ABCs of Special Collections: H is for

Hello again, and welcome to another installation of the ABCs of Special Collections!  Today, we give you the letter:

H is for Heavy Sign Script.

H is for Heavy Sign Script, which is one of 75 alphabets represented in Frank H. Atkinson’s Atkinson Sign Painting up to Now: A Complete Manual of Sign Painting. Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co., 1915 (not yet catalogued. Gift of Nicholas Curtis. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

H is for Hollinger Box

n. ~ A container that holds folders containing paper documents vertically and that measures roughly 10 inches high, 12 or 15 inches wide, and 6 or 3 inches deep, and that usually has an integral top hinged at the upper back.

Notes: Sometimes called a Hollinger Box. Document boxes are typically made from cardboard. They are often neutral gray and lined on the inside with white, acid-neutral paper. They may have a string, handle, or hole on one end to facilitate removal from a shelf. [Hollinger] boxes made from high-quality materials suitable for long-term storage of archival materials are often called archives boxes.  From A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology.

Citations: †(Personal communication, Bill Hollinger, 1 October 2003) The term Hollinger box is just a generic name archivists have given to this particular style of box. From A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology

Contributed by Petrina Jackson, Head of Instruction and Outreach

Hollinger, or document, boxes. (Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

Hollinger, document, or archival boxes. (Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

H is for John Clellon Holmes

More a chronicler of the Beat movement, than a participant, John Clellon Holmes was there at its inception. He was friends with Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassidy, and especially Jack Kerouac who famously once told him, “You know, this is really a beat generation.” Holmes 1952 novel, Go is generally considered the first Beat novel, and he would also gain recognition for his 1958 jazz novel, The Horn. A search of our online catalog details 13 records relating to Holmes.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

First edition of Go: A Modern Novel of the Search and Experience for Love by (John) Clellon Holmes. (PS3558 .03594 G6 .1952. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

First edition of Go: A Modern Novel of the Search and Experience for Love by (John) Clellon Holmes. (PS3558 .03594 G6 .1952. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Photograph of John Clellon Holmes on the back cover of the first edition of Go.

Photograph of John Clellon Holmes by Lida Moser on the back cover of the first edition of Go. (PS3558 .03594 G6 .1952. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

H is for Horse

Shakespeare’s Richard III: “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” Long before bicycles and automobiles was the horse.  They are equally at home on the range rustling cattle or policing city streets or as a circus performer, war horse, therapeutic companion, Olympic athlete, and movie star. The subject of horses is found throughout Special Collections’ holdings in literature, popular culture, history, equine history, and sports.  Much of these holdings can be attributed to Marion duPont Scott (1894-1983), dedicated Virginia horse breeder and owner of Montpelier, James Madison’s home.  Her stunning collection of approximately 1,200 titles, featuring the history and practice of equestrian and related sports, was donated to the Small Special Collections Library in 1985, along with an endowment that would provide funds that would enable future curators to build on her legacy.

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

Marion duPont Scott: Her Collection of Works on Equestrian and Kindred Sporting Subjects in the University of Virginia Library: on exhibition 22 January-10 August 1990, Department of Special Collections. Background photograph by Raymond Woolfe. (Poster 1990. M27. Marion du Pont Scott Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)         1990 .M27

Marion duPont Scott: Her Collection of Works on Equestrian and Kindred Sporting Subjects in the University of Virginia Library: on exhibition 22 January-10 August 1990, Department of Special Collections. Background photograph by Raymond Woolfe. (Poster 1990. M27. Marion duPont Scott Sporting Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

This is the first edition of The anatomy of the horse: Including a particular description of the bones, cartilages, muscles, fascias, ligaments, nerves, arteries, veins and glands (1766) by George Stubbs, painter. Scott Fund SF 765 .S8 1766. Marion duPont Scott Sporting Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

This is the first edition of The Anatomy of the Horse: Including a Particular Description of the Bones, Cartilages, Muscles, Fascias, Ligaments, Nerves, Arteries, Veins and Glands (1766) by George Stubbs, painter.  (SF 765 .S8 1766. Marion duPont Scott Sporting Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Side view

The Anatomy of the Horse: Including a Particular Description of the Bones, Cartilages, Muscles, Fascias, Ligaments, Nerves, Arteries, Veins and Glands (1766) by George Stubbs, painter. (SF 765 .S8 1766. Marion duPont Scott Sporting Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

A hand colored aquatint from Count Sandor’s Hunting Exploits in Leicestershire By John Ferneley, 1833. (SK 285 .C68 1833)

A hand colored aquatint from Count Sandor’s Hunting Exploits in Leicestershire By John Ferneley, 1833. (SK 285 .C68 1833. Marion duPont Scott Sporting Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Those are our contributions for the letter “H.” I bet you are wondering what great materials we will feature for the next letter: I.  Check us out in a couple weeks, and you will see!

