Category Archives: ARB Library

Posts related to the archives and rare books category

T. M Berry Project: Alpha Phi Alpha

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By: Laura Laugle

It (finally!) stopped raining long enough for me to transport some photos from here in the Blegen Library across campus to the Langsam Library to Preservation Services. My favorite among the photos needing repair work are some wonderful panoramic photos from the 1930s of both the Cincinnati chapter and annual conventions of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s first intercollegiate fraternity for African American men. These photos are quite large, around 30-46 inches long and are beautifully done group shots of the members in their spiffiest attire. While those materials are currently undergoing restoration, I would still like to share with you a number of other items I’ve found relating to AΦA. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: Keeping Busy

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By Laura Laugle

I don’t know about you, but when I think of retirement I think of time spent relaxing with cool drinks in a warm climate (at least, I think that’d be the ideal for many of us.) Apparently, Theodore M. Berry didn’t think so. If what I’ve lately found in the collection which he donated to the University of Cincinnati is any indication, I think I can safely say that Berry’s retirement, though most assuredly rewarding, was no walk in the park – not even when he took the neighbor’s dog out for a walk.

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New University Archives Exhibit Highlights Fraternity and Sorority Life

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By: Janice Schulz

In a continuing effort to showcase student life at the University of Cincinnati, the Archives and Rare Books Library has created an exhibit documenting the history of fraternities and sororities from 1882 to today. Going Greek: Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Cincinnati offers a historical view into the development of the Greek system at UC and its growth (and growing pains) as it became a social vehicle at the University and then settled into the comfortable position it enjoys today.

Started in 1882 with the establishment of the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Greek system grew steadily in the following decades to become the primary social force at UC in the 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s. Political and social unrest in the 1960s forced the Greeks to redefine themselves and their values, creating a system more like what we know now. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: Desegregating Cincinnati Pools or How Little Girls Made a Big Difference

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By Laura Laugle

Is there anything better on a hot summer’s day than splashing around in the pool with friends? Maybe adding ice cream and a beach ball or two to the mix would improve the day but the pool would still be the main event. In the summer of 1950 Faith and Gail Berry, aged eleven and seven respectively, considered themselves to be extremely fortunate – they lived on Fairfax Avenue in Walnut Hills just a block away from Owl’s Nest pool. I can see the girls now – their summertime plans probably closely mirroring my own and those of my classmates forty-some-odd years later. Chores would be done as quickly as possible so that the cool, dewy mornings could be spent playing kickball in the backyard and roller skating in the street with other neighborhood children. After lunch there would be the mad dash to change into swimming gear followed by what should be a short walk to the municipal pool made longer by those inexorable needs to find and drag sticks along sidewalks and fences and to inspect the various creepy crawlies found along the way.  Finally, the heat of the afternoon sun would be softened by diving, dunking, swimming and splashing in the cool water. So it should be for all children.  But for the Berry girls there was a problem. Continue reading →

50 Minutes-1 Book

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By Kevin Grace

The final 50 Minutes – 1 Book lunchtime talk for the academic year will be held Thursday, May 26, in the Archives & Rare Books Library, in the Schott Seminar Room, 814 Blegen Library at 12:00 noon.

April’s presentation was by conservator and bookbinding designer Gabrielle Fox, who spoke about the artist’s binding she did for an edition of Bobbie Ann Mason’s With Jazz. For May, we will turn to a bit of local history about Cincinnati’s ill-fated subway project of the 1920s.  Engineering snafus, property damage, political finagling, low financing, and a changing transportation culture in the United States all led to the project’s demise.  This topic of special public transportation is particularly timely, given Cincinnati’s current controversial issue of a publically-funded streetcar network for the Over-the-Rhine historic district.   So from the Miami-Erie Canal to subway tunnels to Central Parkway, May’s talk will focus on one way Cincinnatians considered moving about from street to street, neighborhood to neighborhood. Continue reading →

