We look forward to seeing you in 462 Langsam tonight, March 6th, at 5 PM.
Celebrate Women’s History Month
by Lauren Wahman
The UCBA Library is celebrating Women’s History Month and the amazing global contributions of women with two different displays! The first display (located in the Reference area) showcases books and media covering a wide range of topics from science, art, business, politics, law, activism, education, and social issues. It also includes UCBA’s Women of the World (WoW) schedule of events.
The second display (located in the Journals area) highlights women’s fiction with an array of titles from Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, Yaa Gyasi, and more.
Stop by and borrow a book or DVD from one of the displays!
Explore Women’s History Month:
- #5WomenArtists2019: From Awareness to Action
- History Channel (speeches & audio)
- Library of Congress (including National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, SmithsonianInstitution, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Archives)
- NASA: Women of STEM
- National Museum of American History (oral histories, podcasts, and more)
- TED: Talks on the Topic of Women
- UC Events
New Langsam Library Exhibit – “Animals in Antiquity” as Reflected through Books and Artifacts in the John Miller Burnam Classics Library
On the fifth floor lobby of the Walter C. Langsam Library is the exhibit “Animals in Antiquity: An exhibition from the collections of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library.”
Curated by Rebecka Lindau, head of the John Miller Burnam Classics Library, and Michael Braunlin, assistant head of the Classics Library, and designed by Michelle Matevia, library communication design co-op student, the exhibit highlights the role and importance of animals in Antiquity.
Cats were sacred in ancient Egypt. There was even a cat goddess, Bastet.
Animals were divinities, especially in Egypt. In Ancient Greece and Rome they were the companions or theomorphic stand-ins for gods and goddesses. Many animals were considered sacred to the ancient Greeks and Romans. However, as humans went from a nomadic existence to one of settlers and farmers, they began taming and using animals for their own purposes and so the status of animals began to decline.
After their domestication, bulls, cows, horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep and goats were used to plow fields, to provide milk and meat, transportation, and clothing. Wild boars were hunted for food and for “displays of manhood” by well-to-do young men as were various birds, deer, hares and even lizards. Some animals were made companions or pets such as sparrows, pigeons, doves, dogs, cats, monkeys and even wild animals, gazelles and cheetahs. Animals in Greece, rabbits, dogs, roosters and doves, were given as presents, also in courtship as “love gifts.”
Foxes were wild and often considered a nuisance for wine growers because they liked eating the vines.
Various kinds of fish were eaten in antiquity, but they, too, could be pets and were sacred to the gods. Animals such as horses and elephants were used in war and as entertainment, for example, among the Romans at the Colosseum where lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, bears, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, wild donkeys, hyenas and ostriches were forced to fight to their deaths. Greek and Roman authors such as Plutarch, Aelian and Pliny the Elder wrote about animals in works on ethics, morals and natural history and prose, poetry and history writers such as Homer, Aesop’s Fables, Lucretius, Ovid, Seneca, Dio Cassius, Diodorus Siculus frequently used animals to tell stories and to illustrate the human experience.
Sections of the exhibit inform how animals were used as entertainment, as companions, for ritual sacrifice, even in war. In addition, the exhibit features animals in art, displayed on coins, vases and statues. A bibliography of resources used in the creation of the exhibit is available on site and online as a PDF.
To learn more about Animals in Antiquity, read about or visit the Classics Library located on the fourth floor of Blegen Library where the books and artifacts featuring the texts and images in this exhibition are housed and where the librarian is happy to answer questions and offer research advice on this or any other topic concerning classical antiquity.
Affordable Learning from the Library
Image from: maxpixel.net — CC0
We’ve previously discussed why you should consider adopting an open textbook. We understand the challenges associated with changing textbooks and the possibility that you’ve not identified one that meets the needs of your students. If you’re interested in the concept of an open textbook and open educational resources (OER), but haven’t yet made the leap, consider other ways you can incorporate affordable learning into your courses.
Most of the library’s resources are not considered OER due to licensing, copyright, and limited ability to re-purpose, modify, and share widely. However, because UC students have access to our resources, you can add them to your course at no additional cost to students.
How can library resources add to your course?
- Use journal, magazine, and newspaper articles to discuss current events, differing perspectives on topics, and provide the latest research
- Embed video, audio, images, and other media directly into your course so students don’t have to click away from Blackboard
- Provide links to library e-books or e-book chapters to expand upon course content not included in a textbook
In addition, Clermont College Library and UC Libraries are continuously developing online learning resources to support students and faculty. These include research guides and videos about information literacy and using library tools.
