Lisa Iacobellis | Rare Books and Manuscripts Library

Author: Lisa Iacobellis (page 2 of 4)

Really Jane, you don’t look a day over (2)39!

December 16, 2015 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

frontispiece from 1898 Boston edition of Mansfield Park

Frontispiece from an 1898 Boston edition of Mansfield Park.

Surely we can’t let the 240th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth pass by without at least a moment of recognition. Some of the treasures housed in the Rare Books and Manuscripts collection are first editions of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Emma, all happily acquired within the last decade.

Although these first editions did not contain any illustrations, like the charming image on the right from a late nineteenth-century American edition, they are pristine examples of the multi-volume novels published during Austen’s lifetime. In just a week we celebrate another milestone – 200 years since the release of Emma.

Emma, 1815

Happy Birthday, Sarah Piatt!

August 11, 2015 / Lisa Iacobellis / 2 Comments

“Hip, Hip, Hurrah!” Peder Severin Krøyer, 1888 (Gothenburg Mus. of Art)

We recognize today the 1836 birth of poet Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt. Born in Kentucky, she married into the Piatt family in 1861, whose castles in West Liberty, Ohio are a popular tourist destination ( http://www.piattcastles.org/ ). The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library holds a valuable collection of research material on Piatt as well as original published versions of her poems in books and newspapers, making it a destination for Piatt scholars. Contact rarebooks@osu.edu for more details about the collections, and watch this space for announcements about two digitization projects currently underway.

On this special anniversary therefore, we claim her as our own, and raise a glass to her memory!

Japan after August 6, 1945 (The Allied Occupation)

August 7, 2015 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

On this day after the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing we might turn our thoughts to post World War II Japan, the subject matter of a collection of photographs donated to Rare Books and Manuscripts in 2003 by anthropologist John W. Bennett. His photographs document the period 1948-1951. They were published, along with excerpts from his journals and other textual material, as an online exhibition: “Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951: A Personal and Professional Memoir”

The photographs have been the focus of considerable interest since made available to the public. Most recently they were the subject of an article by Morris Low – “American Photography during the Allied Occupation of Japan: The Work of John W. Bennett,” The History of Photography: An International Quarterly 39 no. 3 (2015): 263-278. This was just published in a special issue of The History of Photography entitled “American Photography in the Asia-Pacific.”

John W. Bennett, “The Rice Ration in Suburban Tokyo”
(from a selection of Urban Images)

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage – October 27

October 24, 2014 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

Rare Books and Manuscripts Curators, like our colleagues around the world, worry every day about the lifespans of the audiovisual materials entrusted to our care. We welcome this opportunity to remind the wider community just how valuable AND how vulnerable they are, calling attention to the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

At the same time as this year’s celebration of the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2014, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library is delighted to officially announce the completion of one of our many digitization projects, the videotaped interviews in the Jessica Mitford collection. The Mitford Collection has been particularly popular among researchers. The videos, recorded on U-matic tapes, were no longer accessible for viewing in the reading room. Even if we were to borrow a U-matic player from another campus office we would be hesitant to play the tapes for fear of causing permanent damage. Instead, we entrusted professionals to play them and simultaneously transfer them to digital format in the process. At the same time, the University Libraries is in the process of establishing standards and guidelines for preserving the digital files locally, so that we are prepared to transfer these precious recordings to new formats and storage media in the future.

Happy Birthday, Man Ray!

August 27, 2014 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky) was born in Philadelphia on this date, August 27, in the year 1890.

The Ohio State University owns copy number 3 of a limited edition portfolio of Man Ray’s prints, Champs délicieux: album de photographies (1922). This was a 1969 gift of David Howald Shawn, in memory of his great-uncle, Ferdinand Howald. Howald, of Columbus, Ohio acquired an impressive collection of Modern paintings, of which a significant number were donated to the Columbus Museum of Art (then the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts). Howald also provided financial support to Man Ray during his early years in Paris. In return for that patronage he selected works of his choice from Man Ray’s production. It is not clear exactly how the portfolio came into the possession of the art collector, but this selection of photographs, and the letters written by Man Ray to Howald remained in the family until donated to OSU.

Each copy of the portfolio contains his own photographic reproductions of a selection of “rayographs,” images made on photo-sensitive paper without the use of a camera (photograms). Man Ray’s illusions of space, texture, translucency and opaqueness in these works have served as an inspiration to photography students, who often try their own hand at this process.

Man Ray describes the project briefly in a letter to Howald dated May 28, 1922. Excerpts are provided below. ( I also include his comments about the more abstract quality of some of his paintings at that time, and mention of his new friends.)

Spotlighting the Photograph Collections: Berenice Abbott (1898-1991)

July 16, 2014 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

July 17

Berenice Abbott was born in Springfield, Ohio on this date in 1898. She was raised in the Buckeye State and graduated from Lincoln High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1917. In the autumn of that year she returned to central Ohio to begin her studies at The Ohio State University. The freshman soon left Columbus however, moving with friends to New York in 1918. She developed an interest in the arts, and moved to Paris in 1921 to study sculpture. It was there that she met Man Ray, and was hired as his darkroom assistant. Man Ray’s Champs délicieux: album de photographies (a copy is owned by OSU), is representative of his experimental work at the time.

