Welcome to the blog of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia. With contributions from staff, faculty, students, and visiting researchers, Notes from Under Grounds offers glimpses into all aspects of the Small Special Collections Library: new acquisitions, instruction, little-known collections, staff projects, exhibitions, special events, and more.
Posts are managed by a group of Small Special Collections Library librarians, archivists, and staff. Receive alerts of new blog posts by subscribing on the blog home page.
Images from our collections posted by Small Special Collections Library are intended to provide accurate and complete representations of information to advance the private study and research of students, faculty, and the general public. In preparing these collections, the university takes steps to identify and remediate sensitive information that could threaten the privacy and security of individuals, organizations, or other entities represented in the collection(s). Despite these efforts, sensitive or private information may inadvertently be included in digital collections. In such cases, living individuals whose private information is exposed (or who are guardians or conservators acting on behalf of a minor child or an adult) are welcome to submit a takedown request. For copyright related inquiries or concerns about our posts, please make a collections inquiry.
If you’re wondering about our blog title, Notes from Under Grounds, the Small Special Collections Library is located one floor underground—and here at UVA, we refer to our campus as “Grounds.” Images that appear in the blog’s header are from items in our collections that have been fully digitized and placed online for public use. All are in the public domain. One of five different headers appears at random each time you visit the blog. To see others, simply refresh the page.
Header One
- Binding detail: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:770690/view?&page=uva-lib:1063942
- Deer: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1003937/view?&page=uva-lib:971294
- Blue map: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1003538/view?&page=uva-lib:903093
Header Two:
- Phyllis Wheatley portrait: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:838334/view?&page=uva-lib:1009335
- Map of Copenhagen: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1004192/view
- Musical score: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1132744/view
Header Three:
- Palladio portrait: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:606288/view?&page=uva-lib:1206081
- Jefferson’s handwriting: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1229352/view?&page=uva-lib:1308640
- Owl: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:798071/view?&page=uva-lib:823654
Header Four:
- Plants: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1002932/page_turner
- Ship: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:727398/view?&page=uva-lib:948144
- Dog: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:1002939/view?&page=uva-lib:872258
Header Five:
- Uncle Tom Playbill: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:770519/view?&page=uva-lib:957750
- U.Va. Academical Village: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:727480/view?&page=uva-lib:976551
- Marbled paper: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:730705/view?&page=uva-lib:735380
My professor has asked me to help her look for photographs for her monograph titled “Rebuffing Refugee Journalists: The Profession’s Failure to Help Jews Persecuted by Nazi Germany.” I would like to get permission to use a photo of Oron J. Hale that is featured in this post: https://smallnotes.library.virginia.edu/tag/oron-hale/.
Please let me know if this is possible.
Dear Mr. Frias, Please submit a request to the reference form on our website, noting the URL of the blog post containing the image. You can find the reference form here: https://www2.lib.virginia.edu/small/referencerequest/
Thanks for your interest in the blog!
HA! That stands for “Happy Accident” and discovering your wonderful “ground” is just that.
It’s been impossible to locate Nick Curtis (to create a font based on authentic title cards for a Larry Semon silent comedy that is missing some footage–I restore and recreate silent film intertitles), but in the process I discovered “Notes from Under Grounds” and the Small Special Collections Library.
Your website is extremely well-designed in both its aesthetics and its entertaining and enlightening content.
I wish I lived closer than Los Angeles to visit your collection, but I did the next best thing: subscribed to your blog.
As for Nick, what a generous, priceless gift to donate those 300 books in what this old lettering artist considers eye candy!
Thanks for this peek into what Thomas Jefferson would call “Under Grounds.”
(My personal design project features “the ampersand as fun & fabulous art”–amperart-dot-com. Enjoy.)
Thanks, Chaz, for your kind comments! I’m so glad you are enjoying the blog.
Fauntleroy US Card Co, Cincinnati. I have in my possession, 5 separate Poker Decks of cards. Each with a unique picture for all 5 Decks. I’m trying to find out more about these decks of cards ; The antiqued nature of each individual set is elegantly delightful!