Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving Day blog post is written by our very own Heather Riser, Head of Reference and Research Services.

We recently discovered this Thanksgiving gem among the Magruder Family Papers*, a large collection that is currently being sorted, arranged, and described in our processing area in Special Collections.

(Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

“Place Cards for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Turkey Dinners/Conundrums” was published by P.F. Volland & Co. of Chicago, a publisher of children’s books and novelty items from 1908 to 1933. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

“Place Cards for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Turkey Dinners/Conundrums” contains twelve turkey-related riddles and an answer key.  Can you guess any of the turkey riddles?

Featured are questions number . The envelope contains 12 cards in total. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Featured are questions number four, six, ten, and eleven. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Answer key (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Answer key (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Whether or not your Thanksgiving dinner requires fancy place cards, we hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!
*Edward May Magruder was a Charlottesville doctor who established a private sanitarium in 1899 at his house on W. Jefferson St. Along with 6 other local doctors, he was one of the founders of Martha Jefferson Hospital in 1902. Magruder’s daughter, Evalina, was the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Architecture. The Magruder family papers were donated to the University of Virginia by Eleanor Magruder Harris in 2001 when the Magruder house was purchased by Christ Church for use as offices.

 

This Just In: The UPI Wire, November 22, 1963

The teletype printout of the UPI broadcast wire from Jacksonville, Florida, from just before the first report of Kennedy's shooting to the end of the day. (MSS 15678, Gift of Randolph Pendleton. Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

The teletype printout of the UPI broadcast wire from Jacksonville, Florida, from just before the first report of Kennedy’s shooting to the end of the day. (MSS 15678, Gift of Randolph Pendleton. Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

Special Collections recently received an unusual–and remarkable–gift: a roll of paper, over forty feet long, which plunges its reader into the hours following John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It is a teletype machine printout of wire reports received by the United Press International bureau in Jacksonville, Florida, following the shooting, from which local radio stations–and others across the nation–communicated the news to rapt regional audiences.

This section of the scroll reveals the moment at which radio-station employees learned that Kennedy had not survived. (Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services)

This section of the scroll reveals the moment at which radio-station employees learned that Kennedy had not survived. (Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services)

The printout was rescued for posterity on November 22, 1963, by UPI’s Jacksonville bureau manager Randolph Pendleton, who now lives in Charlottesville. Mr. Pendleton has kept the printout all these years. With the anniversary drawing near, he decided to donate it to Special Collections so it could be seen by all who are interested. We were thrilled to oblige. The library’s Digital Curation Services division rushed to produce a high-resolution digital facsimile of the entire scroll, which is now available to read in full. This Friday, on the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination, you can follow the broadcasts in real time on twitter at @uvadigserv.

Mr. Pendleton contributed a summary of the broadcast’s transmission:

“The broadcast wire, designated 7551 and usually referred to as the radio wire, went to hundreds of radio and television stations across the United States. It was rewritten in broadcast style from the A-wire, which was the main newspaper wire, and thus ran a few seconds behind. It was filed by the Chicago bureau, (call letters HX) and was split for twenty minutes every hour on the half-hour so that local bureaus could file state and local copy. Because this was a teletype in Florida, it was running Florida stories filed by the Miami bureau (call letters MH) when Chicago broke in to reclaim the wire and file the flash, a rarely used priority that is accompanied by ten bells. The Chicago bureau then sought to keep the wire clear by warning bureaus to stay off. This flash was the first word of the shooting that broadcast stations across the country received.

