Small Treasures in the John Marcum Papers (Part 1)
Special Collections is very proud to announce the availability of the John Marcum papers. Marcum (1927-2013) was an Africanist scholar whose foundational research on the revolutions in Angola and Mozambique was only a part of his long academic career. He was also deeply involved with higher education and study abroad programs both in Africa and worldwide, and his work on post-colonialism led him to participate in the anti-apartheid movement as well. But rather than give you a list of his accomplishments, I felt that perhaps sharing a few snapshots from processing his collection - both literal and figurative- might help illuminate it. There can be so many little details not really touched on in a finding aid; some minor or irrelevant but compelling for some reason, others suggestive of the general contents of his papers.
So, every day this week, we'll be highlighting some of the "small treasures" of the John Marcum Papers. But to start with, here are some not-so-small treasures; photographs from Marcum's 1958 trip to Africa (in Series 29. Photographs & slides in the finding aid).
Press photos of Marcum and his host family in Nigeria:
Marcum’s own photograph in Conakry, Guinea, later used for the cover of The New Leader of December 1, 1958 for an article about Guinea by Marcum:
And finally, a group portrait of the Juvento political party in Togo:
