Crystal Theodore, Part 2

The Teacher

After the War, Crystal Theodore completed a doctorate at Columbia University and pursued advanced studies at various institutions throughout her life. When Dr. Theodore resumed her teaching career it was as head of the Huntington College (Alabama) Art Department. Later East Tennessee State College (now University) appointed her the head of its Art Department. At the latter institution two of her students were Ron Carrier and Edith Johnson (Carrier), the future first couple at JMU. The three of them would again meet at Madison.

 In the mid-1950’s while at Tennessee State, realizing the opportunities in educational television, Theodore scripted and hosted local television programs on the world’s finest art and interviewed local artists whom she often asked to demonstrate their craft. In 1957, the Educational Television and Radio Center of Ann Arbor Michigan awarded a grant for the program. In that same year Theodore received an offer to become head of the Madison College Art Department. The grant was transferred from East Tennessee to Madison, bringing the latter institution into the television age. It was the College’s first venture into television programming. The program on WSVA-TV was called “Viewpoint” and under Theodore’s supervision it focused on the arts and artists in the Shenandoah Valley. [i]

Crystal Theodore, Part 1

During Women’s History month the MRL Reference Blog features Crystal Theodore, a local artist and educator whose determined efforts raised the profile of the arts and of artists in the Shenandoah Valley. 

Crystal Theodore was born in Greenville, SC on July 27, 1917.  Her father, James, was a Greek immigrant who was a chocolatier, and her mother, Florence Bell, was from an old South Carolina family.  Crystal entered Winthrop College (now University) as a member of the class of 1938.  She took art classes, but, she majored in English and Latin as job prospects were thought to be better with this background.  Ironically, after graduation Winthrop College hired her to teach drawing and design, which she did for four years.  She was a loyal alumnus and the University awarded her professional achievement awards in 1986 and 1998.  In the fall of 2008, Theodore was included in an Alumni Art Exhibition at the University.  She was the oldest contributor.[i]  Oddly, the Director of University art collection reports that the University does not have any of her work in its collection.[ii]

Wanting to be engaged in the war effort, Theodore left the University and joined the Tennessee Valley Authority as a junior draft engineer in the topographical division.  She much preferred to join the Marine Corps, but was rejected as she was already “employed in a vital industry…[and]…she was already contributing to the war effort.”[iii]  She chose the Marine Corps because it was considered the most challenging branch of the military services.  In the spring of 1944, the TVA, during a downsizing, released her. 

Pictures From Our Past

In 1906, Nettie Gray Dangerfield published a small book Our Mammy and Other Stories in which she recalled the humanity, devotion, and idiosyncrasies of servants. Though some aspects of the stories may be adaptive, the individuals sketched in this book are believed to be servants of the Gray/Daingerfield family and their friends. A photograph accompanied each story and identified the subject by first name only.

Digital Learning Day

February 6, 2013, is Digital Learning Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia. “This event is part of a national campaign designed to celebrate innovative teaching and highlight practices that make learning more personalized and engaging for students; explore how digital learning can provide all students with the opportunities they deserve; and build the skills students need to succeed in college, career, and life.”[1] Libraries promote each patron’s ability to participate in life-long learning. As life-long learners we are all students who can benefit from digital learning through digital literacy skills.

The King James Bible

“Great and manifold were the blessings when God made James the King of England”¹

In 2011, the four hundredth anniversary of the completion of the King James Bible was celebrated and continues to be commemorated with a forty-stop travelling exhibition. From January 26th to February 21st the exhibit Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible will be at Eastern Mennonite University’s Sadie A. Hartzler Library and is open to the public. The exhibit was organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. It is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, with assistance from the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The traveling exhibition was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Gardening in January

It is January. The green of the holiday season is drying and fading. We await the arrival of the spring gardening catalogues (though some may have sneaked in with the holiday mail) that will offer tempting new varieties of vegetables and flowers for our garden. While we wait on the weather to direct our outdoor digging, what can we do? The following offers some reading, garden-site visiting, and planting suggestions for the gardener and for others who just enjoy a well-planned garden.

First, one can, if one has not, get the most uninspiring but perhaps most plant saving chore out of the way – cleaning and sharpening tools and cleaning and organizing plant containers. Prior to the next snow, put down your organic fertilizers. The snow aids in the breakdown of matter and the absorption of nutrients into the soil.

Woodrow Wilson’s Birthday Celebration – Staunton Honors a Distinguished Son

During December 1912 in Staunton, many children anxiously waited for Christmas and many adults anxiously prepared for the visit of President-elect Woodrow Wilson to begin on December 27. The occasion for Wilson’s visit was to celebrate his 56th birthday on December 28th at the place of his birth in the Presbyterian Manse on Coalter Street.

On Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, 1912, Rockingham County cast 3,195 votes for president of which fifty-five percent went to Wilson. On November 18th the local newspaper reported that plans were well underway for a “mammoth celebration” for Woodrow Wilson in Staunton on December 28th. The visit was planned to be a sentimental and non-political journey. Speculation centered on whether Wilson would come to the Valley by way of Harpers Ferry or Washington. [1]