Thwarted in Texas: A Confederate Family versus a Union Naval Blockade

This post by Ervin “EJ” Jordan Jr., Research Archivist & Associate Professor at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, concerns a recent acquisition, “Isabella, Jumain, Miriam and Rosa Letter,” March 7, 1865 (MSS 16853)

This document of historical rarity on a unique maritime aspect of the American Civil War was recently acquired by the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. It consists of March 7, 1865 letters of an anonymous family of four Confederate women Isabella and her daughters Jumain, Miriam, and Rosa (their surname unknown) to their husband/father in Havana, Cuba. Trapped by the Union Navy’s blockade of Galveston, Texas, their anxious departure attempts were a backdrop of Southern blockade-running activities (‘running the blockade’). Postal supply shortages and costs necessitated these letters’ single sheet of blue stationery; its 160-year survival implies receipt by the husband/father, interception by federal blockaders or never having been mailed. (Its cover envelope is missing). Extant letters by blockade runners’ civilian passengers are rare as mail confiscated by Union blockaders was usually destroyed.

Building a Blockade: Team Union Navy Blockaders

The Federal government imposed a naval blockade (April 1861-May 1865) of Southern seaports during the Civil War, patrolling 3,550 miles of coastline with a blockading fleet of 400 ships assigned to six geographically-based squadrons: Atlantic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Gulf, East Gulf and West Gulf. Captured blockade runners were taken to federal-held ports as war prizes, their cargo’s cash value shared among ships’ crews as prize money. Several seized vessels were commissioned for Union naval service. The blockade gave notice that foreign nations trading with the Confederate South risked confrontation with the United States. Although the smaller Confederate Navy (100 ships) never seriously challenged the Union Navy (700 ships) nor imposed its own blockade, Southern commerce raiders attacked Northern merchant vessels and whaling fleets in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans, decimating trade and increasing shipping insurance rates.

Breaking the Blockade: Team Confederate Blockade Runners

Southern blockade runners, privately or government-owned, were specially-built seagoing steamships constructed or purchased in Britian, Scotland and Ireland with large cargo holds and comfortable cabins. Known as “greyhounds of the sea” for their gray paint and swiftness, many bore colorful names like Let Her Rip, Rattlesnake, Banshee, and Vulture. One Confederate government-owned vessel, the Fingal (later the ironclad CSS Atlanta), returned from Europe in late 1861 with 10,000 rifles, 400 barrels of gunpowder, and a million bullets.

Blockade runners exported cotton for British textile industries, tobacco, sugar and rice to Europe in exchange for munitions, shoes, blankets, meat, coffee, medicines, and Bibles. They also carried civilian passengers and private and diplomatic mail to and from Europe and the South’s Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports (usually as night runs to avoid detection): Fernandina and St. Augustine, Florida; Beaufort and Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Mobile, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; Galveston and Brazos Island, Texas. Favored foreign ports included Liverpool (Great Britain), Bermuda, the Bahamas (Nassau), Halifax, (Nova Scotia, Canada), Tampico, Matamoras and Vera Cruz (Mexico), and Havana, Cuba. European nations were officially neutral but vessels owned or crewed by their citizens dominated blockade-running. After the war international arbitration (the Alabama Claims, 1869-1872) resulted in Britain’s compensating the United States $15.5 million for ‘damages’ caused by British-built Confederate ships.

Blockade-running was a business often financed by joint stock ventures euphemistically known as ‘exporting and importing companies’ whose investors reaped profits ten times their cargoes’ original value. Such voyages were inherently perilous–1,500 ships were run aground, captured or sunk, drowning crews and passengers. “King Cotton” exports slumped by 95 percent; the Confederate South’s cotton embargo strategy to pressure European intervention in the war failed, contributing to its ruined economy.

The golden age of blockade-running ended by the early spring of 1865 as the Union army and navy increasingly captured Confederate seaports; though blockaded, only Galveston remained under Southern control. Ironically, blockade runners’ successes may have helped strangle the blockaded Confederacy by increasingly trafficking extortionately-priced luxury goods like silks and champagne while Confederate armies suffered shortages of badly-needed military supplies.

The Letter(s): “We have had some adventures”

In the first of this anonymous family’s four March 7, 1865 Galveston letters, “Isabella” writes to her unidentified husband of her frustrated attempts to join him in Cuba via Matamoras, Mexico—a regular route for self-exiled Confederates. Several tries by an unnamed blockade runner [paddle steamer CSS Lark?] on which she and their three daughters booked passage, had been thwarted by Union ships [the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, 990 miles of the Gulf of Mexico coastline from St. Andrews Bay, Florida, to Texas-Mexico border] “since last Saturday night” (March 4). Their misfortunes (“We have had some adventures, without any Success or Advantages”) were compounded by seasickness, “loss of Sleep and great fatigue,” their ship’s running aground and frequent engine trouble, barely avoiding seizure. An incoming schooner, Charles Russel, was turned away because of “Yankees firing at her in great rate.” Isabella provides a clue of the family as Texans, remarking “when we arrived here 21 years ago” [1844] and concludes: “I must close now the Children want to add some[.] I wish you farewell again with the hope of Your Health and Happiness.”

