October is coming to an end. As the UNC Wilmington community prepares to celebrate a long-awaited Halloween holiday, the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History is observing another occasion: American Archives Month. Every October, archivists share information about archives, historical records, and their value to the public. University Archives is celebrating both Halloween and American Archives Month by writing this week’s blog post about Apparition, a defunct UNCW creative magazine dedicated to all things horror, suspense, and Halloween. 

Many members of the UNCW community are familiar with Atlantis, the University’s student-led creative magazine. Since 1971, Atlantis’ team has carefully selected and published the prose, poetry, artwork, and photography of talented college students from across North Carolina. Apparition, a Halloween publication, was at different times sponsored by Atlantis and the UNCW English Club, though student organizational records do not clearly indicate which group created the magazine. An article from the October 5, 1977 Seahawk newspaper mentions both organizations in a campus-wide search for “suspense or horror short stories” for the Apparition, suggesting that the magazine was a joint effort between the two student groups. Although the circumstances surrounding Apparition's creation are uncertain, the publication clearly resembles Atlantis. Like Atlantis, it features short stories, poems, artwork, and captivating front covers.

There are few references to Apparition in student periodicals, but an article from the October 20, 1976, Seahawk speaks positively about the magazine. According to the article, the 1975 edition of the Apparition was so popular that every copy was gone within just two hours. Perhaps students were drawn to the magazine’s pumpkin-colored front covers and the intricate—although eerie—hand-drawn illustrations. Others might have been intrigued by the spooky poems and short stories that bore titles like “The Hunted,” “There were Footsteps,” and “Peering into the Darkness.”

Although the Apparition is no longer being published, you can still view this Halloween-themed magazine by visiting the CSENCAH Reading Room on the second floor of Discovery Hall during our open hours. Or, contact us to make an appointment.

Sources

• English Club, 1983-1988, undated, Box: 25, Folder: 10, University of North Carolina Wilmington Student Affairs Records UA-RG-11, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, https://archivesspace.uncw.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/136239.
• English Club Seeking Stories (1977 October 5). The Seahawk, page 13. https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/2298/rec/4.
• Lance Smith: Working With A Growing Magazine (1976 October 20). The Seahawk, page 12.          https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/3192/rec/6.

Every year, October marks American Archives Month, an advocacy initiative of the Society of American Archivists. Archival institutions across the country highlight their collections with activities and events to promote awareness of archival materials and the importance of maintaining historical records.

Here in North Carolina, the Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) selects an annual theme for archivists across the state to follow when showcasing the work they do in making primary sources accessible to the public.

This year’s theme is North Carolina’s 250th, in honor of the nation approaching its 250th anniversary in 2026, and celebrates the “different peoples of North Carolina and the part they played in the history of the country” since 1776. Special Collections’ manuscript collections contain primary and secondary material that document significant national moments from the last 250 years. Here are some of the people of southeast North Carolina that have made an impact over the years:

18th Century

The Declaration of Independence was signed by three men from North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper (1742-1790). Hooper lived in Wilmington at the time, where he’d been practicing law since 1764, and owned a house [pictured¹] on the Masonboro Sound from 1773-1801. He represented New Hanover County on the first Committee of Correspondence, coordinating patriot opposition to British policies in advance of the American Revolution. This work would lead to his election to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Though he missed the approval of the Declaration on July 4, 1776, he returned to Philadelphia on August 2 and signed not far below John Hancock.

19th Century

The World's Columbian Exposition, commonly referred to as the World’s Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893 and was one of the largest of the fairs, with more than 27 million visitors from across the globe. Florence Hill Kidder (1850-1917) was appointed a "lady manager" for the state of North Carolina by the World's Columbian Commission and helped with the many North Carolina exhibits that were displayed in the subject-specific halls. Her colonial exhibit won an award [pictured²], and upon her return to North Carolina, she established the North Carolina chapter of the National Society for the Colonial Dames of America in 1894. Kidder lived with her husband, George, at 308 Dock Street in downtown Wilmington, where the home, known as the Kidder House, still stands today.