Abbott found her true calling in photography. She set up her own studio in Paris in 1926, and remained there until 1929, when she returned to New York and established an independent studio in the U.S. She operated from that studio until 1966, while doing freelance and contract work, as well as teaching courses in photography. Abbott was also fascinated with science and challenged by the limitations of the equipment available to her. She explored alternatives, receiving six patents for her inventions.

Soon after arriving in New York in 1929 she began shooting architectural images inspired by the Paris views of Eugène Atget, and from 1935-38 directed the “Changing New York” Project, part of the Federal Arts Project within the Works Progress Administration. The photographs owned by OSU were made as part of that effort. The following is a small selection from the collection.

Cathedral Parkway, No. 542, Manhattan

Brevoort Hotel and Mark Twain House

Of course, nothing can substitute for the experience of seeing the original prints in person. One appeal of these photographs is their integrity as artifacts. All but one are signed, still affixed to the boards that Abbott mounted them on, and include labeling related to the WPA project.

Brevoort Hotel and Mark Twain House, labels on verso

Jefferson Market Court and 647-661 Sixth Street

While some works lure us into a seemingly comfortable pace of everyday life in the 1930s, others present a more daring approach to space and perspective.

Squibb Building, Fifth Avenue at 58th Street

In 1986 OSU held a symposium and an exhibition of the works of Berenice Abbott and awarded the photographer an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. For more information about her visit consult the 1986 issues of The Lantern. The “Changing New York” prints held in Rare Books and Manuscripts represent one part of that exhibit. Also included were some of her scientific images. For a more complete view of the career of the artist, visit the galleries of the online archive.

To see some actual prints that were touched by the artist herself, visit the Special Collections reading room in Thompson Library.

“Things You Never Got To See” Tour to Include Special Collections in Thompson Library

December 9, 2013 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

Please join us for a special event on Wednesday, April 30th from 11am-4pm in The Jack and Jan Creighton Special Collections Reading Room (room 105, Thompson Library). Thompson Special Collections will be a stop on the “Things You Never Got To See Tour”, part of the university’s Commencement Week activities. Everyone is welcome!

Items to view will include:

William Charvat Collection of American Fiction: Come see rare first editions of some of your favorite American authors. On display will be classics by Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Henry Miller, J.D. Salinger, James Baldwin and many more.

Rare Books & Manuscripts: On display will be some of your favorite works by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Rudyard Kipling. Take this opportunity to see the original publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Would you like to see the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, the most complex and heavily illustrated book printed during the fifteenth century? What about Henry Billingsley’s 1570 translation of Euclid’s Geometry, the first geometrical “pop-up” book printed in sixteenth-century England? Have you ever wondered what the first edition of the King James Bible looks like? How about original seventeenth-century Shakespeare publications? Or would you like to handle and examine a range of medieval parchment manuscripts produced between 1100-1500? Authentic photographic prints of famous images like Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother and Harold Edgerton’s Shooting the Apple will be available, as well as a number of very early photographic formats. All of these items, and much more, will be on display for graduating seniors and their families at the Thompson Library Special Collections Reading Room during Commencement Week.

Also on display will be selections from The Hilandar Research Library and The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.

(Everyone attending will be asked to place their personal belongings in lockers just outside the reading room. A key to a locker will be provided upon your arrival).

“Things You Never Got To See” Tour to Include Special Collections in Thompson Library

April 22, 2013 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

Please join us for a special event on Wednesday, May 1^st from 12pm-5pm in The Jack and Jan Creighton Special Collections Reading Room (room 105, Thompson Library). Thompson Special Collections will be a stop on the “Things You Never Got To See Tour”, part of the university’s Commencement Week activities. Everyone is welcome!

Items to view will include:

Rare Books & Manuscripts: On display will be some of your favorite works by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Rudyard Kipling. Take this opportunity to see the original publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Would you like to see the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, the most complex and heavily illustrated book printed during the fifteenth century? What about Henry Billingsley’s 1570 translation of Euclid’s Geometry, the first geometrical “pop-up” book printed in sixteenth-century England? Have you ever wondered what the first edition of the King James Bible looks like? How about original seventeenth-century Shakespeare publications? Or would you like to handle and examine a range of medieval parchment manuscripts produced between 1100-1500? Authentic photographic prints of famous images like Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother and Harold Edgerton’s Shooting the Apple will be available, as well as a number of early daguerreotypes. All of these items, and much more, will be on display for graduating seniors and their families at the Thompson Library Special Collections Reading Room during Commencement Week.

The Hilandar Research Library: The Hilandar Research Library (HRL) has the largest collection of medieval Slavic manuscripts on microform in the world. In addition to millions of pages of manuscript material on microform, Hilandar also has facsimiles of codices, and a small collection of original manuscripts and artifacts from the medieval Slavic and Eastern Orthodox world. We will have on display an original Slavic manuscript from the late 15th century, and a facsimile of a richly illuminated 11th-century Greek codex.

