Exhibition Prep Special: Translating Shakespeare’s Sonnets into…Morse Code?

Posted on November 5, 2015 by

This week we are pleased to feature the third guest blog post from graduate curatorial assistant Kelly Fleming, who will be sharing selected treats from our upcoming exhibition, “Shakespeare by the Book,” over the coming months. The exhibition opens February 22, 2016.

Most readers of Shakespeare’s sonnets associate his poetry with love. In films and literary works of all kinds, Shakespeare’s sonnets are quoted and used to confirm the love between two people. Sonnet 116 (“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”) is probably one of the most popular readings on the wedding circuit. As much as Shakespeare’s sonnets are about love, time is more likely to be the subject of the poet’s meditations. The first seventeen—“the procreation sonnets”—urge a young man to make much of time, to get married, and to procreate so that he can live forever through his children. Many of the sonnets after 17 continue to address, to personify, and to apostrophize time, as these first lines illustrate: “Against that time, if ever that time come” (Sonnet 49); “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” (Sonnet 73); “No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change” (Sonnet 123).

Knowing the sonnets’ preoccupation with time, I completely “nerded out” when I discovered that someone had turned Shakespeare’s sonnets into a watch. My own scholarship has nothing to do with Shakespeare, but every time Molly, our curator here at Special Collections, mentioned the watch to me, I would get so excited that I would say in a high-pitched voice, “But Shakespeare’s sonnets are all about time!” I cannot imagine a more perfect way to represent his sonnets than a watch.

Pictured here is the watch with the instructional booklet open to the title page.

The Sonnets Watch Book is book inside a watch; it is a watch that ticks out Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) and sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”) in Morse code. It was dreamed up and built by three Seattle teenagers (credited on the watch as “Alex, Clara, and Nicholas”) and published by miniature-book publisher and technologist Robert Orndorff (who happens to be the father of two of the makers). Only eighteenth copies of The Sonnets Watch Book are in existence and number eighteen will appear in our exhibition. Bright lights flicker out the letters and punctuation marks of each sonnet. Even though I can’t understand Morse code, there is something incredibly moving about watching the lights change and knowing that Shakespeare’s words are still slowly being repeated throughout time.

Here is an image of the watch as it ticks out one of Shakespeare’s sonnets in Morse code.

Last week, I spent a full hour close reading Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65 and talking about time with my ENGL 3810 students. We were stuck on the following lines for a while:

O, how shall summer’s honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?

Shakespeare’s answer to this question is his sonnet. Unlike the sea, stone, or shining metals, his “black ink” may be able to withstand the rages of time. His “black ink” will continue to “shine bright” and tell of his love. As my students will tell you, this is exactly what happened. We spent twenty-five minutes of our class on four lines because his “black ink” does still “shine bright” in the history of literature.

Imagine, then, an object that literalizes the hope, the wish of this sonnet. Shakespeare’s words, his “black ink,” actually “[shining] bright” in little yellow, green, and red blinking lights on the face of a watch.

Now, who is excited?

Click on the link below for a video of the watch in action and proof that Shakespeare’s sonnets are now more portable than ever before. The Sonnets Watchbook will be on view—alive and ticking—in “Shakespeare by the Book: Four Centuries of Printing, Editing, and Publishing,” which runs February 22-December 2016 at the University of Virginia Library.

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the history of literature translated into code, perhaps you would like to see Monty Python’s take on the topic. They start with Wuthering Heights and go on from there…make sure to stay to the end!:

Exhibition Prep Special: Searching for Shakespeare in Booksellers’ Records

Posted on October 22, 2015 by

This week we are pleased to feature the second guest blog post from graduate curatorial assistant Kelly Fleming, who will be sharing selected treats from our upcoming exhibition, “Shakespeare by the Book,” over the coming months. The exhibition opens February 22, 2016.

My first two weeks at Special Collections were spent hoisting hulking ledgers from the stacks and placing them gently onto cradles to investigate whether two early booksellers in Virginia sold Shakespeare. After the first day, I found my legs covered in wisps of binding and my hands stained with “red rot” from the ledgers’ leather bindings. Thank goodness for gloves.

Here’s what my gloves looked like after several ledgers. Imagine what my bare hands looked like before I put them on.

I combed through the account books of Bell & Co., a printer in Alexandria, Virginia active in the nineteenth century and the Virginia Gazette, a newspaper and printer active in Williamsburg, Virginia in the eighteenth century. My eyes sought any spelling variation of the name “Shakespeare” amidst endless purchases of envelopes and paper. Despite our modern perception that Shakespeare’s works are “classics” and that he is a father of the English language, his place in the literary canon was yet to be defined in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As my findings attest, Virginians chose to read a myriad of other things more frequently than Shakespeare.

Only one copy of Shakespeare was sold by the Virginia Gazette in the years 1750–1752 and 1764–1766. Even though David Garrick was busily working to increase the popularity of Shakespeare in London at this time, the colonies seem to have been a step behind. Since Williamsburg was home to the Virginia legislature and the College of William & Mary, it is not surprising that the books sold by the Virginia Gazette were largely educational: Latin grammar textbooks, dictionaries, and religious texts like the Book of Common Prayer. Despite the fact that Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (a book the Virginia Gazette also sold) marks Shakespeare’s works as the first usage of many English words, students were not studying Shakespeare. The education system in the eighteenth century trained students (that is to say, young men) in what they considered the “classics”: philosophical and literary texts from ancient Greece and Rome. When students did read literary texts in English, it seems that they read English epics, which use classical elements to describe contemporary England. The epic works of Milton, Dryden, and Pope, for example, appear numerous times in the accounts of the Virginia Gazette. In addition to English epics, we find our copy of Shakespeare alongside another genre excluded from the education system: the novel. In the ledger in our exhibition, we find popular English novels such as Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa and Tobias Smollett’s Roderick Random.

