Bales Speaks to History.com, Chicago’s Daily Herald

Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales
Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales was interviewed on History.com and Chicago’s Daily Herald on his book, The Chicago Cub Shot for Love, about the 1932 shooting death of baseball player Billy Jurges by his former lover, showgirl Violet Popovich.
The Crime of Passion That Led to Babe Ruth’s Epic World Series Home Run (History.com)
Chicago Baseball’s Link to the Great Chicago Fire (Suburban Chicago Daily Herald)
Banned Books Read-Out
In recognition of the annual American Library Association’s Banned Books Week (September 26-October 2), a Read-out was held on Wednesday, Sept. 29, on Campus Walk, in front of Lee Hall, and on the University Center steps facing Ball Circle, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. President Paino and other administrators, faculty, and students read from selected banned and challenged books in a free, public event sponsored by the Department of English and Linguistics and Simpson Library. A special exhibit of banned books will be on display in the lobby area of Simpson Library throughout the week and on the UMW Libraries Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
Thaden, Devlin Interviewed in The Free Lance-Star on LGBTQ Oral History Project

Executive Director of Alumni Relations Mark Thaden
Executive Director of Alumni Relations Mark Thaden ’02 and Associate Professor of History and American Studies Erin Devlin were interviewed in The Free Lance-Star about Mary Washington’s LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project. UMW Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives just launched the oral history collection, made up of recorded interviews and transcripts by students in Devlin’s oral history seminar in 2019.
When Mark Thaden first arrived at the University of Mary Washington in the late 1990s, the campus LGBTQ group met quietly, behind closed doors, in an upstairs room of the campus center.
“It was a social group, but it was very much about support,” said Thaden, a 2002 graduate of UMW who is now the university’s executive director of alumni relations.
Thaden said he was not out when he came to UMW from rural Maryland and a small, Catholic high school. At the club carnival early his freshman year, he was excited to see that there was an LGBTQ campus group, but he was too nervous at first to approach members.

Associate Professor of History and American Studies Erin Devlin
Luckily, a friend signed him up to receive the group’s emails and the meetings became formative in his journey toward self-acceptance.
“That’s where I started feeling more comfortable, being with people who were comfortable with themselves,” Thaden said. “That’s where I started feeling like it was OK.”
Thaden’s memories and those of two dozen other LGBTQ alumni were recorded and transcribed in 2019 by students in Associate Professor Erin Devlin’s Oral History seminar. Read more.
Parsons Interviewed for Free Lance-Star Article on Archiving the Pandemic
Carolyn Parsons, head of Special Collections and University Archives for UMW Libraries, was interviewed for an article in The Free Lance-Star entitled, “Sites work to preserve these pivotal times.”
“It is such a history-in-the-making moment,” said Carolyn Parsons, head of special collections and university archives for the Simpson Library at the University of Mary Washington. “Back in March, shortly after the university was asked to close, we really just started thinking about how this moment is currently here in time and we wanted to preserve it so future researchers could have it before that content was lost.” Read more here and here.
National Day on Write and Why I Write
October 20th is National Day On Writing. Around UMW and all over the globe people will share their love for writing through the #WhyIWrite campaign sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. Join others on Simpson’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and tell us why you write. You can also go to add your thoughts and comments to Simpson’s Call to Contribute page and document your experiences during COVID-19. https://libraries.umw.edu/call-to-contribute-submission-form/
#WhyIWrite #NDoW109
Sponsored by UMW Libraries, UMW English and Linguistics, UMW Honors Council and the UMW Creative Writing Club.