McNeely's exhibit, "From Waltham Wilds to Urban University: The Story of Brandeis Through Maps and Aerials," celebrates Brandeis' transformation from its early days to the built-up campus it is today. As an employee of the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, located on the second floor of Goldfarb Library, McNeely works among such treasures as the original manuscript of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, the Hall-Hoag Collection of Extremist Literature in the United States and the Gorham Collection of Early Music Imprints, a collection of Renaissance music documents dated from 1501 to 1650. The exhibition will be on view in Goldfarb Library throughout the fall 2009 semester.JustArts: How did you get interested in archive work originally? Did you expect to be doing museum-related work when you set out for a career in archiving?

Maggie McNeely: I was always interested in libraries, but like many people I pictured ladies with buns and card catalogs, an era I sometimes have a bit of nostalgia for now. I picked up a brochure at Simmons College for archives management, and I instantly decided that it was the kind of training I wanted. My background was not very skillbased-it was in the liberal arts. It left me feeling like I could think a lot but do little. My liberal arts background turned out to be very useful, because it is helpful to know a little about many subjects in my line of work.

I became interested in museum work in college but decided against the profession when I learned about how political the museum world is. I just wanted to hang an exhibit on some great idea or theme based on objects I thought were interesting, but I came to learn that I would never have that much flexibility. And in a way, that is what I am doing now but on a much smaller scale. We have some similarities to museums, but most of what we do here centers on collecting and preserving our history and connecting people to that material.

JA: I understand you were inspired by seeing people's reactions to aerial photos of Brandeis. How has the early response been?

MM: Yes, I used to have a large blow-up of a campus aerial from 1975 above my desk, and even though it was one of those faded-orange '70s prints, people were always hanging out, examining it and asking questions. I think one of the fascinations is that it is disorienting at first, but then you suddenly get your bearings and you get to see the campus from a whole new perspective. Seeing 20 aerials at once impresses even me, and I have been looking at these images since I started working here almost four years ago.

It is still summer vacation, so we have not had much heavy traffic yet, but we have had some good quality visits that have resulted in discussions where I get to learn new things. What I really enjoy is that on their visit, faculty and staff can tell their own university narrative, and it is like trading in historical tidbits.

JA: What kinds of related projects have you worked on in the past, and do you plan to do any more stuff like this in the future?

MM: I created an exhibit in 2005 about the campus master plans by architects Eero Saarinen and Max Abramovitz. I guess you could say that the physical campus has kept me enthralled. The next exhibit will come from the Special Collections side of the house, which will feature rare and unique items as always. We take turns creating exhibits here, staff and student workers, but I have to say that creating exhibits in our wonderful exhibit space is one of the most rewarding parts of my job, second only to assisting grateful researchers.

-Andrea Fineman