Page of Virginia Gazette Day Book showing the purchase of Theobald's edition of Shakespeare (MSS 467)

Page of Virginia Gazette Day Book showing a purchase of Theobald’s edition of Shakespeare (MSS 467)

Joseph Hutchings purchased 8 volumes of of Shakespeare "for [his] self" (MSS 467).

The Virginia Gazette records show Joseph Hutchings purchasing 8 volumes of Shakespeare “for [him] self” (MSS 467).

Alongside Shakespeare in the Virginia Gazette Daybook, I found a recorded purchase of two of Samuel Richardson's novels, "Clarissa: Or, the History of a Young Lady" (1747-8) and "The History of Sir Charles Grandison" (1753).

Alongside Shakespeare in the Virginia Gazette records are two of Samuel Richardson’s novels, “Clarissa: Or, the History of a Young Lady” (1747-8) and “The History of Sir Charles Grandison” (1753). (MSS 467)

Alongside Shakespeare in the Virginia Gazette records are many educational texts such as Lilly’s Latin Grammar. (MSS 467)

Thanks largely to new performances of Shakespeare plays, Garrick’s Shakespeare Jubilee, and new editions of Shakespeare works in the eighteenth century, Shakespeare’s words come alive by the nineteenth century. The accounts of Bell & Co. reflect this increasing popularity. I found seven copies of Shakespeare sold at Bell & Co. over the course of the nineteenth century (1809–1899). The specific ledger we are using in the exhibition shows Shakespeare alongside Susanna Rowson’s novel Charlotte Temple, Wordsworth, Cooper’s Virgil, and the Bible.

Bell & Co. sold Shakespeare for "6.50" (MSS 2989).

Bell & Co. sold Shakespeare for “6.50.” Different types of currency were in use in the colonies at this time. Without further research, all we can tell from this record is that it is expensive and suggests that the reader bought a multi-volume set (MSS 2989).

On the same page, Bell & Co. recorded the purchase of Susanna Rowson's novel "Charlotte Temple" and two grammar books.

On the same page as Shakespeare, Bell & Co. recorded the purchase of Susanna Rowson’s novel “Charlotte Temple” and two grammar books. (MSS 2989)

Finally, in the twentieth century, Shakespeare begins to be studied and to be studied as a father of the English language. Today, Shakespeare is probably the most often memorized, most often recited English author in schools. I still can recite the famous speech of Titania’s from A Midsummer’s Night Dream that I memorized in the tenth grade and that begins “Set your heart at rest.” But as the exhibition at the Special Collections Library will show us in February, our hearts do anything but rest when we hear the heartbeat of Shakespeare’s iambs, even four hundred years after his death.

On View Now: American Broadsides to 1860

Posted on October 20, 2015 by

This week’s feature is a post by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant for the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

“American Broadsides to 1860 features 72 broadsides—almost exclusively American and dating prior to 1860—drawn from the holdings of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Arrayed in six sections—Proclamations, Political, Military, Goods and Services, Town and Country, and Literary Arts—these examples attest to the broadside’s varied content and breadth of function, while offering a fascinating account of life in early America. They also complement what is perhaps the most significant of all American broadsides: the “Dunlap Broadside” (first printing of the Declaration of Independence) on view in the adjacent Declaration Gallery.” Text by David Whitesell from the exhibition’s introductory panel.

One case of the exhibition American Broadsides to 1860. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

The following is a sampling of what you will find in each of the exhibition’s sections.

The earliest broadside on display is found in the “Proclamations” section. “By the King. A Proclamation for the Suppressing a Rebellion Lately Raised Within the Plantation of Virginia,” is King Charles II’s 1676 response to Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion, which was raging in the fledgling Virginia colony.

Detail of By the King. (fill in). Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

Detail of Charles II (1630-1685). By the King. A Proclamation for the Suppressing a Rebellion Lately Raised Within the Plantation of Virginia. London: Assigns of John Bill and Christopher Barker, 1676. (Broadside 1676 .G744 S63). Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

In the “Military” category, “Boston, 26th of June, 1775,” features a first-hand account, printed just nine days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, offering a somewhat rosy view of the catastrophic attempt to dislodge 1,200 colonial troops who had taken up positions in the hills surrounding Boston.

Boston, 26th of June, 1775. [Boston: John Howe, 1775] (Broadside 1775 .B67). Photograph by Petrina Jackson

In the “Political” section, the “Declaration of the Anti-slavery Convention, 1833,” calls for the formation of a national anti-slavery society—henceforth to be known as the American Anti-Slavery Society—and lists the names of delegates from ten states.

Detail of Declaration of the Anti-slavery Convention. [Philadelphia] : Merrihew & Gunn, [1833] (Broadside .W54 Z99 1833). Photograph by Petrina Jackson.. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

The “Farm and Country” category features an 1828 broadside advertising a Gander Pull outside of Petersburg, Virginia. A Gander Pull involves the hanging of a neck-greased goose upside down from a scaffold, whereby well-lubricated participants attempt to decapitate the bird as they ride past at full gallop. The event also featured a fish dinner and a barbecue.