Revealing the Mountain Communities of the Blue Ridge: Emmanuel Episcopal Church provides significant Digitization Grant

This week we feature a guest post from Special Collections staff member in Public Services, Margaret Hrabe:

The Small Special Collections Library is proud to announce our successful application for a seed grant to begin to scan our holdings of the periodical Our Mountain Work in the Diocese of Virginia. Published from 1909 to 1954 by the Board of Missions of the Diocese of Virginia, this periodical documents the founding of Episcopal mission churches and schools in the Ragged and Blue Ridge Mountains of Central Virginia by Frederick Neve, Archdeacon of the Blue Ridge. Our Mountain Work is a uniquely rich resource for the study of communities that were little documented at the time. The periodical’s writers had intimate contact with individuals and families who were otherwise extremely isolated. Many of the magazine’s issues predate the establishment of the Shenandoah National Park in 1933, an act that displaced hundreds of families and eradicated many small mountain communities.

Our Mountain Work, v. 1, no. 1 (BV2575 .O813. Image by Petrina)

Our Mountain Work, v. 1, no. 1 (March 1901). (BV2575 .O813. Image by Petrina Jackson)

The grant of $3000 comes from the Endowment Fund of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Greenwood, Virginia. The Emmanuel Endowment Fund Board annually administers grants in “furtherance of exclusively religious, charitable or educational purposes.”  We are grateful to the Board for its support and look forward to having this unique resource made available beyond the underground walls of Special Collections.

Emmanuel Church today. Photograph  by Margaret Hrabe)

Emmanuel Church, 2013. (Photograph by Margaret Hrabe)

U.Va.’s holdings of Our Mountain Work in Special Collections total 370 issues of the over 400 that were published and comprise the largest single collection available to researchers. Smaller collections reside at the Virginia Theological Seminary’s Bishop Payne Library and the Virginia Historical Society. Special Collections will begin the scanning project in early Fall of 2013. The images will be placed in the University of Virginia Library’s digital repository accessible through the online catalog VIRGO.

Frederick William Neve

Frederick William Neve, born in the county of Kent, England, was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and ordained a deacon in 1880 at the abbey church of St. Albans. In 1888, the vestries of St. Paul’s (Ivy, Va.) and Emmanuel (Greenwood, Va.) Churches asked Neve to come to Virginia to serve the needs of their congregations, and he accepted. Neve served as the rector of Emmanuel Church from 1888 to 1905  In 1890, Neve built his first mission church in the Ragged Mountains, St. John the Baptist. Ten years later, he began supporting a teacher at Simmon’s Gap, an isolated community in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was the beginning of his work with the mountain inhabitants that eventually embraced seven Virginia counties and became the Archdeaconry of the Blue Ridge. As editor of Our Mountain Work, Neve made possible this window in time to the history of Central Virginia during the first half of the twentieth century.

Frederick William Neve, undated (MSS 791. Image by PetrinaJackson)

Frederick William Neve, undated (MSS 791. Image by PetrinaJackson)

Digitization as Preservation

Over the years, U.Va.’s holdings of Our Mountain Work have been accessed by researchers both local and distant for their religious, social, educational, and genealogical significance.  Recently a researcher from Northern Virginia requested photocopies of over 800 pages from the periodical—a request which Special Collections had to decline due to preservation concerns. Many of the original issues have small tears and nearly all were initially folded; consequently, there are crease marks and separations at the folds on a large number of issues.  These preservation issues prompted Special Collections to apply to the Emmanuel Endowment Board for funds to scan the paper issues, so that all interested researchers will have access to these documents without producing further damage to the delicate originals.

This image reveals some of the conservation problems inherent in these ephemeral issues of the magazine. _Our Mountain Work_ 1.3 (November 1911) (BV2575 . 082. Photograph by Petrina Jackson).

This image reveals some of the conservation problems inherent in these ephemeral artifacts. _Our Mountain Work_ 1.3 (November 1911). (BV2575 . 082. Photograph by Petrina Jackson).

Beyond Our Mountain Work

Emmanuel Church and Frederick Neve are well-represented in the holdings of Special Collections beyond Our Mountain Work.  The Papers of Emmanuel Church (MSS 10731, etc.) were initially deposited in Special Collections in 1987 and contain parish registers, 1885-1983; vestry books, 1909-1977; Woman’s Auxiliary minutes, 1871-1972; and financial statements, 1976-1977; written and oral histories. With these are also parish and church service registers of Holy Cross Mission, 1912-1942, a mission church established by Neve near Batesville, Va. Three collections of Neve’s personal papers (MSS 9115, MSS 9970,-a-b, and MSS 10505) give an even more in-depth view of the outreach mission work done by this extraordinary individual.

This Just In: “Billy” Cook’s Verse Chapbooks

Front cover of Cook's Fremont: a poem (Salem, Mass., 1856) bound with The Eucleia (Salem, Mass., ca. 1865) (PS1378 .C7 1865; Robert & Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund)

Front cover of Cook’s Fremont: a poem (Salem, Mass., 1856) bound with The Eucleia (Salem, Mass., ca. 1865) (PS1378 .C7 1865; Robert & Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund)

Special Collections is world renowned for its printed and manuscript holdings of American literature, amassed through purchase, gift, and the happy receipt of several substantial collections, most notably the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Deposited at the University of Virginia Library in 1960 and gradually given to the Library over the next three decades, the 250,000-item collection comprehensively surveys American literature in all genres from ca. 1775 to 1950. On its arrival the Barrett Library was rather awkwardly arranged in terms of “major” and “minor” authors—distinctions which of course lose meaning as literary reputations wax and wane and as scholarly interests shift.

