Institution

The archives of the Nabb Research Center encompass a diverse group of historical collections including ledgers, diaries, maps, newspapers, photographs, audio recordings, and rare books. These primary sources offer researchers a glimpse into the past lives of people in the Chesapeake region and beyond. The materials are stored in archival quality containers and are organized by collection and material type. Our archivists can locate, retrieve and provide access to these resources upon request. However, the archives can also be accessed online via the <a href="https://libapps.salisbury.edu/nabb-archives/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Finding Aid Portal </a>which is a searchable database of our archival holdings that provides descriptions of the Nabb Research Center’s collections, as well as their affiliated artifacts.

Website

The Nabb Research Center has several archival collections that document the history of the Delmarva region (Local History Archives), Salisbury University (University Archives), and individuals and groups around the world (Special Collections). These collections are housed in a secure, climate-controlled archival storage facility on the fourth floor of the Guerrieri Academic Commons. Mobile compactor shelving units provide over one-and-a-half miles of storage space. 

Archives Storage

The Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture was founded in 1982 as a history laboratory for students by Dr. G. Ray Thompson and Mrs. Sylvia Bradley of the Salisbury State College Department of History. They began acquiring microfilms of historical land records, wills, inventories, censuses, and other resources pertaining to the lower counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Recognizing the convenience of having these diverse records in one central location, local researchers and family historians generously supported these efforts. Over the next decade, after outgrowing its location in Holloway Hall on the main campus and merging with the Folklore Archives, headed by Dr. Polly Stewart from the Department of English, the collection of books, microfilms, archival materials and artifacts was moved to larger quarters on the school’s East Campus and became the Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture. The Research Center became a popular repository for family journals and papers, surveyors' papers, maps, research notes of local historians, book and pamphlet collections, business records, and other ephemera donated by the public. An endowment of $500,000 by Edward H. Nabb, Sr. in June of 1998 resulted in the renaming of the Center to the Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at Salisbury University. The Nabb Research Center is now part of the Salisbury University Libraries. In the summer of 2016, the Nabb Research Center moved back to the main campus onto the fourth floor of the Patricia R. Guerrieri Academic Commons, a new state-of-art facility housing the library. In addition to the local history collections, the Nabb Research Center is also the repository for Salisbury University's archives and special collections. If you’d like to learn more about the our organization visit the <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:windowtext">Nabb Research Center Website</a>.

Located on the 4th floor of the Guerrieri Academic Commons, on the campus of Salisbury University, the Nabb Research Center houses documents, photographs, and artifacts from the Colonial era through the present day and is a remarkable resource for understanding the people and places of the Eastern Shore and all of Delmarva.

The mission of the Edward H. Nabb Research Center is to cultivate and sustain the advancement of scholarly research through collecting, preserving, disseminating, and providing access to records and artifacts which illustrate the rich historical and cultural heritage of the greater Chesapeake (Delmarva) region.  Salisbury University students and faculty, local K-12 students and educators, community and regional groups, and individual researchers utilize Nabb materials, participate in classes and workshops, and attend lectures and exhibits to broaden their understanding of the history and culture of the area. 


The Delmarva Peninsula is made up of most of the state of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia. The term Delmarva – Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia – started to appear in the early 1900s and became more widespread by the 1920s. The peninsula is surrounded by water on three sides, including the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which was built in 1829. The Peninsula is 170 miles long, 70 miles at its widest point and less than 12 miles wide at the narrowest point, with Cape Charles on the southern tip. Delmarva can be accessed by several bridges that cross the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in the north, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the west, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry in the east and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the south.   This land between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean has a rich history and diverse population from many cultures and backgrounds. The landscape and environment coupled with the different customs, beliefs, and traditions create a distinctive feel and lifestyle that is uniquely Delmarva. This self-guided exhibit highlights various aspects of Delmarva history, including Native Americans and early settlers, slavery and servitude, a glimpse of what life was like in an early 19th century home, and how working the land and water has shaped the people and landscapes of this region. Our permanent exhibit is updated regularly to incorporate stories that reflect the diverse history of the Delmarva region.

The Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture is committed to documenting and preserving the region’s history. Our permanent exhibit, Delmarva: People, Place, and Time presents an introduction to the region and showcases a small sampling of our archival and artifact collections that are stored on-site and are accessible for students, staff faculty, and members of the community for their research.