Gary, Rich[ar]d. Gander Pull. Petersburg [Va.]: Old Dominion Office, [1828] (Broadside 1828 .G27). Photograph by Petrina

Two University of Virginia broadsides are found in the “Goods and Services” section: “Explanations, of the Ground Plan of the University of Virginia,” printed in Charlottesville in 1824. This broadside, printed to accompany Peter Maverick’s 1822 engraved “Plan of the University,” describes the pavilions, locations of the hotels, and the placement of the Rotunda, as well as the general layout of the only partly completed university Grounds. The 1825 program, “University of Virginia. This Institution Was Opened on the 5th Day of March, 1825,” was used to draft the text of the program for the second session of 1826. The first line—“This institution was opened on the 5^th day of 1825”—is crossed out and changed in manuscript to read, “will commence its next session on the 1st day of February, 1826.” Other alterations indicate changes made for the second session.

University of Virginia. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

University of Virginia. This Institution Was Opened on the 5th Day of March, 1825 … [Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1825?] (Broadside 1825 .U65).. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

In the “Literary” section don’t miss, “Theatre. On Friday Evening, September 15th, Will be Presented the Grand Operatical Romance of The Forty Thieves.” This 1809 announcement for a performance at the Park Theatre in New York features appearances by both of Edgar Allan Poe’s parents, eight months after his birth. In this dramatization of Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves, Mr. [David] Poe appears as the 1st Robber, Mrs. [Elizabeth] Poe as the clever slave girl, Morgiana.

Forty Thieves. Photograph by Petrina Jackson

Theatre. On Friday Evening, September 15th, Will be Presented the Grand Operatical Romance of The Forty Thieves. [New York: New Theatre, 1809] (PS2630.5 .T54 1809). Photograph by Petrina Jackson

In addition, there are 64 other fascinating broadsides on display, each offering a unique and varied look at American culture in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The exhibition may be viewed in the barrel-vaulted hallway on the first floor of the Harrision/Small building, just outside of the Albert and Shirley Small Declaration Gallery.

On View Now: The Lure of Italy

Posted on September 25, 2015 by

This week’s feature is a guest post by Kelly Fleming, Special Collections curatorial assistant and doctoral candidate in the U.Va. English Department.

“The Lure of Italy,” an exhibition drawn from Mildred Abraham’s personal collection of rare books on the Grand Tour, offers viewers a chance to travel back in time to experience the Italy famous for its classical origins, Carnival, and banditti. During the eighteenth century, Italy was usually the last stop on the Grand Tour. Sons of the aristocracy toured the continent with their tutors for one to three years in order to further their education and broaden their outlook. With the advent of the neoclassical aesthetic in the eighteenth century, Italy was the perfect place to study the art and the architecture of the ancients.

Books featuring ancient views from the exhibition "The Lure of Italy." Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

Books featuring the people of Italy and ancient views from the exhibition “The Lure of Italy.” Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

Detail from one of the exhibition cases. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.

In addition to their studies, men on their Grand Tours frequently attended the extravagant celebration of Carnival, participating in masquerade balls and grand parades. All this came to an end during the French Revolution (1789–1799). After the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), a new class began to flock to Italy: the tourist. Tourists no longer came for the classical Grand Tour. They travelled to Italy to explore the history, art, and architecture of the Renaissance. Moreover, a new group of travellers began to regularly tour Italy in the nineteenth century: Americans. As Abraham’s collection attests, women also began to travel to Italy in order to broaden their horizons. Frequently both male and female tourists turned their experiences in Italy into fictional works, such as Henry James’s Daisy Miller (1879), whose sketch “Italian Hours” appears in the exhibit, and Elizabeth Williams Champney’s novel, Three Vassar Girls in Italy (1886). “The Lure of Italy” contains exciting visual and textual sketches of the people, traditions, and landscape of Italy over the course of three centuries.

“Gossip” from Mrs Comyns Carr, North Italian Folk, Sketches of Town and Country Life, Illustrated by Randolph Caldecott (London, Chatto and Windus, 1878). Image by Digital Production Group.

My favorite piece is a sketch of a rather dashing Italian bandit from Maria Graham’s Three Months Passed in the Mountains East Of Rome, During the Year 1819.

Maria Graham, Three Months Passed in the Mountains East Of Rome, During the Year 1819, Second Edition (London, Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821). Image by Digital Production Group.

Mildred Abraham, a member of the prestigious Grolier club, was a Rare Books staff member for twenty-three years. Her collection contains hundreds of volumes on travel in Italy, ranging from the seventeenth through the early twentieth centuries. The bulk of her collection is described in Pine Coffin’s seminal work, The Bibliography of British and American Travel. Her collection, of which the exhibit is a small, but fabulous sampling, is a promised gift to the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Bookplate of Mildred K. Abraham. Image by Digital Production Group.

If you need some Italian color to combat winter’s gray skies, or if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to ride a tandem bicycle on your honeymoon through Italy, come see “The Lure of Italy” at Special Collections.

“The Lure of Italy” is on display on the first floor of the Harrison-Small building through December 31, 2015.

Lafayette at U. Va.

Posted on August 27, 2015 by

This summer the French frigate Hermione—a reconstruction of the vessel which, in 1780, brought the Marquis de Lafayette back to the United States with welcome news of French aid, and which then helped to secure final victory at Yorktown in 1781—made a triumphal voyage to the United States. Built in France between 1997 and 2012 at a cost of over $20 million, the Hermione—measuring 213 x 37 feet, its center mast reaching 177 feet—takes pride of place as France’s grandest “tall ship.” After arriving at Yorktown, Va., to a gala reception on June 5, the Hermione stopped at a dozen ports of call along the eastern seaboard before departing for France on July 18.

