Rare Books and Manuscripts Library

Highlighting our collections and the work that we do

Category: Events (page 1 of 3)

Photo Open House to Celebrate 50 Years of OCCS

The Ohio Camera Collectors Society (OCCS) was founded fifty years ago, after the Photography and Cinema Department at OSU held one of the earliest conferences in the country devoted to the history of photography.  We join the group in their anniversary celebration by holding an open house on Saturday, May 19, from 1-5, in Thompson Library Special Collections.  An emphasis will be placed on Ohio connections, including a camera designed and manufactured in Ohio during the early years of flight.  From 3-4 local photographer, Ed Gately, will present a demonstration of the collodion wet plate process, the technology used by the earliest photo students on campus back in the 1890s.  We’ll even display some of those early student works!

image of photo open house flyer

  Full-size version of the flyer available for sharing: Photo Open House Flyer

Artists’ Books on Display, March 23

view of an artist's book

Please stop by Thompson Library room 150  from 2-6 PM on Wednesday afternoon, March 23, to see a large selection of artists’ books on display.   Artists’ books have been a collection focus for both the Fine Arts librarians and Rare Books curators for decades, and as a result, the collection is quite extensive.  We can’t possibly pull them all out for you, but there will very likely be something available to please every visitor.  Be sure to inquire about the new acquisitions!colophon of artist's book

Photograph Collections Open House in Thompson Library

Stop by next Thursday afternoon to take a look at some examples of the impressive photograph collections held by OSU Libraries, and housed in Thompson Library Special Collections.   I think you’ll be surprised by the range – including art photography, celebrity portraits, scientific experimentation and social documentary, dating from the very beginnings of the medium through the present day.  You’ll see some big names that you recognize, and learn some new ones that you’ll want to remember.

The open house runs from 1-5 p.m. March 3 in Room 150 of the Thompson Library, 1858 Neil Ave.,  Columbus, OH  43210.

flyer for photo collection open houuse

Download a full-size PDF of the flyer to share.

Happy Birthday, Sarah Piatt!

19th century painting of a party

“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!

The Fruits of Research: A Public Symposium

Professor Elizabeth Renker of the Department of English has been among the most stalwart users of the holdings from the William Charvat Collection of American Literature. Of especial note, Professor Renker originated and developed a literary archives course that, over the years, has enlightened both undergraduate and graduate students on the rewards of hands-on research of primary materials. Her students have won numerous research awards for their papers on nineteenth-century American culture, particularly, Sarah Piatt, other period poets, story papers, sheet music, trade catalogs and more.

On May 25, 2015 (Memorial Day) members of the 2015 literary archives course will be presenting their research at a special event sponsored by Mac-O-Chee Castle, a private, family-owned museum that interprets over 200 years of history of the Ohio land and Ohio people. The event is part of Castle’s Centennial Season that celebrates the cultural ideas that defined the 19th Century.

Program and contact information can be found at: http://library.osu.edu/documents/rarebooks/events/PiattCastlesSalonMay2015.pdf

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

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

Please join us for a special event on Wednesday, May 1st 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:

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 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 InstituteEnjoy 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

Charles Aubrey Buser

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.

 

 

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

October 27 is World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, a day for celebrating our precious historical artifacts as well as for assessing the status of our collections.  We are fortunate to have unique audio and video recordings in some of our literary collections – such as those of James Thurber, William S. Burroughs, Nelson Algren, Tess Gallagher and Jessica Mitford.  We also have a responsibility to preserve these unique items and have been actively pursuing this goal.  Copyright prohibits posting these materials to our web site without permission, but they can be used in the Special Collections reading room.

What family heirlooms do you have tucked away on videotapes, or 8mm films?  I encourage you to take a moment to evaluate your preservation plans.  Will they be available to your great-grandchildren to view?

To read more on international efforts, check out this site:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To learn how to preserve your own memories, check out the resources of the American Library Association:

 

Annual Preview Night

 

 

 

 
Please click on the thumbnail above to see the announcement for the annual Rare Books and Manuscripts Preview Night.  RSVPs should be directed to Lola Klein by November 9 at klein.40@osu.edu.  We hope to see you there!

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