Title page verso to William Cook, the Eucleia: works (Salem, Mass., ca. 1865)

Title page verso to William Cook, The Eucleia: works (Salem, Mass., ca. 1865) (PS1378 .C7 1865; Robert & Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund)

This week’s post highlights one of these “minor” authors—William “Billy” Cook—whose work deserves wider recognition.  The son of a ship captain and a lifelong resident of Salem, Mass., Cook (1807-1876) studied at Yale before his ambitions were checked by physical and mental illness. Back in Salem he conducted a private school for some years, where his students studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics (at which Cook excelled). He also studied for the ministry and conducted religious services at his home, though Cook never advanced beyond the rank of deacon. Beloved for his eccentricities and known locally as “Reverend,” Cook was for decades a fixture of Salem life.

Back cover of Cook's The Ploughboy, part third (Salem, Mass., 1855) and front cover of his The Telegraph, or Starr-banner song (Salem, Mass., 1856); both bound with The Eucleia (Salem, Mass., ca. 1865) (PS1378 .C7 1865; Robert & Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund)

Back cover of Cook’s The Ploughboy, part third (Salem, Mass., 1855) and front cover of his The Telegraph, or Star-banner song (Salem, Mass., 1856); both bound with The Eucleia (Salem, Mass., ca. 1865) (PS1378 .C7 1865; Robert & Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund)

Finding himself jointly summoned in the early 1850s by the Muses of Poetry and Art, Cook began composing verse in which Salem and its residents, contemporary political events and figures, and various philosophical themes loomed large. Unable to afford the services of a commercial printer, Cook salvaged some worn type and a small cast-off jobbing press from a local newspaper office. With this equipment Cook could print only a page or two at a time, but time was a commodity he had in abundance. Over the next two decades Cook issued nearly 50 broadsides and poetry chapbooks, the latter hand-stitched by Cook in printed wrappers or bound in decorated cloth covers. Many were illustrated with Cook’s charming woodcut illustrations, which were typically heightened with pencil (mostly to correct uneven inking) and sometimes in colors. Because Cook often assembled and hand-bound his chapbooks in customized collections, his works exist in many variants.

Many of Cook's woodcut illustrations (this one heightened with pencil) are useful contemporary depictions of Salem street scenes, such as this view of Liberty Street.  William Cook, The Columbia (Salem, Mass., 1863) (Barrett PS586 .Z93 C673 C6 1863)

Many of Cook’s woodcut illustrations (this one heightened with pencil) are contemporary depictions of Salem street scenes, such as this view of Liberty Street. William Cook, The Columbia (Salem, Mass., 1863) (Barrett PS586 .Z93 C673 C6 1863)

Strictly speaking, one might classify Cook’s works as examples of “mendicant verse,” a not uncommon sub-genre of 19th-century American minor poetry. Cook supplemented his modest income by peddling these chapbooks on Salem’s streets and to the increasing number of visitors who sought out his singular company. Late in life Cook took up painting, establishing a gallery in his home on Charter Street which attracted a new generation of visitors and chapbook purchasers. Although it would be stretching a point considerably to compare him with, say, William Blake, Cook is undeniably a fascinating practitioner of “folk” or “outsider” art.

Frotn cover of Cook's The Columbia (Salem, Mass., 1863) (Barrett PS586 .Z93 .C673 C6 1863)

Frotn cover of Cook’s The Columbia (Salem, Mass., 1863) (Barrett PS586 .Z93 .C673 C6 1863)

At one time it was not hard to find Cook’s ephemeral publications in New England, but today these are rarely encountered. Until recently the Clifton Waller Barrett Library could boast of holding only 13 Cook chapbooks. Now we have added ten more, increasing our holdings to approximately half of Cook’s recorded oeuvre. Fortuitously, all ten are gathered in one of Cook’s nonce collections, entitled The Eucleia with special added title page, hand bound by Cook in a remnant of striped cloth with woodcut title block stamped on the front cover. As far as we can tell, nothing has been written about Cook since 1924, when Lawrence W. Jenkins’s short article and checklist appeared in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. Perhaps by having now gone “under Grounds,” Billy Cook will soon receive the attention he deserves.