The Hermione at anchor in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, June 2015. (Gift of Albert H. Small)

As a memento of the Hermione’s visit, the U.Va. Library’s devoted friend and generous supporter Albert H. Small has presented us with a photograph of the reconstructed ship at anchor in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Mr. Small’s gift prompted us to search Under Grounds for rare books, manuscripts, and other artifacts relating to Lafayette, and we located much of interest! Following is a brief sampling of what Lafayette enthusiasts will find in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

The Marquis de Lafayette – Albert H. Small copy of the 1823 “Stone” facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, on display in the Small Special Collections Library’s Declaration Exhibition Gallery. (KF4506 .A1 1823; Gift of Albert H. Small)

Perhaps pride of place should go to Lafayette’s own copy of the Declaration of Independence—the document he devoted his life to defending and disseminating. During Lafayette’s triumphal tour of the United States in 1824-1825, he was presented with an official full-size engraved facsimile, printed on vellum, of the original Declaration now on display in the National Archives. Lafayette treasured this copy of the “Stone printing,” hanging it in his bedchamber after returning to France. Eventually acquired by Albert H. Small, Lafayette’s copy now resides at U.Va., where it forms part of Mr. Small’s superlative Declaration of Independence collection. Visitors may view it (or rather, for conservation reasons, an exact facsimile of the original) in the Small Special Collections Library’s permanent exhibition of highlights from Mr. Small’s collection.

Lafayette sends orders to Capt. Belfield in Staunton, Va., July 3, 1781. (MSS 8097)

Arriving in the U.S. in 1777 as a newly commissioned officer, the 19-year-old Lafayette soon won the respect and friendship of George Washington while contributing significantly to the American cause. In the early summer of 1781, Lafayette played a critical role in skirmishing with British forces in Virginia until Washington had time to spring his trap at Yorktown. On July 3, 1781, Lafayette sent the orders shown above to a Capt. Belfield at Staunton, Va., also noting the presence of Baron von Steuben in Charlottesville.

An engraved facsimile, ca. 1824, of Lafayette’s 1784 testimonial letter on behalf of James Armistead Lafayette, with added portrait. (Broadside 1824 .L25)

Another Virginian in Lafayette’s service was James, a slave permitted by his master to serve as an American spy behind British lines by posing as a fugitive. In 1787, with his owner’s support and a testimonial letter from Lafayette, James was freed by the Virginia Assembly and took the name James Armistead Lafayette. When Lafayette returned to the U.S. in 1824, his kindness to James—and his ardent support for the as-yet-unrealized ideal that “all men are created equal”—were commemorated in an engraved print bearing James’s likeness above a facsimile of Lafayette’s testimonial letter.

Jefferson's presentation inscription to Lafayette in the gift copy of Notes on the State of Virginia (Paris, 1784-1785). (F230 .J4 1785; Gift of William Andrews Clark, Jr.)

Jefferson’s presentation inscription to Lafayette in a gift copy of Notes on the State of Virginia (Paris, 1784-1785). (F230 .J4 1785; Gift of William Andrews Clark, Jr.)

While James sought his freedom another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, was in Paris, where he arranged to print 200 copies of his book, Notes on the State of Virginia, during 1784-1785. These he privately distributed as he saw fit on both sides of the Atlantic. To a small number of specially bound presentation copies, including one sent to Lafayette, Jefferson added long, personal inscriptions. Lafayette’s copy now resides at U.Va., the gift of William Andrews Clark, Jr.

Thomas Jefferson’s letter of November 27, 1793 to Angelica Schuyler Church, in which he discusses American efforts to free Lafayette from a French prison. (MSS 11245-b)

Silk ribbon commemorating Lafayette’s 1824-1825 visit to the U.S. (MSS 14211)

Among the many friendships Jefferson cultivated in Paris was that of American expatriate Angelica Schuyler Church, wife of an American diplomat and Alexander Hamilton’s sister-in-law. Church later moved to London, where she monitored with increasing dismay the unfolding French Revolution and its tragic consequences for her friends. In her unceasing efforts to aid one imprisoned friend—the Marquis de Lafayette—Church was ultimately successful, as documented in an extraordinary cache of correspondence obtained by U.Va. a few years ago. Included is a 1793 letter from Jefferson, then Secretary of State, who thanks Church for forwarding a letter from “my very good friend” Lafayette, and informs her that “the influence of the United States has been put into action as far as it could be either with decency or effect.” (Sharp-eyed readers will also note a fascinating reference to Maria Cosway.)

Most of our Lafayette holdings, however, relate to his extended American tour, from July 1824 to September 1825, during which he received the proverbial hero’s welcome from Americans in 24 states. In Special Collections one will find a diverse assortment of primary sources documenting Lafayette’s American travels, ranging from commemorative silk ribbons worn in his honor to eyewitness accounts of local festivities in letters sent to friends and family. From November 4-8, 1824, Lafayette was in Charlottesville where, after an emotional reunion with Jefferson at Monticello, Lafayette was fêted at a banquet held in the still-unfinished U.Va. Rotunda. Many interesting details of the event were conveyed in this letter from local resident Jane E. Ferguson to her father.

Jane E. Ferguson’s account of Lafayette’s reception at the U.Va. Rotunda on November 8, 1824. (MSS 38-122-a)

From Charlottesville Lafayette journeyed overland to Orange, Va., where on November 25, 1824, he was received with great ceremony. Making the public introduction was former president (and local resident) James Madison, whose remarks are preserved in the holograph draft to be found in the Small Special Collections Library.

James Madison’s remarks introducing Lafayette to the citizens of Orange, Va., November 25, 1824. (MSS 4677)

Nearly a year later Lafayette was back in France. On November 5, 1825, Lafayette wrote to Jefferson from his home in La Grange, advising him of a shipment of, what else but books, and sending “my ardent wishes for your better health, and the affectionate sentiments of your old friend.” On the reverse Jefferson noted the letter’s receipt at Monticello on May 18, 1826—perhaps the final communication he would receive from Lafayette.

