Jan. 21, 2003
The Archivist
By Jane Lingo
“I deal with just about everybody,” says University Archivist
G. David Anderson. Students, members of the faculty and the administration,
as well as alumni and neighbors frequently visit the archives offices
on the seventh floor of Gelman Library.
Now in his 16th year at the University, Anderson fulfills multiple responsibilities.
As well as managing and supervising University Archives, he serves as
co-team leader for the library’s Department of Special Collections,
as co-curator of the GW Memorabilia Room in the library, and oversees
reference services and general care of the Kiev Judaica Collection.
He also works on historical exhibitions and the department’s Web
site www.gwu.edu/gelman/spec/.
An important part of GW’s Special Collections is the Foggy Bottom
Collection, which grew out of the major exhibition “Fantastic Foggy
Bottom: The Growth of a Community,” co-curated by Anderson and
the Foggy Bottom Association member Laetitia Combrinck in 1996, as part
of the University’s 175th anniversary.
“Foggy Bottom has history and tradition. We want this collection
to grow,” says Anderson. He recalls that the response of the community
was “most generous” in loaning photographs, books, and artifacts
for the exhibit. “All the loan materials were returned,” he
relates, “but slides were made of pictures and other documents
so that slide shows can be available to the Foggy Bottom community and
others.” Anderson comments, “One thing we can do is work with
the history of the area. You can document the record so that the full
history of the neighborhood becomes a part of the history of the city.
If people come and do research now or in 50 years, the record will be
there.”
Anderson has worked on a great number of other exhibitions related to
the University. Among them are “The History of Jewish Life at The
George Washington University,” a permanent exhibit at Hillel House.
Another was “History of GW Basketball” in Marvin Center’s
former Colonnade Gallery.
“Everyone’s story is interesting,” says Anderson, referring
to the oral history program in archives. He has done some nine oral
histories with Foggy Bottom residents, including an extensive one with
Hazel Hanback of F Street, who has spent her entire life in the Foggy
Bottom/West End neighborhood. “Within a year or so, we may have
all that transcribed,” Anderson continues. “We do a legal
release. Both the interviewers and the interviewees are the owners of
the tape. In oral history, there is so much that can be done.
“We have done many oral history workshops,” adds Anderson.
“We had people from the Secret Service, from Ferrari, and many
others. The Secret Service had all these aging agents who had stories
to tell.”
“One of my interests is story telling,” declares Anderson,
who gives frequent walking tours related to history, architecture, or
a special interest. “I like to tell stories about GW history and
I even gave a tour for tour guides once.”
A major interest of the archivist and his wife, Blanche, is following
the fortunes of the GW basketball teams. “We must go to 20 games
a year. We even had tickets for the Final Four in Atlanta this year.”
He continues, “I’ve met a lot of alumni going to the games
and we have received some materials for archives through those contacts.
“I work a lot with the Web,” Anderson states. “We have
a University Archives Web site, a Special Collections site, a Gelman
Library site, and a Kiev Collections site. On the archives page, we
have a virtual tour of Foggy Bottom. We have started asking for either
a gift or a loan of photos. We also have facts and trivia on GW, Foggy
Bottom, and DC.”
There also is a GW Historical Almanac on the Web. According to Anderson,
this includes “sections on alumni, athletics, the Board of Trustees,
buildings, commencement speakers, Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
recipients, former schools, historical plaques and gates, honorary degrees,
libraries, GW at Mount Vernon College, GW presidents, deans and faculty,
GW songs, student life, and information on the University Archives.”
A lesser known fact about Anderson is that he is “an incurable
punster.” He explains, “I enjoy word association, the play
on words. It’s a good way to get attention at the beginning of
a lecture. I’ll talk about the hippopotamus in medicine and then
refer to the Hippocratic oath. I once saw on the back of a door the
statement, ‘Sigmund’s wife wore Freudian slips.’ The
puns lie in wait and when the opportunity comes, they flash up.”
The mission of the University Archives is “to ensure GW’s
history is preserved and utilized for research and education.”
Anderson’s academic background and experience have prepared him
well for his role. He holds a bachelor of science (history and political
science) and a master of arts (urban history) from Georgia College and
State University; an MS in library and information science from Florida
State University Tallahassee; and a certificate of advanced studies
from the University of Denver. He also completed additional course work
at the State University of New York, GW, and Columbus State University.
Prior to coming to GW, he was professionally associated with Colgate
University, Columbus State University, and the Chattahoochee Valley
Historical Collections, as well as regional libraries in Dublin, GA.
He also has taught courses in documentation and writes frequently on
archival and historical subjects.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
