Patron’s Choice: Sex, Celebrity and Scandal in the Amélie Rives Chanler Troubetzkoy Papers

Posted on August 23, 2013 by

This week we are pleased to feature a guest post from Donna M. Lucey, author of Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age and Photographing Montana 1894–1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron and media editor for the online Encyclopedia Virginia being produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

In this post, Donna Lucey provides some favorite high-points of using the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collection Library for her 2006 biography Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age.

***

If there is one verity in life, it is this: SEX AND CELEBRITY AND SCANDAL SELLS. And those commodities pop up in the strangest places—take, for instance, the hushed, staid precincts of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Who knew that sex would be lurking inside MSS 8925 of the Amélie Rives Chanler Troubetzkoy Papers? But open the oversized box of images attached to that number, and there she is—the voluptuous nude Amélie Rives in all her glory, lying on a divan in a kind of post-coital bliss, her eyes closed, her luxuriant mane of hair undone. And what can one say about that curvaceous figure of hers? Some hyperbole had to be involved in that, right? Who would draw such a thing in the 1890s? In fact, Amélie herself created it. She drew it on a Sunday in August—August 21, 1892, to be precise—the very day her paramour from London, Lord George Curzon (future Viceroy of India), arrived at her family’s ancestral Virginia estate, Castle Hill. Her husband, John Armstrong “Archie” Chanler, an heir to the Astor fortune, was conveniently in New York City at the time…. Well, such are the secrets that the Special Collections Library harbors amid its underground treasures.

Nude photo of a reclining Amelie Rives Chanler, drawn by the subject. (MSS 8925. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Self portrait of a reclining Amelie Rives Chanler. (MSS 8925. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

I was working on a joint biography of Amélie and poor, deluded Archie, when I came upon that revealing image. Archie and Amélie were the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald of their day—with literary fame, fortune, and madness mingled in equal doses. Amélie was a Virginia blueblood of the grandest sort—in her great-great-grandfather’s time, Jefferson and Madison were habitués of Castle Hill; Robert E. Lee was her godfather—but she scandalized the entire nation when her first novel, The Quick or the Dead?, was published in 1888. The book dared to suggest that women had sexual feelings. Nothing by today’s standards, but the novel featured lots of “soughing” rain and wind, and heaving bosoms, and even passionate kisses (“Jock! kiss me!”). The book was reviled by critics and clergymen across the country—and sold 300,000 copies. A celebrity was born. In a supposedly secret ceremony, the notorious author married her Astor heir; but—thanks to an obliging Amélie—the press covered the event and trumpeted it in newspaper headlines across the country. Gossip columnists parsed the couple’s every move and utterance. Amélie loved the attention (note that nude portrait again—she actually had copies of it made); but Archie thought HE deserved the attention. He was, after all, an ASTOR. It was a marriage from hell, but Archie adored Amélie and continued to support her even after she dumped him and wed a penniless artist/aristocrat named Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy.

Frontispiece and title page of The Quick or the Dead by Amelie Rives, from Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, April 1888. (Taylor 1888 .T76 Q8. Taylor Collection of American Bestsellers. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Frontispiece and title page of “The Quick or the Dead?” by Amelie Rives, published in full in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, April 1888. (Taylor 1888 .T76 Q8. Taylor Collection of American Bestsellers. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

John Armstrong Chaloner (Chanler) seated on a horse, 30 September 1912. (Holsinger Studio Collection. Image by U.Va. Digitization) Services)

John Armstrong “Archie” Chaloner (Chanler), seated on a horse, 30 September 1912. (Holsinger Studio Collection. Image by U.Va. Digitization) Services)

Photograph by Fred Hollyer of Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy sketching, 1 August 1894. (MSS 2532. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Photograph of Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy by Fred Hollyer, 1 August 1894. (MSS 2532. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

One astonishing story after the next tumbles out of the voluminous papers dealing with both Archie and Amélie at Special Collections. You couldn’t make up Archie’s life: his creation of a mill town in the wilderness of North Carolina; his fascination with the occult; his betrayal by über-architect Stanford White and by his own family, who committed him to an insane asylum for the rich in White Plains, New York; his escape from Bloomingdale Asylum after nearly four years of incarceration; his re-emergence in Charlottesville where, in a famous lunacy trial, he was declared sane in Virginia—but he remained “insane” everywhere else; his killing a man in his own dining room (he was acquitted of the deed but paid for the victim’s funeral and had a six-pointed metal star placed on the dining room floor to commemorate the event); his nearly twenty-year struggle to have himself declared sane in New York and reclaim control of his fortune. Archie was finally victorious, but thereafter fell into madness, turning into a recluse at his Virginia estate. His renown was secured, however, when he coined the famous line “Who’s Looney Now?” and cabled it to reporters.

