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Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 No, actually it doesn't, it doesn't look familiar. I didn't really think much of it. I just walked past
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Now that you see it, like, do you remember ever walking past it?
Speaker 2 00:00:10 No.
Speaker 4 00:00:16 If you've ever walked past the fair children and specifically east Fairchild, or if you've ever walked past Kresge, or if you've ever walked out of Fisk and LOI, then you have, may have noticed this steep, downhill going towards this gray door. It's surrounded by these rock looking bricks, and it's pretty unclear what's located there. So one day when walking out of class, I saw and I thought to myself, what is that? So I decided to go find out from w Nur news, you're listening to news at six,
Speaker 2 00:00:50 We were walking into, um, the best of you, of the LSF. And we're going through a chamber that helps to maintain, uh, temperature, humidity control. And now we are in the main chamber of the LSF, allow me to turn the lights on. So you can see
Speaker 4 00:01:07 That was the voice of Kevin Leonard university archivist, who has been working in the Northwestern archives for over 42 years. Kevin graduated from Northwestern in 1977. And as we're working in the university archives ever since, after going through multiple doors car to checks and security mechanisms, we finally entered where the mysterious door leads to.
Speaker 2 00:01:30 And, um, it is a basic structure in, in that it is not meant to be physically attractive or appealing. You know, we're we're underground. We have no windows. There are no concessions to beauty.
Speaker 4 00:01:48 The LSF inside looks like a long corridor, a pack with stacks and stacks of bookshelves. Let that slide to accommodate for more space.
Speaker 5 00:01:55 So it's a big storage facility for the university
Speaker 4 00:02:00 That was Sarah. ProCard the Dean of libraries and the Charles daring McCormick university librarian. Kevin now explains the main items that are featured inside the LSF
Speaker 2 00:02:10 To some degree books and, and magazines, newspapers journals. But most of the material that we have in here will be written records, uh, university records or personal papers of individuals. So we have millions upon millions, uncounted, millions of documents. So we're looking at official records of the institution, reports, publications, et cetera, that help document Northwestern or the people who are associated with Northwestern.
Speaker 4 00:02:35 And even if everything here were to be digitized, it is still critical to have the documents themselves.
Speaker 5 00:02:42 If you're a research library that saves one of a kind material like archives, you might be the only library that has that thing. And you don't dare throw out the original.
Speaker 4 00:02:53 And there's a wide variety of cool objects feature in the LSF, such as objects detailing the life of graduate. Jackie mayor who won the miss America contest in 1963, Jackie was a talented singer from a young age, however, after suffering from a stroke, her career nearly got derailed. Fortunately, she was able to recover, sing again, and eventually became a motivational speaker for those impacted by disabilities.
Speaker 2 00:03:14 Hers is an inspirational tale of someone who overcame an adversity.
Speaker 4 00:03:18 Here's an example of the work featured about Jackie.
Speaker 2 00:03:21 You and I are looking at now is a brown that is painted red, white, and blue. It has a picture of Ms. Mayer in a center. It says welcome home. Jackie mayor dated 1963. This is an object that hung in multiple copies on lamp posts, streetlights in her hometown of Sandusky, Ohio.
Speaker 4 00:03:42 And there's also some sports artifacts too.
Speaker 2 00:03:45 All right. So that's a Northwestern football Jersey from 19 4, 19 5. It's purple, it's bright purple. I've seen photographs of these teams and photographs are always black and white. So in my mind, I think about years past in, in everything was black and white. And so when this thing arrived at archives and I opened the box, I was, I was bold over
Speaker 4 00:04:08 Interacting with so many materials from people who have passed away. It made me wonder, has Kevin ever believed in ghosts or even interaction with them?
Speaker 2 00:04:16 No, not, not in the, um, spooky sense, not in the supernatural sense. Uh, I, don't never, never had a spectral encounter. <laugh> I've spent so many years in effect communicating with the dead and helping the voices of people from earlier periods of time survive into the present and express themselves to our patrons. Um, that I think if there were ghosts, one of 'em would've tapped me on the shoulder by now and that hasn't happened. So
Speaker 4 00:04:47 Kevin said every single day on the job, he has found something that is intrigued him. However, there's one moment that stands out early in his career. The archives unit went to collect records at Northwestern's downtown campus and a formally locked room and bring the records back to the library. As they went through the room, Kevin found a paper bag in the back,
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Grabbed the paper bag to see what the heck is in there. And I opened it. And, uh, the first thing I pulled out was a ransom note from the 1920s.
Speaker 4 00:05:14 The ransom note was her Bobby. Frank's the son of the wealthy Frank's family who is kidnapped and murdered in Chicago in may of 1924.
Speaker 2 00:05:22 That document is from one of the most notorious and known crimes in American history. It's Louis pulled and lobe crime.
Speaker 4 00:05:33 Kevin was shocked.
Speaker 2 00:05:36 I don't think my knee buckled, but I knew it was something really significant. And I knew immediately. And I was in my twenties at the time. I knew immediately that if I stayed in the archives trade for a long period of time, which I did my career is kind of over at that point. I will never find anything like that again. And I haven't, you know, that something that, that noteworthy we've, we've got wonderful collections, magnificent materials in here, but something that was so well known in its day, that I've never seen anything like that again. And, and a way I'm glad cuz it, it is reflective of something that was dreadful
Speaker 4 00:06:15 And empowering people to continue to tell their stories and future generations to learn about the land they're standing upon, makes co feel. He has a pretty fulfilling job.
Speaker 2 00:06:25 I believe that the university through this program of saving historical records is doing something nice for people we're in business, in the business of collecting material that will support and sustain research and hopefully increase the knowledge of the people who do that research or the readers of the product of that research. That's our, our mission. But, um, undoubtedly, I get to make people happy.
Speaker 4 00:06:53 So next time you're walking near the rock, the Madell buildings, the fair children, Kresge, or even near Maine, just think you're really close to a whole underground archival treasure trove reporting for w NWR news. I'm Margo mul.