The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute: Enjoy the beauty of stage and screen with costume and scene designs, models, and costumes by Broadway, regional, international, and Hollywood designers; film posters from the silent era on; and photographs of stars.

(Everyone attending will be asked to place their personal belongings in lockers just outside the reading room. A key to a locker will be provided upon your arrival).

Rare Books and Manuscripts Celebrates the Buser Collection

April 12, 2013 / Lisa Iacobellis / Comments Off

Charles Aubrey Buser

Please join us at an end-of-the-year event to celebrate the American Indian Studies program at OSU and to mark the completion of a multi-year archival project to digitize and repatriate The Charles & Patricia Buser Collection Devoted to American Indian Languages and Cultures.

A reception will be held in 165 Thompson Library, beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16. Following the reception, guests will be invited to move into the Special Collections Reading Room to interact with the collection.

In addition to members of the University Libraries and American Indian Studies communities the event will feature remarks from Stephen Buser, the son of the late Charles Buser and an emeritus professor at Ohio State, Margaret Newell, Associate Professor of History, and representatives from the Wyandotte Nation and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and the Wyandot of Anderdon Nation.

The Story of the Collection:

Charles Aubrey Buser (1922-2010) and Ardis Patricia Anderson Buser had a strong personal interest in Wyandotte language and culture. They traveled widely, throughout the United States and Canada, making many enduring friendships along the way. They explored the history and traditions of the Wyandotte, as well as other native peoples, gathered genealogical information, and in the process sought to record as much as possible of the languages, both in text and audio recordings. Charles Buser‘s research proved to be valuable to the Wyandotte people on more than one occasion, and he was honored for his contributions.

Stephen Buser, Professor Emeritus of the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, recognized the research value of his parents’ papers and was a major contributor to a digitization project that will make the collection available for research at the OSU Libraries.

The Buser collection in its original physical state, which is now held by the Wyandotte Nation in Oklahoma, consists of 13 boxes of photocopies, notes, books, pamphlets, government documents, clippings, audio recordings, and a great deal of personal correspondence. The finding aids maintain the order in which the collection came to us for scanning, and thus they are divided into box and folder categories. Additional binders and boxes of note cards were used to track historical events and form the beginning of a dictionary. The collection contains a wealth of information that will be an essential research resource for historians, linguists and genealogists. The contents are of value for researching the history of the Wyandotte people in general, and individual families in particular. Buser, who also documented cultural practices and details about clothing design, was at times consulted by the Wyandotte because of the extent of his knowledge in these areas.

Our Celebration:

We will have five visitors joining us for this event:
Chief Billy Friend, Wyandotte Nation, Oklahoma
Lloyd Divine, Culture Committee Chair, Wyandotte Nation, Oklahoma
Sherri L. Clemons, Tribal Heritage Director, Wyandotte Nation, Oklahoma
Chief Ted Roll, Wyandot of Anderdon Nation
Chief Glenna Wallace, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma

We hope that you can join us in welcoming these representatives of the Wyandotte and Shawnee to OSU.

Armory Show opening: February 17, 1913

February 18, 2013 / Lisa Iacobellis / 1 Comment

Yesterday marked 100 years since the opening of The International Exhibition of Modern Art in New York, the “Armory Show,” long recognized for its significant role in introducing Americans to the avant-garde of modern European art. Works like Matisse’s Blue Nude and Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 startled visitors and elicited strong negative responses, but also heralded a new direction in American art. Holding the catalog of the exhibition in your hands stirs the imagination and opens a portal to the sights and sounds of that era.

While there had been a number of independent exhibitions of the works of these artists held in Europe previously, one must not assume that the new styles had become mainstream there.

The complete run of the Paris Salon catalogs are also housed in Rare Books and Manuscripts. As an art historian, I felt compelled to reach for the catalogs that marked critical years in the careers of Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Courbet or Edouard Manet, but reason suggested that I should highlight the one from 1913. One will not find works like the Blue Nude or Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 here. While Realism and Impressionism had gained more acceptance, the traditional Academic fare still dominated the Paris show. One finds little change in what was presented to the Parisian public between the years 1863 and 1913.

Being able to see an artist’s works within the context of an entire exhibit is of tremendous value. Shelley Staples tackled such a challenge for the Armory Show back in 2001, creating a web site that attempts to recreate the full experience: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~museum/armory/armoryshow.html Once you enter you can move from gallery to gallery following the exhibit layout provided in the catalog. If you’ve not visited this site before, take time to commemorate this centennial by exploring the Armory Show yourself!

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Rare Books and Manuscripts Library

Highlighting our collections and the work that we do

Author: Lisa Iacobellis (page 2 of 4)

Really Jane, you don’t look a day over (2)39!

Happy Birthday, Sarah Piatt!

Japan after August 6, 1945 (The Allied Occupation)

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage – October 27

Happy Birthday, Man Ray!

Spotlighting the Photograph Collections: Berenice Abbott (1898-1991)

“Things You Never Got To See” Tour to Include Special Collections in Thompson Library

“Things You Never Got To See” Tour to Include Special Collections in Thompson Library

Rare Books and Manuscripts Celebrates the Buser Collection

Armory Show opening: February 17, 1913

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