Lafayette to Thomas Jefferson, November 15, 1825. (MSS 8885)

On View Now: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Posted on August 20, 2015 by

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Special Collections holds a collection of more than 1500 items related to this and Charles Dodgson’s other works, such as Through The Looking Glass and various works on logic and mathematics. The portion of the collection relating to Alice is the largest, and includes hundreds of editions as well as parodies, interpretations, and reimaginings of Alice’s adventures from all periods and in many different languages. This collection was built by U.Va. Professor of Philosophy Peter Heath, who taught at the university from 1962 to 1995. His own book, The Philosopher’s Alice (1974), juxtaposes the novel’s text with Heath’s own philosophical commentary.

In honor of Professor Heath’s collection, undergraduate Wolfe Docent Susan Swicegood curated the mini-exhibition “Happy 150th Birthday, Alice!” Faced with the daunting prospect of selecting just a handful of items from the remarkable Heath collection, Susan decided to focus on how illustrators have envisioned the figure of Alice herself over the course of the book’s publishing history. She did a beautiful job, and has filled three exhibition cases with items to stimulate memories and artistic inspiration for all generations of Alice readers. Here are just a few examples to tempt you:

This detail comes from a pop-up edition advertised as a “come to life panorama.” With her rosy cheeks and curly hair, this Alice looks more like a cherub than a curious Victorian child. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by A. L. Bowley. (London: Raphael Tuck, [1920s]). (PR 4611 .A7 1920b). Peter Heath Lewis Carroll Collection. Gift of Diana Salcedo and Philip Heath.

: Alice parodies use the book’s playful structure as an avenue for political or social commentary. This space-age Alice no longer travels down a rabbit hole, but to a new planet. Renzo Rossott, Alice in 2000, illustrated by Grazia Nidasio. (London : Ward Lock Limited, [1970]) (PR4611 .A72 R68 1970). Peter Heath Lewis Carroll Collection.Gift of Diana Salcedo and Philip Heath.

Alice got a big makeover in the 1970s, as modern printing techniques gave illustrators brighter and more dynamic colors that embody childish imagination, and finally giving Wonderland its psychedelic flair. This beautiful pop-up book displays a fabulous, hippie Alice at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Retold by Albert G Miller, designed by Paul Taylor, illustrated by Dave Chambers, Gwen Gordon and John Spencer. (New York: Random house [1968]) (PR4611 .A72 M53 1968). Peter Heath Lewis Carroll Collection. Gift of Diana Salcedo and Philip Heath.

The exhibition is broken into three sections: “The Origins of Alice,” which looks at how Alice’s visual identity first emerged, “Alice in the Golden Age of Illustration,” focusing on the lavish aesthetic of the early twentieth century, and “An Alice for Every Generation,” looking at Alices from the 1960s through our own time, with examples ranging from the iconic Disney animation aesthetic to the edgy pen and ink imaginings of Ralph Steadman.

We encourage you to stop by and visit the exhibition, which is on view in the First Floor Gallery through September 18. It’s a visual feast–or should we say, tea party?

First Floor Exhibitions Explore Slavery and Abolition

Posted on June 16, 2015 by

The Harrison/Small First Floor Gallery is excited to announce our two summer exhibitions: “My Own Master: Resistance to American Slavery” and the mini-exhibition “‘Read, Weep, and Reflect’: Creating Young Abolitionists through Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Together these two exhibitions extend some of the themes explored in our Harrison Gallery exhibition, “Who Shall Tell the Story: Voices of Civil War Virginia. ” Come in out of the heat and spend some time with these marvelous exhibitions. Some images to tempt you follow…

The larger exhibition, “My Own Master,” is of particular note because it is the first exhibition in memory that the University of Virginia Library has mounted on the topic of slavery (a fact discovered in discussions with long-time Special Collections staff). Though artifacts relating to slavery have been included and the topic discussed in past exhibitions, slavery has not been the sole subject of an exhibition here. We are very pleased to end that tradition this summer. Even more exciting, in 2018 we will mount a major exhibition on the topic of slavery at the University of Virginia in the Harrison Gallery, in support of the President’s Commission on Slavery and the University.

“My Own Master” showcases thirty remarkable items from the collections demonstrating some of the ways that blacks–slave, free, and freed–fought against slavery. Curator Petrina Jackson describes the exhibition’s project as follows: “When the white abolitionist Sydney Howard Gay published his four-volume A Popular History of the United States in 1876, he covered slavery and abolitionism in the final volume. He wrote, ‘the African in America whether bond or free had learned the habit of submission and had rarely shown any spirit of revolt.’ Gay wrote this even though he labored closely with black abolitionists who risked their freedom and their lives to secure the freedom of their enslaved brethren. He likewise documented the harrowing stories of fugitive slaves, who wagered everything to gain control of their personhood, their bodies, their lives. “My Own Master” challenges the notion of black passivity and shows African Americans as active agents in breaking the bonds of slavery.”

The exhibition displays artifacts that document a variety of forms of rebellion: running away, planning insurrections, writing abolitionist works and manifestoes, and buying one’s own and one’s family’s freedom. It concludes with a recently acquired broadside printed by African-American leaders in Richmond a year after the city surrendered.

Portraits of black abolitionists from books in our collections are featured in the gallery and on the poster.