Front cover of William Cook's nonce collection of some of his works, The Eucleia: works (Salem, Mass., this copy assembled ca. 1865)

Front cover of a William Cook nonce collection containing ten chapbooks, The Eucleia: works (Salem, Mass., this copy assembled ca. 1865). Cook bound this copy in a “publisher’s binding” covered in a striped cloth remnant with woodcut title stamped in red. (PS1378 .C7 1865; Robert & Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund)

The ABCs of Special Collections: G is for

Our alphabetical series continues!  We present the letter:

G is for Gothic.  (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

G is for Gothic.  Lewis F. Day. Alphabets Old and New: Containing Over One Hundred and Fifty Complete Alphabets….London: B. T. Batsford, 94 High Holborn, 1898. (Typ 1898. D39. Stone Typography Collection. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

G is for Giant, the movie

The 1956 Warner Brothers film adaptation of Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel Giant was partially filmed in Albemarle County, Virginia.  The film was directed by George Stevens and starred Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie Lynnton Benedict, Rock Hudson as Jordan “Bick” Benedict Jr., and James Dean as Jett Rink.  The early sequences of the film on location in the Keswick area of the county included both Taylor and Hudson and a host of local residents as extras.

Contributed by Margaret Hrabe, Reference Coordinator

The movie set of Giant, located in Albemarle County.  The photograph was taken by U.Va. photographer Ralph R. Thompson ()

The movie set of Giant, located in Albemarle County. The photograph was taken by U.Va. photographer Ralph R. Thompson, ca. 1956. (Prints Files. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Rock Hudson, who co-stars with Elizabeth Taylor in the Warner Bros. picture, Giant, is seen her rehearsing a scene.  To the right of him with his back to the camera is George Stevens, who directs and produces.  In the doorway is Carolyn Craig who plays one of the ingenue leads, ca. 1956. Photographer unknown. (Prints File. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Rock Hudson, who co-stars with Elizabeth Taylor in the Warner Bros. picture, Giant, is seen her rehearsing a scene. To the right of him with his back to the camera is George Stevens, who directs and produces. In the doorway is Carolyn Craig who plays one of the ingenue leads. The photo was taken in Albemarle County, ca. 1956. Photographer unknown. (Prints File. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Elizabeth Taylor signs autographs during a break in the filming of the movie Giant.  The photo was taken by U.Va. photographer Ralph R. Thompson, on set in Albemarle County, ca. 1956. (Prints File. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Elizabeth Taylor signs autographs during a break in the filming of the movie Giant. The photo was taken by U.Va. photographer Ralph R. Thompson, on set in Albemarle County, ca. 1956. (Prints File. Image by Petrina Jackson)

On Location--Charlottesville, Virginia, shooting George Stevens' production Giant.  (L. to R.) Bob Hinkle, stand-in for Rock Hudson, and also stunt rider, Judith Evelyn, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, George Stevens, and Carolyn Craig. Taking time out for picnic style lunch on lawn of "Belmont" plantation during early scene of Giant, ca. 1956. Photographer unknown. (Prints File. Image by Petrina Jackson)

On Location–Charlottesville, Virginia, shooting George Stevens’ production Giant. (L. to R.) Bob Hinkle, stand-in for Rock Hudson, and also stunt rider, Judith Evelyn, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, George Stevens, and Carolyn Craig. Taking time out for picnic style lunch on lawn of “Belmont” plantation during early scene of Giant, ca. 1956. Photographer unknown. (Prints File. Image by Petrina Jackson)

G is for The Great Gatsby

THE GREAT GATSBY starring Leonardo DiCaprio …now showing at a movie theater near you!  The book, turned movie, is a story of youth, love, decadence, and tragedy, written in 1925 by 29 year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Letters written to his sister, Ruth, reveal his tormented love for the young Zelda.  The love affair ended in tragedy as well, bringing to mind the phrase “life imitates art.”

To date, The Great Gatsby has sold 25 million copies worldwide, and just this year alone 185,000 e-books of the novel were sold.

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

The original dust jacket of the first edition of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (give date and significance)

The original dust jacket of the first edition, first issue of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. An an upper case “J” was printed over a lower case “j” in Jay Gatsby’s name on the back panel(PS3511 .I9 G7 1925. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Photograph by Jeff Hill)

Various paperback editions of The Great Gatsby (clockwise, English language, Italian printing: PS 3511 .I9G7 1977; with martini glass: PS3511 .I9G7 .1945; with girl in purple dress:   PS3511 .I967.  )

Various paperback editions of The Great Gatsby (clockwise, English language, Italian printing: PS 3511 .I9G7 1977. Bruccoli Great War Collection; with martini glass: PS3511 .I9G7 .1945.; with girl in purple dress: PS3511 .I9G7. Bruccoli Great War Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Letter from Fitzgerald to Ruth Sturtevant (his sister), December 4, 1918. He states, “...my mind if finally made up that I will not, shall not, can not, should not, must not marry – Still she is remarkable – I’m trying to desperately expire armis." (MSS 6177. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Letter from Fitzgerald to Ruth Sturtevant (his sister), December 4, 1918. He states, “…my mind is finally made up that I will not, shall not, can not, should not, must not marry – Still she is remarkable – I’m trying to desperately exire armis.” (MSS 6177. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Letter from Fitzgerald to Ruth Sturtevant, June 24, 1919. He writes,  “Unless someday she will marry me, I will never marry.” (MSS 6177. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Letter from Fitzgerald to Ruth Sturtevant, June 24, 1919. He writes, “Unless someday she will marry me, I will never marry.” (MSS 6177. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

