iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Here's a personal published in the August 12, 1978 edition of the Gay Community News, addressed to “Mousie Mousie Wildflower” from “Porcupine." This was written by Nancy Walker who edited the Classifieds, and in most issues from 1976-1985 she would publish a message to "Mousie Mousie Wildflower."

Newspaper clipping of a personals ad:
"Mousie Mousie Wildflower:
How'd you like the heat this week-end?
Took the starch out of my spine.
But I will repeat,
my noodle,
That I'm still
your porcupine.

Ally my love, P'pine"

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Christine Jacobson @cejacobson.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

we are so lucky that the great Erin McGuirl will give the spring 2026 George Parker Winship Lecture at Houghton library tomorrow, March 4 at Houghton Library. please come and share widely! 📜 libcal.library.harvard.edu/event/162329....

libcal.library.harvard.edu

Spring 2026 George Parker Winship Lecture: "No Modern Publishing Without Women" and Opening Reception for "Thanks for Typing"

Houghton Library welcomes Erin McGuirl, Curator of the Mortimer Rare Book Collection at Smith College, who will give the Spring 2026 George Parker Winship Lecture on "No Modern...

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Christine Jacobson @cejacobson.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

thanks to @hyperallergic.com for the shout out in the latest Required Reading: "As with too many art forms, several now-classic books by male authors would not have been possible without the women who typed and often edited them." hyperallergic.com/required-rea...

hyperallergic.com

Required Reading

This week: movie poster art, the typist behind Henry James’s novels, Gisèle Pelicot’s new memoir, indie rock in “Heated Rivalry,” and are we in an arts and crafts renaissance?

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Library @northeasternlib.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) is Roxbury-based non-profit organization focused on eradicating environmental racism. Recently, @nu-archives.bsky.social processed their important records, making them accessible for research. Learn more: librarynews.northeastern.edu?p=277085

A group of protestors stand on a sidewalk. One holds a sign that says "Cancer = Asthma Death"

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

My incredible colleague @willow-branch.bsky.social & her powerful team of processing assistants have completed processing the Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) records and you can now read the finding aid here: archivesspace.library.northeastern.edu/repositories...

archivesspace.library.northeastern.edu

Collection: Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) records | Archives and Special Collections

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Christine Jacobson @cejacobson.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

delighted to see QLB's beautiful reprint of The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (with introduction and afterword by @mollybrrown.bsky.social and me + cover design by the great Anthony Russo) is on the @strandbookstore.bsky.social's Holiday Gift Guide: www.strandbooks.com/home-maker-9...

strandbooks.com

Buy Home-Maker Paperback by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Online

Order the Paperback edition of "Home-Maker" by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, published by Quite Literally Books. Fast shipping from Strand Books.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Folks in the Boston area: save the date for the week of November 3rd through 8th to take in some great events and exhibits highlighting archival labor and autumnal themes in area archives! Register for updates here: bit.ly/ArchivesCrawl2025 📜

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

I absolutely love that in today's intro to archives class, where students look at records of neighborhood activism in Boston, a student responded to the reflective question: "who do you not see represented in these records?" with the answer: "rich people!"

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

🎈 Happy birthday Elma Lewis! 🎈 Today marks what would have been Ms. Elma Lewis’s 104th birthday! Take a moment to celebrate the legacy of Ms. Lewis by learning more about her work that impacted arts and artists throughout Boston and beyond. subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/elmalewis

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Were hard hats in your back to school supplies list? For students in the 1988 “Kids Building Boston” program they were! 50 students from the McKay School in East Boston participated in an educational program following the three year process of building 125 High Street in Boston’s Financial District.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

More discussion on the exciting news from my place of work! I can't wait for these records to be digitized and widely available!

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Irene Gates @willow-branch.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Restorative justice is one of the most meaningful applications of archival work; the CRRJ project at Northeastern is an excellent example of that. I am honored to work alongside colleagues who help shape and grow the CRRJ’s Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive.

