Documentary history makes it possible for readers and researchers to gain a first-hand understanding of an historic time, place, person, event, or institution by giving access to relevant contemporary documents. The George Mason University - Electronic Documentary History (GMU-EDH) is designed to promote such an understanding of the history of George Mason University.

This site presents a brief historical synoposis of the history of George Mason University from its earliest origins in the late 1940s. The chronological narrative is supplemented by links to digital representations of significant documents. Some of the documents serve as important waypoints in the history of an evolving institution, while others show us what something or someone looked like twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years ago. Still others detail quite simply, and sometimes humorously, the Mason experience. Digital documents in this collection help to put the user "there."

This project was intially conceived in 1997 and was rededicated in 2007 for the celebration of two simultaneous Mason milestones: the fiftieth anniversary of George Mason's existence as an academic institution and it's thirty-fifth year as an independent university. The original version was re-engineered to to access digital documents, including audiovisual materials, now residing in George Mason University's Mason Archival Repository Service (MARS) or in the University Libraries' Streaming Server.

Users access the documents via the narrative. A followed link leads to the MARS metadata record for the desired document with a thumbnail image of the document. Clicking on the thumbnail invokes a larger viewing image of each document.

Icons placed before each link indicate the type of document.

a document icon denotes a textual doucument

a movie clapperboard icon denotes a video program or segment

a speaker icon denotes a sound file

a camera icon denotes a photograph or other still visual image

- Go to the George Mason University Electronic Documentary History -