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Staff Picks and Suggestions

Elma Lewis, Black Art, and Black Joy

A Black woman with a large smile clutches her hands in front of her chest. She is wearing a multicolored top and her hair is in a large bun on the top of her head. Behind her is a bouquet of flowers.
“Elma Ina Lewis candid,” ca. 1981. National Center of Afro-American Artists records, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections holds many records documenting Boston’s Black history. Several of these that celebrate Black joy and creativity come from Elma Ina Lewis, a leader in Boston’s performing arts scene throughout the mid-20th century. The Elma Ina Lewis papers document her early life and her professional activities, like establishing the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in 1950, the National Center of Afro-American Artists in 1968, and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in 1969.

Black and white image of a Black man playing a drum with his hands. Children sit before him with their own drums.
“Babatunde Olatunji teaches heritage and drums,” ca. 1961. National Center of Afro-American Artists records, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts records document the history of the school and administrative information regarding its formation as well as productions of Blakrhythms, which uplifted Black voices and cultural concepts. The National Center of Afro-American Artists records also feature performances like those put on by the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, and the Digital Repository Service (DRS) holds a selection of photos from the Center’s performances and rehearsals, as well as scenes from everyday life to form a well-rounded understanding of the Black community and art in Boston between the 1950s and 1990s.

Become familiar with Elma Lewis’ legacy in our Finding Elma Lewis research guide.

To learn more about Elma Lewis and her work, check out the resources available through the DRS and the Archives and Special Collections.

Sources:
“Babatunde Olatunji teaches heritage and drums.” National Center of Afro-American Artists records (M042). Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections Department.
“Elma Ina Lewis candid.” National Center of Afro-American Artists records (M042). Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections Department.

Systematic Reviews—From 1753 to Today

This year is an eventful year in evidence synthesis. Besides marking the launch of the Northeastern University Library’s Evidence Synthesis Service, this year also marks the 270th anniversary of the publication of one of the earliest progenitors of the modern systematic review: James Lind’s A treatise of the scurvy (1753). 

James Lind was a Scottish naval surgeon who is frequently credited with conducting the first clinical trial in history,  a controlled experiment which evaluated the effectiveness of citrus fruits for preventing scurvy among British sailors. He published the results of this trial in 1753 in the aforementioned treatise.

The front page of Lind's "A Treatise of the Scurvy"
Photo courtesy of the James Lind Library.

As was common in 18th century literature, the full title of the publication was significantly more verbose: A treatise of the scurvy. In three parts. Containing an inquiry into the nature, causes and cure, of that disease. Together with a critical and chronological view of what has been published on the subject. 

Yes, that’s just the title.

And it’s the final bit of that title–“a critical and chronological view of what has been published on the subject”–which should pique our interest. In providing a comprehensive review and critical evaluation of the published literature on scurvy, Lind essentially conducted an early version of a systematic review. 

However, researchers from the 20th and 21st centuries have since pointed out that Lind’s ‘chronological view’ was not truly comprehensive. As Jeremy Hugh Baron of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai wrote in a 2009 paper:

“Lind failed to scrutinize Woodall’s 1617 publication The Surgions Mate with its clear recommendation of equipping ships to the East Indies with lemon juice to prevent scurvy. Nor did Lind cite books by other authors recommending citrus fruits such as Farfan, Hawkins, Clowes, Smith, Ferrari, Moyle, and Esteyneffer, presumably because they were not then in the library of the Edinburgh College.”

Lind missed relevant publications because he relied on only one source: the library at the Edinburgh College. If Lind had searched one of the libraries at the University of Oxford, in addition to Edinburgh College, perhaps he would have found those other relevant texts.

Nowadays we obviously aren’t searching physical libraries when we conduct a systematic review; rather, we’re searching online databases of research articles. And so, you can see a modern parallel in a common mistake made by some systematic review authors: searching only one database. If the authors were conducting a systematic review on a particular nursing-led educational intervention, and the authors only searched the database CINAHL, they may miss out on relevant studies which appear in PubMed, but are not included in CINAHL. 

It’s for this reason that those conducting systematic reviews and other forms of evidence synthesis are recommended to search multiple databases. We don’t want to end up like Lind, missing highly relevant material because we failed to search multiple sources.

Unfortunately Lind did not have access to Northeastern University Library’s Evidence Synthesis Service (ESS). But you do! If you are planning to conduct a systematic review or another form of evidence synthesis, we’re here to help. Learn more about the ESS and how we can support your evidence synthesis project here: https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/systematicreview 

You can read more about the history of systematic reviews here: https://ebm.bmj.com/content/23/4/121 

Happy searching!

Remembering Christine McVie: An Interview with Larry Katz

Christine McVie standing in front of a microphone holding three maracas. She has long blonde hair and is wearing black.
Christine McVie
(Photo by Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Christine McVie, long-time keyboardist for the band Fleetwood Mac, died at the age of 79 on November 30, 2022. 

Records of McVie’s life and legacy can be found in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections’ Larry Katz Tapes, a collection of audio recordings between Boston arts and music writer Larry Katz and numerous musicians from 1980 to 2005. 

