer and is one of the most distinguished figures in contemporary Colombian literature. More than any other person, Olivella has been recognized for his focus on the people of African descent, not only to the history and society of Colombia, but also to the Americas as a whole.

The new acquisition, funded by the Heard Library Society, complements Vanderbilt’s J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana. Eminent historian Malcolm Deas, a fellow at St. Antony’s College in Oxford and former director of the Latin American Centre at Oxford University, says Helguera “was able to put together what is without the slightest doubt the finest collection of Colombiana outside the country. If I may offer a comparison, the Helguera collection is in the United States for Columbia the equivalent of the University of Texas’s collections of materials on Mexico. It is the leading collection, with no close rival anywhere, in certain respects not even the Library of Congress.”

Paula Covington, Vanderbilt’s Latin American and Iberian bibliographer and an internationally recognized scholar, says the Olivella collection will have major impact. “This collection is significant because it represents the output of an author who pioneered the Afro-Latin American novel,” she said. “Prior to this, we have not owned any personal collections or manuscripts of a major Latin American writer.”

Manuel Zapata Olivella (above) was a doctor, anthropologist, folklorist, diplomat and gifted writer.

Covington and former University Librarian Paul Gherman worked for more than three years with Olivella’s daughter and the Colombian government (notably the Colombian Ministry of Culture) to purchase the collection. Vanderbilt doctoral student Pablo Gómez, a Colombian native, played a vital role by meeting with Olivella’s daughter, inspecting the collection and overseeing the crating of 150 boxes and shepherding them through the Colombian customs.

One of the most distinguished figures in contemporary Colombian literature, Olivella, shown above with a Columbian musical group, was dedicated to preserving the oral traditions of Afro-Columbians.

Luis has examined a few of the boxes and has already found a rare gem in the form of the manuscript of an unpublished novel, Itxao, el immortal. The collection also includes other manuscripts, letters, interviews, newspaper and scholarly articles, audiocassettes, slides and photos. The interviews and tapes of slave descendents illustrate Olivella’s dedication to preserving the passing oral traditions of Afro-Colombians.

Covington expects that a significant number of scholars—those interested in literature, Latin American culture and history—will want to make use of the collection. Luis made a brief mention of the Olivella acquisition in a recent issue of the Afro-Hispanic Review, which he edits, and has since received numerous requests from scholars wanting to consult these important resources. After the collection is cataloged, it will be available for outside research.

“I’ve joked with friends that living with 18-year-olds in a first-year residence hall is my version of a midlife crisis. I know that I was looking for new ways of engaging with students, new challenges in teaching and to shake things up in my life. I have found all this—and more—in The Commons.”

—Jo-Anne Bachorowski, faculty head of West House, associate professor of psychology.

The Commons, a brand new community of first-year students, residential faculty and professional staff, welcomed its first class last fall. This is not your parents’ freshman dorm. All first-year students live in The Commons in one of 10 new residence halls called houses, which are grouped around quads on the Peabody side of campus. Each residence hall has an apartment for its faculty head of house, rooms for seminars, study and music practice, and lots of light and space. This is not your typical freshman dorm.

Faculty, students, staff and administrators put a decade of planning into The Commons. The Jean and Alexander Heard Library staff was actively involved, including the formation of The Commons Service Exploration Team, led by Sue Erickson. This group was formed to streamline library service to The Commons. Librarians talked to Dean of the Commons Frank Wcislo and his staff to get input on needs and services the library could provide. Sophomores and juniors who had lived in some of The Commons residence halls that were completed last year also gave suggestions.

The Commons includes 10 residence halls, known as houses.

The team communicated with heads of houses about targeted library services available to them. The Heard Library also offered free book delivery to The Commons for faculty members residing in the houses. Greg Barz, faculty head for North House, said the library services have made his job much simpler. The medical ethnomusicologist is an associate professor at Blair School of Music, the College of Arts and Science and the Divinity School.

“As a faculty head of house, I’ve had to shift daily teaching and research patterns in ways that I thought would be challenging,” Barz says. “Instead, I find myself reinvigorated. As a professor at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, for example, I now find myself relying heavily on the fabulous facilities and support staff of the Peabody Library due to its proximity to The Commons. Teaching in new Commons spaces has also encouraged faculty, staff, students and librarians to collaborate in unique ways, as witnessed by the successful ‘Stealing in Music City’ Commons music piracy seminar this fall.”

Barz is not the only one who has found the Peabody Library a convenient option. “I check out my books at the Central Library, but I do all my studying at the Peabody Library,” says John Alexander of San Antonio. Freshman Jeff Deming of Eldorado, Ark., adds, “I use Peabody Library every time I have a major test or paper.”

The mosaic sculpture “Black Cat” by Lynn Driver overlooks a side entry to the Peabody Library. The library, housed in a classically styled building dating to 1919, offers 250,000 volumes, completely modern technology, a popular group work space called the Learning Commons, and more than 40 computer workstations.

Tiffany Patterson, head of Stambaugh House and associate professor of African American and diaspora studies, is planning to establish a library for use by her residents. “Our fine library has offered to help me in this endeavor,” she says. “The students are a generation interested in being leaders in the world and our country needs thoughtful, well-informed leaders who are not afraid of a complicated and often dangerous world. Many are well-read beyond their years. Yet, like all freshmen, they have gaps.”

The Heard Library played a key role in helping The Commons residents get oriented to campus through Vanderbilt Visions, a one-semester, university core program required for all first-year students. Students worked in groups of 17, guided by a student leader and a professor. Students could choose from more than 20 topics, some prepared by the library. They included:

• Racing across Campus—Students hurried across campus using a variety of navigation aids (maps, GPS, etc.) to get familiar with campus libraries and other landmarks.
• Class of 1912—Students used materials from the University Archives to discover what life was like for the Class of 1912, which preceded them by a century, using archive images, student publications and newspaper articles from that era.
• What the C.R.A.P.—Students learned to evaluate information by using the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as a springboard and the C.R.A.P. (currency, reliability, accuracy and point of view) test as a method to evaluate information.
• Election of 2008 —Students either watched political ads on YouTube and then used the Internet to check them for accuracy and fairness or to research the stands of major and minor parties.

Learn more about the library-provided themes to the Vanderbilt Visions program at www.library.vanderbilt.edu/ visions.

Activity abounds on all levels at The Commons Center, a popular campus crossroads.

The Commons isn’t all about studying and research, however. It was developed to provide first-year students a caring community away from home. Heads of house regularly host study breaks when students can stop by for a chat or enjoy popcorn, ice cream or cookies. Over at East House, head Mark Dalhouse and his wife share their apartment with year-old twin sons, Teddy and Braden. Tuck and Stick, the Portuguese water dogs of Jo-Anne Bachorowski, make regular appearances at West House.

“One of the things I was looking for was a university that really put a lot of effort into making the freshman experience a great one,” says Matt Aliber of Needham, Mass. “You got the impression that they’re really caring about the first year and we were not just going to be thrown into the first year without any guidance or transition time.”