20th Century

Amidst the national civil rights movement, the New Hanover County school system faced community pressure and legal action for its lack of progress towards desegregating schools, as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Integration finally happened in 1968 and included the closure of the Black high school, Williston, where long-time educator and community leader Bertha Boykin Todd (1929-) [pictured³] worked as a librarian before moving to an administrative role at Hoggard High School. Racial tensions post desegregation ultimately led to violence and riots in 1971, when ten individuals, known as the Wilmington Ten, were accused of setting a grocery store on fire. Todd worked to sow peace and amity within the schools during this tumultuous time and later helped to exonerate the Wilmington Ten, all part of her ongoing activism and efforts to build multicultural relationships in New Hanover County. You can learn more about her life in the Bertha Boykin Todd Papers. 

Sources

1. MS 418 Relvin Vaughn (R.V.) Asbury, Jr. Papers, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

2. MS 083 Kidder Award and Certificate of Membership, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

3. MS 408 Star-News Image Archive, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History

In October, the Center for Southeast NC Archives and History is excited to host an open house! Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30, from 4-5:30pm and come join us!

In the Center’s Reading Room (Discovery Hall 2095), we will have items on display related to our collecting areas: government information, manuscript collections, rare and special publications, and University records. Our team will be on hand to chat about the Center’s collections and services – we are available for use by faculty, staff, students, community members, and all kinds of information-seekers looking for information about the history of Southeast North Carolina!

We will also be celebrating the library’s 60th year of being part of the Federal Depository Library Program, which helps the public access federal government information. 

Folks from all around may find this open house helpful: students, faculty, staff, community members of all kinds. Our collections document the University and its history and Southeastern North Carolina encompassing New Hanover County and the surrounding region including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Pender, Onslow, and Sampson counties. 

Off-campus visitors may find this information about visitor parking on campus useful. Please email csencah@uncw.edu with any questions. 

Light refreshments will be served. Please stop by, for 5 minutes or 50 – and bring your research questions! 

From 1944 to 2020, the servicemembers of U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (with the assistance of some additional civilian staff) published a weekly newspaper called The Globe. The articles in this newspaper are vital pieces of evidence towards reconstructing the lived experiences of individual service members stationed at Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, N.C., throughout the second half of the 20th century.  

Extant issues of the Globe are few and far between, and it can be difficult to track down historical issues of the newspaper. The good news is that a nearly complete run of issues has been digitized and made freely accessible to the public online by the U.S. Department of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS). Researchers can browse and download issues via the DVIDS database. 

If you need to access an issue that isn’t featured in the database, tracking down a print copy is challenging. A largely complete run of print issues dated 1944-2013 are held at the Harriotte B. Smith Library at Camp Lejeune, but not all issues are present. Also, access to the Harriotte B. Smith Library may be difficult if you aren’t a member of the Marine Corps. You can contact the library directly for information about accessing these issues. 

The Center has a handful of print issues available for onsite access, in MS 195 USO Club, Jacksonville NC Collection, but coverage is scattered, and many issues are incomplete fragments. A few libraries across the country hold microfilm editions of the newspaper, which researchers might be able to borrow via the Interlibrary Loan program from a public or academic library with which they are affiliated. To our knowledge, these are the only libraries with microfilm copies in their holdings: 

• State Library of North Carolina: 1944-1945
• Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill: 1944-1948; 1992-2003
• University of Wisconsin-Madison: 1944-1976; 1978-1991; 1994 

For more information about historical newspapers from this part of North Carolina, check out our Guide to Southeast North Carolina Newspapers, which explains how to find and access back issues of newspapers known to have been published in the Center's eight-county region from the 18th century to the present. 

Fall is here, and so is college football season. Exuberant fans paint themselves in their team's colors, cheering crowds flood into massive stadiums, and football players walk out to the sound of an expertly drilled marching band. On other college campuses, this exciting season is in full swing, but UNC Wilmington remains quiet. While UNCW boasts many talented student athletes and championship-winning teams, football is one sport to have never graced our campus. Or has it?