Delmarva: People, Place, and Time

Currently on display in the Thompson Gallery is Friends and Rivals: Baseball on Delmarva which explores the history and heritage of baseball on the Delmarva Peninsula and the role it played in the local communities that embraced the national pastime. The exhibit is part of a larger initiative to create a digital archive of Eastern Shore baseball and explore the importance of baseball in Delmarva communities. The Nabb Research Center, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, has collected, digitized, and photographed thousands of images, documents, and objects related to baseball on the Eastern Shore. In preserving these materials, we hope to inspire future generations to explore this fascinating part of Delmarva history. If you’d like to take a closer look at Friends and Rivals: Baseball on Delmarva, <a href="https://libapps.salisbury.edu/nabb-online/exhibits/show/friends-rivals-baseball-delmar/introduction" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">please visit our online exhibit</a>. Featured in the lobby of the Guerreri Academic Commons is Identidad Cultural en Colombia Caribeña, an exhibition that is part of a recent exchange between the Institución Universitaria ITSA, in Barranquilla, Colombia, and SU’s Janet Dudley-Eshbach Center for International Education. It features ITSA student artwork and photography that explores themes of cultural identity and pays tribute to Colombian Caribbean culture. Some of the work may seem familiar, as the student artists re-imagined well-known works of art inspired by Afro and Indigenous Colombian beauty and aesthetics. View <a href="https://libapps.salisbury.edu/nabb-online/exhibits/show/identidad-cultural-en-colombia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color:white">Identidad Cultural en Colombia Caribeña online</a>.

Each academic semester the Nabb Center curates and installs temporary exhibitions in the Thompson Gallery and the lobby of the Guerreri Academic Commons that highlight our artifact and archival collections and explore the history and culture of the Delmarva region.  Some of our previous exhibits have included: For the Love of Quilting: Modern Quilts of the Eastern Shore, Over Here and Over There: The World of War: 1914-1918, and Out of the Box: The Archives at the Nabb Research Center.  

Thompson Gallery and Guerreri Academic Commons Lobby

There are over 9,000 books and published materials in our non-circulating collection that are accessible in the Carey Family Research Room. While the focus of our library is the history and culture of Delmarva and its families, it also includes published materials on topics such as United States history, military and government history, decorative arts, exploration, Native American history, and religion. The research/reading room also holds the center’s reference collections. These collections range from surveys and land records to genealogical materials and COVID-19 resources. The <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/collections/dryden.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Leslie Dryden Collection,</a> is the Eastern Shore's largest collection of genealogical material and is organized by surname. The <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/collections/miles.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Ballard Miles Surveys</a> is a collection of survey documents prepared by three generations of the Miles family. These documents consist mainly of plats and descriptions of parcels of land in Somerset County [Maryland], but also include many in Worcester and Wicomico Counties. The <a href="https://delmarva.salisbury.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">American Origins</a> Database is a digital archive of records from the settlement period of 1663 through 1759 pertaining to the inhabitants of the neck of land just south of the Wicomico River in Somerset County, Maryland currently referred to as Mt. Vernon. <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/collections/somerset-county/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Early Somerset County, MD Land Records</a> help people understand how boundaries between Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania were established. The <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/_files/VERTICAL_FILE_OUTLINE.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Vertical Files</a> are a variety of individual documents and news clippings arranged by subject. Our most recent reference collection, the <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/collections/covid19.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">COVID-19 Collection</a>, was created to help document the experiences and feelings of individuals, particularly students, during the pandemic. These reference collections help preserve and maintain Delmarva’s unique and rich history.  You can also search our non-circulating book collection <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/collections/book-search.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">here</a>.

The Carey Family Research Room is the central hub of the Nabb Research Center where students, faculty, and the public come to conduct research and access the resources that the center has to offer. The research/reading room contains our non-circulating materials, multiple computer workstations, and tables where visitors can work with our archival collections. 

Carey Family Research Room

This <a href="https://www.salisbury.edu/libraries/nabb/_files/MICROFILM-CD__SPECIAL_COLLECTIONS_GUIDE_rev.1-31-19.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color:white;color:Black">Special Collections Microfilm Guide</a> lists the extensive microfilm and CD special collections the Nabb Research Center has available. This collection is divided into the following broad research categories:·     African-American Studies·     Ante-bellum Period thru Civil War Period·     Census·     Colonial Period thru Revolutionary Period·     Economic Reocrds (ledgers, journals, etc.)·     Family History·     Newspapers·     Native American·     Religion/Church Records·     Twentieth CenturyIn addition to the above, we have a large collection of microfilm consisting of government, church, and newspaper records relating to our main areas of interest: the states (or colonies) of Delaware (Kent &amp; Sussex Counties), Maryland (Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, &amp; Worcester Counties) and Virginia (Accomack &amp; Northampton Counties), along with assorted films from other counties.

Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents on film or paper. The Nabb Center has a collection of both microfilm (reels) and microfiche (flat film) that can be read, scanned, and printed on specialized equipment in our microform room. Materials vary by state and county and dates available, but there is a variety of surveys, tax lists, judicial and church records, as well as debt books.

Microform Room

The Nabb Research Center was created to serve as a history laboratory where the students of Salisbury University could learn and practice the craft of historians. Whether a class is researching a paper, or simply there to experience the history of the Delmarva region, the Nabb Research Center classroom is designed to provide students an opportunity to have hands-on interactions with our archival and artifact collections. Classes can participate in primary resource analysis, where they are able to personally examine and analyze primary sources such as documents, journals, magazines and artifacts. SU faculty and staff can arrange to teach a session in our classroom or have one of our Nabb librarians or curator facilitate a session. We welcome educators and visitors, both from the University and surrounding schools, to participate in or teach sessions in the Nabb classroom.