So sex and celebrity and scandal, Gilded Age style, lie simmering in those archival boxes.

Portrait of John Armstong Chaloner or "Archie." 4 May 1918. (MSS 9862. Holsinger Studio Collection. Image by U.Va. Digitization Services)

Portrait of John Armstrong “Archie” Chaloner (Chanler). 4 May 1918. (MSS 9862. Holsinger Studio Collection. Image by U.Va. Digitization Services)

Four Years Behind the Bars of "Bloomingdale" or The Bankruptcy of Law in New York by John Armstrong Chanler, 1906. (PS3505 .H2 F6 1906. Gift of John Staige Davis. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Title page of “Four Years Behind the Bars of ‘Bloomingdale'” (1906), John Armstrong Chanler’s scathing account of being placed by his family in “Bloomingdale Asylum,” White Plains, New York. (PS3505 .H2 F6 1906. Gift of John Staige Davis. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

ABCs of Special Collections: I is for

Posted on August 12, 2013 by

Welcome to our most recent installment of the ABCs of Special Collections, where the featured letter is

I is for Italian Palatino (1566). Lewis F. Day. Alphabets Old and New: Containing Over One Hundred and Fifty Complete Alphabets….London: B. T. Batsford, 94 High Holborn, 1898. (Typ 1898. D39. Stone Typography Collection. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

I is for Robert Ingersoll

Robert Ingersoll, the great American 19th-Century orator, was popularly known as “The Great Agnostic.” An attorney by trade, Ingersoll, by virtue of his oratory skills, kept paying audiences enthralled for hours as he weighed in on controversial subjects, political, social, and moral. Walt Whitman considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman wrote, “It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the individuality, I preach.” Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at Whitman’s funeral in 1892.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

Shown is the cover of an 1892 edition of Walt Whitman. An Address by Robert G. Ingersoll. (PS 3232 .I5 1892. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Shown is the cover of an 1892 edition of Walt Whitman. An Address by Robert G. Ingersoll. “Liberty in Literature.” (PS 3232 .I5 1892. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature. Image by Petrina Jackson)

I is for Ingles

Mary Draper Ingles was an early frontier settler in southwest Virginia. In 1755 during the French and Indian War, the settlement of Draper’s Meadow was raided by a group of Shawnee warriors. Several settlers were killed and five hostages were taken, including Mary and her two young sons, Thomas and George. The Indians forcefully led the hostages through the wilderness to an area near Big Stone Lick, Kentucky. Mary was separated from her sons and became enslaved to the Shawnee, but later escaped. She made her way on foot over hundreds of miles back to Virginia. One of her sons died in captivity and the other remained with the Shawnee for many years. Ingles relayed her ordeal to another son, John Ingles, whose hand-written manuscript of her narrative is held in Special Collections. Over the years the story of Mary Draper Ingles has been adapted to theatre, film, and historical fiction.

Contributed by Margaret Hrabe, Reference Coordinator

Page 3 of John Ingles’ handwritten manuscript, which was later published as a Escape From Indian Captivity: The Story of Mary Draper Ingles and son Thomas Ingles, ca. 1825. (MSS 38-246. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Cover of the first edition of Escape from Indian Captivity: The Story of Mary Draper Ingles and son Thomas Ingles, 1969. (E87 .I53 1969. Gift of Mrs. R. I. Steele. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Cover of The Long Way Home by Earl Hobson Smith (1976). The Long Way Home was an outdoor historical drama adaptation of the story of Mary Draper Ingles’ capture by and escape from the Shawnee Indians. (PS 3537 .M346 L56 1976. Robert and Virginia Tunstall Trust Fund 2006/2007. Image by Petrina Jackson)

I is for Insurrection

On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner raised the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history in Virginia’s Southampton County. The slave force massacred over 60 white men, women, and children. The rebellion was brutally suppressed and an orgy of violence followed, in which over 200 African Americans were executed by the state and murdered by vigilante groups. The Southampton Insurrection spread fear and hysteria across the South and as a result, Virginia and other Southern states passed harsh new laws that further restricted the activities of both slaves and free blacks.

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

Horrid Massacre of Virginia: Just Published, an Authentic and Interesting Narrative of the Tragical Scene which was Witnessed in Southampton County (Virginia), on Mondy the 22d of August Last, when Fifty Five of its Inhabitants (Mostly Women and Children) were Inhumanly Massacred by the Blacks! (Broadside 1831. W377. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History. Image by Digitization Services)

Photographs of Nat Turner’s Bible and Cross Keys (showing old store house in which some of the insurgents were imprisoned), ca. 1900. (MSS 10673. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Letter from William Campbell to Col. Baldwin detailing the effects of the Southampton insurrection. The letter mentions Richard Drummond’s eleven arrested slaves and the Corps of Mounted Citizen Volunteers, 4 September 1831. (MSS 1441. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

I is for Iron

The Weaver-Brady family papers document what is to many, one of the more surprising aspects of slavery in Virginia: the use of slaves in heavy industry. William Weaver built a network of iron producing operations in the Shenandoah Valley that included two forges, two blast furnaces and nearly 20,000 acres of land from which his 170 slaves harvested iron ore and timber. Nearly every job at the forges–from the most skilled to the least–was held by slaves. Operations such as Weaver’s led the way in establishing industrial slavery as a viable future direction as agricultural needs declined.

