Category Archives: ARB Library

Posts related to the archives and rare books category

Libby Holman: Fresh Painting the Town Red

Posted on by

By: Sydney Vollmer

Libby HolmanThe Fresh Painters Club was considered controversial due to the type of plays it put on—nothing was off-limits. Perhaps the nature of the club was influenced by the free spirits who participated. One such spirit was Libby Holman. Nineteen Twenty-three, the year the club was founded, she played the role of Violet Fields in “Fresh Paint.” Having dreams and talent too big for her hometown, she left for New York in 1924.

Born Elizabeth Holzman, her last name was changed sometime after her uncle, Ross, embezzled $1 million dollars from the stockbrokerage he owned with Libby’s father. Mr. Holzman changed the family’s name not only because of the anti-German attitudes in America at the time, but because he most likely wanted to save his kin from being attached to such an outrageous scandal, and because he needed to detach himself from the Holzman name so he could find work. This was only the first of many scandals with which Libby would be associated. Continue reading →

Fresh Painters Club

Posted on by

By:  Sydney Vollmer

Lilaine Program CoverI’m a little late on posting a few big Shakespeare things. I promise they’re coming. In the craziness that has been finals, Kevin decided maybe I would like a little break from the Bard. (He was right.) He suggested I try painting for a little—and by that he meant looking into the Fresh Painters Club that was once a major extra-curricular at the University of Cincinnati. Conveniently, there was a history of the club that was written several decades ago. Though I don’t know who wrote it or exactly when it was penned, he or she explained the organization far better than I can. The text is as follows:

ANALYSIS OF THE FRESH PAINTER ACTIVITY

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI.

HISTORY.

Looking backward, the Fresh Painters has developed from an old Varsity tradition. Every year during the period between 1900 and 1921, students gave a revue called “Varsity Vanities”. These revues were disconnected sets depicting the frivolities of campus life, and demonstrated singing, dancing and acting talents of undergraduates. Every spring the varsity Vanities Committee was organized and the revue was produced. Continue reading →

Dean’s Corner: UC Libraries’ Dean’s Advisory Council Explore Strategic Issues of Space

Posted on by
Dean of University Libraries, Xuemao Wang

Dean of University Libraries, Xuemao Wang

Over two years ago, recruitment began for my Dean’s Advisory Council, an advisory group comprised of individuals from different industries and backgrounds with a tremendous passion for higher education and lifelong learning, global experience, digital technologies and a commitment to UC and the mission of UC Libraries. This group met recently to discuss and explore the issues and goals of library space. Continue reading →

Tales from the Rare Books Room

Posted on by

By:  Sydney Vollmer

GhostWhat’s more chilling than a good book? Perhaps the ghost that guards them. It’s been awhile since my encounter…but I decided that the world needed to know about our much rumored ghost.

Whether it is a he or she, we cannot say. For the sake of time and space, let’s call it a “he.” He resides in our rare books room here in the Archives & Rare Books Library in Blegen—one level above the library space that is open to the public. Some background on the rare books room:  it’s cold (necessary for preservation), it’s dark, (again, necessary), and it’s spooky (necessary for Ghost and Internpreservation?).  When you get up the stairs and open the massively heavy door, all the lights are off. Each individual row of book shelves has its own light. Last year, one didn’t. Continue reading →

Jonesing for Some Good Illustrations

Posted on by

By:  Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern

Winter's Tale CoverIt’s always a surprise what you’ll find when you go up to the rare books room. Last week, Kevin (our head here in the Archives & Rare Books Library) asked me to go find half-a-dozen beautiful Shakespeare volumes for a presentation given to the dean’s advisory committee. I went upstairs. There were the Charles Knight editions. They’re nice, but we’ve done so much with those already. I pulled the Rackham, Dulac, and Thompson volumes, because they’re classic illustrations that everyone enjoys seeing. I still needed at least three volumes…

Winter's Traces, Act 1, Scene 2 Continue reading →

New Exhibit, “Poems of UC’s Past,” Combines Original Works with Historic Photographs

Posted on by
bearcat image

One of the images from the Archives and Rare Books Library collections used in the exhibit.