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Reposted by Molly Brown

New England Archivists (NEA) @nearchivists.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

NEA is thrilled to welcome session proposals for our 2026 Spring Meeting, Resilience and Action in the Archives, on March 19-21, 2026 in Portland, ME! Submit your proposal before July 30, 2025: newenglandarchivists.org/news/13511144

newenglandarchivists.org

New England Archivists - NEA 2026 Spring Meeting: Call for Proposals

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Work with me and I will make collection prep for high volume digitization fun

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Elma Lewis and the institutions she founded left a profound impact on Black arts in Boston & worldwide. Now, we at @nu-archives.bsky.social received a grant to digitize her records for our project "Black Art and Joy in Boston (and Beyond): Elma Lewis and the National Center of Afro-American Artists"

librarynews.northeastern.edu

Library Receives CPA Grant to Digitize “Black Art and Joy in Boston (and Beyond)” – Library News

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Did you know that the MBTA's Orange Line is a Gemini?! On this day (June 10th) in 1901 the Orange Line began service. How I learned this? Jim Vrabel's newly launched Boston history database "When and Where in Boston"! whenandwhereinboston.org

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Such a fun peek into the Boston Globe Library Collection at @nu-archives.bsky.social by NU Journalism Prof. Meg Heckman. The Globe's clippings files reveal so much in what is filed and what isn't. I'm grateful for Meg's labor lifting up these women journalists' legacies! www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

wbur.org

The Girls from Boston

During the height of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Boston’s daily newspapers employed some of the nation’s best-known film critics, writes Meg Heckman. All of them were women.

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Happy Melnea Cass Day! On May 22, 1966, over 650 community leaders gathered to pay tribute to the “First Lady of Roxbury” Melnea Cass. 52 years later, in 2018, then-Mayor Marty Walsh declared May 22, 2018 "Melnea Cass Day" See more records of Melnea Cass's legacy here: bit.ly/melneacass

Melnea Cass, in black and white, wearing pearls and a brooch, and cat eye glasses looking up to the left smiling subtly with her hair pulled back into a bun in a cowl neck knit dress.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Love to email a collaborator explaining a delay in some scans being sent their way and receiving "No worries it is garden push days" the perfect sort of spring understanding 💐

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

A more honest boiler plate language special for those with a busy inbox: "Apologies for the delayed response, but you see, I emailed you a most thorough response in my dreams, and have only now awoken to my belated reality"

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

On this day in 1965 thousands were led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Carter Playground to the Boston Common for a Freedom Rally. A poster distributed explaining reasons for the march stated: “In short we march to protest the lie that New Boston can be built without social justice”

Poster for march with a photograph of Martin luther King Jr. and the following text:
"Why we march with
Dr. Martin Luther King
We march today with Dr. Martin
Luther King to protest the sufferings
endured by the citizens of Boston.
WE MARCH TO CITY HALL
To protest the exclusion of the poor from anti -poverty
planning.
To protest the bad faith of public officials in failing to
enforce our housing codes.
To protest continued segregation in public housing.
In short, we march to protest the lie that a New Boston
can be built without social justice.
WE MARCH TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
To protest poor and racially imbalanced schools, and
demand a commitment by the School Committee to a
program and timetable to end this educational genocide,
beginning September 1965.
To call on the citizens of Boston to repudiate the School
Committee majority which says:
"These Negro parents have no background, they are
just a pair of hands. "
"We do not have inferior schools; what we have been
getting is an inferior type of child."
"White parents don't want their children to go to
school with backward Negroes."
Will YOU Join Us?"

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

This photograph of Theater Offensive founder Abe Rybeck accurately portrays how we're feeling on this sunny spring day watching the flowers begin to bloom in Boston. Good luck to everyone preparing for finals this week!

Theater Offensive founder Abe Rybeck in a brightly colored floral gown with long draping sleeves reaching up to adjust a flower crown atop his head. Abe is outside with brick buildings and businesses behind him while to his sides are more neutrally dressed onlookers in shirts and jeans smiling and laughing and admiring his bright ensemble.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

As I tried to wrap up a workshop on using archival records for a day long educator's professional development program and transition to the next session an educator cried out "but how can we leave Molly!!!" and I will now be floating off the ground thanks to that compliment

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Happy National Library Workers Day to all my fellow information laborers! It is always a great day to support those who enable equitable access to information and and to demand just systems that adequately fund and support that work as loud as we can!

Woman wearing glasses with a pen in her right hand resting on a notebook that is on a table looking at a microfilm reader with text overlaid on it that reads "libraries work because we do"

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Happy National Library Week! Here are some photos from July 1986 taken by Janet Knott at the old Dudley Street Library (now the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library). Knott photographed folks browsing the stacks, reading aloud and reading independently.

Woman reading a book on the other side of a bookshelf, head tilted book open, about to turn a page, the books facing the photo on the shelf between the photographer and the reader are related to topics on America.

Young boy reading at a low table with leg curled up in next to him.

Woman reading a book with an elephant on it titled "animal alphabet" to child whose face is mostly obscured by the book. They are both seated.