This interview with McVie took place shortly after Fleetwood Mac’s fourteenth studio album Tango in the Night was released in 1987, which marked the band’s triumphant return after a five-year hiatus. This hiatus saw the band’s members pursuing solo careers in music, but they ultimately came back together to create more music for, as McVie calls it, “the entity called Fleetwood Mac.” 

Listeners of Katz’s interview can come to understand McVie’s view of the band as something larger than herself or the other members in it. “The end result to me is always magical,” McVie states when asked about the “magic” that Fleetwood Mac imbues on its listeners. Even though she admits that the process can be tedious at times, she also reflects on the “mystical” feeling of listening to a record she could spend an entire year working on. 

In this way, McVie describes the creation of an album “like a painting.” “[We] decide what colors we need, what depth we need, what kind of emotion we need… We sketch it in and fill in the colors as we go along.” 

When asked about her future, McVie states, “I don’t see any reason to stop…I don’t see any reason at all–it’s my life. I don’t know what else I’d do if I didn’t write songs or sing.” 

Source: “Interview with Christine McVie, English singer, songwriter, keyboardist and member of band Fleetwood Mac.” Larry Katz Tapes. University Libraries Archives and Special Collections Department.

Reading Recommendations for Native American Heritage Month

American Indian activists began working to establish a national “American Indian Day” in the early 20th century. Native advocates like Arthur C. Parker, Sherman Coolidge, and Red Fox James believed that a national day of observation would commemorate the Indigenous community’s history and culture. Various individual states established “American Indian Days” between 1915 and 1920; more recently, some states—including Massachusetts—have changed the second Monday of October, formerly “Columbus Day,” to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” to focus on the stories of the Native peoples who existed in these lands before European contact, rather than on the oppressors, and to acknowledge the United States’ complicated legacy of colonialism and white violence. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush declared November National Native American Heritage Month (also known as “American Indian Heritage Month”).

Throughout November, visit the Hub on the first floor of Snell Library to explore our print collections featuring Native and Indigenous authors. If you’re not in Boston (and even if you are), make sure to check out the e-books and audiobooks on our virtual bookshelf! Here are some recommended reads from our collection:

Cover of The Only Good Indians


The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (2020): If Halloween didn’t fulfill your cravings for creepy, check out the book Entertainment Weekly called “one of 2020’s buzziest horror novels.” The dark past of four American Indian families leave them terrorized by a vindictive entity determined to make them pay for their sins.



Cover of Split Tooth


Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq (2018): This award-winning novel by Inuk throat singer and artist Tanya Tagaq traces a girlhood in 1970s Nunavut, blending myth and memoir. The audiobook is read by Tagaq herself.




Cover of Poet Warrior


Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo (2021): Three-time United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo writes about her ancestry and the tribal stories and traditions that shaped her. She meditates on grief, loss, ritual, memory, music, joy and everything in between.




Cover of This Land is Their Land


This Land is Their Land: The Wompanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving by David J. Silverman (2019): Historian David J. Silverman unmasks the truth behind the simple, cheerful Thanksgiving story still taught in kindergartens around the country, and places the Wampanoag tribe at the center of the narrative.

Library Staff Work with CRRJ to Investigate and Make Accessible 1,000 Records of Racial Homicides in Jim Crow South in New Burnham-Nobles Archive

Last week’s release of the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive by the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) was a culmination of years of work by both the Northeastern University School of Law and by the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

Black and white image of a Black man wearing a hat and sitting on an old car. Text on the photo reads "Caleb "Picky Pie" Hill 28 Son, Brother, Father, Husband, Irvington Georgia"
Library staff have worked to digitize photos and records of racially motivated homicides in the Jim Crow South, like that of Caleb Hill, Jr., who was murdered by two white men in Georgia in 1949, with the help of local police. The killers were not indicted.

The archive, a comprehensive collection of 1,000 racial homicides that took place in the Jim Crow South between 1930 and 1954, will serve as a tool to shed light on the scope of racial murders during this time frame, their mishandling by local police and authorities, and their effect on the law and politics. It can be found at crrjarchive.org.

The project is the result of 15 years of work, with hundreds of students gathering 20,000 pieces of evidence — items like death certificates, press clippings, law enforcement files, reports from civil rights groups, photographs, and personal stories.

Led by Project Archivist Gina Nortonsmith, staff from the Library’s Archives and Special Collections, Digital Production Services, and Digital Scholarship Group then worked tirelessly to take that raw data and make it searchable, digitizing and cataloging it so that researchers can quickly gather information as they study specific cases or the general trend of anti-Black violence in the Jim Crow south.

“This is one of the most important projects that the Northeastern University Library has been involved with, and I’m proud of the many staff members who have helped to build this essential archive that documents a tragic, unsettling period in America’s history,” said Dan Cohen, Dean of the Library.

The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive is part of the larger Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, whose aim is to educate the public about historical anti-Black racial violence and failures of the criminal justice system, as well as to investigate those cases in which proper justice has not been served. It was founded by Northeastern University Law Professor Margaret Burnham, who serves as its director and recently published the book By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners.