 Nancy Lemmon Canolty Papers
Collection DescriptionBiographical NoteNancy Lemmon Canolty received her BS and MS from Purdue University and her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Nancy was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of California, Davis, when she had her first manic episode on February 10, 1978. Her episode began with her bursting into her office, grabbing a blank journal, and writing. This was her first step in a forty year span of experiencing recurrent mania without depression. Throughout those forty years Nancy has filled at least 250 journals with details about her episodes. These episodes vary in length from four days to slightly over a month, and in most years, surfaced multiple times. The journals also contain examples circular writing and automatic sketching (hypergraphia). On July 1, 1980, Nancy joined the faculty of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at the University of Georgia and received tenure in 1986. During an intense manic episode in January 1985 that lasted for thirty-three days, Nancy was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. For the next nineteen years she was on lithium carbonate therapy but her manic episodes continued. After the passing of her husband in 2002, Nancy discontinued the lithium carbonate therapy in 2004 and has since not taken any medication that would impact her mania. After retirement in 2004, Nancy worked with Marcus Jennings to catalog, analyze, and transcribe her journals and other materials in an attempt to make her research more accessible to researchers. As of now, one hundred and twenty-eight journals containing nearly 900,000 words have been transcribed by Bess Sirmon Fjordbak Taylor and Nancy Lemmon Canolty. Scope and ContentThis collection is comprised of journals (some of which have been transcribed); correspondence, notes, timelines, publications and other personal and professional files; presentation abstracts and posters; research files; photographs; and audiovisual recordings primarily documenting unipoliar manic episodes experienced by Nancy Lemmon Canolty between 1978 and 2019. Organization and ArrangementArranged in the following series: Series 1: Journals Series 2: Supplemental Files Series 3: Presentation Abstracts and Posters Series 4: Research Files Series 5: Photographs Series 6: Audiovisual Recordings Administrative InformationAccess RestrictionsThis collection is open for research. A significant portion of this collection is composed of digital files. These include transcriptions of many of the donor's journals, as well as spreadsheets tracking her manic episodes and categorizing the types of hypergraphia found in the journals. To access these files, please request the folders you would like through the finding aid using your research account. An archivist will be in contact with you to explain how to access the files. Please note that not all file formats are currently supported by the library for research use. This collection contains audiovisual materials, including video journals that the donor created during some manic episodes. Reference copies of the audiovisual recordings are available upon request. Research requests will be filled as soon as possible and will be dependent upon the condition of the recordings. Preferred citationNancy Lemmon Canolty Papers, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia, 30602-1641. Finding Aid PublicationFinding Aid prepared by Rachel Watson and Brandon Pieczko, June 2019. Related Materials and SubjectsSubject TermsRelated Collections in this Repository
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