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Emily Drabinski @edrabinski.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Congress has the power to restore funding to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Join me in calling your reps!

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Christine Jacobson @cejacobson.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Our copies of THE HOME-MAKER are here! @mollybrrown.bsky.social and I had so much fun unboxing them and seeing our foreword and afterward in the new handsome QLB edition. Out on April 7th!

A baby sits in a Bjorn rocker with a copy of the home-maker resting in her lap

Molly and Christine clink pink glasses of sparkling rose behind a table where their boxes of The Home Maker lay unpacked.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

There are so many ways to collect anecdotal feedback on archives class sessions for youth: connections made, trust built, etc. A new tier of feedback for me is a student drawing you and at the end showing you along with their full page of notes 🥹 📜

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Dorothy Berry @dorothyjberry.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

There is so much bad news on micro and macro levels lately, I will share a little personal win. Here is a sneak peek at a very early dummy of the interior layout for my book "The House Archives Built, and Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibility," upcoming from @wehere.bsky.social press.

A mock-up of an open book- on one side there is light mint/robin's egg blue background and the text "The House Archives Built, Revisited" with smaller text in a typerwriterish font. On the other side there is a sepia photo from the 1870's of a Black man standing on a porch with his hands on a chair and his legs crossed in a jaunt manner.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

My library's communications staff member does such a stellar job on these profile trading cards. I am so grateful to announce to the greater public that I love Severance and I urgently need to hear your Severance theories as well as your favorite weaver

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Christine Jacobson @cejacobson.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

a century later, one of the great working girl narratives with a relevant as ever screwball premise will be reprinted with a new foreword and afterword by @mollybrrown.bsky.social and me. The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher is out from QLB books April 7! quiteliterallybooks.com/product/the-...

Image of the cover of the Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Present & Correct @presentcorrect.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

The Full Moon this month is known as the Worm Moon. The Spring soil is warmer & earthworms start to appear. (Astronomical diagram of the Worm Moon in orbit, by Richard Scarry, 1970s)

Lowly Worm, by Richard Scarry, driving its apple shaped car. An icon.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Some exciting news! A new edition of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's The Home-Maker will be published April 7 by Quite Literally Books featuring a foreword and afterword by @cejacobson.bsky.social and myself! You can preorder it here: quiteliterallybooks.com/product/the-...

"Coming April 7, 2025 featuring a foreword and afterword by Molly Brown and Christine Jacobson" image of book with text "The Home-Maker, Dorothy Canfield Fisher" and red and blue illustration of a woman's face in a neutral expression with a kitchen table in the background. followed by text: "“You will enjoy it and discuss it”
- Harcourt Brace & Company, 1924" "“Enjoy it and discuss it with us”
- Molly & Christine, 2025""

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Please enjoy my visualization of the work my employee and I have done to provide access to our collections while the majority of our collections remain off-site. Trying to goofily but urgently illustrate how clutch a functional HVAC in our new storage space would be.

Title: "Increasing Archival Access by the boxes"
Body text" 2,709 boxes ordered between February 1, 2023 (Grace's hiring) and February 20, 2025.

If we stacked all the boxes requested in the past two years on top of each other, the height would amount to roughly:

- the height of 2 Empire State buildings (2,908 feet)

- the weight of 6.7 adult male African elephants (47 tons)"
powerpoint slide with image of two empire state buildings stacked on top of each other next to paige boxes next to 6.7 elephants.

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

“No one has any right to use the public schools to carry on segregation in America.” “One of the purposes of education is to teach children how to perpetuate society. There is no place for racism in the classrooms.” - Albert Raby Sept. 16, 1965, to Operation Exodus parents, photo by Frank O'Brien.

Ellen Jackson and Albert Raby seated at table with microphones addressing seeming to be listening to someone out of the frame. Raby is wearing a striped suit and his arms are crossed resting on the table while he raises an eyebrow. Ellen Jackson is resting her face on her hand with short curled hair while she listens.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

"Archives, sites of memory, and commemorations are being threatened. When the custodians of our collective memory are undermined, the risk of erasure, distortion, and historical amnesia becomes even more acute, threatening the public’s access to an accurate and inclusive understanding of the past."

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

It’s hard to imagine posing for photos in Boston’s icy winter, but in Charles H. Bruce's images, you can see subjects in warmer weather through the lens of a Black photographer in the early 1900’s. Bruce photographed people and buildings in Boston throughout his life and is pictured himself below.

