Since the mid-1990s, The New School Archives and Special Collections was located on the first floor of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, where they quickly outgrew the space. After years of requests, the archives moved to a new space in the University Center this month.

The archives were originally established as the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Archives Center at Parsons School of Design. 

Despite being a part of Libraries, Collections, and Academic Services, The New School Archives and Special Collections has long been housed separately.

The archives were finally moved to the UC due to library renovations that left space on the seventh floor. Wendy Scheir, Director of Archives and Special Collections, said it was “a really ideal space.”

The collection outgrew the space in the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center over a decade ago. “The walls have been closing in on us,” Schier said. “Years ago, we put our proposal in for a new space. We didn’t know where it would be and we didn’t know when it would get approved, if ever.”

Prior to the move, class tours of the archives often had to be divided into two groups due to the lack of space, according to Scheir. Now the research room is separate from the temperature-controlled room that houses the artifacts, making class tours more convenient.

The archives collect work by both former and current students and faculty, as well as people who may have no connection to the university, but whose work and life would be of interest to students.

Scheir jokingly said that the one thing she would grab if there was a fire is a notebook kept by a student at Parsons (then called the New York School of Art) between 1900 to 1910.

The student had written his instructors’ names at the top of one of the notebook’s pages and transcribed what they were saying. His teachers included Robert Hermaine and the founder of Parsons, William Merritt Chase. 

“So we know now what Frank Alvah Parsons sounded like in his lectures,” she said. “It’s really just this incredible document that sheds light on something that I don’t think you could get a sense of anywhere else.”

Gil Bittner, a graduate student in the Creative Publishing & Critical Journalism program, said the archive houses tons of interesting material that students rarely take advantage of.

Bittner visited the archives in their old space for a class and was surprised to be informed by an archivist that few students utilize the collection. 

“Some of [the material] was stuff that was recorded but was not necessarily signed off on or seen or … made readily available to the public,” Bittner said. While looking through boxes related to the José Clemente Orozco murals, they came across communication between the New School and the government of Mexico as the school tried to sell the painting. “There’s a lot of content that you would easily pass up that’s … backed up in there, and not a lot of students are using it as a resource.”

To celebrate their new move, Archives and Special Collections is planning to revive a past Parsons tradition: the annual Mardi Gras costume ball. Renamed Mardi Gras Reboot: An Archivally-Inflected Festival, the event will be held between Feb. 17-20. 

While the details are not set in stone, there will most likely be a parade with a jazz band, Scheir said. The festival will also feature 15 classes doing projects that revolve around their interpretation of Mardi Gras.
Schier said she anticipates the archives will be busy until November due to a backlog of classes and researchers trying to plan visits, but in the meantime, students can explore their digital collection.