Materials from University Archives reveal that UNC Wilmington once had a thriving football club. This group was not an official team; they weren't members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), nor were they recognized by the University's athletics department. Although the club may have been informal, student newspapers from our archives show that its members took things seriously. In their first year, the club celebrated a win streak and entered the North Carolina Club Football Association playoffs, according to a November 30, 1977, article in the Seahawk. In September 1985, another Seahawk article reported that the UNCW community needed a football team, stating that "Large crowds at home games show that the student body and community residents enjoy watching football on a fall afternoon."

UNC Wilmington's Student Government Association (SGA) was particularly invested in the Football Club, especially in the possibility of evolving it into something more. In 1979, the SGA conducted a detailed study to determine the feasibility of forming a Division III football team at UNCW, taking into consideration the demand for and cost of such a group. The study was authorized by the University's Board of Trustees, but a team was never approved. In a 1979 memorandum, the Trustees rejected the SGA's proposal due to the exceedingly high costs of creating an NCAA football team. The funding required for training facilities, scholarships, coach and assistant salaries, and insurance would have been immense. Nevertheless, the SGA and other supporters continued to assist the Football Club. In 1980, the club received $5,600 from the Student Senate, and another $2,500 from private donations, according to Board of Trustees meeting minutes. 

Despite these valiant efforts, UNC Wilmington has never had an official, NCAA-backed football team. Many football-loving students have accepted this absence with plenty of humor, however. This 1981 April Fools' edition of the Seahawk, for instance, includes an articles that jokes about the Football Club receiving an enthusiastic Division I invitation from the NCAA. If you ever find yourself dreaming of football players in teal uniforms, remember that our school already has much to offer. UNCW has a plethora of competitive sports teams, student-led sports clubs, and intramural sports (including a flag football group) for everyone to enjoy.

Many of the materials mentioned in this blog post are digitized, if they have a link, and available to view online in the Library's Digital Collections. More complete citation information is below. To view these materials and other non-digitized records in-person, visit the Center's Reading Room on the second floor of Discovery Hall during our open hours. Or, contact us to make an appointment.

Sources

• Club Football to Begin Season (1985 September 9). The Seahawk, page 5. https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/5076/rec/9.
• Club Nabs State Playoff Berth (1977 November 30). The Seahawk, page 6. https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/2376/rec/6.
• Committee: Student Affairs, 1978-1999, Box: 4, Folder: 16, University of North Carolina Wilmington Board of Trustees Records UA-RG-02, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History. https://archivesspace.uncw.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/141133.
• Football Feasibility Study, 1979, Box: 15, Folder: 2, University of North Carolina Wilmington Student Affairs Records UA-RG-11, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, https://archivesspace.uncw.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/135959.
• Football gets NCAA Division Invitation (1981 April 1). The Seahawk, page 5. https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll1/id/3667/rec/5.
• Minutes of the meeting, Board of Trustees, University of North Carolina Wilmington (1980 October 8). Board of Trustees, page 7. https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/bot/id/368/rec/20.

Introduction

UNCW Library’s Special Collections unit is housed within the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, located on the second floor of Discovery Hall. Special Collections focuses on collecting cultural and historical materials pertaining to the eight-county region known as southeast North Carolina (SENC), including Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, and Sampson counties. The Center is also home to federal and state government resources and records documenting the history of the University.

When thinking about archival materials, what comes to mind first is most likely old things – whether that’s rare books or letters and deeds from generations past – and it is true, we do collect those items; however, our collections especially reflect the contemporary growth of the SENC region during the 20th and 21st centuries. They trace economic development, environmental concerns and coastal area management, and politics at all levels of government, as well as the cultural output that uniquely defines the Cape Fear area. Special Collections staff curate, process, describe, and provide access to a wide variety of materials falling into two primary categories – Rare Books and Manuscripts Collections.  

Rare Books

There are four primary collections of published materials held in Special Collections. 

The Southeast North Carolina Collection consists of books and other published items pertaining to our eight-county region. From church histories and broadsides to county records and scientific reports, this collection contains a wide variety of rare and unique items that document all historical aspects of this region.