Oval shaped photograph of a Black woman and man seated on long grass in summer clothes. The woman on the left is in a white high necked dress holding a parasol that rests on her shoulder as she gazes upward in thought with a very slight smile. The man on the right is in a suit and bowtie and is staring seriously directly at the camera.

Photograph of woman dancing in a ballet pose holding her arms up and reaching outward with her elbows bent, facing and staring at the camera, with her right leg pointed behind her.

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day from The Onyx, Northeastern's Black student newspaper! Shown here are clippings of Valentine’s inclusions by Onyx staff published in their February 1975 issue alongside articles about WRBB’s A Soul’s Place radio program and Project Ujima.

Two newspaper clippings, one that reads “Love anybody this Valentine’s Day. Okay” and another that reads “Black Love is Black Wealth.”

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

No pressure - but did you ever imagine the valentines you send could end up in an archive? Take a look at archival valentines found in the Elma Lewis papers which include a note from artist Tom Feelings that reads: “to Elma who loves—and knows and then passes it on —like it was passed on to her”

card sent to Ms. Lewis from artist and cartoonist Tom Feelings that reads: “to Elma who loves—and knows and then passes it on —like it was passed on to her”

Greeting card that says "A Valentine Hello!" above a rainbow of hearts laid atop a red envelope with "Miss Elma Lewis" and a stamp

Red card with gold embossing that reads "a special valentine from both of us: valentine's day is a special time for thinking of those who mean so much"

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

A sneak preview of social media prep for Valentine's Day, but I really love this message to Elma Lewis from friend and fellow artist Tom Feelings, in her personal correspondence papers: "to Elma who loves—and knows and then passes it on —like it was passed on to her"

Letter from Tom Feelings to Elma Lewis that reads: "to Elma who loves—and knows and then passes it on —like it was passed on to her. Love from, Tom Feelings"

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

On heavy teaching months where I am pulling and reshelving 40-50 boxes every day or so I fantasize about planning an archives field day of box paging, curating, and reshelving for those who doubt the labor behind archival instruction complete with the mantra: "in archives, every day is arm day"

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Northeastern University Library @northeasternlib.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

The @nu-archives.bsky.social has recently processed a pair of collections that highlight advocacy work in Boston. Learn more about the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard (Jeane Neville) records and the Ken Kruckemeyer papers in this blog post by archivist Irene Gates: librarynews.northeastern.edu

Hand-drawn map of Boston neighborhoods with proposed highways, framed by a pair of snakes. Headlines read "Caution! Highly poisonous" and "Cuidado Bastante Peligroso"

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Reposted by Molly Brown

Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

“Been to your local library lately?” In the 1980s Gay Community News asked their readers to engage with local libraries and encourage them to include the Gay Community News among the periodicals on their shelves and in their microfilm. Read some GCN for yourself here: hdl.handle.net/2047/D20370611

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Nick Gonzo @nickgonzo.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

If anyone has started making zines in the last few years and would like to talk about why they started making them, please message me here. I really want to get a perspective on why people have started recently. If you could signal boost this too, this would be great.

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

A class had the last of their four visits in the archives with me and one student’s parting words to me were: “your work inspires me as does your fashion” 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡

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Molly Brown @mollybrrown.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Spend a Saturday morning with me chatting about local history!

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Happy Lunar New Year! In 1990 the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) held a Lunar New Year celebration at the Golden Palace in Boston attendees included CPA leader, Suzanne Lee seated with Nelson Merced and Rep. Byron Rushing with Frieda Garcia. Learn more about CPA here: bit.ly/CPAHistory

Two attendees, Nelson Mereced and Suzanne Lee at a 1990 Lunar New Year celebration at the Golden Palace restaurant in Chinatown. Attendees are seated at table with a red tablecloth and soda and food.

Three attendees, Frieda Garcia and Byron Rushing and another at a 1990 Lunar New Year celebration at the Golden Palace restaurant in Chinatown. Attendees are seated at table with a red tablecloth and soda and food.

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Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections @nu-archives.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Today marks the completion of the inventorying of Fred Salvucci’s papers. Processing assistants Aleks Renerts and Julia Lee inventoried 157 boxes of this large and incredible collection which documents the story of the planning and design of Boston's built environment and beyond.

Two archivists posing against an orange buttercup colored wall while leaning on a gray steel cart that has horizontal drop-front gray archival boxes on the top shelf. Behind them on the wall are two posters that say "Happy Salvucci Inventory Day! Let January 28, 2025 be known as the day the Salvucci papers were completely inventoried by
Aleks Renerts and Julia Lee!"

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