The first news of the shooting appeared in typo-ridden flashes. (Image by Molly Schwartzburg)

The first news of the shooting appeared in  flashes, whose text was sometimes garbled due to the efforts of multiple bureaus to file at once. (Image by Molly Schwartzburg)

Repeated requests from the Chicago bureau for clear lines, in the first minutes of the news breaking. (Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services)

Repeated requests from the Chicago bureau for clear lines, in the first moments of the news breaking. (Image by Molly Schwartzburg)

“The reporting came from Merriman Smith, the UPI White House reporter and dean of the White House press corps, who was in the front seat of the wire service pool car, riding six cars behind the president’s convertible. He grabbed the car’s phone when he heard three shots and began dictating to the Dallas bureau, fending off attempts by Associated Press reporter Jack Bell to get the phone away from him. On arrival at Parkland Hospital, Smith (who won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage) was able to grab a Secret Service agent and get confirmation that Kennedy was seriously wounded and then find another phone amid the chaos in the hospital to call in the flash. The bulletin filed from the pool car had said only that three shots had been fired at the motorcade. This ran on the A-wire but came through garbled on the first broadcast wire because Chicago had trouble getting some of the state bureaus to stop filing. The first bulletin after the flash was also garbled and the Los Angeles bureau, (call letters HC) asked for a repeat.

“After that, the story unfolded quickly and within minutes there was a reference to the famous ‘grassy knoll.'”

The first mention of the phrase "grassy knoll." Time stamps at the end of each posting are Central Standard, because the wire was being filed from Chicago.

The broadcast wire’s first use of the phrase “grassy knoll.” Time stamps at the end of each posting are Central Standard, because the wire was being filed from Chicago. (Image by U.Va. Digitization Services)

Thanks to Mr. Pendleton for his generous donation and summary. And thanks also to Digitial Curation Services for the magnificent digital facsimile, which will allow many readers to experience this unique artifact.

We encourage readers to share their memories–particularly if they heard the news on the radio. For more background on the Chicago bureau’s role in the day’s events, see this recent article in the Chicago Sun Times.

 

ABCs of Special Collections: P is for

For your alphabetical pleasure, we present the letter:

P is for Poster Block #2 from (Not yet cataloged. Image by Petrina Jackson)

P is for Poster Block #2 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 cataloged. Gift of Nicholas Curtis. Image by Petrina Jackson)

P is for Ron Padgett

As a high school student in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ron Pagett co-founded the low budget journal, The White Dove Review, boldly soliciting poems from many of the avant-garde poets of his day. The first issue came out in 1959, featuring Jack Kerouac’s poem, “The Thrashing Doves.” Other contributors included LeRoi Jones, Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, and e.e. cummings. After graduating high school, Padgett went to New York where he became an influential member of the New York School of poets. An author search of our online catalog shows 27 hits related to Ron Padgett.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

Shown here is the first issue of The White Dove Review. (PS501 .W47 no.1 1959. Marvin Tatum Collection of Contemporary Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

 

P is for Peede’s Poe Postage

We can’t cover the letter P without mentioning U.Va.’s favorite dropout, Edgar Allan Poe. Along with significant early editions, manuscripts, and other Poe rarities, we sometimes receive wonderful, unexpected gifts that extend our strengths in new directions. John Peede, publisher of the Virginia Quarterly Review, recently donated this group of postal ephemera marking the first day of issue for a 42-cent Edgar Allan Poe postage stamp on the poet’s 200th birthday, January 16, 2009.

Contributed by Molly Schwartzburg, Curator

(Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

Edgar Allan Poe postal ephemera (Gift of John Peede. Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

P is for Pen-and-Ink Drawings

Ellen Graham Anderson (1885-1970), a native of Lexington, Virginia, studied art in Richmond, New York, and Paris.  She was known as a painter, caricaturist, and illustrator.  Her “modern” pen-and-ink drawings illustrated many early twentieth-century periodicals including the Post Magazine, The International, The New York Tribune, and The New York Times Book Review and Magazine. Her drawings treat the viewer’s eye to a sense of fluidity and motion in her subjects. Ms. Anderson gave her papers, primarily pen-and-ink drawings, to the University of Virginia Library in 1963.