The Local Authors Collection contains the creative output of SENC writers, including works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more. You might recognize names such as Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, and Nina de Gramont.

Special Collections also collects locally published magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and other similar publications – a group of materials that libraries collectively call periodicals. This collection includes out-of-print titles such as Encore and Life Around Wilmington, as well as active titles, including current regional newspapers. The unit collaborates with the Library’s Digital Initiatives team and state and local partners to digitize and make available newspapers such as Carolina Beach’s Island Gazette and Columbus County’s News Reporter. 

Finally, the Special Books Collection contains publications that meet one or more of the following criteria: items pertaining to North Carolina history, items published before 1850, and rare items owned by less than 50 libraries. An additional (and very neat!) sub-collection within Special Books is a collection of miniature books measuring less than 5 inches by width or height.

Pictured here is a selection of rare books ranging in size from Mark Catesby’s 23-inch folio, Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, to the miniature book, Lute & Lyre and Other Musical Instruments of the 6th Century A.D., a generous 1 inch in height. 

Manuscripts and Archives

Manuscript collections differentiate the Center’s Special Collections unit from other libraries and archival repositories due to their inherently unique character; manuscript collections reflect their creators and owners and often contain materials that were not kept or organized by anyone else. As mentioned previously, the Special Collections unit collects and documents the cultural and historical output of the SENC region. Our collecting scope includes subjects such as the arts, business, development, education, environmental history, faculty research, local history, politics, religion, and war and military history. Researchers can discover physical items such as diaries, letters, and photographs, as well as digital items including electronic documents, audiovisual content, and more.

The Center's collections document the lives and careers of individuals such as Dr. Hubert Eaton, Sr., and Hannah Block, the operations of organizations such as the local USO chapter and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, and events such as the USS North Carolina battleship homecoming and the Southport 4th of July Festival.

Items pictured include a letter from James R. Womble to his father describing the fall of Fort Fisher during the Civil War; a button Wilmington citizens wore while advocating for funding for a new bridge over the Cape Fear River during the 1950s and prior to the construction of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge; and marines stationed at Camp Lejeune during the 1960s enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Access and Research

All of the materials mentioned here and more are available to be explored by researchers near and far. Visit the Center’s website to learn more about finding materials, planning a visit, or requesting research assistance. 

The history of North Carolina is interesting, varied, and far-reaching, insomuch as it dates to our initial ties with England, well before Independence was declared. As a native of “the Old North State,” I have come to appreciate that history. If any North Carolinian ever faced the need or desire to learn about the history of this great state, then The North Carolina Manual would be one of the best resources to use. Fortunately, here at the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, we have almost every edition of The North Carolina Manual in print, ranging from the years 1913-2008.

According to J.D. Lewis, from his site The North Carolina Manual, The Manual was first printed in 1874 as a result of post-Civil War Reconstruction “and the resulting total rework of the North Carolina State Constitution in 1868.”  During that time, many North Carolinians were elected to public office for the first time and had no real concept of how state government operated. These newly elected officials needed a resource to consult that would provide “essential information about all branches of government, of which they were now a part.” The provenance and subsequent publication of The Manual is interesting, and merits a brief retelling of its own, before highlighting the contents and specific editions of The Manual in future blog posts.

As stated earlier, The Manual was first published in 1874, but the appropriations that were needed to continue printing it were not reauthorized. Not until 1903 was its second iteration published. At that time, it was authorized to be printed on a biennial, or every other year, basis. Again, according to Lewis, the manual was to contain the Constitutions of the United States and North Carolina, and “the names of all the Governors and other executive officers of the State, Judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts, members and officers of the two Houses of the General Assembly, with such other chronological and statistical information as may be deemed useful.”

There were to be 1,000 copies printed of The Manual and each Senator and Representative were to receive four each. One copy would also go to each officer of both houses of the General Assembly. A copy would be given to each State officer, including Judges of the Supreme Court and Superior Courts, one to the Governor of each state, and the NC State Library would receive ten copies. Any remaining copies would “be equally distributed in the several counties of the State to such parties as the said Secretary may elect.” It was also resolved “that in no edition of said ‘Manual’ after the first shall any name be reprinted except the names of those actually in office.”