G is for Brion Gysin

A frequent collaborator of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin is remembered as a pioneer of the ‘cut-up technique,’ a process in which a text is cut into individual words and then randomly rearranged to create a new text. Burroughs used this technique for his Nova Trilogy and for various sound projects, often in collaboration with Gysin. Gysin was also a noted painter, poet, and performance artist.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

(P3552Image by Petrina Jackson)

Original pictorial paper cover of The Process by Brion Gysin, 1973. (P3552 .U75 A6 1973c. William S. Burroughs: The Shoaf Collection. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Photograph of Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville sitting on either side of a dream machine. Date and photographer unknown. (MSS 11975. Tunstall Fund, 2000/2001. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Photograph of Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville experiencing their sound and light invention, The Dreamachine, “the first art object to be seen with the eyes closed.” Date and photographer unknown. (MSS 11975. Tunstall Fund, 2000/2001. Image by Petrina Jackson)

That is all for now!  See you in two weeks when we feature the letter “H.”

Patron’s Choice: Language Battles in the Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books

This week we are pleased to feature a guest post from Nicholas Shangler, Lecturer of French at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Dr. Shangler graduated with a Ph.D. in French from the University of Virginia this past May 2013.  While in graduate school, he worked with rare books as a student employee in Digital Curation Services at the University of Virginia Library, and while doing so, found a series of books by Henri Estienne that would become central to his dissertation work.

***

During my first semester of graduate school, I quickly realized that I needed a part-time job.  Serendipitously, Digital Curation Services was seeking someone to assist with the digitization of the Gordon Collection, an impressive holding of primarily sixteenth century French books, at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.  I didn’t know it then, but that job would influence the course of my graduate career and beyond, leading me to specialize in Renaissance literature.  The digitization process involved perusing the books in the Gordon Collection, selecting one, and scanning it page by page.  Although admittedly tedious at times, the process allowed me to spend hours each day becoming acquainted with fascinating materials more profoundly than I ever would have otherwise.  Many of the works are not exactly canonical, affording me a richer experience of Renaissance French culture and literature than I’d previously been exposed to in classes.

A section of the Gordon Collection of French Books stacks. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

A section of the Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books stacks. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Douglas H. Gordon bookplate. (Photograph of Petrina Jackson)

Douglas H. Gordon bookplate. (Photograph of Petrina Jackson)

One curious work that I spent some time considering was Deux dialogues du nouueau langage françois (1578) by Henri Estienne.  It intrigued me with its descriptions of French words being chopped in half and “stuffed” with Italian words (inserted between the two ends of the original French words).  What?!  Then the author claimed that the French language descended from Greek, not Latin.  Clearly this guy was crazy.  I put it down and chose other works to digitize.  But apparently it stuck with me.  Five years later, while drafting my dissertation prospectus on French language innovation in the Renaissance, I recalled these strange dialogues.  I returned to Special Collections and paid Monsieur Estienne a visit.

Deux Dialogues (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Henri Estienne’s Deux Dialogues du Nouveau Langage Francois, 1578 (Gordon 1578 .E78. Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

France and Italy experienced a mutual cultural and linguistic intertwining beginning in at least the early medieval period.  The influence of the Italians intensified with the marriage of the French prince, Henri II – son of François I – to Catherine de Medici, in 1533.  The ascension of Henri II to the throne in 1547 brought increasing numbers of Italians not only into France, but into the folds of the French Court.  Many courtiers embraced the growing Italianism and affected a language heavily characterized both by Italian words and by French words recomposed so as to incorporate fragments of Italian.  However, a number of prominent voices discouraged their French countrymen from having anything to do with the Italians, urging instead greater respect for French national culture.  Among those who began to protest against the intrusion of Italianism in France, and particularly with regard to language, a certain Parisian printer distinguished himself by his fervor and for his compelling articulation of the argument in support of the purity of French.

Henri Estienne (1528-1598) was destined to participate in the battle over language.  The son of Robert (1503-1559), a renowned printer and scholar, Estienne developed from a young age a curiosity and love for languages and books.  He mastered Latin, Greek and Italian, and devoted a significant amount of work to translating, editing, publishing and/or collating essential classical texts.  During the final two decades of his life, from the mid-1570s until his death, Estienne undertook two original editions of the Greek New Testament accompanied by his own critical commentary.