Contributed by Margaret Hrabe, Reference Coordinator

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

Pen-and-Ink drawing of Tallulah Bankhead in “Dark Victor,”  n.d. (MSS 38-96-f. Gift of Ellen Graham Anderson. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Pen-and-Ink drawing of Ira and Edward Millette, Circus. New York, n.d. (Image by Petrina Jackson)

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

Three Pen-and-Ink Scenes, n.d. (MSS 38-96-g. Gift of Ellen Graham Anderson. Image by Petrina Jackson)

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

Newspaper clipping, New York Tribune, July 15, 1917, “An impression of Irene Bordoni, in ‘Hitchy-Koo.” (MSS 38-96-g. Gift of Ellen Graham Anderson. Image by Petrina Jackson)

P is for Picture Album

This is no ordinary scrapbook album; this is an album of vibrant illustrations, hues as if they were applied yesterday!  It is The Fairy Book Picture Album, page after page of chromolithographs (a picture printed in a wide range of colors from a series of lithographic stones or plates).  These were stories so loved and well-known the author didn’t add the written word. All that was required from even the littlest child was their imagination.
Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

(Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Page from the Fairy Picture Album, published by T. Nelson and Sons, ca. 1850s. (Not yet cataloged. Gift of Martha Orr Davenport. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

(Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Page from the Fairy Picture Album, published by T. Nelson and Sons, ca. 1850s. (Not yet cataloged. Gift of Martha Orr Davenport. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

P is for Pop-Up Books

The art of folding paper to create a book with “movable,” “springing,” and “mechanical” pages has been popular with adults and little ones for over 700 years. Harold Lentz was the first publisher in the United States who coined the term “pop-up.” Leading the resurgence of interest in pop-up books today are paper engineers Robert Sabuda and Michael Reinhart.  Many Pop-up books have evolved into intricate, complicated designs and have become favorite advertising tools of architects, engineers, and artists.

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

(Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Botticelli’s Bed and Breakfast by Jan Pienkowski, 1996. (PZ92. F6S65 1996. Brenda Forman Collection of Pop-up and Movable Books. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Mickey Mouse in King Arthur’s Court with “Pop-Up” Illustrations. (PZ92. F6 M526 1933. Brenda Forman Collection of Pop-up and Movable Books. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

P is for Psalter or Psalterium

A psalter (Psalterium in Latin) is the biblical Book of Psalms and was created especially for liturgical use. Psalters developed in the early 8th century and became widespread in the 11th century. Psalms were recited by the clergy in the liturgy, so Psalters were important in the church.

Various schemes existed for the arrangement of the Psalms. Besides the 150 Psalms, medieval psalters often included a calendar, a litany of saints, canticles from the Old and New Testaments, and other devotional texts. The selection of saints in the calendar and litany varied and can provide clues about original ownership.

There are several Psalters in Special Collections – some handwritten from the Medieval Manuscripts era and other later printed texts.

Contributed by Anne Causey, Public Services Assistant

(Image by Anne Causey)

Psalterium. Written in England, 15th Century. Psalters were popular books in the Medieval Ages, primarily written in Latin, often lavishly decorated. (MSS 382 [M.Ms. I]. Gift of Edward L. Stone. Image by Anne Causey)

Psalterium, Hebreum, Grecum, Arabicum, & Chaldeum: cum tribus Latinus The text of this Psalter is in five languages - Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Aramaic.(Image by Anne Causey)

Psalterium, Hebreum, Grecum, Arabicum, & Chaldeum: cum tribus Latinus
The text of this Psalter is in five languages – Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Aramaic. (Image by Anne Causey)

Examples of initials from the Vespasian Psalter (Image by Anne Causey)

This is a selection of initials from a facsimile of the Vespasian Psalter which is housed in the British Museum. The Vespasian Psalter was produced in England in the 8th century and is the oldest surviving book in the world with historiated initials. Written in Latin, an English gloss was added to it in the 9th Century. (Z115 .E5 E2 1967 v. 14. Image by Anne Causey)

P is for Punishment

The American system of slavery relied heavily on instilling fear in an attempt to cow the enslaved and render them docile. Slave owners disciplined their slaves for reasons such as theft and attempts at flight. The varieties of punishment meted out short of death included whipping, branding, and dismemberment, as shown in a letter dated October 10, 1727, from Robert “King” Carter to his overseer, Mr. Robert Jones:

Ballazore is an incorrigeable rogue nothing less than dismembring will reclaim him. I would have you outlaw him and get an order of the court for taking off his toes I have cured many a negro of running away by this means ….