In 1913, with the printing of that edition of The Manual, the General Assembly appropriated funds allowing for a thorough researching of the history of North Carolina’s government “since the early colonial era.”  There was, however, one stipulation included with the appropriations needed for that research: that in subsequent printings, most of that history would not be reprinted. As Lewis shares, the early twentieth century saw many changes within North Carolina’s government, namely, the creation of new agencies, boards, and commissions to help support a rapidly growing population. As we will see in future posts about it on this blog, The Manual became a vital resource for those serving in public roles, at both state and local levels.

Are you a UNCW faculty member who wants to integrate archival materials and/or other historical primary sources into your coursework? We can help you with that!  

The Center’s public services archivist, Samantha Crisp, is available to help faculty members connect their students with the historical documents in the Center’s collections, design assignments incorporating primary source research, and source archival collections at other repositories in support of a particular research topic or assignment. This will usually involve one or more class field trips to the library for a hands-on session exploring the Center’s collections. During these instruction sessions, an archivist will introduce students to several foundational primary source literacy concepts, such as understanding and interpreting primary sources, using sources to generate research questions, navigating finding aids and other search tools, and critically interrogating sources to determine biases, silences, and power relationships.

The Center’s collections are vast in scope, and we have materials documenting a wide range of historical topics. Some past instruction sessions and student projects have focused on the following topics, but this list is not exhaustive: 
 

• UNCW history
• Local families and organizations
• The Civil War and Reconstruction
• The Civil Rights Movement in Wilmington
• Regional politics
• Coastal environmental history
• The Lower Cape Fear's visual and performing arts community
• The history of science and medicine
• Women’s history, domesticity, and women’s health
• Erotica, pulp and noir fiction, and dime store novels
• Miniature books
• Pseudoscience, the afterlife, and the occult
• The history of the book

If you’re interested in chatting more about how we can support you and your students in your/their research, reach out to us today!  
 

Reflections

• Records Management (RM) had a presence at UNCW's celebration of Love Data Week in February. Seventeen people attended the online session “Let’s Talk about Administrative Data: A Conversation about Archiving the Data in Your Office.” Slides are available here. What RM topics do you want to see addressed during next year's Love Data Week? The theme will be “My kind of data.”
   
• Records and Information Management Month, April 2023 - University Archives held a total of 4 workshops–one on Zoom and 3 others around campus. There were 48 attendees altogether. Check out this handy Records Management Guide customized for UNCW.

News & Updates

• Please continue to refer to the UNC System Records Schedule (2021). The Record Analysis Unit at the State Archives is currently short-staffed with only two analysts in Raleigh and two regional analysts.  Please send suggestions for schedule updates and revisions to University Archives for consideration by the State Archives.
   
• Following the RM workshops this past spring, we in University Archives have had the opportunity to consult with several staff members at UNC Wilmington on records management questions. A valuable reminder: Adhering to the records schedule is a process! Making a plan, testing, and communicating with stakeholders and the public are components of a records management project. It is fine to build time into your projects to complete these steps as you move toward compliance.
   
• Do you produce state publications? Examples are university and departmental magazines, books published by the university, the Atlantis and other creative magazines, strategic plans, exhibition catalogues, and more. NC General Statute 125-1A established a process for schools in the UNC system – as state agencies – to send 10 printed copies and/or a digital version to the State Publications Clearinghouse at the State Library of NC. Copies are then distributed to designated libraries throughout the state in addition to the Library of Congress. See guidelines on donating to the State Publications Clearinghouse. We continue to acquire these publications for University Archives as well.
   
• I hear from you that video recordings of Zoom presentations on Records Management are appreciated. We will try to accommodate this request going forward.

RM Phrase of the Day

Capstone Approach to Email Archiving: The Capstone Approach is a method of email management that bases appraisal for long-term retention in the Archives on the account owner’s role or position rather than individual email content. This approach has benefits for a successful email archiving program.

