By Emma Brown, TLS Staff Writer
Which is the flesh side and which is the hair side?
This was one of the questions students were asked to answer in professor Marc Saurette’s Medieval and Early Modern Studies class last semester. They were examining manuscripts from Carleton’s Archives and Research Collections (ARC). The medieval documents are written on vellum—animal skin—which has a hair side and a flesh side.
“Having those sorts of materials present brings the past more to life, it becomes something more tangible that you can actually feel,” Saurette says.
He incorporated the use of ARC materials heavily into the course. The students’ assignments revolved around researching and cataloguing a particular item from Carleton’s collection.
“I’ve been quite surprised by the diversity of the holdings here and how useful they are for teaching,” he says.
Before teaching the course, he spent time combing through the archives and was happy to find a good collection of medieval folios and manuscripts.
Archives and rare book coordinator, Lloyd Keane, says there are many departments that might be surprised at what ARC has to offer. While history and literature have a more obvious interest in many of the collections, there are also materials related to architecture, art, and even science. Keane says a chemistry class might be interested in the items on alchemy, the forerunner to chemistry.
Professors can discover the collection highlights through the ARC website, but even if they don’t see anything of interest there, Keane encourages them to check in with the staff in person.
“I’d much rather have the opportunity to say, ‘let’s see what we have’ than just assume that we don’t,” he says.
If professors find items of interest, they can integrate them into their classes in a couple different ways. The first would be to have the class take a one-time visit to ARC to look at the material. The other would be to center the class assignments on researching the primary sources at ARC. ARC is also available for hands-on teaching of how to search through an archive and the processes behind it.
Saurette says his experience of working with the staff at ARC has been positive.
“ARC is unfailingly helpful, very enthusiastic, and makes it as easy as possible to consult the resources they have here. So if professors have any interest in using the material…it’s a fantastic venue,” he says.