On occasion, corporal punishment had horrific and unexpected consequences. Thomas Mann Randolph, writing from Monticello on November 22, 1818, describes such an event at a nearby Albemarle County plantation when a trusted slave

… received a few lashes on his bare back for some trifling misdemeanour; leaving his tools in the field, it is said. He hung himself, 30 feet from the ground, in a tree near his Masters door, the same night ….

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

Detail from Robert "King" Carter's Letterbook, regarding the escaped slave Ballazore. (Image by Petrina Jackson)

Detail from Robert “King” Carter’s Letterbook, regarding the escaped slave Ballazore, 1727. (MSS 3807. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Detail of letter from Randolph to , regarding the beating and consequent suicide of an enslaved man. (Image by Petrina Jackson)

Detail of a Thomas Mann Randolph letter, regarding the beating and consequent suicide of an enslaved man, 1818. (MSS 10487. Jefferson Trust 1982/1983. Image by Petrina Jackson)

See you in a couple of weeks, when we feature the “Q’s!”

Class Notes: 250 Years of Fairy Tales in Print

Professor Mark Ilsemann recently brought his class, German 3590: Special Topics–Fairy Tales, to Special Collections to see materials related to the European fairy-tale tradition. He asked if we could “give my students an idea about early collections of tales and the formation of ‘fairy tale’ as a genre; teach them about the importance/style of illustrations and other forms of book art; show them how fairy tale collections were ‘framed’ by their respective authors (through frontispieces, opening remarks, etc.); and to demonstrate to students the importance of the book object and of working with historical artifacts.”

Oh yeah, we could do that. Little did he know the extent of the riches at our disposal.

A selection of fairy tales (Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

A selection of fairy tale editions, anthologies, recordings, toys, and even finger puppets! (Photograph by Molly Schwartzburg)

Curator Molly Schwartzburg wowed his class with an eclectic selection of some of the fascinating and visually stunning fairy tales that comprise our collections. In turn, Professor Ilsemann provided a great deal of insight on the history of fairy-tale publishing, and his students jumped in with comments based on the knowledge they’ve gained so far this semester. As is often the case, we wondered if we gained even more from the session than our visitors!

Professor Ilsemann explains the likely origins of this unusual and beautiful moveable book. He noticed that the publisher was associated with the Waldorf School movement, based in Stuttgart, where the book was published. The book’s flowing text and images, seem to echo the Waldorf philosophy, which requires that classrooms contain no right angles. (PZ34 .S358 1926. Henry S. Gordon Fund, 2009/2010. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Professor Ilsemann explains the likely origins of this unusual and beautiful moveable book. He noticed that the publisher was associated with the Waldorf School movement, based in Stuttgart, where the book was published. The book’s flowing text and images seem to echo the Waldorf philosophy, which requires that classrooms contain no right angles. Hilde Langen, Schneewittchen (Stuttgart: Waldorf-Spielzeug & Verlad G.m.b.H., 1926). (PZ34 .S358 1926. Henry S. Gordon Fund, 2009/2010. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Many of the items we discussed were from Special Collections’s remarkable Little Red Riding Hood Collection, generously donated in 2007 by collector Martha Orr Davenport.  The collection comprises approximately 480 books, a hundred pieces of print ephemera, fifty works of art, ten magic lantern slides, and more than a hundred objects, including tableware, figurines, vases, pottery, puppets, recordings, and more.

Detail of items from the Little Red Riding Hood Collection (Gift of Martha Orr Davenport. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Just a few of the items in our Little Red Riding Hood Collection. (Gift of Martha Orr Davenport. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

The students also were drawn in by several fabulous pop-up books from the Brenda Foreman Collection of Pop-Up and Moveable Books.