Electronic Records Day and Archives Month

Electronic Records Day is observed in the United States every year on October 10, which can be expressed as 1010 in honor of binary code. October is National Archives Month. UNCW will help raise public awareness about archives throughout October.

Good luck on your Records Management projects and all your other endeavors this summer!

--University Archives

While my semester is nearing its end, I still have a few more weeks to squeeze in the last bit of work on the Evans’s letters! When I last checked in, I had just begun my work with the Anchram H. and Elizabeth K. Evans Civil War Letters collection.

As a recap, this collection mostly comprises correspondence between Anchram and Elizabeth Evans during Anchram’s time in the army during the Civil War. The Evans lived in Brunswick County in a small town named Town Creek and were a farming family before and after the war. From what I gathered from the letters and some brief research on Ancestry.com, Elizabeth and Anchram got married in February of 1861 when she was just 16 and he was 22. Marriage at a young age was much more common in the nineteenth century, but it still blows my mind to think about how young Elizabeth was. Anchram enlisted in the army in early 1862, and the couple had their first daughter in October of the same year. From what I could put together from the letters, it seemed like Elizabeth lived with Anchram’s family while he was away.

            I was assigned several tasks for this collection, but I began by reviewing their letters for content related to yellow fever, notable Wilmington families, and information about life at the time. I did this by reviewing the existing transcripts and the letters themselves. Consulting both was necessary because the original transcripts weren’t quite reliable. Reading cursive handwriting on aging and damaged paper is very difficult, especially when dealing with spelling errors, unfamiliar turns of phrases, and references to unfamiliar people and places. By reading every letter, I could put together information for what became the scope and content notes for the finding aid. For this collection, I provided a very brief description of every letter that will hopefully lead researchers to the collection. This is called “Item Level Description,” and it is not performed for every archival collection because it is a very time-consuming task.

            Reading through the collection helped me form a better picture of the Evans family and their lives, and it helped immensely with reorganizing. For the most part, there was not much to be done to reorganize the collection because they would be kept in chronological order, but there were a number that were either undated, partially dated, or even dated incorrectly. By being familiar with the letters' content, I could help ascribe dates to those partially dated or correct those that weren’t quite right. While my practicum is technically just about complete, I should have time to wrap up the collection before the semester ends and I graduate! As I type this blog post, the finding aid is live on Randall Library’s website and can be accessed by researchers. I hope I will have time to digitize the letters in the collection, as they are quite fragile. By providing digital copies online, the collection will be available to a wider range of researchers and reduce the time they have to be pulled for onsite researchers, extending their lives in the archive.

            This semester, I’ve learned a lot and honed many important skills, including my attention to detail. I only spent ten hours a week in Special Collections, so it was important to be organized and leave myself notes on what I completed the week prior and what to start on for the next week. Making mistakes in a workplace that deals with many moving pieces is very easy. I’ve caught mistakes from previous archive staff in my collections and made a few myself, but I catch them when I can and fix them. If I can’t fix them or need assistance, I seek support from my supervisors. I haven't been afraid to ask for help for a long time, and I think I would advise everyone to work on that.

            As for my learning goals for the semester, I think I’ve made substantial progress in them all. I feel more comfortable working with ArchivesSpace and feel that I could use these skills to navigate other types of cataloging software for archives or museums. I’ve also engaged with many professional texts thanks to the readings put together by my supervisors. I read a number of articles and book chapters on all sorts of topics, including climate change, copyright, digitization, outreach, and more! I believe I also made progress in working to identify and eliminate archival silences. For example, while reading the Evans’s letters, I was able to identify a letter that referenced the transfer of three enslaved persons from father to son. While I can’t tell their stories or even record their names, I am happy to bring them to light, even if it's just in the scope notes of my finding aid. I still can’t believe how quickly this semester has gone by but I am proud of what I have accomplished. I hope that my work will be helpful to future researchers and inspires others to join a field that brings me so much joy. 

            Well, I guess this is farewell for now. I’ve got more work to do!