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

A page, featuring "Negro hires" from volume 2 of Buffalo and Bath Forge and Furnace account books. (MSS 38-98-d. Coles Special Collections Fund. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

A page, featuring debits for “Negro hires” from volume 2 of Buffalo and Bath Forge and Furnace account books. (MSS 38-98-d. Coles Special Collections Fund. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

A page, featuring the time records for “hands” from volume 3 of the Buffalo and Bath Forge and Furnace account books. (MSS 38-98-d. Coles Special Collections Fund. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Cover of Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge by Charles B. Drew, 1994. (F234 .B89 D48 1994. Coles Fund 1998/1999. Image by Petrina Jackson)

Cover of Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge by Charles B. Dew, 1994. (F234 .B89 D48 1994. Coles Fund 1998/1999. Image by Petrina Jackson)

That is all for “I.” Come back in a couple weeks for the letter “J.” I bet you have a “J” in mind already!

ABCs of Special Collections: H is for

Posted on July 29, 2013 by

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

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

H is for Hollinger Box

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

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

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

Contributed by Petrina Jackson, Head of Instruction and Outreach

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

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

H is for John Clellon Holmes

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

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

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

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

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

H is for Horse

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

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on July 25, 2013 by

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

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

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

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

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

Emmanuel Church today. Photograph by Margaret Hrabe)

Emmanuel Church, 2013. (Photograph by Margaret Hrabe)

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

Frederick William Neve

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

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

Digitization as Preservation

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

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

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

Beyond Our Mountain Work

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

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

Posted on July 18, 2013 by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ABCs of Special Collections: G is for

Posted on July 15, 2013 by

Our alphabetical series continues! We present the letter:

G is for Gothic. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

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

G is for Giant, the movie

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

Contributed by Margaret Hrabe, Reference Coordinator

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

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

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

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

G is for The Great Gatsby

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

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

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G is for Brion Gysin

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

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

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

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

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

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

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

Posted on July 11, 2013 by

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

Deux Dialogues (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nicholas Shangler (Photograph by Sarah Reynolds-Shangler)

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

Posted on July 5, 2013 by

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ABCs of Special Collections: F is for…

Posted on July 1, 2013 by

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

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

F is for the “F” word

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

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

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

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

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

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

F is for Fore-Edge Painting

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

Contributed by Regina Rush, Reference Coordinator

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

First fore edge painting from Thoughts on Hunting:

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

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

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

F is for Margaret Fuller

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

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

Until next time, farewell!

This Just In: Summer Beach Reading Edition

Posted on June 27, 2013 by

The following miscellany of recent book acquisitions is intended, not for those basking and basting on a sandy beach, but for those who prefer the cool, calm, and comfortable surroundings of the Special Collections reading room under Grounds. Take a break from tanning and pay us a summer visit!

Plate 13 in William M. Woollett, Old homes made new: being a collection of plans … illustrating the alteration and remodelling of several suburban residences (New York: A. J. Bicknell & Co., 1878).

A new addition to our extensive architecture holdings reminds us that architecture can be a process of renovation as well as creation. In Old homes made new (New York: A. J. Bicknell, 1878), Albany, N.Y. architect William M. Woollett offers remodeling advice to American homeowners. Stuck with a New England saltbox, Federal mansion, Greek Revival temple, or Gothic Revival embarrassment? Through before-and-after floor plans and exterior views, Woollett shows how to update one’s ancestral family home to the then-fashionable Queen Anne style. The work closes with exterior photographs of a mid-18^th-century home in Ridgefield, Conn. that Woollett had transformed into a Victorian showpiece. Architectural historians, historic preservationists, and others charged with reverse-engineering historic structures may find Woollett’s approach illuminating.