Molly and the students take a closer look at pop-up books. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Molly and the students take a closer look at pop-up books. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Hansel and Gretel from the "Pop-Up" Cinderella and Other Tales with illustrations by Harold B. Lentz, 1933.  (PZ92 .F6 L46 1933b. Brenda Forman Collection of Pop-Up and Moveable Books. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Hansel and Gretel from Harold P. Lentz’s  “Pop-Up” Cinderella and Other Tales, 1933. (PZ92 .F6 L46 1933b. Brenda Forman Collection of Pop-Up and Moveable Books. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Perhaps a student paper or two about these magical books will be in hand by the semester’s end, inspired by this wonderful introduction!

On View Now: Harry Fenn and the Picturesque

We are pleased to announce our latest mini-exhibition in the First Floor Gallery just outside the Special Collections reading room: Harry Fenn and the Picturesque, curated by researcher Sue Rainey, who used our collections while working on her recent book, Creating a World on Paper: Harry Fenn’s Career in Art.

Sue Rainey's Creating  a World on Paper: Harry Fenn's Career in Art (University of Massachussetts Press, 2013)

The cover of Sue Rainey’s Creating a World on Paper: Harry Fenn’s Career in Art (University of Massachussetts Press, 2013). (Image by Molly Schwartzburg)

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Harry Fenn (1837-1911) played a key role in popularizing periodical and book illustration, the primary means of sharing images before photographs could be printed by the half-tone process. His appealing depictions of scenery and cities led to the publication of numerous illustrated books issued by subscription in monthly or bi-monthly parts. This approach had the advantage of securing advance commitments from subscribers to cover the substantial cost of illustrations. Fenn was the primary contributor to three highly successful serial publications of New York’s D. Appleton and Company: Picturesque America (1872-74), Picturesque Europe (1875-79), and Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt (1881-83).

The exhibition includes six items demonstrating the publication methods through which Fenn’s work was distributed, as well as an original artwork. Thanks to Sue Rainey for all her hard work on this wonderful exhibition. We encourage you to stop by and take a look!

Here’s a sneak peek:

Photo by Molly Schwartzburg

Photo by Molly Schwartzburg

ABCs of Special Collections: O is for…

With more letters behind us than left to go, we now come down to the surprisingly subversive  letter…

The letter "O" from T.C. Williams Co., Virginia, USA Tobacco Manufacturers (Broadside 1900z .W6. Image by Petrina Jackson)

The letter “O” from T.C. Williams Co., Virginia, USA Tobacco Manufacturers (Broadside 1900z .W6. Image by Petrina Jackson)

O is for Octoroon

During the European colonial period and throughout chattel slavery in the Americas, a new terminology sprung up to define race. “Octoroon” was the term for a person with one-eighth African ancestry.  This and similar terms, such as “mulatto” and “quadroon,” flourished in the American literary–and commercial–imagination alike. Today, similar racial signifiers are still used in marketing:  “Uncle Ben” to sell rice and “Aunt Jemima” to sell pancakes.

Contributed by Petrina Jackson, Head of Instruction and Outreach

Title page of Adela, the Octoroon by Hezekiah Lord Hosmer, 1860. (PS646 .F53 .H682 A4 1860. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

The title page of Adela, the Octoroon by Hezekiah Lord Hosmer, 1860. (PS646 .F53 .H682 A4 1860. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Maxwell's Broadway Theatre!...this evening will be presented the great drama of the Octoroom! or Way Down South (Broadside 65. Image by Petrina Jackson)

A broadside advertisement for Maxwell’s Broadway Theatre, undated (Broadside 65. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Tobacco Advertisement. Octoroon, manufactured by T. C. Williams Co., Virginia, 1900. ()

Advertisement for Octoroon tobacco manufactured by T. C. Williams Co., Virginia, 1900. (Broadside 1900z .W6. Image by Petrina Jackson)

O is for Charles Olson

American poet Charles Olson considered himself an “archeologist of morning.” His poems and essays bridged the gap between modernist poets like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and poets of the sixties and seventies, including Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and Denise Levertov. He was associated with several major poetry communities, including the New York School, the Black Mountain poets, the Beats, and the San Francisco Renaissance. A search of our online catalog shows 77 entries related to Charles Olson.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