First page of a handwritten letter in cursive from "Isabella" to her unidentified husband, March 7, 1865.

First page of a handwritten letter in cursive from "Isabella" to her unidentified husband, March 7, 1865.

The second letter, “Jumain” [eldest daughter?] to “Dear father,” offers sentiments similar to her mother’s. She relates another sailing attempt Sunday night (March 5) that only traveled a few hundred yards, stopped by engine troubles a half mile from the Yankees, forcing a return to Galveston. Another attempt was planned for that night (March 7) but she concedes the “Yanks blockade outside very effective, and no doubt we will have some trouble getting out.” She hopes for gainful employment in Havana “as this loafing about don’t Pay” and concludes “Bad news today if it comes true about Charleston having been taken.” [Confederates evacuated this South Carolina city in February 1865; Union troops subsequently burned it.]

Third page of a handwritten letter in cursive—this section includes a second letter from Jumain ("eldest daughter") to her "Dear father."

The third letter, “Miriam” [middle daughter?] to “Dear father,” complains: “We have not as yet departed for one reason or another, but if we do not get out tonight we will probably have to stay until next moon.” She says because “Mother” (Isabella) had already written about “our proceedings” it would only trouble him to repeat them.

The fourth and last letter, “Rosa” [youngest daughter?] to “my dear father” in childlike handwriting, is the briefest: “I bid You good bye again.” In a penciled postscript her mother Isabella reports interrupting Rosa’s initial use of ink because it was in short supply. (The first seven letters “my dear f” are in ink.) Isabella made her use a pencil “fearing she would [turn] the ink over” but Rosa apparently pouted at being denied an ink pen: “She does not like [using] the Pencil and therefore only bid you good Bye.”

Fourth page of a handwritten letter, containing two notes: first, “Miriam” [middle daughter?] to “Dear father" dated March 7th, 1865; the second, from “Rosa” [youngest daughter?] to “my dear father.”

The Confederacy never lifted the Union blockade, and the war ended a month after the family’s last known breakout attempt; subsequent efforts, if any, are unknown. On May 24, 1865, the South’s last blockade runner, CSS Lark (built in England for the Confederate government), departed Galveston for Havana. Three weeks later, June 19, 1865, during its postwar Union military occupation, Galveston became the birthplace of Juneteenth.

Select Bibliography

Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog,“Builder’s Drawing of Wren and Lark.”

Heidler, David and Heidler, Jeanne, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Mr. Edwin W. Hemphill, University of Virginia Library “Bibles from Britain for the Blockaded Confederacy,” 29 May 1949, MSS 3224, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.

Isabella, Jumain, Miriam and Rosa Letter, 1865, MSS 16853, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.

The New York Times, February 2, 1865: “Correspondence of the Associated Press/HAVANA, Saturday, Jan. 28.”

U.S. Naval War Records Office, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion Series 1, vol. 22. Washington: GPO, 1894-1922.

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: “CSS Lark”; “Danish West Indies”; “History of Galveston, Texas”; “List of ships built by Cammell Laird”; “Postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States.”

Wilson, Paula. St. Croix Landmarks Society, 2007, https://www.stcroixlandmarks.org/history/transfer-day/

Staff Spotlight: Molly Fair, Digital Preservation Analyst

Our staff spotlight series continues to shine! We’re featuring recent hires and new roles of staff in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library here at the University of Virginia. Today: meet Molly Fair, our Digital Preservation Analyst. 

Molly’s interest in film and independent media led her to pursue a career in archiving and preservation. She is passionate about community archives and documenting histories of radical social transformation. To this end, she co-founded Interference Archive in Brooklyn, New York, a social center and community archive which has been active for over a decade. She likes to spend time making art, gardening, and foraging mushrooms in the wilds of Richmond, where she lives.

Photo of Molly Fair, with face partially obscured by a giant mushroom

What was your first ever job with books or libraries?
As an undergrad student I worked at the Tamiment Library and Wagner Labor Archives at NYU. It contains a vast collection of radical history of the left and international social movements. As a student organizer I even contributed my own materials. It was the first time I understood that archives can come from the grassroots, which shaped my entire career and way of thinking.

What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now? (oh, c’mon, admit it).
The first things I collected were rocks and shells. Now I still collect rocks and shells! Little has changed. 

Molly's home collection, including rocks and shells.

Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?
Amanda Greenwood gave me an amazing tour of the historical collections at the Health Sciences Library. It was wild to see the old iron lung they have in the reading room and the books of anatomical drawings.

Tell us what excites you about your job?
I like collaborating and working through complex problems. A lot of people don’t like being down in the weeds, but that’s where I’m most satisfied.

Tell us something about Special Collections or UVA that is different from what you expected.
UVA is such a huge institution, I was not sure if I’d feel lost in the mix. But I’ve met and connected with so many awesome people across departments..

If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?
Filmmaker Derek Jarman’s former home, Prospect Cottage in the UK. It’s on the Kent shoreline near Dungeness nuclear power station. The terrain is rugged, the weather inclement, and it’s very hard for plants to grow and thrive in that environment- but he still built this amazing garden intermixed with his sculptures. He moved there after he was diagnosed with HIV in the 80s, seeking a place to heal, grieve, rage, and keep creating art up until his death- which I think is really powerful. It is now run by an art trust and open to the public.