Henri Estienne’s polemic against the Italianized French employed by French courtiers appears in three separate but related works.  Together they form a sort of trilogy, each attacking various aspects of the central problem.  The first, Traicté de la conformité du language françois avec le grec (1565), denies the superiority of Italian by belittling its roots.  Estienne claims in his preface that the Italian language owes a far greater debt to French than does French to any Italian heritage.  He supports his argument by advancing the idea that French descends directly from Greek and has more in common with Greek than any other language.  Since everyone universally recognizes Greek as the greatest language in history, French must therefore be the second greatest.  Italian, on the other hand, is but the paltry progeny of Latin.  Estienne decries the recent linguistic inventions of the Italianizing courtiers and instead longingly praises the true French language “pure and simple, showing nothing of artifice, nor of affectation: that which Sir Courtier has not yet changed according to his tastes, and which has nothing borrowed from modern languages” [“pur et simple, n’ayant rien de fard, ni d’affectation: lequel monsieur le courtisan n’a point encore changé à sa guise, & qui ne tient rien d’emprunt des langues modernes.”] (Estienne, Conformité, preface, Vvo)

(Typ.E77 1565E. Stone Typography Collection. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Henri Estienne’s Traicte de la Conformite du language francois auec le Grec, 1565. (Typ.E77 1565E. Stone Typography Collection. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Estienne continues the attack where he left off with the 1578 publication of the Deux dialogues du nouueau langage françois.  The book opens with a series of poems that set the stage for the debate to follow.  In the first of the two dialogues, Estienne posits an exchange between a character named Celtophile (“lover of France”), whose role is to prosecute the case against the Italianized French, and Philausone (“lover of Italy”), who frequents the Court and is charged with defending the practice.  Naturally the jury is rigged in favor of Celtophile, with the accused found guilty even before the opening gavel.  The two interlocutors find themselves at an impasse at the close of the first dialogue.  They agree to reconvene the next morning to continue their discussion, and to go together to consult a third party, Philalethe (“lover of Truth”). Over the course of the second dialogue the topic of their argument gradually progresses to whether French or Italian, considered separately rather than in their blended form, is the greater language.  Once Philalethe joins the conversation he promptly dismantles all of Philausone’s reasoning, according an unconditional victory to the French language.  Still, Philausone refuses to concede.  The book ends with Philalethe promising to demonstrate further the dominance of the French language at a later time.

Keeping Philalethe’s promise, the following year – 1579 – Henri Estienne published De la précellence du langage françois, which he dedicated in the preface to King Henri III.  Though this work stands as a sequel to the Dialogues, Philalethe disappears and Estienne offers the book in his own voice using his real name, opening with a poem entitled “H. Estiene aux François.”   Here he broadens the scope of his attacks, no longer limiting himself to rebutting the use of Italianisms at Court.  Alluding to his own Conformité, he reiterates his claims of the self-sufficiency of French with regard to other languages, particularly Italian.  Most of Estienne’s logic is unsound.  He persists in relying upon his fallacious etymologies relating French to Greek, that he first sketched out in the Conformité, and then states that any words that seem equivalent between French and Italian are the result of Italian borrowing, rather than a common Latin heritage.

(Gordon 1579. E78. Gordon French Book Collection. Image by Digitization Services )

Henri Estienne’s Project du Livre Intitulé De la Precellence du Language Francois, 1579. (Gordon 1579. E78. Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books.  Image by Digitization Services )

Estienne ridicules the changing pronunciation of certain words, and presents his vision of the resulting confusion of words and objects in ways that give his reader to understand the gravity of the situation.  For instance, in the Dialogues, he condemns the changed pronunciation of oi into e.  The examples that he chooses – including “françois” (Frenchman) to “français” and “roine” (queen) to “reine” – underscore the danger of allowing the courtiers’ language to insinuate itself into the formerly pure French.  Not only does the new form of the word for “queen” risk signifying a frog instead, but the pronunciation of the very word indicating national belonging is changing.

Such a world is unstable and proved frightening to Estienne.  Estienne suggests even from the outset that the new words and those who are using them in new ways are already changing France itself.  The Dialogues opens with the poem, “The Book to the Readers” [“Le Livre aux Lecteurs”], which offers the warning that there are those for whom “in everything novelty is beautiful, / So much so that they are making us a new France” [“en tout la nouveauté est belle, / Tant qu’il [sic] nous font une France nouvelle”] (Estienne, Dialogues).  These worries transcend a mere discussion of language, and extend into the realms of politics and society.  Estienne’s works suggest that changes in language will precipitate changes in reality.  Although his focus is ostensibly linguistic, his motivations spring from deep political concerns about the future of his native France.

I suppose Henri Estienne would be relieved to know that the French language I was studying when I discovered his works in 2004 ultimately survived the encroachment of Italian.  His works and the many others of that era housed in the U.Va. Special Collections are all perfectly comprehensible to French speakers of today, despite the occasional variation in spelling and usage.  However, browsing current French-language social media posts online, I suspect that there would still be fodder aplenty for a reincarnated Estienne to pen yet another series of polemical treatises, though the target would no longer be Italian.  As it happens, in 1964, René Étiemble published Parlez-vous franglais?, a work linking patriotism and linguistic purism in which he approvingly references Estienne and cites passages from the Précellence du langage françois.  Indeed, these old rare books continually prove to be far more relevant to modern ideas than one might first imagine.

Nicholas Shangler (Photograph by )

Nicholas Shangler (Photograph by Sarah Reynolds-Shangler)

Patron’s Choice: A Slave Negotiates her own Sale, 1852

This week we are pleased to feature a guest post from Harrison Fellow Lauren LaFauci.