The classroom at the Nabb Research Center is located off of our reading room and promotes hands-on learning in an engaging environment. It features state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment including a document camera with real-time image capture. Reconfigurable tables and chairs can accommodate both large and small class visits. This space is designed to encourage student interaction with our archival and artifact collections. 

Classroom

Archival processing is the arrangement, description, and housing of archival materials in order to provide greater intellectual and physical access to collections. The processing room is where Nabb Research Center archivists arrange and organize documents, make sure they are in proper condition for storage, and decide where and how they should be stored. The archives workroom is used by student assistants, graduate assistants, interns and volunteers to assist in processing, inventorying, writing finding aids, and performing preservation activities on collection materials. Finding aids can be accessed online through the Nabb Center's <a href="https://libapps.salisbury.edu/nabb-archives/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(33, 37, 41)">Finding Aid Portal</a>. They provide descriptions of the Nabb Research Center’s archival collections, as well as their affiliated artifacts, to help facilitate access to the materials.

The processing and workrooms are where Nabb Center archivists and students sort, organize, and preserve collections. The processing space has tables and shelving in a light-reduced room, as light exposure can damage sensitive documents. The archives workroom has moveable work tables, shelving for archival supplies, computer workstations, and scanning equipment. In addition, an area of the workroom has a conservation space complete with a sink and overhead fume hood. These behind-the-scenes areas are crucial to ensure the preservation and access of the collections held by the Nabb Research Center.    

Archives Processing and Workrooms

Digitizing our collections enables the Nabb Research Center to share our resources with the world. Having digitized materials also contributes to the preservation of our collections as it reduces the need to handle and analyze original materials.    We share our digitized images, documents, audio and video with educators and the public on various platforms including: <a href="https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/3299" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">SOAR@SU</a>, a digital archive that provides public online access to historic Eastern Shore newspapers, items from the Salisbury University archives, Special Collections and Local History Archives. <a href="https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/suow" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Digital Maryland</a> contains selections from the Local History Archives photograph collections of <a href="https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/suow" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Orlando V. Wootten</a> and <a href="https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/p17340coll8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Walter C. Thurston, Jr.</a>, documenting the people and places of Maryland’s Eastern Shore during the mid-20th century. <a href="https://archive.org/details/salisburyuniversitylibrariesnabbresearchcenter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Internet Archive</a> houses a variety of selected digital items from the collections at the Nabb Research Center, including yearbooks, genealogical publications, and oral history audio and transcriptions. On <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nabbresearchcenter/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">Flickr</a> there are images from the photograph collections in the Local History Archives, Salisbury University Archives, and Special Collections. The Nabb Center <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdPAjxMClP3p0Yjhk4WVe3w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(149, 79, 114)">YouTube</a> channel contains historic films and videos from the archives.

The digitization lab is located off of the archives workroom and contains a range of technology to scan, record, and transfer information. The lab is equipped with a large flatbed scanner and Bookeye overhead book scanner, used for digitizing photographs, documents, ledgers, scrapbooks, and books. The audiovisual digitization setup is capable of digitizing vinyl records, cassette tapes, and VHS. The digitization lab also houses our audio and visual recording equipment used for conducting oral histories, documenting SU events, and photographing artifacts in our collection.  

Digitization Lab

As its name implies, the quarantine room allows us to isolate incoming collections from our general collection until they can be inspected. Some materials arrive at our location in poor condition and may have been stored in environmentally compromised locations such as a basement, closet, or garage. Archival materials and objects are susceptible to agents of deterioration like mold and insects that are harmful and can spread easily if not properly contained. As a way to stop the spread of these agents, we can clean, isolate, and/or freeze items that have suspected mold or insect infestations. These items are then monitored for a period of time in the quarantine room prior to being processed and put into archival or artifact storage.

The quarantine room at the Nabb Research Center is a holding area for incoming collections. This space contains shelving and tables where we can inspect, monitor, and clean archives and artifacts when they arrive at the Nabb Center. In addition, it also contains two large freezers where collections materials can be frozen to eradicate mold or insects if present.  

Quarantine Room

Our artifact collection consists of over 6,000 objects related to Delmarva history from the Colonial era through the present day. The collection contains a range of materials from furnishings and artwork to textiles and tools. Some of the highlights of the collection include: military uniforms, medals and other objects that detail local service in WWI and WWII, items from local businesses throughout the years, equipment related to agriculture and working the water, and a large collection of national, regional, and local political campaign ephemera spanning several centuries.  Each artifact in the collection has its own unique form of identification, known as an accession number, these sequences paired with the organized shelves allows for easier access and trackability. We utilize our artifact collections in our permanent and temporary exhibits, as well as for educational and research purposes.  If you’d like to explore some of the artifacts we house at the Nabb Research Center, please browse our online <a href="https://nabbhistory.pastperfectonline.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Collections Database</a>.

Tucked away in a secure location on the 4th floor of the Guerreri Academic Commons is our artifact storage room. This state-of-the-art storage space features specialized climate and humidity control, mobile compactor storage units, rolled and flat textile storage, and moveable art racks that enable us to properly store and preserve the artifacts in our collection.  

Edward H. Nabb Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture

Archives Storage

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information