“Lives from the Archives: Lithuanian Faculty at Elon” Story Map

Posted on: August 1, 2019 | By: belkarchives | Filed under: Faculty and Staff, General Elon History

Between 1949 and 1978, three Lithuanian faculty taught in Elon’s Department of Languages and Department of History. Dr. Konstantinas Avizonis, Angele Avizonis, Dr. Kostas V. Cepas, and Lidija Cepas immigrated to the United States after World War II.

A Story Map is a method of integrating text, pictures, documents, and maps to creatively showcase information. There are few (if any) limits to the topics one can engage with, and the blend of text and digital materials makes it great for archival research. With the Avizonis and Cepas’ travel across Europe and the United States, their story seemed particularly well-suited to the format.

This story map showcases information from their lives, from their early education in Lithuania, to their displacement during World War II, to their careers at Elon College. Many of the documents, correspondence, and pictures are housed in the Elon University Archives. Make sure to click on the map pins to explore further details about the Avizonises and the Cepases.

Lives from the Archives: Lithuanian Faculty at Elon

The process of turning archived materials into a story map began with student newspapers. Elon Univeristy’s Archives has a fully-searchable database of student newspapers, so that is where the research began. These newspaper articles gave context for the Avizonis and Cepas families while they were in the Elon community, as well as giving some background information on their lives in Lithuania. Next came the physical files from Elon’s Archives. Dr. Konstantinas Avizonis, Angele Avizonis, and Dr. Kostas Cepas each had a file for pictures and documents relating to their time at Elon. Because Lidija Cepas was never employed by the University, most of the information on her life and career came from external sources like The Daily Times-News of Burlington, NC, and records available through Ancestry.

Local newspapers like The Daily Times-News also provided information about the Avizonis and Cepas families’ involvement with the town of Elon. Documents such as passenger lists for the Avizonises, along with naturalization records and death certificates, were available through Ancestry. The combination of newspaper articles, correspondence, and official documents helped the narrative of their lives come into focus.

Organizing this information was paramount to presenting a coherent narrative. Timelines helped keep track of important dates, and both photos and documents are named with important names and dates for both the archival database and to make it easier to place the images in context. Not every piece of information available in the archives is showcased in the Story Map. As with a lot of academic research, archival work requires sifting through what might be relevant in order to tell the most complete story available.

For example, the Story Map does not include the letter Dr. Avizonis sent to then-President Dr. Danieley renewing his teaching contract after serving as a visiting professor at the University of Kansas, but it does include a scan of the list of Elon faculty, staff, and students who donated blood for Dr. Avizonis’ leukemia treatments. While the latter may not have much impact on the facts of Dr. Avizonis’ story, it is the type of archived material which captures the human part of the history, the part which brings the story alive.

My name is Emily Lange and I am an Elon student working with the University Archives. I am an English Literature and Philosophy double major, with a growing interest in a career in archival work. Doing research on the Avizonis and Cepas families allowed me to use the research and writing skills I have developed thus far as a student. It also gave me the opportunity to explore the kinds of work that goes into archival research, from pulling physical files to scanning and digitization. I look forward to developing more Story Maps with archival materials, on immigrants and refugees who have contributed to Elon University over the years as well as other topics such as the history of student protests at Elon.

 

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