Student Spotlight: Matthew Angel, Special Collections Desk Assistant

The Special Collections Research Center blog series "Student Spotlight" features student employees who contribute to the work of the SCRC. Guest author Matthew Angel, class of 2023, is an undergraduate NC State student majoring in History in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Matthew has worked as an Undergraduate Desk Assistant in the Special Collections Reading Room since September 2022.

Please describe in a sentence or two the work that you do in the Special Collections Research Center.

As an undergraduate desk assistant, my responsibilities include processing new accessions to Special Collections and assisting researchers with existing materials.

What has been most interesting to you about your work? Have you made any surprising discoveries?

During my time processing the Faculty Senate General Records, I greatly enjoyed getting to watch the University evolve over several decades. I found it especially interesting to encounter many of my more seasoned current and former professors in the records, and get to read many of their reports and correspondence. It was certainly a very strange feeling to be able to go to office hours and have a conversation with one of my professors about mundane office drama from 40 years ago.

If you met someone who was unfamiliar with archives and special collections, what would you want them to know? 

We have some very cool and very old stuff! Our oldest item is a fragment of the page of a 13th century "pocket" bible. My favorite collection in Special Collections is a complete and uncirculated set of every edition of Harper’s Weekly newspaper, 1857-1912. Despite being up to 166 years old, the pages have been so well preserved that they appear as though they might have been printed last week.

What are you studying, and what do you hope to do in your future career?  Has your work in the SCRC changed how you look at your studies or your future career plans in any way?

I have always been a student of history. My college career has only formalized it. Therefore my career aspirations are quite general: to be involved in the study of history. To this end, I pursue every related opportunity that I can: pursuing work at a state historic site, regional archives, as a book editor - and of course at NCSU Libraries Special Collections. I could see myself working in museums, historic sites, academia, or archives professionally. In the meantime, my work in the SCRC has opened doors in my undergraduate studies. Next semester (my last before graduation) I will be pursuing an independent study in Graphic Communications — using the archive to access architectural drawings for historic structures on NC State’s campus and bring them back to life as 3D models in Autodesk Revit. If not for my knowledge and connections accrued from working in Special Collections, this very exciting opportunity would not have been possible. After graduation, I plan to continue my studies in graduate school: probably in Germany or Austria, as I am learning the language.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your work with the SCRC?

Anyone can access the archives! I wish I had known about SCRC sooner, I would have utilized the reading room to incorporate primary source documents into my many undergraduate essays.