Browse Exhibits (16 total)
Reservoirs of Strength, Grace and Wit: Libraries at Salisbury University
AUGUST 2016 - DECEMBER 2016
The libraries at Salisbury University have traversed a long and storied road from the first College Library to the new Academic Commons. What began in cramped quarters in 1925 expanded into its own building—Blackwell Library—which, despite major renovations to meet student needs in 1975, has since been outgrown. Now the library has its new home within the Guerrieri Academic Commons. Yet, the libraries at Salisbury University continue to be, in the words of Germaine Greer, “Reservoirs of Strength, Grace, and Wit.”
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The 'Nam Files
Welcome!
This is a podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of Vietnam Veterans from the Eastern Shore. The three men featured in these episodes are Donald Whaley, Harry Basehart, and Newell Quinton. Each of these men used their experiences to make a positive impact on the region.
This podcast uses resources from the Nabb Research Center to explore the complexities of these mens' experiences during the Vietnam War. Using the Oral Histories gives the ability to know how education, the war draft, and social obligation shaped experiences of the Vietnam War. Each veteran offers their experiences in a way that can be put into the context of the war as a whole.
As an intern for the Nabb Center, I wanted to create a project that goes deeper into the lives of Vietnam Veterans while also putting it into a local context. People often don't consider how war affects those in local communities, which inspired me to focus on people from the Eastern Shore specifically. By hearing these stories I gained more empathy for the varied experiences that made the war as monumental as it was, as well as the way politics impacted every aspect of Vietnamese combat.
The Power of Humanity: The Red Cross on Delmarva
Red Cross chapters across Delmarva have rallied to offer support in times of crisis and need. Whether aiding those impacted by the influenza epidemic of 1918 or the current COVID-19 pandemic, helping soldiers on the front lines or families on the home front, or providing relief efforts after natural disasters, the Red Cross has provided assistance to our region for over one hundred years.
The Stage is Set: Leland Starnes and the Salisbury State Theatre
JANUARY 2017 - MAY 2017
Leland Starnes came to Salisbury State College in 1972 with impressive credentials and the intention of bringing one big production to the stage each year. Starnes established the Salisbury State Theatre, which he viewed as a “repertory company in a professional environment.” Starnes charged admission to the productions, dispersed promotional brochures with season tickets, and created a program for sponsor memberships.
He was passionate about theatre and devoted himself to the Salisbury program, stating, “We’re determined that the new Salisbury State Theatre will be for everyone a place of rich vitality and joy. Significant theatre–if it is indeed significant–must be an event that its audiences attend with a sense of pleasurable anticipation and excitement rather than from any heavy awareness of duty or ‘cultural enrichment’; truly fine theatre, we all know, arouses, within its viewers of every level, the excited curiosity to see even the direct truth carried out to its logical culmination because of its very theatricality. This is the wild and free kind of theatre that we’re going to try like hell to bring to Salisbury State in our new season.”
Unmentionable: The Indiscreet Stories of Artifacts
People have a right to be shocked, the mention of unmentionable things is a kind of participation in them.
– Logan Pearsall Smith, 20th-century scholar and expert on the English language
We don’t use the term “unmentionable” much in this day and age. People are less prone to being shocked by things, and few subjects are unsuitable for conversation. Exploring what is, or is not, unmentionable in our modern era is an intriguing endeavor simply because while some topics are not shocking now, they were in the past. Conversely, some subjects not considered controversial in the past, we now find objectionable.
In a museum setting, artifacts illustrate a moment in time, a social movement, a person, a place, a scientific development, or an idea. Artifacts stay the same, but their meaning changes based on what is happening around us.
That’s what Unmentionable: The Indiscreet Stories of Artifacts is all about. The controversial, unusual, intriguing, gross, scandalous, interesting, disturbing, awful, uncomfortable, discriminatory, and surprising artifacts in the Nabb Research Center’s collection all in one place.
Voices and Votes: Democracy on Delmarva
Expressions of democracy and community engagement have taken many forms throughout Delmarva’s history. From grievances about colonial taxation to the struggle for voting rights, participation in civic life is part of our past and present.
Voices and Votes: Democracy on Delmarva explores the mechanics of our democracy and highlights stories of rebellion, resistance, and perseverance that have shaped our region.
The Nabb Research Center is grateful to Maryland Humanities and the Museum on Main Street Program for selecting us to host Voices and Votes: Democracy in America and enabling us to bring a part of the Smithsonian to Salisbury.
Voices and Votes: Democracy in Delmarva was created as a companion to the Smithsonian exhibition. Participating in this program offered us the opportunity to explore stories and individuals from the Delmarva region that we hope will promote discussion and inspire students and visitors to think about the democratic process, activism, and civic engagement in our local community.