Our mini-exhibition, “Read, Weep, and Reflect: Creating Young Abolitionists through Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was curated by undergraduate Wolfe Docent Susan Swicegood (CLAS 2015, Curry 2016). Curator Molly Schwartzburg asked Susan to develop an exhibition around a recently acquired early puzzle about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, which is our second such puzzle. Susan tracked down a wonderful range of children-related publications and “tie-in products” from the nineteenth century. It is not to be missed!

The new puzzle is on the left.

Games, theater tickets, and more!

Come on by and take a look!

Tales from Under Grounds II: War

Posted on June 11, 2015 by

This is the final of four posts, spotlighting the mini-exhibitions of students from USEM 1570: Researching History.

***

Turner Labrie, First-Year Student

Photograph of Turner Labrie by Sanjay Suchak, November 18, 2014.

Virginia and The Spanish American War

In February of 1895, the Spanish-controlled island of Cuba erupted in rebellion. Over the course of their fighting with the rebels, the Spanish employed increasingly brutal repression tactics. These brutal tactics were further sensationalized by American newspapers, a method that is now better known as “yellow journalism.” In response to the growing unrest in Cuba and domestic pressures at home, the United States government sent naval crafts to protect US citizens residing in Cuba.

The Spanish-American War began in April of 1898, prompted by the inexplicable explosion in the USS Maine, which was one of the ships based outside of Havana protecting U.S. interests. After the explosion, fighting erupted between the United States and Spain in various parts of the world, including Puerto Rico, Spain and the Philippines. Ultimately, the United States won the war, made Puerto Rico and the Philippines their territories, and freed Cuba from Spanish control.

This exhibition documents Virginia’s involvement in the Spanish American War.

Soldier’s Memorial, Spanish American War of 1898: Suffolk Light Infantry. Company G. Fourth Regiment, Virginia Volunteer Infantry … Organized at Suffolk, Va., June 22, 1892 mustered into the United States Service at Richmond, Va., May 23, 1898. Washington, D.C.: Fuller Bros., 1898. (Poster 1898 .S73)
This poster portrays the Suffolk Light Infantry in combat, and in the middle, it lists members of the Company G, including officers. Virginia was expected to contribute heavily to the war, but outside of the involvement of a couple regiments, it served more of an ancillary role. Many supplies were shipped through Virginia’s ports, and camps were established throughout the state to train soldiers for combat. That being said, fourteen of the deceased sailors from the explosion of the USS Maine were originally from Virginia.

Capt. Edgar de Duphane. Wanted. 100 Volunteer Crack Shots, for Immediate Service. New Market, VA: Henkel & Co., Printers, 1898. (Broadside 1898 .D84)
Captain Edgar de Duphane posted this message in New Market, Virginia to encourage proficient shooters to join the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Spanish American War. The shooters were then sent to various camps throughout the country for integration into the army. From there, they fought against Spanish forces.

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Max Novick, First-Year Student

Max Novick presents a WWI era scrapbook, November 18, 2014. (Photograph by Sanjay Suchak)

Propaganda and Sentiments of World War I

While World War I can be at times dwarfed by the magnitude of the Second World War, many of the same feelings of fear that the Allies expressed towards the German enemy still existed. Through this mélange of emotions, the use of propaganda became commonplace to strike fear in the heart of the enemy and to motivate the allied nations. Though propaganda can be quite coarse and grating, this mini-exhibition makes an attempt to display a few types of this curious art form.

Through the use of five dissimilar items, this exhibit moves in a somewhat linear fashion, from crass to serious, in order to capture the very essence of the emotions that were shared in the Allies battle against the Imperial forces. Nevertheless, Novelist James Dickey’s sentiments to a major donor to Virginia of this era caps the exhibition in its ability to look beyond the pairing of one side versus another and at the real issue of humans versus humans.

Falser, M. “Pour le suprême effort.” World War I posters 1914-1918. (MSS 5023-b) Robertson Gift Dec. 1969
Produced in 1918, artist M. Falser shows a darkly colored image of a French soldier in fierce combat with an eagle. This black eagle as well as the helmet known as a Pickelhaube are signs of the German Imperial Army. The violent force with which the French soldier maims this Imperial enemy seeks to inspire hope and courage within the nation of interest and to deflate the image of the enemy.

Dickey, James. “For Matt Bruccoli’s Father.” Letter. World War I Memorabilia. (MSS 10875-s) Bruccoli Great War Collection. Gift of Matthew J. Bruccoli, July, 1997 Famous American novelist, James Dickey, through this extremely personal letter, offers a writer’s input on the war. This letter looks beyond the simplicities of propaganda and talk about war’s more virulent nature. This note does not degrade the enemy in any way, but rather looks at the matter from the perspective of a human being to express the atrocities and horrors that war imposes on mankind.

By arrangement with the Heirs of James Dickey and their agents Raines & Raines. James Dickey. Letter for Matt Broccoli’s Father, July 1997. (MSS 10875-s) Bruccoli Great War Collection. Gift of Matthew J. Bruccoli.
Famous American novelist, James Dickey, through this extremely personal letter, offers a writer’s input on the war. This letter looks beyond the simplicities of propaganda and talks about war’s more virulent nature. This note does not degrade the enemy in any way, but rather looks at the matter from the perspective of a human being to express the atrocities and horrors that war imposes on mankind.

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Emily Templin, First-Year Student

Photograph of Emily Templin by Sanjay Suchak, November 18, 2014.

World War II Propaganda in America

America officially entered World War II after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. While American soldiers were off fighting for the Allied cause, other forces worked to keep the home front involved and in support of the war. The Office of War Information (OWI), created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1942, was designed to help mobilize domestic support and keep citizens informed. The OWI produced propaganda, such as radio broadcasts, newspaper articles, posters, and photographs that served as a direct appeal to citizens at home to support the war.