First printing of Olson's celebrated The Maximus Poems

The front cover of the first printing of Olson’s celebrated The Maximus Poems/1-10,’ published by Jonathan Williams in 1953. (PS3529 .L655M32 1953. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

 

O is for Opium

Opium was introduced to western society from Asia during the Middle Ages. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the development of tinctures and derivative drugs such as laudanum, morphine, and codeine. Medicinal use of the drug was widespread in both England and the United States as a cure-all for everything from coughs to psychosis. With the influx of Chinese immigrant labor to the United States and other countries in the mid-nineteenth century, recreational use of opium began to be more widespread, especially in major cities where “opium dens” became prolific.  Although global regulation and prohibition of the drug began in the early twentieth century, control of the opium trade still remains an issue today.

Contributed by Margaret Hrabe, Reference Coordinator

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

The first edition of Confessions of an English opium-eater by Thomas De Quincey.  London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1822.   In an 1824 letter, John Randolph of Roanoke wrote, “Have you ever read ‘The Confessions of an English Opium Eater’?  I can vouch for the correctness of the picture there drawn of the pleasures & pain of opium.” (E 1822 .D46. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History. Image by Petrina Jackson)

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. writes to a friend in great detail about his opium addiction, 1867 October 30. (MSS 7507. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

“Opium-Smoking in New York” in  Harper’s Weekly 25.1292 (September 24, 1881) 645.   (AP 2 .H32. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Image by Petrina Jackson

An advertisement for “Compound Syrup of Opium, or, Henkel’s Diarrhoea Cordial.”  [New Market, Va. :Drs. S.P.C. & C.C. Henkel, ca. 1864-1882]. (RM671 .H45 no. 32. Image by Petrina Jackson)


O is for Osawatomie

Osawatomie, Kansas was the site of bloody conflict between abolitionist forces and pro-slavery “Border Ruffians” from neighboring Missouri on August 30, 1856. Although the anti-slavery forces were defeated, the battle brought national attention to their leader, John Brown. This notoriety enabled Brown to raise funds for his plan to incite an uprising and arm slaves across the South. Brown and his forces attacked and seized the Federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia on October 16, 1859. The raid was ultimately a failure and Brown was captured, tried, and finally hanged on December 2, 1859. The raid sent waves of panic throughout the South, where Brown was reviled as a treasonous lunatic,
and electrified anti-slavery forces in the North where Brown was proclaimed a martyr. Brown’s legacy in the 150 years since his death is still debated and the name “Osawatomie” has been used by groups espousing both peaceful and violent social action.

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

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

“Record of the trial of John Brown and his associates,” undated. For November 2, Virginia Circuit Court Judge Richard Parker notes “Verdict guilty of treason as charged in 1st count of indict. – also of advising & conspiring with slaves & others to rebel as charged in 2d count of the indict. & of murder in 1st degree as charged in 3rd and 4th counts–John Brown, led in & it being demanded of him…if any thing for himself he has or knows to say why the court should not proceed to judgment, & execution –but had nothing but what he had before said.  Therefore it is considered that he be hanged by the neck until he is dead.” (MSS 11634. Paul Mellon Bequest. Image by Petrina Jackson)

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

The Mock Auction: Ossawatomie Sold, a Mock Heroic Poem by Mann Satterwhite Valentine, 1860.  (PS586 .Z93 .V355 M6 1860. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

(Image by Petrina Jackson)

Osawatomie, a quarterly magazine published by the Weather Underground Organization, 1975. (HX 1 .O8. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Table of Contents of The Weather Underground Organization's magazine Osawatomie, no. 1, 1975.

Table of Contents of The Weather Underground’s magazine Osawatomie, no. 1, 1975. (HX 1 .O8. Image by Petrina Jackson)

That concludes our edition of the letter “O.”  Don’t miss our next installation, featuring “P!”