When money is THE object: one way to select a spouse in the Antebellum South, as explicated in S. S. Hall, The bliss of marriage: or, How to get a rich wife. (New Orleans: J. B. Steel, 1858)

But the nest must be built before it can be renovated. Populating that nest is the subject of S. S. Hall’s rare and unusual Bliss of marriage: or, How to get a rich wife (New Orleans: J. B. Steel, 1858). In some respects similar to the many courtship guides published in Antebellum America, Hall’s work is in other ways different in claiming to be written for a Southern audience. A New Orleans attorney (and not the prolific dime novel writer “Buckskin Sam” Hall, as often claimed), Hall based this work on three years’ “personal experience and general observation.” After offering advice such as “Marry no woman who sleeps till breakfast,” Hall devotes most of the book to the art of marrying well, and well-to-do. At the end is a 15-page appendix of nearly 400 wealthy “unmarried young ladies and gentlemen”—the former identified only by initials, the latter by full name—residing in various Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky towns, with their estimated net worth. One wonders how successfully Hall followed his own advice.

Title page to Wänskaps och handels tractat emellan Hans Maj:t konungen af Swerige och the Förente staterne i Norra America … = Traité d’amitié et de commerce entre Sa Majesté le roi de Suède et les Etats-unis de l’Amérique septentrionale … (Stockholm: Kongl. Tryckeriet, 1785)

To the McGregor Library of American History we have added the rare Swedish printing (Stockholm, 1785) of the landmark 1783 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Sweden and the United States. In September 1782, with the American Revolution drawing to a close, Congress empowered John Adams, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Benjamin Franklin to negotiate peace with Britain. At the same time Franklin was appointed minister to Sweden, and he quickly entered into discussions with his Swedish counterpart. A treaty was concluded on April 3, 1783, and ratified by both countries later that year. Sweden thus became the first neutral country to officially recognize the United States. The treaty’s text is printed in parallel columns in Swedish and French, with Congress’s act of ratification appended in English.

A detail from one of the massive (53 x 36 cm.) engraved plates in André François Roland, Le grand art d’ecrire. (Paris: Chez Esnauts et Rapilly, [between 1777 and 1791]

Summer is no time to dredge up dreary memories of primary school penmanship class, but we can’t resist pointing out that the history of handwriting and calligraphy are strongly represented in Special Collections. At a recent auction we were able to acquire several very rare 18^th-century French, Italian, and German penmanship manuals, thereby adding significant depth to our holdings. Penmanship instruction was long the province of writing masters, some of whom published manuals for their students’ use. Typically these consisted of engraved plates reproducing examples of the master’s penmanship. Some plates would demonstrate how to hold the quill pen and execute the basic strokes, others would illustrate the various hands, and still others would advertise the master’s expertise, particularly his command of hand in which texts and even elaborate images were drawn without once lifting the pen from paper. These writing books were often published on demand, with students customizing their copies by selecting from among the available engraved plates, hence copies are rare and tend to vary in content. Shown here is a detail from Le grande art d’ecrire, which features the work of André François Roland, a Parisian writing master active in the mid-18^th century. The U.Va. copy, in its original blue paper wrappers, contains 31 plates and was issued sometime between 1777 and 1791. Other copies are known issued as early as 1758. This work is extremely unusual for its large format, with plates measuring 53 x 36 cm.

[Harvey Newcomb], The “Negro pew”: being an inquiry concerning the propriety of distinctions in the House of God, on account of color. (Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1837)

Another spring auction added several anti-slavery and abolitionist works to Special Collections, including a fine copy in its original publisher’s binding with printed cover label of Harvey Newcomb’s The “Negro pew”: being an inquiry concerning the propriety of distinctions in the House of God, on account of color. Published in Boston in 1837, Newcomb’s book advanced the abolitionist movement a step further by confronting Northern prejudice against African Americans. Taking as his starting point the common practice of restricting where blacks could sit in church, Newcomb marshals many arguments to support his thesis “that every man is entitled to be esteemed and treated according to his social, moral, and intellectual worth.”

P. T. Barnum (er, Petite Bunkum) and General Tom Thumb make the acquaintance of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in The autobiography of Petite Bunkum, the showman. (New York: P. F. Harris, 1855)

The great American showman P. T. Barnum makes innumerable cameo appearances under Grounds in Special Collections’ rich holdings relating to 19^th-century American literature and culture, hence we were happy to acquire a rare Barnum parody. In 1855, just before financial reversals added further notoriety to his name, Barnum published a best-selling autobiography “written by himself.” The book was quickly and affectionately parodied in The autobiography of Petite Bunkum, the showman (New York: P. F. Harris, 1855), also (and anonymously) “written by himself.” “In these pages I have adhered to the truth as closely as might suit my purpose,” Bunkum allows, before relating his comical rise to fame and fortune. Of the supporting characters, only General Tom Thumb retains his full name. Others receive a modest fig leaf—Joyce Heath (for Joyce Heth, billed as George Washington’s 160-year-old nurse), Jenny [Lind] the Swedish Nightingale, the Fudge Mermaid, the Whiskered Woman—and all are caricatured in image as well as in word.

It’s 5 p.m. and we must close for the day, but perhaps there’s still time for the beach?