Much of the propaganda tended to focus on how everyone could “play their part” in the war effort, including buying war bonds, rationing, and conserving scrap metal and rubber. Ultimately, propaganda helped to shape the culture of the American home front, sparking a unified effort to help fight the war by any means possible.

1942 War Bonds Poster. “We Shall Win Or We Shall Die”: Double Your Shares In the U.S.A. … Buy War Bonds and Stamps Today!. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1942. (Poster 1942 .W4)
This 1942 propaganda poster advertises the sale of war bonds as a way for people at home to contribute to the war effort. Since World War II was a “total war,” patriotic propaganda was used to garner support for the war on the American home front. The poster’s language serves to unite soldiers with civilians back home in a combined revenue-raising effort that both financially and morally supports the war.

United States of America. Four Freedoms Booklet. Louis G. Cowan World War II Propaganda Collection, 1941-1946. (MSS 11569)
Based on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, this booklet elaborates how the freedoms of speech and worship and the freedoms from want and fear operated in America. The booklet contrasts pictures of America’s happy children, education systems, and plentiful harvests with pictures of the violence, government restrictions, and food lines in Axis countries in order to promote the Allied war efforts.

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Timothy Rodriguez, First-Year Student

Timothy Rodriguez talks to a attendee about his exhibition, November 18, 2014. (Photograph by Sanjay Suchak)

Cold War Propaganda in the United States and the Soviet Union

The Cold War, which started in 1946 after the end of the Second World War, produced a significant amount of propaganda on both sides. In the United States, this propaganda was focused against the nature of the communist regimes in Soviet Bloc countries and on the ideals of communism. For the Soviets, the propaganda was more focused on convincing citizens that their system of governance and economic structuring was superior to capitalist countries like the United States.

This exhibition contains propagandist pictures, literature and broadsides that represent some of the most subtle and blatant propaganda of the Cold War. Sources include both the Soviet and American governments as well as special interest groups with Anti-communist agendas.

Siebel, Fred O. "Eyes on Formosa." Richmond Times Dispatch. 1 Jan. 1950. Original drawing by Fred Seibel. Published in the Richmond Times Dispatch, this cartoon, drawn by Fred Siebel, is a piece of American anti-communist propaganda and political commentary. The depiction of communism as a gigantic octopus, embossed the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle, is a clear statement of the American perspective of communism as an expansionary threat to the world. The cartoon is intending to convey the intent of the communists specifically in China of taking over the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan. (still need permission)

Siebel, Fred O. “Eyes on Formosa.” Richmond Times Dispatch. 1 Jan. 1950. Original drawing by Fred Seibel. (MSS 2531)
Published in the Richmond Times Dispatch, this Fred Siebel cartoon is a piece of American anti-communist propaganda and political commentary. The depiction of communism as a gigantic octopus, embossed with the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle, is a clear statement of the American perspective of communism as an expansionary threat to the world. The cartoon conveys the intent of the communists, specifically in China, to take over the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan.

Pedigo, Jess L. Yes, Ginger. Communism Is Your Enemy. Tulsa: Christian Crusade Publications, 1970. This booklet was published by the Christian Crusade publication company in 1970. During the Cold War many organizations in the United States, including Christian Crusades, published Anti-Communist literature. This specific booklet is a story directed at children informing them of the supposed evils of communism and as per the title explains why communism is their enemy. This artifact is a prime example of religious, anti-communist propaganda which was prevalent during the cold war era.

Pedigo, Jess L. Yes, Ginger. Communism Is Your Enemy. Tulsa: Christian Crusade Publications, 1970. (HX44 .P42 1972)
During the Cold War, many organizations in the United States, including Christian Crusades, published anti-communist literature. This specific booklet, directed at children, informs them of the supposed evils of communism and as per the title explains why communism is their enemy. This artifact is a prime example of religious, anti-communist propaganda which was prevalent during the cold war era.

This Just In: Problematic Provenance

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

My previous post on the acquisition of U.Va.’s first papyrus manuscript has been a popular one, made more so by a subsequent U.Va. news release. Two readers have since contacted me with a question unaddressed in the blog post and news release (the latter now amended): What is the document’s provenance, that is, its recent ownership history? This follow-up post seeks to summarize what little is known at this point about its provenance, acknowledge an error of judgment in this instance, and touch upon an important ethical issue concerning the antiquities trade.

P. Virginia 1, U.Va.’s first papyrus document, measures 16.5 x 8 cm. It was written in Greek, probably in Egypt during the 3rd century CE. Purchased on the Associates Endowment Fund.

UVa’s papyrus fragment was purchased at the March 19, 2015 public auction (lot 71) of Swann Galleries, a major New York auction house. The lot description offered no provenance information, nor (as is common in the auction trade) was the consignor identified. When the papyrus was unpacked at U.Va. on May 7, I saw on the glass mount, sealed with a distinctive “papyrus”-patterned tape, an identification label with the handwritten notation “M30305/2.” Neither feature had been visible in the cropped image accompanying the lot description. Was this a collection inventory number, or, more likely, a dealer or auction house number? I have since done what I should have done initially, prior to bidding, and that is to contact the auction gallery for all documentation the gallery and the consignor may have on the papyrus’s ownership over the last several decades. Swann Galleries has confirmed that the label bears its “internal cataloguing number.” Swann has also requested documentation from the consignor, “a dealer with whom we have done business on a number of occasions,” and we are awaiting a response.

So far my other efforts to trace this fragment to a known collection, to a previous auction or trade sale, or to other pieces have been fruitless. If readers have any knowledge of other papyrus documents in mounts sealed with the same tape (visible in the attached images), I would be grateful to hear from you.