Staff Spotlight: Jacquelyn Kim, Exhibitions Coordinator

A photo of Jacquelyn standing outdoors in front of a Christmas tree.

Jacquelyn Kim, Exhibitions Coordinator

Welcome back to our staff spotlight series! Over the next few weeks, we’ll catch up on featuring recent hires and new roles of staff in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library here at the University of Virginia.

As the exhibitions coordinator, Jacquelyn (she/they) helps to produce exhibitions that showcase the Library’s collections and assists with community engagement. She previously worked at Special Collections as the exhibitions assistant for two years and recently graduated from UVA with highest distinction in American studies and global development studies. Beyond the library, Jacquelyn enjoys cooking, foraging, and making pottery, and they plan to start an MLIS program in the near future.

What was your first ever job with books or libraries?

As a high school student, I volunteered at a local library branch to tutor kids in math and English. During my third year as an undergraduate student at UVA, I began working at Special Collections as a Wolfe Fellow, helping with social media and gaining hands-on experience working in an archive and with archival materials—and clearly I couldn’t get enough!

What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now? (oh, c’mon, admit it).

As a child, I had an impressive collection of Pokémon cards and erasers in odd shapes like animals, food, and flowers that I’ve since gifted and passed on to younger family members. Now, my apartment is full of books, CDs, and zines! A friend recently gifted me a beautiful zine about the history of mahjong, and that’s one of my new favorites.

Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?

I’ve been in Charlottesville/at UVA for over 5 years now, but a couple of my favorite spots are The Beautiful Idea, a bookstore and community center on the Downtown Mall, and La Flor Michoacana, an ice cream shop! Around campus, the fruit trees in the gardens of the Academical Village are a hidden gem.

Tell us what excites you about your job?

I love how I get to do a deep dive into a new topic with every exhibition—I’m constantly learning something new! I’ve also been so grateful for opportunities to engage directly with community members who are assisting with curation and/or have contributed materials to our collections. Getting to hear firsthand the stories about objects included in our exhibitions and collections has been incredibly grounding.

If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?

I lived in Seoul for a bit and loved the many different collections at the National Museum of Korea, particularly of ceramics! I also recently learned about the Interference Archive based in New York, and I’d love to explore their collections of items related to social movements around the world.

Staff Spotlight: K Lighty, Digital Archivist

Welcome back to our staff spotlight series! Over the next few weeks, we’ll catch up on featuring recent hires and new roles of staff in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library here at the University of Virginia.

K Lighty is the Digital Archivist in Special Collections’ Technical Services division. They began their position in June of this year. Read more about them in their own words below.

I have a BA in English from the University of Texas at Arlington, a MS In Women’s and Gender Studies from Minnesota State University and my MLIS from the University of Arizona. I’ve lived all over the US and I love traveling and meeting new people. I also love trying new foods and playing board games of all varieties.

What was your first ever job with books or libraries?

My first library job was when I was working as a graduate assistant for my MLIS, but my first book/print related job was working as a copyeditor for the school newspaper during my undergraduate studies. Between that and my English studies, I spent a lot of time reading the stories other people were creating. Either way, I’ve always loved books, reading, and stories. All of these things, combined with a love of computers and internet culture are what lead me to pursue a career in digital archives!

What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now? (oh, c’mon, admit it).

The two things that come to mind are rocks (like completely normal everyday rocks you’d pick up off the ground) and Pokemon cards. I’ve continued to collect trading card game cards over the years, but have also an unhealthy amount of dice these days. They don’t see a lot of use because a lot of my D&D and other tabletop games are played online these days, but they sure are fun to attempt to stack. There’s nothing like seeing a 20 dice-high tower come falling down.

Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?

Special Collections is great though! That being said, I think my favorite thing is just the climate in general. After spending five years in the desert (which was beautiful, don’t get me wrong), I’m just glad to be living somewhere with actual grass and trees and flowers. We haven’t quite made it to fall yet, but I’m really looking forward to all of the autumn colors and it not being 90 degrees in November! (If you ever visit Arizona, I recommend going in January).

Tell us what excites you about your job?

Everything, but to be more specific, I’m really excited by the focus on reparative archival work being done in  Special Collections. Archives and other historical records have a long legacy of being centered and written by and for dominant cultures and socio-economic groups, so doing work to create records that acknowledge this legacy and attempt to mitigate the harm done by past records is something that I find really important. I am always overjoyed to hear about the work the other members of special collections have been doing in this area!

Tell us something about Special Collections or UVA that is different from what you expected.

So many hills. Every University I’ve worked or studied at has been on pretty flat land. It’s definitely taken some getting used to when walking anywhere! I’ve also been surprised (in a good way) by just how welcoming and kind everyone has been here at UVA. I’m not saying that there has been a lack of goodwill at any previous place I’ve worked or studied, but there is just an overabundance here and it has been so refreshing. I’m also looking forward to project weeks, as they sound like a really awesome initiative that is different from anything I’ve seen elsewhere. 

If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?

Probably the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian! I’ve always had a fascination with outer space ever since I was a child, and the opportunity to be able to explore the history of our exploration of the cosmos would be the ultimate indulgence.  With how close Charlottesville is to Washington, D.C., I’m hoping to have the chance to take a weekend to explore the space museum and many of the other Smithsonian museums.

Staff Spotlight: Veronica McGurrin, Reference and Instruction Librarian/Archivist

Photo of Veronica in a white coat pointing to a building sign which reads, "No, I'm a Veronica"

Veronica McGurrin, Reference and Instruction Librarian/Archivist

Welcome back to our staff spotlight series! Over the next few weeks, we’ll catch up on featuring recent hires and new roles of staff in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library here at the University of Virginia. 

Veronica McGurrin (she/her) recently joined the Small Special Collections Library as a Reference and Instruction Librarian/Archivist in Public Services. Previously, she was the Librarian for Art and Art History at UNC Chapel Hill, where she received her Dual Master’s Degree in Art History and Library Science. Outside the library, you can find Veronica reading outside on her porch with her cat, Morty, and beagle, Woody.

What was your first ever job with books or libraries?
I started volunteering at my local library when I was 12 and pretty much never left! I volunteered with the children’s department, then worked at circulation through high school and college before starting my MLS degree at UNC. 

What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now? (oh, c’mon, admit it).
I think I am horribly boring and will say that books are really the only thing that I collected when I was younger (besides rocks + shells from the beach). My house is overflowing with books, and my partner and I have begun a (modest) record collection as well. I’ve had to restrict myself, but I’m thinking that zines are going to worm their way in as a new collection. 

Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?
Carter Mountain! One of our first stops after the frantic haze of unpacking was to go to Carter Mountain for some peaches and a peach milkshake. 

Tell us what excites you about your job?
Currently, it’s just being able to explore the depth of the collection here.You could be working and staring at your computer for a few hours, and then pop down into the stacks and pick out a first edition Little Women or Gone with the Wind off the shelf. I’m currently scheduling the instruction sessions for the fall semester, so I am really excited to get started working with students in their exploration of the collection. 

Tell us something about Special Collections or UVA that is different from what you expected.
It is so much colder than I thought it would be!! Remember to bring your cardigan when coming to the Reading Room, even in the dead heat of the summer. 

If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston! Ever since I was a kid, it has been my absolute favorite museum. For those who don’t know, Gardner imported a Venetian palace into Boston and turned her home into this magnificent museum, open to the public. Her portrait, by John Singer Sargent, is stunning! 

Staff Spotlight: Rosalind Calhoun, Processing Archivist

Welcome back to our staff spotlight series! Over the next few weeks, we’ll catch up on featuring recent hires and new roles of staff in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library here at the University of Virginia. Let’s go!

Photo of Rosalind Calhoun

Rosalind Calhoun, Processing Archivist at the Small Special Collections Library

As a Processing Archivist, Rosalind Calhoun works with the Patrick Oliphant Artwork and Papers, documents the history of enslavement at UVA for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project On These Grounds, edits and revises the Inclusion and Reparative Action Plan for Special Collections Technical Services, and improves discovery of collections. Previously, she was the Librarian and Archivist of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum. She has a MLIS from the University of Maryland and a MSc in Book History and Material Culture from the University of Edinburgh. Her interests include art, history, travel, and her Rottweiler, Gumbo (@gumbotherottie).


What was your first ever job with books or libraries?
Working in Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Maryland’s Hornbake Library as a graduate student. While I was there I was fortunate enough to work with several books from the Kelmscott Press, which inspired my love for all things William Morris.

What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now?
As a child of the late-90s and early-2000s: Beanie Babies. Now I collect antique wax seals, Japanese netsukes, stirrup cups, Hermès silk scarves, Christmas ornaments, taxidermy, oddities, and curiosities.

Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?
I’ve lived in Charlottesville since 2020, and my husband and I love the North American Sake Brewery. We enjoy eating on their patio next to Ix Art Park with our Rottweiler, Gumbo. There are also so many fantastic places in the area to go antiquing!

Tell us what excites you about your job?
All the wonderful things in the collections I get to see and the histories I get to help make discoverable and accessible, so we can share that knowledge and wonder with the world. 

Tell us something about Special Collections or UVA that is different from what you expected.
I am surprised that the atmosphere in Special Collections is so down-to-earth. It makes being here a lot less intimidating! Everyone has been kind and welcoming.

If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?
The Morgan Library and Museum in New York. I think the East Room is one of the most beautiful library spaces in the world, and their collections are amazing. I would love to see the Black Hours in person.

Perspectives from the Digitization of the Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books

Perspectives from the Digitization  

of the Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books 

This post is contributed to by two former UVA students working with the Digital Production Group (DPG) to digitize the Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books.

Three shelves of rare books stored in the Vault of Special Collections

A sampling of the Gordon Books taken by Stacey Evans, DPG

Perspective A: How a French Graduate Student Recovered a First Edition Novel From the 17th Century 

Contributor Biography: Christina Coomer received her MA in French from the University of Virginia in 2024. As a second-year graduate student in the Department of French she worked part-time at UVA’s Small Special Collections Library digitizing rare French books in the Digital Production Group Studio. She focuses on women’s studies in 18th Century French literature. She was awarded a 2023 Rare Book School fellowship to complete research on forgotten female authors of eighteenth-century France.  

To write about how I recovered a first edition French novel from the 17th Century, I first must explain the Gordon Collection and to tell my personal connection to it. The Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books is a collection of over 1,200 rare French books dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. The collection comprises first-edition copies of every notable French work by every famous French writer. The collection’s defining characteristic is the custom gold-leaf and leather book bindings. The collection is impressive in its magnitude of titles, and with all the matching book bindings, an aesthetic masterpiece.  

I first learned about the collection when I accepted a part-time position at UVA Library in the Digital Production Group (DPG). DPG was seeking a French graduate student to digitize a portion of the books in the collection. It was a dream to come to work and touch first-edition works by Moliere, Michel de Montaigne, and Balzac to name a few. After months of working at the library, I went on a tour of the library vault which houses some of the most rare and valuable books in the Special Collections Library.  

Christina is looking up at a bust housed in the vault with three books of shelves under it.

Taken during Christina’s tour of the vault by Stacey Evans with DPG

While on the tour, I learned more about the collection, which made it even more impressive in my eyes. The collection contains a book that once belonged to Madame de Pompadour and was custom made to match her apartments at the Palace of Versailles. The collection also includes a book rumored to have once belonged to Marie-Antoinette. The collection’s shining star, a beautifully bound set of Diderot’s Encyclopedie, was at one time believed to have been a part of the library of Catherine II of Russia. The identity of this set’s former owner remains a mystery. However, that day in the vault there was only one book on my radar: La Princesse de Cleves by Madame de LaFayette.  Gordon 1678 .L3 v.1/2 

A screenshot of the digital scanning of La Princesse de Cleves v. 1 title page

A screenshot of the digital scanning of La Princesse de Cleves v. 1 title page by Christina during the digitization process.

La Princesse de Cleves was the novel that persuaded me to specialize in eighteenth-century French literature. After studying it in Jennifer Tsien’s graduate course, I fell in love with the novel and period. It is the novel that defined French Realism and was France’s first psychological novel (as well as being highly entertaining on its own). I found the Gordon edition in the vault and instantly inquired about its digitization status. To think I could have the opportunity to digitize my favorite book was a pipe dream. To my disbelief, the library’s records indicated that it had not been digitized yet. I made my request to my supervisors and advocated for the novel’s importance and significance in literary history. More than that, Gordon’s specific edition of the novel included handwritten notes about the characters – information any French scholar would be eager to examine. I wanted my lasting impact at the UVA Library to be digitizing this novel for readers and scholars all over the world to enjoy. Thanks to the kindness of the DPG, my request for digitization was accepted, and I was allowed to personally digitize La Princesse de Cleves 

 

Perspective B:

Contributor Biography: Vaino Judson received his MA in French from the University of Virginia in 2024. He worked in the Digital Production Group studio in the UVA Library to digitize many artifacts in the UVA Library’s Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French books.  

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library is personally my favorite building on Grounds. Working in Special Collections means handling extraordinary and uncommon artifacts on a regular basis. Language, drawings, handwritten notes, and handmade things all make up the artifacts in the library, so really the extraordinary in this case is a variety of human activities in contexts that used to be common. Knowing that customs that have fallen out of use were once considered just as ordinary as the customs familiar to myself seems to contradict fascination with them on the surface. However, this knowledge also serves as a reminder that the human experience transcends not only myself and people I know, but the entire current moment as we understand it. In the case of the Gordon Collection of rare French books, the context in which the artifacts were made stretches back to as long as five hundred years ago. Many of these books contain biographies of major political actors and political treatises as well as philosophies that affected how people perceived themselves and others. In other words, people have been living in their own times for hundreds of years. 

Example of a handwritten page in French

Example of French hand writing

Coming into contact with the persistence of human consciousness does not only offer fascination but a humbling moment of resonance with a larger view of life. Scholars look to the past and to the previously formed ideas contained in books to understand the significance of current events. At the same time, current events relate back to the past such that the worlds of the living and the dead are intertwined. 

The library houses a number of priceless rare books and manuscripts, including those that belong to the Gordon Collection, in a secure underground chamber where the controlled temperature, moderated light level and humidity conditions shield these historical artifacts from change. Storing the books in this way makes them available to future generations and safeguards the knowledge they contain. However, they are simultaneously placed in a world unto themselves where the constant necessity of change that gives ideas gravity cannot affect the books. One way of affecting change on rare books, however, is by rendering them digital. Digitizing rare books takes these books that date back to hundreds of years in the past and recreates them in a way that is intelligible to how information is stored and shared in the present. It creates a kind of synchronism between the present and the past: a series of images in an online viewer. This relatively newly invented technology displays the use of an older technology to convey thoughts. People expressing interest in the lives of one another has existed for longer than anyone currently has been alive. Something about desiring to preserve that is distinctly human too. 

Digital picture of the spine of Lettres Philosophiques.

Voltaire, and Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books (University of Virginia). Lettres Philosophiques. Chez E. Lucas,
au Livre d’or [i.e. Jore], 1734.
Gordon 1734 .V65
https://search.lib.virginia.edu/items/u2334116
University of Virginia Library – search.lib.virginia.edu
Under 17USC, Section 107, this single copy was produced for the purposes of private study, scholarship, or research.
Copyright and other legal restrictions may apply. Commercial use without permission is prohibited.

Seeing the World from a Different Perspective

July is Disability Pride Month. This post is contributed by Ellen Welch, Manuscripts and Archives processor. Ellen recently processed a letter, MSS 16844, typed and signed by Helen Keller.

MSS 16844, Letter written by Helen Keller. November 25, 1944.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an influential twentieth century author, activist, educator, and humanitarian.  Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost the ability to see and hear due to an illness that she contracted before she was two years old. Throughout her life, Keller advocated for people with disabilities, labor rights, and women’s suffrage, and co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920.

The letter written by Keller that Special Collections holds is dated November 25, 1944, and contains an appeal for funds for the American Foundation for the Blind, where she worked for twenty years. The letter is intriguing–particularly when you consider that Keller had to develop the skills to type without the ability to see the keys on the typewriter. The bottom of the typed letter also bears Keller’s handwritten signature.

Helen Keller using a typewriter at Radcliffe College, 1900.

My curiosity about how Keller would have been able to type the letter led me to research how that was possible. In 1892, Frank H. Hall, superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind, invented the Hall Braille Writer. According to Erik Larson in his 2004 book A Devil in the White City, during the 1893 Chicago World Fair Keller approached Hall, hugged, and kissed him, thanking him for his invention. Keller would have been about twelve or thirteen at the time. She was taught to use the Hall Braille Writer by her teacher, Anne Sullivan (1866-1936). Sullivan held Keller’s finger to every key and hand spelled the letter of the alphabet that the braille key represented. This was slow work and required a great deal of memorization. With practice, Keller was able to type. No one typed for her. Through assistive technology, Keller had the ability to type independently.

As seen on MSS 16844, Keller could also write by hand. Her handwriting is legible and consistently upright like the writing in calligraphy. The neat handwriting of someone who could not see what they were writing seemed unusual to me. Upon viewing Keller’s letter, my first thought was that someone else typed it for her and she signed her name at the bottom. As a person without a visual disability, I assumed it would be impossible for a person who is blind to use a typewriter. I was previously unaware of the challenges that a blind person must overcome in typing and writing. Processing this letter allowed me to confront a bias I was unaware of and revealed the challenges a person with disabilities might encounter and overcome.  

I learned that it bears this specific style because of the use of an assistive writing board and a method called square-hand. People with visual disabilities would place a piece of paper on the writing board, which had horizontal grooves on it. The paper would press into the grooves, creating lines that could be felt as a person’s hand moved across the page, keeping their writing straight. As they wrote along the grooves, with their left index finger they would cover the letter they had written with their right hand, preventing the letters from overlapping. They would often use a finger’s width to create spaces between the words they wrote. Writing within the grooves gave letters a square appearance, which is where the term square-hand comes from.

A nineteenth century writing board used at the Perkins School for the Blind. (2)

A letter that Keller wrote when she was nine years old. Notice the tiny wiggle at the beginning of the drops of the letters “y,” “g” and “p,” showing the indent of the writing board. (1)

In the nineteenth century, there were many different tactile reading and writing systems for people with visual disabilities, including Embossed Roman letters, Boston line letter, New York Point, and French, English, and American braille. The origin of braille came about during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) when, in 1815, a French artillery captain named Charles Barbier de la Serre (1767-1841) developed a tactile code using raised dots for soldiers to use to silently communicate in the dark. This system came to be known as night writing. The National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris (est. 1785) adopted night writing to teach their students. In 1824, a fifteen-year-old student at the school named Louis Braille (1809-1852) modified Barbier’s night writing code, making it more legible for people with visual disabilities. Barbier’s code adapted phonetic sounds, whereas Braille’s interpreted letters of the alphabet, included numbers and punctuation, and was more compact and easier to quickly interpret. Braille’s improved method bears his name, braille. By 1916, it was the dominant tactile reading method. At present, there are over one hundred and thirty-three braille codes for different languages.

The title page of a book printed in Boston line letter, published in 1836 by what is now the Perkins School for the Blind. (2)

Sample page from Procedure for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong in Dots, by Louis Braille, 1829. (2)

While braille has prevailed as the tactile reading method, other methods were also being developed in the nineteenth century. There was inconsistency and controversy among the various schools for the blind between maintaining the use of New York Point or moving to braille. This became known as “The War of the Dots,” which lasted in the United States for nearly eighty years. Caught in the middle of the debate, people with visual disabilities had to learn as many as five or six different tactile reading methods. When they gained literacy in one, it wasn’t unusual for them to discover that the books they wanted access to were exclusively printed in another format. (3) New York Point was often recommended by instructors without visual disabilities because it was more accessible for them. However, by 1854 braille prevailed with the help of educators and advocates with visual disabilities.

Keller was distraught that she had to learn multiple tactile codes to access reading material. In 1909, she advocated for the adoption of braille. By 1932, all English-speaking countries used it because of its improved accessibility. Almost two-hundred years after Braille proposed his method, braille is used worldwide in over one hundred and thirty languages. While people with deaf blindness, like Keller, still rely on methods like braille for access to materials, in the late-twentieth and now into the twenty-first century, people with visual disabilities also have access to audio text, voice-recognition software, artificial intelligence, and other technologies. (3) From writing boards, line types, and braille to assistive developments for the typewriter, audio text and artificial intelligence, technology over the past two-hundred years has increased inclusion, equity, and access for people with disabilities.

Through processing this letter typed and signed by Helen Keller, I have become aware of the many ways that people with disabilities have had to interact with the world around them throughout history. The determination and strength they have shown in developing, learning, and advocating for inclusive technologies is incredible. In a world that often overlooks or takes for granted the challenges they face; it is important to recognize them and their accomplishments. The presence of Keller’s letter in our collection serves as a reminder of her achievements and is an inspiration for us all.

For more information about Helen Keller:

Sources:

  1. Riener, Mimzy, “How Did Helen Keller Navigate her World,” Late Night Writing Advice Blog. https://mimzy-writing-online.tumblr.com/post/683836657798152192/how-did-helen-keller-navigate-her-world.
  2. McGinnity, B.L., Seymour-Ford, J. and Andries, K.J. (2004) Reading and Writing. Perkins History Museum, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA. https://www.perkins.org/archives/historic-curriculum/reading-and-writing/
  3. Letizia, Nelle, “History of tactile print systems explored in new Vancouver exhibit”, Washington State University Library, 29 May 2024. https://news.wsu.edu/news/2024/05/29/history-of-tactile-print-systems-explored-in-new-vancouver-exhibit/

Miniature books? Tell me more!

This post is contributed by Kim Cull, McGehee Rare Book Librarian sharing an exciting milestone with the McGehee Miniature Book Collection.

Did you know that the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library has more than 10,000 miniature books, maps, and objects within its collection? No? Well, get your magnifying glass because we do! Most of our miniatures belong to the McGehee Miniature Book Collection given to the library in 2005 by Caroline McGehee-Lindemann-Brandt in honor of her first husband, Carden Coleman McGehee.  

Now, you may be asking, “What is a miniature book? Is it just like a regular book but smaller?” Short answer: yes. The Miniature Book Society reports that in the United States, a miniature book is a book that is “no more than three inches in height, width, or thickness.”1 Miniature books can come in all different shapes and sizes; they must fit within the parameters established and generally accepted by collectors. Within the McGehee Miniature Book Collection, there are traditionally shaped books that were meant to be carried around in a pocket and enjoyed wherever the reader finds themselves. There is a secondary type of miniature book: the artist book. These books often appear to be works of art and are meant to be enjoyed visually. Artists’ books can be very abstract and tend to focus more on the book as an object and less on the content held within. There also exists a subgenre of miniature books: the micro miniature book. In this subgenre, book artists tend to compete to see who can create the smallest possible book, and readers usually need a strong magnifying glass to even attempt to read the text.

Two miniature books pictured. On the left: The wonderful world of Smurfs with a blue slipcase with two smurfs laughing. On the right: Jim Henson's mupper show bill with a red slipcase depicting Animal.

Check out McGehee 01354 and 01355 which came with the original gift.

Now that we have established what a miniature book is, we can dive a little deeper into the history and contents of the McGehee Miniature Book Collection. Every collector has an origin story and a reason why they collect what they do. Mrs. Brandt is no different. She started collecting when she was a young girl with encouragement from her parents. She started by keeping the little books attached to dolls and expanding to collect anything that fits the criteria of a miniature book. In the early 2000s, Mrs. Brandt was hoping to downsize her house in preparation for retirement and needed to find a home for her collection. Miniature books may be small and therefore take up little space, but by then, her collection numbered around 11,000. The books were stored in specially made miniature bookcases, shoe boxes, etc. As an alumnus of Sweet Briar College, Mrs. Brandt contemplated gifting her entire collection to them. At some point, Mrs. Brandt reached out to the university her first husband attended, the University of Virginia. Of course, we wanted her amazing collection. How could we not? After careful negotiations and support from many people, most of the collection was transferred to the library in 2004. 

An accordion fold Japanese text is on display with a wooden lacquered case

Caroline Brandt’s “crown jewel” of her collection – her Omikuji; currently uncataloged.

The path to making these miniatures available in the online catalog, Virgo, has not been without its challenges. The major hurdle has always been the size of the collection. A second hurdle is that fact that Mrs. Brandt has never limited herself to collecting only English language titles; she has collected books in all or almost all the major languages. She is very fond of Japan and has collected many Japanese texts. Sadly, libraries in the Western parts of the world have not always been equipped to catalog non-roman language materials. Luckily for the library, Mrs. Brandt has kept a very detailed inventory excel spreadsheet that could be manipulated and uploaded to the catalog to make the titles accessible. It was not a perfect solution, so trained library staff had to go in and correct records. Over the years various staff members have helped to catalog the collection, including Gayle Cooper, Allison Sleeman, Barbara Hatcher, Annette Stalnaker, Teresa Brown, Jocelyn Triplett, Jackie Parascandola, and Kim Cull. Thanks, and kudos to everyone who has helped with the McGehee Miniature Book Collection. As of April 2024, we have cataloged over 10,000 miniature books and reached call number McGehee 10000! 

Miniature book is held open to show a Medieval Nail maker at work.

McGehee 10000 opened to show a Medieval nail maker at work!

You might be wondering what some of our favorite miniature books are. We would encourage you to visit the Special Collections Library and check out our “Miniature wall” where 100 different miniature books have been photographed and displayed for all to enjoy. Next to the exhibit is an iPad that contains a little information for each book. These books were chosen primarily by library staff, and we hope that you will love them just as much as we do! We also encourage you to explore the collection yourself! Titles can be discovered by searching McGehee Miniature Book Collection in Virgo; it is ok if you cannot choose just one. We know. There are so many fantastic ones to see! 

Miniature Book wall display featuring 100 different miniature books.

Come visit our miniature book wall display and check out a sampling of the collection!

We look forward to seeing you soon and hearing what your favorite is. Please feel free to take photographs, sans flash, and share the images online. Tag us @rareuva on Instagram and include the hashtag #McGeheeMiniatureBooks. 

References 

Society, Miniature Book. n.d. What is a miniature book? Accessed May 22, 2024. https://mbs.org/. 

New Exhibition: American Modernisms

American Modernisms: Modern Stories, Types, & Aesthetics, curated by the Spring 2024 graduate seminar ARTH 9545 led by Elizabeth Hutton Turner,  is on view through October 12, 2024 in the First Floor Gallery of Harrison/Small. Find our hours and directions online. 

Poster for Issuing Modernisms: Modern Stories, Types, Aesthetics featuring a repeating design of Gibson Girl caricatures

In the aftermath of the Civil War, great industrial, scientific, and technological changes fostered a revolution in print culture. Photomechanical reproduction and chromolithography disrupted conventional distinctions between fine and applied arts by introducing more direct graphic means of personal expression into image production of all kinds. By the turn of the twentieth century, printed images became ubiquitous and synonymous with modern life itself. The printed image was attuned to the fast-paced realities of mass production, marketing, and readymade products, as well as aspirations for new ways to live, work, and prosper in the modern world.  

Photo of First Floor Gallery exhibition space, showing half the gallery with objects in cases.

Issuing Modernisms: Modern Stories, Types, & Aesthetics is on view through October 12, 2024

During the spring 2024 semester, four graduate students enrolled in ARTH 9545 American Modernisms located and analyzed visual evidence of modern types and modern stories in a variety of print genres in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. These included cartoons, caricatures, advertising illustrations for American periodicals, graphic novels, illustrated dust jackets, and playbills over a range of dates from 1900 to 1939. 

Exhibited are the results of their multi-faceted investigations. Andi Laska surveyed a run of Gustav Stickley’s The Craftsman magazine from 1904 to 1913, selecting images and articles advocating for social reform and the promise of the single-family home and garden whose furnishing combined preindustrial craftsmanship with machine production. 

Photo of installation of The Craftsman magazine issues.

The Craftsman: Aesthetics and Reform Through Design, curated by Andi Lanka

Matias Hendi located photographs of experimental productions starting 1916-1920 of the Provincetown Players in the archives of playwrights Eugene O’Neill and Susan Glaspell. The rudimentary sets, some designed by Marguerite and William Zorach, frame bold veristic characters such as Minnie Wright on trial for murder in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles or the conversation between the dying sailor Yank and his friend Driscoll in O’Neill’s East of Cardiff.

Photo of installation of archival materials related to the Provincetown Players

The Provincetown Players: The Life and Death of a Modern Theater, curated by Matias Hendi

Emmy Monaghan explored modern innovation through simplification and subtraction in Lynn Ward’s wordless novels such as God’s Man (1929), which tells of a Faustian bargain engaged by a cosmopolitan artist in exchange for a magic paint brush that leads only to corruption and despair. 

Photo of installation of wordless novels

The Wordless Novel, curated by Emmy Monaghan

Surveying illustrated advertisements in runs of popular periodicals such as Life, Collier’s Weekly, and The Saturday Evening Post, Leo Palma located modern attitudes towards gender, beauty, and sexuality in alluring characters such as Charles Dana Gibson’s Gibson Girl and George Leyendecker’s Arrow Collar Man. Similarly, Emmy Monaghan followed the careers of three female illustrators/cartoonists from the 1920s—Helen Hockinson, Barbara Shermund, and Margaret Trafford—whose work explored the outlook of urban middle- and working-class women for The New Yorker, Esquire, Life, and Collier’s

Photo of installation of archival materials related to the

The Leyendecker Man and Advertising Masculinity, curated by Leo Palma

Photo of installations of archival materials exploring women's role in both their work and as decoration through the lens of the Gibson Girl—featuring sketches, magazine covers, and magazine illustrations.

The Working Girl: Women Sketching a New Life, curated by Emmy Monaghan; The Gibson Girl: The New Woman and Male Anxieties, curated by Leo Palma