Visitor Feedback

Since installing our Now and Then: 1973 exhibit in the gallery last spring we have had thousands of responses to the questions we posed in our Reflection Gallery. We use this space to ask visitors questions connected with the exhibit currently on display. The following post is the first in a series created by our student worker Sarah Hughes, reflecting on the visitor responses to our questions.

Question:Would a political scandal like Watergate have the same impact today?
 

We asked this question of visitors to our 1973 exhibit. Answers were of course varied, but the majority seemed to agree that the answer is no. Some said the lack of impact would be due to apathy among citizens, while others claimed that Americans are simply too desensitized when it comes to political scandal. One person went so far as to blame Watergate for this effect, saying “…the presidency has less prestige after Watergate.” Another said that “[people would] rather follow celebrities’ lives” than worry about political scandals. 

On the other side, some visitors suggested that modern technology allows people to be more up to date on news, and therefore a political scandal would have more of an impact today. Another visitor said the impact would be equivalent today due to political polarization, citing Republicans’ eagerness to blame President Obama for everything. A few of our visitors drew interesting parallels between the Watergate scandal and more recent political events, like President Clinton’s affair, the 2011 attack on Benghazi, and the spying scandal involving the National Security Administration. One guest asserted “No. But the NSA should face the same scrutiny!” 

What do you think? Are these more recent events on par with the Watergate scandal, and if so, should they/will they be received the same way by the American public? Has technology desensitized people to everyday scandals or has it caused them to be more informed? We’ll let you be the judge. For more information about Watergate and the other happenings of 1973, visit our exhibit on the second floor of the Russell Special Collections building on display through December 2013.

It Was a Big Year: Russell Library Program Series Looks Back at 1973

What do you know about 1973? Join the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies for It Was a Big Year, a program series that considers how a few key events in a single year can change the culture and course of a nation for years to come.

1973 was the year of the Roe v. Wade decision and the return of POWs from the war in Vietnam. It was the year President Richard Nixon proclaimed he was not a crook, even as the Watergate scandal unfolded on national television. It was the year of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab oil embargo, the launch of Skylab, and passage of the Endangered Species Act. Forty years later, history reveals 1973 to be a pivotal year in American history with a lasting legacy.

Inspired by the exhibit Now and Then: 1973, currently on display in its Harrison Feature Gallery, the Richard B. Russell Library will host three events this October that spotlight some of the most significant events from that year and invites attendees to consider what “makes” a big year in history.

All events in the series are free and open to the public. All events will take place on the 2nd floor exhibit level in the new Richard B. Russell Building for Special Collections Libraries, Georgia’s newest cultural destination. Dates and descriptions for individual events are listed below. For more information, please contact russlib@uga.edu or call (706) 542-5788.   

To learn more about the Richard B. Russell Library, visit:
http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell

Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 5:30-7:30PM
Panel Discussion, Now and Then: The Endangered Species Act
Location: Auditorium (Room 271), Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries

Inspired by the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Endangered Species Act, this panel discussion will help attendees engage with the legacy of this landmark piece of environmental legislation and consider both its impact and relevance forty years later. Panelists will include: Dr. Brian Drake (Department of History), Dr. Laurie Fowler (Odum School of Ecology), Dr. Michael Mengak (Warnell School of Forestry), and Dr. Terrance Centner (College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences). Following the event, attendees are invited to partake in tours of the gallery. 

Thursday, October 24, 2013, 7:00-9:00PM
It Was a Big Year: Storytellers and Scholars
Location: Large Event Space (Room 285), Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries

Inspired by the storytelling format of popular radio show This American Life, and co-sponsored by local non-profit Rabbit Box, this event will invite selected scholars and community members to tell stories around the theme “It was a Big Year.”

Three scholars drawn from departments on the University of Georgia campus will reflect on what they consider to have been a big year in their field of study – addressing music, fashion, and film. Presenters will include Professor David Barbe (Music Business Program, Terry College of Business), José Blanco F. (Historic Clothing and Textiles Collection, College of Family and Consumer Sciences), and Dr. Richard Neupert (Department of Theatre and Film Studies).

Rabbit Box, a local non-profit that fosters the art of storytelling by providing a forum for people to share true stories from their lives, will solicit three storyteller participants from the Athens community to participate in the program, composing pieces around the same theme. Storytellers and scholars will be interwoven in the program, shifting the focus from national and international events to personal stories about significant events in the lives of individuals. Light refreshments will be served during the event. 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013, 6:00-8:00PM
Reconsidering Roe: A Dialogue & Deliberation Event
Location: Large Event Space (Room 285), Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries

This event will ask attendees to engage with the legacy of the landmark court case, Roe v. Wade, and consider both its impact and relevance forty years later. Presenters Professor Lori Ringhand and Professor Randy Beck from the UGA School of Law will give brief presentations, followed by rounds of moderated conversation in the World Café format. Light refreshments will be served during the event.

