Category Archives: ARB Library

Posts related to the archives and rare books category.

50 Minutes-1 Book

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By Kevin Grace

Cover of the Moser BibleThe next 50 Minutes-1 Book lunchtime talk in the Archives & Rare Books Library will be Thursday, February 24, in the Schott Seminar Room, 814 Blegen Library at 12:00 noon.

January’s gathering to talk about anthropodermic bindings was well-attended and a lot of fun.  This month the topic is the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible, a masterpiece of book design and illustration by Barry Moser.  Moser is recognized as one of the foremost bookwrights in the world and his Bible, completed in 1999, is arguably one of the most beautiful books ever printed.  Here in ARB, Moser’s edition is often used by classes in book history, graphic design, art history, English literature, and religion. Continue reading →

T. M. BERRY PROJECT: MYSTERY SOLVED!

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Written by Laura Laugle

Click image to see a larger version

Ever since finding the photo below I’ve been attempting to find its origin. As I stated in my previous blog post, Hmmm…, the photo was found in an envelope with other, non-related pictures from the collection. Not too long after posting the picture on the blog, I received a tip from the Berry family that the King photo and the JFK photo I posted along with it may have been taken while Berry was at the White House at the invitation of President Kennedy on June 21, 1963. Looking through Kennedy’s diaries for that time, I found that the meeting Berry attended was specifically for lawyers, so King probably wasn’t present. There was however another meeting listed in Kennedy’s diary for June 22 which Dr. King did attend. It is therefore very possible that Berry and King could have had overlapping visits to the White House and met in that context. Continue reading →

Mick and Mack Discovery

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Written by Lilia Walsh

Recently, my job as student assistant in the Archives and Rare Books Library has led me to begin an inventory of all of the UC student newspapers in the collection. While trying to find when the title of the newspaper changed names from University News to The Bearcat in the 1900s, I stumbled across a humorous and perplexing cartoon featuring one of the marble lions which now stand in front of the McMicken building: Mick and Mack.

The cartoon, from the October 22nd, 1919 issue, is titled “Freshmen, Profit by Experience.” It depicts two freshmen pledging “never again” and standing in front of Mick or Mack, which has stripes across its body and a brush and bottle of acid paint remover at its feet.

Mick and Mack Continue reading →

The Archives & Rare Books Library makes the student bucket list!

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Written by Kevin Grace

See  http://www.newsrecord.org/living/college-living/pre-grad-bucket-list-race-begins-1.2444785.

Beyond the unusual however (and that includes a ghost and the jawbone of an ass), we’re the go-to place for UC history and everything associated with it,  along with primary source material in urban studies, local history, rare books, German-Americana, local government records and a wealth of other collections.  Come to us for help in doing your course-assigned research or ideas on how to make that paper really stand out for the best grade.  With our resources we can help students become critical thinkers.  For more information, go to http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb/index.html.

ARB Adds to Nancy Zimpher Collection

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Written by Janice Schulz

The Archives and Rare Books Library has added nine boxes of speeches covering the years 2003-2009 to its collection of Nancy Zimpher papers.  An inventory for the addition, accessioned as UA-11-01, can be found on the ARB website.  An OhioLINK finding aid is forthcoming.

ARB holds three additional collections of Zimpher’s papers: UA-06-07 includes papers and correspondence for the year 2006; UA-09-24 includes calendars from 2003-2009; and UA-10-01 includes speeches covering 2004-2007 as well as publications. Inventories and OhioLINK finding aids for all three collections can be found on ARB’s University Archives Collection Records page.

T. M. Berry Project: A Few Words for Sarge and Berry's WWII Service

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Letter from Sargent Shriver

Click on image to read text

Written by Laura Laugle, Berry Project Archivist

I’d like to start out this post with a few words for a man with whom Theodore Berry worked closely during his tenure at the Office of Economic Opportunity, R. Sargent Shriver Jr. During the upheaval accompanying the creation of the program and amid controversy over lost memoranda, Shriver stood by his choice of Berry as director of the Community Action Program and continued to be a friend and supporter of Berry’s long after they had both left Washington when President Nixon took office. Shriver was not only the first director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, but was also the first director of the Peace Corps and helped his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, develop and found the Special Olympics in 1968. Shriver died last Tuesday, January 18, 2011 in a Maryland hospital at the age of 95 and was remembered at his funeral on Friday, January 21 by his five children, his nineteen grandchildren and a horde of celebrities and dignitaries from all over the world as a loving family member and friend and a true statesman. Continue reading →

City of Cincinnati Birth and Death Records

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City of Cincinnati birth and death records from 1865 to 1908 with surnames beginning with the letter “A” through the surname “Bach” are now available online. The remaining records are being loaded as quickly as possible. Please continue to check the Digital Collections and Archives and Rare Books Library websites for further updates.

The University of Cincinnati Libraries was awarded a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the State Library of Ohio to digitize the records. Read more about the project online.

– By Janice Schulz

T. M. Berry Project: The UC Connection

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Newspaper Article - "Negro is Winner of Jones Prize"

Click on the image to read the article

By Laura Laugle

Up to now, I have explained to you some (very little actually, but we’ll get there) of what made Berry an important figure. If you’ve been reading regularly, you’ll know that Ted Berry was an attorney, a civil rights activist, a local politician and a key player in “The War on Poverty.” What you would not know, because I have thoughtlessly neglected to tell you, is why he is so important to the University of Cincinnati in particular. The short answer is that he was an alumnus. The complete answer is that he was an important part of UC’s community and he has become part of the University’s history.

While at UC, Berry received many honors, both local and national. Perhaps the most outstanding of which is the Jones Oratorical Prize which he won in 1928 for his speech entitled “The Significance of the Minority.” In that speech Berry, then a senior undergraduate at UC, challenged America “… to live by the principles of the founders of our democracy, and to practice a new ideal of human understanding and fair dealing.” Continue reading →

50 Minutes-One Book

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The Archives & Rare Books Library announces a new monthly lunch-time series that will focus on one item from the collections to talk about its history and importance.  Relaxed and informal, these presentations are set for one Thursday each month through the academic year, and will be held in the Schott Seminar Room, 814 Blegen Library at 12:00 noon.

The first talk is on Thursday, January 27, and will feature ARB’s anthropodermic binding (that is, human skin!).  Find out how these bindings became curiosities of the book world, particularly in the 18th century; why most major research libraries have at least one example of the morbid things and how UC obtained its copy; and, the process involved in determining its authenticity. Continue reading →

T. M. Berry Project: Remembrances

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Theodore Berry as a child

By Laura Laugle

I have lately been going through a variety of files marked “T. M. Berry Biography.” A few are from the Theodore M. Berry collection and one came here to Archives and Rare Books rather serendipitously when Public Information was cleaning out alumni biography files. As a result, I have learned a great deal about Berry’s life as a whole, what he did before and after his public life, who he was as person and how that influenced his political career. One of my first finds in these files, and possibly my favorite of the entire collection thus far, was an envelope stuffed with old photographs. I can now say, with absolute certainty, two things which would never have occurred to me previously: Ted Berry made an adorable little cowboy and fedoras and spats are definite style “dos.” Continue reading →