Digital Collections & Archives: Digital Collections & Archives

Digital Collections

MBU Digital Repository

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Mary Baldwin's Grafton Library Library digitizes and makes available a variety of materials for internal and external researchers.

These include:

• Dance Cards
  • Irene Sarnelle was the dance instructor at Mary Baldwin until she passed away on January 23, 2017. Irene was very passionate about historical dance and collected dance cards, a souvenir dancers would receive when they attended balls or dances that they would often use to record the type of dances they participated in, and their partners. Dance cards may be very simple, or quite elaborate. They are often small booklets, may include three dimensional elements, and often have an attached pencil.
• MLitt & MFA Theses
  • These theses were produced by students in the Shakespeare and Performance Graduate Program.  
• MAT & MED Theses
  • These theses were produced by students in the MBU Education graduate programs. 

MBU Digital Archives

Hosted on Internet Archive

Resources of Note:

• The Bluestocking Yearbooks
  • The Mary Baldwin Bluestocking is available online from 1891-2009. The annual started in 1891 as a literary publication and then in 1899 became a more traditional yearbook. The Bluestocking was not published in 1907, 1918, and 1919. The yearbook name, The Bluestocking, refers to an educated, intellectual woman.
  • This digital archive presents the Mary Baldwin University Bluestocking in its entirety, without abridgment or exclusion. Issues published here may contain images, language, or content that is upsetting and/or offensive. Such content is not condoned by Mary Baldwin University, nor is it reflective of either the Mary Baldwin Mission, or our commitment to racial and cultural inclusivity and gender equity. These items are historical documents and should be viewed in the context of the era in which they originated.
• Mary Baldwin Histories

  • Waddell, Joseph History of Mary Baldwin Seminary 1842-1905.  https://archive.org/details/historyofmarybal00wadd

  • Watters, Mary. History of Mary Baldwin College 1842-1942. https://archive.org/details/historyofmarybal00watt

  • Menk, Patricia A. To live in time: the Sesquicentennial history of Mary Baldwin College 1842-1992. https://archive.org/details/toliveintimesesq00menk

  • Menk, Patricia A. Retrospect: The Tyson Years 1985-2003. https://archive.org/details/retrospecttysony00menk

Physical MBU Archives

The Mary Baldwin Archives contain materials pertaining to the history of Mary Baldwin from its founding in 1842 as the Augusta Female Seminary to the present. The collection includes documents and letters of its founders, Rufus William Bailey and Mary Julia Baldwin; nineteenth-century diplomas, programs, photographs and student records. Many of the documents are unique and fragile and therefore they are not available to the public.

The Library accepts donations of Mary Baldwin memorabilia on behalf of the institution, in accordance with current tax laws, through the office of Institutional Advancement.

Questions about archives or genealogy may be sent through the Archives Information Request Form. Please allow approximately two weeks for a response.