ARB's Historical Textbook Collection

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By Jameson Tyler, Archives & Rare Books Intern

One of the most recent collecting areas in the Archives & Rare Books Library is the Historical Textbook Collection, transferred from the Curriculum Resources Center (now the CECH Library).  Created by former CRC librarian Gary Lare, the Historical Textbook Collection is comprised of American textbooks from the 19th century to the end of the 20th.  As part of the 2010-2011 ARB intern project, the collection will be organized and fully inventoried, and a collection development policy will be developed.   An online exhibit has been initiated (http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/exhibits/historic-textbooks/index.html) to showcase select volumes as well as to provide a “textbook timeline” in the United States and to give a brief history of textbook publishing in Cincinnati.  There are, of course, McGuffey readers, along with spellers, science books, history texts, social studies volumes, and the entire range of K-12 education textbooks.  It is the aim of this project to position the collection for full cataloging and formal naming. Continue reading →

Anniversary of the Sander Hall Demolition

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By Kevin Grace

It will be 20 years in June that UC’s high rise dormitory was imploded, an event noted by news media from around the world.  UC Magazine marks this two-decade anniversary with a video clip, photos, and eyewitness accounts of a Sunday morning filled with drama and dust: http://magazine.uc.edu/favorites/web-only/sander.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5wCl8SrHUI&feature=player_embedded.

To learn more about the history of Sander Hall, as well as other buildings on UC’s campuses, contact the Archives & Rare Books Library at 513.556.1959, by email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu, or by visiting our website at www.libraries.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

Artist Justin Green

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By Kevin Grace

In the past few weeks, the Archives & Rare Books Library has had some interesting visits from Justin Green, one of the pioneers of underground comics in the 1960s and 1970s.  Green is probably best known for his groundbreaking and controversial graphic novel, Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, originally published in 1972 and re-issued in 2009 by McSweeney’s Books, one of the great innovative publishers in America.  In 2003, Last Gasp Press of San Francisco issued Justin’s incredible Musical Legends material that was first published in Pulse! Magazine.

Over the decades, Justin’s art has extended well beyond the heady days of the counterculture.  In recent years, he has created a wide range of notable watercolors and signage.  And, his blogs show his explorations into other areas of graphic illustration, such as his research in ARB in emblem books from the 15th to the 17th centuries.  His blog explains the importance of emblems in the history of book art and publishing: http://depression09.blogspot.com/2011/04/botanical-emblem-book.html and http://justingreencartoonart.blogspot.com/2011/02/forgotten-genre.html.

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50 Minutes-1 book

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Cover of With JazzBy Kevin Grace

The next 50 Minutes – 1 Book lunchtime talk in the Archives & Rare Books Library will be Thursday, April 14, in the Schott Seminar Room, 814 Blegen Library at 12:00 noon.

Following up on March’s presentation about the world’s smallest book, and miniature books and bindings, with CCM librarian Mark Palkovic, in April we are calling on Gabrielle Fox, UC’s world-class conservator and binder.   Gabrielle’s binding artistry is well-represented in private collections as well as the holdings of the Archives & Rare Books Library, and she is recognized for her work in national and international exhibits of book bindings. Continue reading →

Archives & Rare Books Commemorates the Start of the Civil War

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Stephen Foster's Civil War song, “Was My Brother in the Battle?”

By Janice Schulz

On April 12, 2011, our country will recognize the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War and to commemorate it, the Archives & Rare Books Library has mounted an exhibit highlighting our materials related to the war and the corresponding time period. Documents in the exhibit have been chosen from several of our collecting areas, including Rare Books, Urban Studies, and Local Government Records.

Examples from our collection of composer Stephen Foster’s material begin the exhibit. With stirring titles such as “Was My Brother in the Battle?” and “Willie’ll Roam No Moer,” his Civil War songs have been published with full color drawings that offer a visual image of their themes, providing a combination that must have appealed powerfully to Northern sensibilities. Continue reading →