Category Archives: ARB Library

Posts related to the archives and rare books category.

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 →

Viewing Egypt

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By Kevin Grace

An Eqyptian Bey

In the early weeks of 2011, the uprisings in the Arab world increased from the beginning protest in Tunisia that toppled a government to the Mideast – Yemen, Jordan, and Iraq.  The protests continue, but none have been so prolonged and so pronounced as those in Egypt and in the Maghreb, particularly the rebellion in Libya.

The revolt in Egypt was certainly one of the most dramatic ones – the continual protest and action in the streets resulted in the end of the Mubarek regime.  During the uprising, a University of Cincinnati professor and a UC student were there in the middle of it.  One effect of these protests and armed rebellions is that to this time, we have been relatively uninformed about that area of the world.  Now, with instant internet coverage, tweets, blogs, Facebook and other social media, we are presented with fresh images of the countries and the cultures of North Africa.  Despite this extensive news coverage, we still lack an historical understanding of the Arab nations along the Mediterranean rim, even though media reports and commentaries provide substantial looks at current situations. Continue reading →

The Terrific Register, or, Record of Crimes, Judgments, Providences, and Calamities, Vol. 1

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London: Published by Sherwood, Jones and Co. and Hunter, Edinburgh, 1825. Printed by T. Richardson, 98, High Holborn.

Article by Lilia Walsh

Resuscitation

Resuscitation

A while ago, Kevin Grace asked me to pick a favorite book from the Archives and Rare Books collection and write a blog post about it. I felt daunted by the prospect of choosing a favorite from all the volumes in our collection, and other projects came up, allowing me to put off picking a ‘favorite child’, for a while at least. Now that I have completed those other projects, and am in my last week of working at the Archives and Rare Books library, the question has inevitably come back around.

I thought about all the books that had stuck out for me, the volumes that had distracted me from my shelving and inspired me to spend a few minutes paging through an interesting looking volume. I thought about the folio of Aubrey Beardsley’s work, the book on ‘American Aborigines”, the tiny book with the dramatic latch closure, and the block covered with cuneiform writing. Ultimately though, I just couldn’t choose one. Continue reading →

50 Minutes-1 Book

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By Kevin Grace

Anton ChekhovThe next 50 Minutes – 1 Book lunchtime talk in the Archives & Rare Books Library will be Thursday, March 24, in the Schott Seminar Room, 814 Blegen Library at 12:00 noon.

Our first two talks have been on anthropodermic bindings and on Barry Moser’s King James Bible.  This month we take a look at the smallest book in the world, a printing of Anton Chekhov’s short story, “The Chameleon.”  This book measures only 0.9 mm and is 30 pages, but is so small that a strong magnifying glass is necessary to really see it.  Mark Palkovic, the head librarian of the Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library (CCM) will discuss this work.  Mark is an international expert on miniature books, and has been instrumental in building the miniature book collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library. Continue reading →

Cincinnati Artists Group Effort Records at the Archives and Rare Books Library

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By Lilia Walsh

Board Members of CAGE, early 1980s: L-R Jim Duesing, Kate Gallion, Suzanne Fisher, Jason Tannen, Tony Walsh, Maureen France, Photo by Brad Smith at Safari Cage in the parking lot by CAGE.

I grew up in Cincinnati and my parents are both photographers. My mother, Maureen France, is a fine art photographer and teaches photography to the graphic design students at DAAP. My father, Tony Walsh, is a freelance photographer who has done work for The Taft Museum, The Art Museum, The Contemporary Art Center, and Midwest Living, as well as numerous individual artists.

Before my brother and I were born, my mother and father were very involved with the art scene in Cincinnati. While the art community here has been unusually vibrant for a long time, it has always been small and highly interconnected. Just as a result of living here and making art they came to know artists, gallery owners, patrons, and curators all over the city. They were very involved with the Cincinnati Artists Group Effort (CAGE). Continue reading →

Committees of Vigilance

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By Lilia Walsh

An earlier article on the ARB blog on a “Mick and Mack” cartoon in University News referenced an intriguing entity: the Committees of Vigilance. These were official school clubs of upperclassmen, whose main purpose was to keep the freshman “in line” and enforce school spirit. They did this by paddling freshman at the start of the New Year, publicly humiliating them, and enforcing rules throughout campus during the year. To the current observer, this seems like school-sponsored hazing, and it was, more or less, though it is clear that this was a different time and a much different campus culture. Continue reading →

Update on William Morris Project

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By Lilia Walsh

A wood-engraved portrait of Morris by John Depol, from the book William Morris Master-Printer by Frank Colebrook

A wood-engraved portrait of Morris by John Depol, from the book William Morris Master-Printer by Frank Colebrook.

William Morris was a designer of stained glass, tapestries, wallpaper, chintzes, furniture, books, and typefaces. He was also a preservationist, socialist, poet, novelist, lecturer, calligrapher, translator of classic Icelandic and early English sagas, and founder of the Kelmscott press. He was born in 1834, and died at 62 in 1896, due to (according to his physician); “simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men.” Morris became involved with socialist causes in the late 1870s. He found it impossible to separate esthetic issues from social and political ones, to him social reform was simply an extension of his arts and crafts production. Continue reading →

From Bremerhaven to the West End: The Papers of Arthur Herndon

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By Katherine Krueger

One of the best parts of being a College-Conservatory of Music student working in the Archives & Rare Books Library is learning about the history of UC, in particular CCM. The personal papers of tenor Arthur Herndon, one of the first African Americans to receive a bachelor’s degree from the College Conservatory of Music (1961), have now been processed and are available in the ARB library. Mr. Herndon was born in Cincinnati’s West End in 1932 and received his early musical training in school and church choirs. In 1946 at the age of 14, Mr. Herndon made his performance debut singing the role of the wren in Gabriel Pierne’s St Francis of Assisi in the Cincinnati May Festival.  Continue reading →

New University Archives Collection Documents Implementation of UC's Master Plan

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By Janice Schulz

There have been many times in the past thirty years when the campus community swore that “UC” actually stood for “Under Construction.” Indeed, since the Campus Master Plan was developed in 1991 with the planning assistance of San Francisco design firm Hargreaves Associates, we have been dodging orange cones, construction tape, and dirt piles in the quest for a campus that would enhance the educational value of the University.

The UC unit responsible for carrying out the Master Plan and for managing the physical environment of the University is the office of Planning+Design+Construction. Headed by the University Architect, Planning+Design+Construction handles capital and renovation projects, space management, environmental graphics, sustainability, real estate, and construction for all UC campuses. Continue reading →