Dr. LaFauci spent several weeks in Special Collections this spring as an Elwood Fellow at the Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture. She was researching for her current book project, entitled Peculiar Natures: Slavery, Environment, and Nationalism in the Southern States, 1789-1865. She teaches at the University of Tulsa.

A tireless researcher who dug deep into our collections, LaFauci generously shared her most interesting finds with the Reading Room staff. She agreed to write for Notes from Under Grounds about one item in particular: a letter from a slave-owner describing how he came to sell his his slave Fanny. As LaFauci points out, we can only get so far in recovering the circumstances of this sale since this letter is our only source.

***

Writing from Halifax Court House, Virginia to his brother Alex in Williamsburg on October 4, 1852, Ben Garrett closed his letter with the following important news:

You must tell Ma : that I have sold Fanny to Mr Poindexter who Keeps a Hotel in the village – opposite to Easley’s store – I did not intend or wish to sell her, but she behaved so badly I was compelled to do so – I sold her for the sum of $850.00 payable on the 1st day of May next –

Such a note—while always jarring to 21st-century readers, even to those of us reading about and studying slavery—communicates nothing unusual to its recipient. Citing what he perceived as Fanny’s bad behavior, Ben told Alex that he “was compelled to [sell her],” which was a common punishment. However, the rest of the letter communicates something highly unusual, at least for those stories preserved in the archive:

She told me, she had rather be sold than to go back to Williamsburg You know I disposed of my home & lot at the Co: House & determined to remove to my plantation sometime in November next. She was opposed to living in the Country – not wishing to leave the Village I told her to go to the plantation, whereupon she ran off from me & was gone a week. – When she came home, she said, she wanted to be sold & that “arrangements” were made the night before she returned home for her to get off to a free State or out of the State, but that she preferred being sold in the Village – I have had a deal of trouble with her – more than all the rest together for it was almost impossible to control her. She exhibited no signs of penitence & asked me to sell her. Poindexter offered me a large price & I determined to let her go – I understand that he & his wife are pleased with her & if she will behave herself, they will treat her well – Of course I will account for her value – but I will add, she is one of the most difficult negroes to control I ever saw –

Say to Ma : I am sorry I had to sell her, but that she asked & was anxious to be sold – I think she was Kept by some white persons about the Village, which was the cause of her conduct. I saw her to-day & she seemed to be satisfied with her new home from her appearance —  I know that she was treated well at our house & there was no excuse for her behaviour & then to have the impudence to run away from me & stay out a week. If it was not that she was aunt Lucy’s child (who has been so faithful) I should have no pity for her – [. . .]

The opening page of the letter. (MSS 9974-a: Papers of the Garrett Family. Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

The opening page of the letter. (MSS 9974-a: Papers of the Garrett Family. Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

This story presents a number of thorny questions. If we take Ben’s communication of the events at face value—a large “if,” and more on that below—then Fanny took distinct and savvy actions to achieve her desired outcome. First, she resisted Ben’s orders to “go to the plantation” in the country by running away for one week; at that time, she may have been making the “arrangements” Ben alludes to. Such truancy would have signaled to Ben that she was willing to take drastic actions in order to get her way, while simultaneously giving her time and space to effect her own escape or sale. Second, she appears to have negotiated this sale; Ben notes that Fanny “asked & was anxious to be sold” and that she “was opposed to living in the Country” and would “rather be sold than to go back to Williamsburg.”

These lines from the third page of the letter reveal the extent of Fanny's influence upon her owner. (Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

These lines from the third page of the letter reveal the extent of Fanny’s influence upon her owner. (Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

If we assume Ben’s version of events, Fanny told him that she preferred to be sold “in the Village” rather than relocating to his rural plantation. Such a preference raises an intriguing parallel to the narrative of Harriet Jacobs, who similarly desired to stay within the town of Edenton, North Carolina, where she gained some protection from the advances of her lecherous owner, James Norcom: “It was lucky for me that I did not live on a distant plantation,” she wrote, “but in a town not so large that the inhabitants were ignorant of each other’s affairs. Bad as are the laws and customs in a slaveholding community, [Norcom], as a professional man, deemed it prudent to keep up some outward show of decency” (47).**  In another parallel with Jacobs, Fanny appears to have been on intimate terms with “some white persons about the Village”: readers of Jacobs will recall that she forms a relationship with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, having two children with him, in order to protect herself from the sexual advances of Norcom. Both Fanny and Jacobs seem to engage in alternative relationships to gain increased power within a system designed to deny them such agency.

A page from Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, demonstrating compelling parallels with Fanny's much more heavily mediated story. (PS 1293 .I54 1861. Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

A page from Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, demonstrating compelling parallels with Fanny’s much more heavily mediated story. (PS 1293 .I54 1861. Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

And now to that big “if” – to what extent can we take Ben’s account of this story as “the truth”? If Fanny was indeed seeking shelter from sexual advances, can we trust that she really “asked & was anxious to be sold”? Or was Ben trying to cover for himself, to provide a reason for the sale of an enslaved woman who was clearly important to the family?