A new exhibit on display on the 5th floor lobby of Langsam Library features original poetry describing historic images from the collections of UC’s Archives and Rare Books Library.

Referred to as “Ekphrastic poems,” they use “vivid descriptions of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the ‘action’ of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.” (Poetry Foundation.org)

In this exhibit, six graduate-student poets in the McMicken College of Arts and Science’s English department do not aim to simply “amplify and expand” the meaning of the images, but rather through their words, these pictures come more vibrantly to life. Continue reading →

Hunting the Bard

Posted on by

By:  Sydney Vollmer

Do you like games? Are you good at finding things? (We’re looking at you, Hufflepuffs!) Know any Shakespeare? GREAT! Join us in our Shakespeare Quote Scavenger Hunt!

On Tuesday, March 29th, we hid 5 Shakespeare Quotes around campus. They could be anywhere! Here’s the idea: You follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the most up-to-date clues. You find one of the quotes we hid. You bring it to the Archives and Rare Books Library on the 8th floor of Blegen. You tell us the Shakespearean work the quote is from. We give you a prize! (And these are good prizes. You want it. Yes. YOU.)

Here are the clues we’ve given so far…Each number corresponds to a different quote and location. Continue reading →

The Art of Aubrey Beardsley

Posted on by

By:  Bridget McCormick, ARB Student Assistant

Aubrey BeardsleyBorn August 21, 1872 in Brighton, England, illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley served as a prominent, albeit controversial, figure within the London Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements of the late 19th century.

Relocating to London with his family in 1883 when he was eleven years old, an adolescent Beardsley began to study drawing and literary arts while still in primary school. It was not until 1892, however, when he attended formal classes at the Westminster School of Art that Beardsley decided to pick up art as a profession. He most often worked in a plain black and white style, with the detailed application of black ink. His most famous illustrations depict themes of history and mythology. Examples of such works can be seen in Beardsley’s illustrations for his contemporary Oscar Wilde’s play, Salome (1891). Continue reading →

National Women’s Month – UC’s Miriam Urban

Posted on by

By:  Dawn Fuller

Miriam B. Urban

Miriam B. Urban

Miriam Urban was the only female professor in the history department during the 1920s and ‘30s. During this period of common discrimination against women in higher education, she fought to get tenure. Urban earned her bachelor’s degree from UC in 1915 and her master’s degree in 1917, earning a PhD from Columbia University before joining the UC faculty in 1920. Her field was European history and though she taught at the University of Cincinnati for 33 years Urban was not promoted to full professor until 1944.
Described as wearing shapeless tweed with white blouses, along with multiple glasses strung with black ribbons around her neck, students also commented that her hair was usually in “disarray.” Despite her “hot mess” eccentricities, Urban was a delight to her students, even though she was known to kick a dozing student in the shins or thump someone on the head with a pencil. She would signal the end of the class period by snapping her girdle.
Charlotte Shockley, a 1937 graduate in English from the Liberal Arts College, wrote, “Miss Urban’s dark eyes glittered as she likened Hitler to a ‘takeoff on Groucho Marx.’” Continue reading →

What IS-A WSC?

Posted on by

By:  Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern

rackham-title-1ISA, a much friendlier acronym than another “IS” we know, stands for the International Shakespeare Association. Why wouldn’t the world have an ISA? It’s one of those organizations I always assumed exists, but in that unspoken sort of way. As it turns out, I was incorrect, as this organization is very much established.

The idea was conceived during a World Shakespeare Congress (more on that in a bit) held in Vancouver in 1971. Since then, the organization has evolved with the mission of:

Offer[ing] an opportunity for individuals and institutions to join together to further the knowledge of Shakespeare throughout the world… The ISA’s central commitments are to advance the education of the public by furthering the study of Shakespeare’s life and work by such means as the Trustees determine, including by:

  • Organising, holding, and promoting participation in the World Shakespeare Congress and disseminating the learning from that event;
  • Offering advice and assisting in the establishment of national or regional Shakespeare associations. (WSC 2016).

Continue reading →