Provenance is no small matter, for we want to avoid acquiring, whether through purchase or gift, collection items for which we do not have clear title. The matter is a complicated one, for we obtain a wide chronological and geographical range of materials, in a variety of formats, from many different sources. In the case of antiquities (and certain categories of books and manuscripts), provenance is paramount, for many countries now require a license for the export of such objects, or for export after a specified date from their country of origin.

The verso of P. Virginia 1 clearly shows the vertical papyrus strips which form the document’s secondary layer. Additional lines of Greek text–perhaps docketing, or unrelated manuscript notes–are also visible.

For papyrus documents of Egyptian origin, the primary statute is Egypt’s 1983 law on the protection of antiquities, which henceforth prohibited their export without a proper license. Many, of course, were exported before the law took effect. What if we cannot trace the document’s ownership prior to 1983? That would neither prove nor disprove that the papyrus was properly exported. Here, however, assuming proper export in the absence of contrary evidence is not sufficient, for ethically we would want assurance that U.Va. was not supporting, in even the smallest way, the illegal antiquities trade.

The situation could have been avoided, of course, had I sought provenance information prior to bidding; if the document’s history could not be verified earlier than 1983, there would be no point in bidding. To my regret, I did not. I am deeply indebted to the readers who have enlightened me by sharing information on what is apparently an active, illegal market in papyrus manuscripts, online and elsewhere, conducted by dealers outside the established antiquities and manuscripts trade channels. Accounts such as those posted by Brice Jones and Dorothy King present a disturbing picture of this market, which is likely replenished by continuing illegal exports and supported by buyers who neither demand full documentation, nor convey it to the next owner. Often the provenance information supplied is either insufficient or dubious.

It may take some time to complete our investigation into the document’s provenance and then settle on a course of action. Readers will receive an update in a future blog post.

This Just In: Please Welcome P. Virginia 1!

Posted on May 14, 2015 by

Please note: This post has been updated by a follow-up post.

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library’s collections span over 4 millennia, from Babylonian clay tablets dating to ca. 2000 BCE, to poetry published only this spring via 3-D printer. Impressive as this may sound, it actually conceals a glaring gap, for until last week we possessed no original manuscript written in the nearly three-millennium period between our two clay tablets and our earliest parchment manuscript fragments, which date to the 9^th century CE. We have now begun to address that gap with the acquisition of the U.Va. Library’s first original manuscript from Classical antiquity: a papyrus document from Egypt tentatively dated to the 3^rd century CE.

P. Virginia 1, U.Va.’s first papyrus document, measures 16.5 x 8 cm. It was written in Greek, probably in Egypt during the 3rd century CE. Purchased on the Associates Endowment Fund.

Papyrus was already employed as a writing surface in Egypt by 2500 BCE, and it was used widely throughout the Mediterranean and Near East from ca. 500 BCE up to ca. 1000 CE before being superseded by parchment and paper. Papyrus sheets were formed by taking the stem of the papyrus plant, cutting the inner pith into long, thin strips, laying the strips side by side to form a sheet, laying another layer of strips crosswise over the first, then hammering the two layers together. The sticky pith strips would naturally adhere to one another. After polishing, the papyrus sheets could either be pasted together to form a scroll, or used individually. Taking up a reed pen, scribes would typically write on the “recto” side—that is, the side on which the strips ran horizontally—though both sides could be used.

Few of the many millions of papyrus documents written over the millennia have survived to the present day. Because papyrus is an organic material and easily damaged by water, the vast majority of the extant documents have been obtained from two sources. Most come from desert areas in Egypt, where documents were quickly buried by sand and protected from moisture until excavated from the late 19^th century onward. These mostly fall within the period 300 BCE – 500 CE and are written in Classical Greek, though many papyrus documents in Demotic, Coptic, Arabic, and other languages also survive. A lesser, though productive, source has been mummy wrappings, for papyrus documents were frequently recycled (and thereby preserved) in this fashion. Regardless of the source, most of the surviving documents are fragmentary in nature, having been torn, crumpled, nibbled, or otherwise damaged at various points over the centuries.

Even in fragmentary state, papyrus documents have a great deal to tell us about the cultural, economic, political, and social history of the Ancient World. Deciphering them is the task of papyrologists—classicists who have received specialized training in the skills necessary for working with these documents. First the papyrus pieces need to be cleaned, flattened, fibers straightened, and fragments aligned before the texts can be studied in full. Sealing them between two panes of glass greatly facilitates their handling, study, and long-term preservation. In transcribing and translating the documents, papyrologists face the problems of missing text, poor handwriting, faded or flaking ink, variable spelling and grammar, unfamiliar vocabulary, local dialects &c. Over the past 125 years, however, an impressive corpus of tens of thousands of papyrus texts has been published. These texts are now being digitized and placed online—Papyri.info is a leading web portal—furnishing papyrologists with powerful new tools for comparing texts and readings, and even for locating fragments of the same document scattered in collections around the globe.

Although not complete, U.Va.’s papyrus document—which we will designate as P. [for Papyrus] Virginia 1 (it will also receive a MSS number)—is a large and wonderfully representative example, measuring 16.5 x 8 cm. Probably originating in the Fayyum region southwest of Cairo and dating to the 3^rd century CE, the Greek text may be a receipt or tax document concerning grain. Faculty in U.Va.’s Department of Classics are already at work studying the text and planning student practicums for the coming academic year. Soon, we hope to know more about the document and to see it published. Meanwhile, we have begun the search for P. Virginia 2!