These questions, among many others, make up the central problem for historians of slavery: most of the stories about enslaved people in the archive are mediated through the voices of the people who legally owned them. We attempt to ascertain the “true” course of events, but we must frequently do so through the words of those with the power to construct such stories however they wish, and for audiences with motivations similar to their own. In a time when enslaved people were prohibited by law from learning to read and write, any evidence of literacy would have been hidden from those with the power to preserve such words, leaving us with mere traces and glimpses. We work through several layers of meaning, only to emerge with more questions than we had at the start. How do you interpret Fanny’s story?

Author’s note: I have reproduced the spelling, formatting, and punctuation as they appear in the original letter. Any errors in the transcription are my own.

ABCs of Special Collections: F is for…

We are back with fore-edge paintings, Margaret Fuller, and that infamous word that starts with the letter:

F is for Fancy Roman,  which is one of 75 alphabets represented in Frank H. Atkinson’s Atkinson Sign Painting up to Now: A Complete Manual of Sign Painting. Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co., 1915 (not yet catalogued. Gift of Nicholas Curtis. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

F is for Fancy Roman, which is one of 75 alphabets represented in Frank H. Atkinson’s Atkinson Sign Painting up to Now: A Complete Manual of Sign Painting. Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co., 1915 (not yet catalogued. Gift of Nicholas Curtis. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

F is for the “F” word

Widely considered the most offensive word in English, f*** has been a part of the language since at least the 15th-century and remained virtually unprintable until the late 20th-century. Norman Mailer famously created the euphemism “fug” in The Naked and the Dead and was subsequently teased as “the young man who doesn’t know how to spell ‘f**k.’” By the 1960s, the taboos against it were relaxing and the counterculture used it enthusiastically in poems, magazines, and even naming a publishing operation The F*** You Press.

Contributed by Edward Gaynor, Head of Description and Specialist for Virginiana and University Archives

Cover of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, 1948.  The jacket design is by Karov. (PS 3525 .A4152 N3. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.)

Cover of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead, 1948. The jacket design is by Karov. (PS 3525 .A4152 N3. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.)

Front and back covers of Fuck You: A Magazine for the Arts, number 4 and number 5, respectively, 1963(AP2 .F96. Marvin Tatum Collection of Contemporary  Prose and Poetry. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Front and back covers of Fuck You: A Magazine for the Arts, number 4 (Aug. 1962) and number 5, volume 5 (Dec. 1963), respectively. The magazine was published, printed, and edited by Ed Sanders. (AP2 .F96. Marvin Tatum Collection of Contemporary Prose and Poetry. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Cover of Fuck Nam: A Morality Play by Tuli Kupferberg, 1967. (PS3561 .U63 F8 1967. The Marvin Tatum Collection of Contemporary Prose and Poetry. Photograph by Petrina Jackson).

Cover of Fuck Nam: A Morality Play by Tuli Kupferberg, 1967. (PS3561 .U63 F8 1967. The Marvin Tatum Collection of Contemporary Prose and Poetry. Photograph by Petrina Jackson).

F is for Fore-Edge Painting

You can’t judge a book by its cover.  You may, however,  judge it by its fore-edge painting. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines fore-edge painting as “the method or act of painting a picture on the fore edge [or the front outer edge of a book] so that the picture is visible only when the pages are slightly fanned.” This method of enhancing the edges of books with paintings has wowed bibliophiles as far back as the 10th-century.

Contributed by Regina Rush, Reference Coordinator

Fore edge of Thoughts on Hunting: in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend. (SK 285 .B39. 1820. Bequeathed to the School of Medicine of the University of Virginia by the Moyston Estate. Placed on indefinite loan in the Rare Book Department of the University of Virginia Library. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Fore-edge of Thoughts on Hunting: in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend. (SK 285 .B39. 1820. Bequeathed to the School of Medicine of the University of Virginia by the Moyston Estate. Placed on indefinite loan in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

First fore edge painting from Thoughts on Hunting:

This is the first image of a double fore-edge painting from Thoughts on Hunting: in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend. (SK 285 .B39. 1820. Bequeathed to the School of Medicine of the University of Virginia by the Moyston Estate. Placed on indefinite loan in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Second fore edge painting, which seen by fanning the text block the opposite way of the first image.

This is the second image from the double fore-edge painting from Thoughts on Hunting, which can be seen by fanning the text block the opposite way of the first image. (SK 285 .B39. 1820. Bequeathed to the School of Medicine of the University of Virginia by the Moyston Estate. Placed on indefinite loan in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

F is for Margaret Fuller

One of the most prominent members of the Transcendentalist Movement, Margaret Fuller embraced reform in the 19th-century as a tireless promoter for women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, as well as for education and prison reform. She was editor of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journal, The Dial during its first two years of existence, and her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, was a groundbreaking work promoting a woman’s right to education and employment. A search of Virgo shows 21 records relating to Margaret Fuller, including printed and manuscript material.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

Margaret FullerUntil next time, farewell!