I have really enjoyed my time with the Horizons-Upward Bound (HUB) collection and community. Nearing the end of my role as project archivist for HUB’s digitization project, I’d like to share my experiences in my final post. Unlike prior archival projects I’ve contributed to, I experienced all aspects of the HUB project from beginning to end. I cherish early memories of lugging many boxes across campus from storage into my work area with head archivist, Deborah Rice. Seeing over 15 boxes packed with records, I could feel the weight of what two years of digitization might be like. Now after moving them back into storage, my work space feels a little empty. But I hold a sense of accomplishment knowing that all is digitized, described, and now available for public access!

Being with Cranbrook Archives for two years, I’ve gained lessons, memories, and relationships. It will be bitter-sweet to leave. So, to help keep things fun and light, I’ve condensed my reflections and favorite HUB collection items into a top five list. I hope you enjoy!

First, a disclaimer…picking only five out of 3500+ items is pretty wild, in my opinion (though useful for brevity). So let’s just say, the following are my top five at this moment.

5. Annual Reports

The annual reports were the first records I digitized and a fun gateway to studying HUB’s history. They also helped to identify and describe other material in the collection throughout the project. I became familiar with staff names/roles, faculty insights, courses and programs, case studies, and more. I especially hold a soft spot for physical media like this (including HUB’s class brochures) because they document the historical impact of such programs across multiple years. Initially created for promotional purposes, the reports can now live a second life as memory/reference tools for HUB’s community and the broader public today.

4. Media & Technology

My next highlight involves working with various technologies and materials. The date span of the collection, 1965 to 2000, provided a wide range of media not as common in our digital-driven world today, like cassette tapes, photographic prints, slides, and negative film. (See my post on Digitizing HUB’s Visual History to learn more about HUB’s photographs.)

I think I most enjoyed working on the negatives and cassette tapes. Both required learning advanced imaging software and working with converter hardware to digitize the tapes. Plus the older media itself was just fun to view and handle. For instance, we have contact sheets of photographs like the above shot through a fisheye lens. By also having an art and design background, it felt rewarding to apply my imaging skills in a different way for the archives.

3. HUB Stories

My third memorable takeaway is learning various stories from the HUB collection. Three stand out, in particular: the origin story of HUB’s flag designed by Gregory Loving (HUB ’74); HUB’s SoulFest community fundraiser inspired by HUB parent Lula Barnes and organized by Margot Snyder; and a personal account of Detroit’s 1967 Rebellion found among administrative records. Many graduation photos, as pictured above, also stand out, bearing witness to stories yet to be shared on the official record. I hope that my findings are only a prelude to many more HUB stories being accessed by the public through our digital collection.

2. 1984 Student Films

In second-place are the short student films produced in 1984. I wrote about their discovery in a previous blog, but to summarize, the films were influenced by 1980s pop-culture: a rom-com (Farewell My Summer Love) and two slasher-thrillers (Dormitory of the Dead and The Nightmare). HUB students asserted themselves as actors, producers, writers, and engineers during a time when diverse representation was less common in American pop culture than today.

During HUB’s 2024 summer assembly, I presented the films to students in the form of a trivia game. I’m not sure what I enjoyed more, sharing 1980s references with the students or hearing their insights about pop culture and the film genre.

1. Community Relationships

Finally, my number one HUB memory are the memories-to-come (is that cheating?)! Pictured above is our archival display at HUB’s class reunion in Summer, 2024. I designed an info-graphic poster, small photo exhibit, and keepsake bookmarks highlighting items from the collection. The best part of this day involved Deborah and I gathering brief audio and written memories from alumni across classes from the 1960s to 2020s.

I thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the HUB/Cranbrook community over the last two years, discussing their stories while creating new memories to archive. Multiple times throughout the project, I connected with HUB alumni, students, and administration at class events, board meetings, and volunteer sessions (shout out to Barry Z. Roberts, HUB ’77) at the archives studio.

See the Collection Online!

Remember to visit HUB’s digital collection. Also, join us as we continue to celebrate HUB’s sixtieth anniversary, and check out our virtual photo exhibition, Sixty Years of Horizons-Upward Bound, 1965-2025. To see more of my favorites, visit my prior post on HUB’s 60th year, and a throw-back from their 30th year in my Photo Friday post.

See you around!

—Courtney Richardson, Project Archivist, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research