1973: Rebellious Teen from Madison County

Me at age 14, September 1973

This post was submitted by Ann, one of our docents here at the Special Collections Building. It is part of our ongoing A Look Back at 1973 series, crowd sourced from readers of the blog. If you have a story to tell, read more about this project HERE.

In 1973...I entered the rebellious stage of puberty as social unrest and protest movements swept the nation.  I was half way through the eighth grade and my Madison county [Georgia] girlfriends were boy crazy and mad for the new blue mascara from Maybelline, but I was obsessed with the war in Vietnam and feared that my little brother and my best guy friends would be drafted into battle where they would be maimed or killed like my KIA cousin. We debated the ERA in school and wondered if its passage would subject girls to the draft.  Would we be sent to 'Nam as well?

Wounded Knee II and the American Indian Movement informed my youthful poetry and I wrote my ninth grade term paper on the Yippee Revolution.  I organized protests against excessive library fines (ten cents), the middle school lunch program, and even my local city hall where my best friend and I marched with homemade banners reading "Make Love, Not War, " and "Down with the Draft."  I persuaded my buddies to join me in a letter-writing campaign to Senators Talmadge and Nunn concerning the problems encountered by migrant farm workers.  I played my old Bob Dylan LPs until the grooves wore out.  This young teen believed in the power of the people.

A Look Back at 1973

In May we opened our latest feature exhibit here at the Russell Library, Now and Then: 1973. The exhibit looks back at a pivotal year in modern American history and considers the impact of events that filled the public mind for a moment in time.

1973 was the year of the Roe v. Wade decision and the return of POWs from the war in Vietnam. It was the year President Richard Nixon proclaimed he was not a crook, even as the Watergate scandal unfolded on national television. It was the year of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab oil embargo, the launch of Skylab, and passage of the Endangered Species Act. Forty years later, history reveals 1973 to be a pivotal year in American history with a lasting legacy.
  
In crafting the exhibit, our outreach staff got into the habit of asking everyone who crossed our paths what they recalled about 1973. And we'd like to take this opportunity to ask you, our blog readers, the same question: How do you remember 1973? 

We're interested to know where you were and what were you doing in 1973. Tell us a story about your life in that year in 2-3 paragraphs, paired with a picture that you don't mind us posting to the blog site (http://www.rbrl.blogspot.com). We'll accept submissions through the end of October 2013.

If you're interested in this opportunity, send an email to russlib@uga.edu and a member of our staff will respond with further information. We look forward to hearing from you!

New Exhibit, Now and Then: 1973

There are some moments in history that become powerful touchstones, revisited to reflect and inform a better understanding of the present day. Now and Then: 1973, the Richard B. Russell Library’s latest feature exhibit, looks back at a pivotal year in modern American history and considers the impact of events that filled the public mind for a moment in time. The exhibition explores the interactions of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of government – how the decisions made by each conflicted with one another, and with public opinion, in choosing a path for the United States. 

1973 was the year of the Roe v. Wade decision and the return of POWs from the war in Vietnam. It was the year President Richard Nixon proclaimed he was not a crook, even as the Watergate scandal unfolded on national television. It was the year of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab oil embargo, the launch of Skylab, and passage of the Endangered Species Act. Forty years later, history reveals 1973 to be a pivotal year in American history with a lasting legacy.

“We originally considered an exhibit focused exclusively on the anniversary of the Watergate scandal,” said outreach archivist Jan Levinson, “but after some preliminary research found that there were so many big events happening in 1973 that touched on our key collecting areas, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a look a multiple events.”

Both Levinson, who curated the exhibit, and her colleague Jill Severn, Russell Library’s Head of Access and Outreach, saw that the events of 1973 shared easy connections with current events and issues that Americans are struggling with today. “In creating the text and selecting objects from our collections, we tried to highlight the connections between past and present, as well as to prompt visitors to consider the interactions of various branches of government in dealing with public issues,” said Levinson.

The Russell outreach team will spend this summer planning an exciting slate of public programs scheduled for fall 2013, that complement the key themes and topics of the exhibit. In the coming weeks they hope to launch an interactive appeal to the public, soliciting photographs from 1973 for display in the gallery and on the Russell Library blog (www.rbrl.blogspot.com).     

The exhibit will remain on display in the Harrison Feature Gallery of the Russell Library Gallery through December 15, 2013. The galleries of the Special Collections Building are open from 8am-5pm Monday through Friday and 1-5pm on Saturdays; admission is free. For more information contact Jan Levinson at jlevinso@uga.edu or by calling 706-542-5788. To schedule a tour of the Special Collections Libraries Galleries, contact Jean Cleveland at jclevela@uga.edu or by calling 706-542-8079.