Posts filed under 'Exhibits and Displays'
Abraham Lincoln Birthday Bicentennial Commemoration 1809/2009: Selected Resources from the Circulating Collection of the Ohio State University Libraries.
Thompson Library
1858 Neil Avenue
Room 240
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. Two hundred years later, communities across the country celebrate his life and remember his great legacy of redefining and initiating a path toward greater freedom and equality for all Americans.
The Ohio State University Libraries recognizes Lincoln in his bicentennial year with a selection of resources from its circulating collection. The exhibit serves as a learning tool that illustrates examples of biographical works from 1865 to recent times, contemporary photographs and political cartoons, paintings and sculpture. Selected primary sources from Lincoln documentary collections are shown, including a facsimile of his handwritten words spoken at Gettysburg and the opening paragraphs of his speech in Columbus, Ohio on September 16, 1859. Each piece is accompanied by brief information to enhance the viewer’s knowledge and enjoyment of the exhibit.
Exhibit curator: David Lincove, Librarian for History, Political Science and Philosophy
More information about the Lincoln bicentennial can be found at a web site created by the Library of Congress: http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/ .
October 2nd, 2009
Winsor McCay: Legendary Cartoonist
September 15-December 31, 2009
Cartoon Library and Museum
Reading Room Gallery
Winsor McCay was an unusually prolific cartoonist. More than 30 comic strip titles and ten animated films are credited to him. The decade between 1903 and 1913 was his most creative period. His biographer, John Canemaker, states, “…when the American comic strip was in its infancy, McCay became the first master of the form with two unsurpassed works of genius: Dream of the Rarebit Fiend … and Little Nemo in Slumberland.” In addition, McCay was an important pioneer animator and a popular vaudeville performer.
The date and place of McCay’s birth are unknown. He grew up in Michigan and was self-taught. He created his first comic strip, A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle, for the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1903. McCay soon left for New York City where he worked for James Gordon Bennett and later for William Randolph Hearst. Although his comic strips were formulaic, the sureness of his hand and the beauty of his drawings continue to delight. McCay’s interest in depicting movement is apparent throughout his comic strips, so it is not surprising that he found the new medium of animation intriguing.
In 1913 William Randolph Hearst ordered McCay to draw nothing but editorial illustrations. This constraint leaves contemporary students of McCay’s work puzzled. What might he have accomplished if he had devoted the last 20 years of his life to animation or comic strips? Winsor McCay: Legendary Cartoonist invites visitors to consider this question as they enjoy superb examples of McCay’s work that span his career.
September 2nd, 2009
Journeys: Treasures of The Ohio State University Libraries Special Collections
Through January 3, 2010
A special exhibition, “Journeys: Treasures of The Ohio State University Libraries Special Collections,” will be on display through January 3, 2010 to help celebrate the reopening of the newly-renovated Thompson Memorial Library. The exhibition is a collaboration between all ten of the Special Collections at Ohio State. It will be free and open to the public.
More than 100 of the Libraries’ most interesting, rare and unique treasures will be on display, from letters to first editions of literature; set designs to scrapbooks; wedding clothes to works of art. The objects selected for this exhibition symbolize journeys of every category and character: physical journeys, transformative journeys, journeys of the spirit, and journeys of the imagination. A journey is not only the physical movement of a person or object through time and space, but the metamorphosis that the person or object undergoes. Even an object’s creation is a journey, a process of movement and transformation over the course of many, sometimes countless hours.
The unique and rare artifacts in the show have traveled from near and far to their present home at Ohio State, where they are preserved and where they will continue their individual and collective interactions with students and scholars, with Ohio State and the world.
The Special Collections participating in the exhibition are:
• Byrd Polar Archival Program
• Cartoon Library and Museum
• Charvat Collection of American Fiction
• Hilandar Research Library of medieval Slavic Manuscripts
• Historic Costume & Textiles Collection
• Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute
• Medical Heritage Center (part of OSU’s Prior Health Sciences Library)
• Ohio Congressional Archives (including the John Glenn Archives)
• University Archives
• Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
August 7th, 2009