Interested in adding library resources to your course?
Your library liaison would be happy to help you identify resources to enhance your course. We can also assist with providing permalinks, embedding video, creating research guides, and much more. You can also reference the Open Educational Resources at Clermont research guide for additional information.
The New Deal in the Archives
Survey of Federal Archives project (Ohio History Connection)
With the Green New Deal in the news, there is renewed interest in President Franklin Roosevelt’s original New Deal. The New Deal was a series of federal programs meant to combat the major issues of the Depression, including soil loss, stabilizing the banking system, and providing jobs and relief for the unemployed. One of the famous programs of the New Deal was the Works Progress Administration, popularly known as the WPA. The WPA was responsible for constructing many of the significant buildings, roads, and infrastructure that the American public still uses. But the WPA also employed many writers, musicians, playwrights, artists, historians, clerks, and other unemployed white-collar professionals.
One of the most comprehensive, but least known programs to come out of the WPA was the Historical Records Survey. Originally envisioned by American archivist TR Schellenberg, it was expanded into a workable program by Luther Evans, who would go on to become the Librarian of Congress and UNESCO director. The Historical Records Survey had two major programs: a survey of federal records located in offices outside of the Washington DC area, and a survey of state and local records. During its initial operation, the Historical Records Survey was part of the Federal Writers Project, which was known for producing travel guides for 48 states and many large cities, as well as compiling narratives of ex-slaves.
The Historical Records Survey lasted between 1935 and 1943. Its largest achievement was surveying county records – of the 3,066 counties in existence at the time of the survey, fieldwork was completed for 90% of them. WPA workers carried out the field work by going to county courts and administrative agencies to determine what kinds of records existed, where they were located, and a short description of the records. The field work also generated significant information about the history of the states and their counties. In some areas, municipal records surveys were also completed, such as for the city of Cleveland. Although there had been some attempts to survey America’s local and state records before (mainly through the efforts of the American Historical Association’s Public Archives Commission), the WPA Historical Records Survey was a significant advance in trying to establish a comprehensive picture of the overall condition of America’s public records.
Unfortunately like many worthy archival projects, the Historical Records Survey had some significant setbacks. Only 20% of county inventories were published. At least 27 county inventories were published in the state of Ohio, including for major counties such as Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, and Summit. In the guide to the Hamilton County records, the introduction stated there would be a guide issued for every county. Perhaps the suspension of the Historical Records Survey in 1943 ended the publication of these guides. The remaining records from the Historical Records Survey of Ohio can be found at the Ohio History Connection and the Western Reserve Historical Society.
In fact, the fate of the multitude of records generated by the field workers of Historical Records Survey across the country varied wildly. Many of the records ended up in universities and state and local historical societies. But in some cases, they did not and in fact met a fairly tragic fate – when archivist and National Archives employee Leonard Rapport went searching for Maine’s Historical Records Survey field records in the 1970s, he eventually found that they had been dumped into a bay.
If you would like to learn more about the Historical Records Survey, I recommend Loretta Hefner’s 1980 guide to the unpublished records of the Historical Records Survey, and Sargent Child and Dorothy Holmes’ inventory of publications associated with the Survey (Z1223.Z7 C52, ARB Reference). For additional study, Marguerite Bloxom’s guide Pickaxe and Pencil contains an extensive bibliography arranged by WPA program.
WorldFest 2019 is Here! Don’t Miss the Trivia Night on March 6!
A joyful opening ceremony on February 28 marked the beginning of WorldFest 2019 at the University of Cincinnati. This year’s program includes 15 cultural programs and events, all of them free and open to the public!
On March 6th UC Libraries and the Quiz Team will co-host an annual Trivia Night.
Come and show off your knowledge of geography, history, cultures, and miscellaneous facts! You don’t have to compete! You will still learn a lot, meet interesting people, and enjoy free food, including Bearcat pizza.
We are sure that the competitors will be as strong as in the past. The top three teams will win the prizes shown below.
Pi Day at Clermont
Have you ever pondered pi? Does 3.14 and beyond interest you? Whether you find this mathematical constant fascinating or not, you will want to be a part of our Pi Day celebration.
Beginning March 1, sign up to win a Pi t-shirt. The winner’s names will be drawn on March 14. Five shirts will be given away. Stop by the Clermont College Library and fill out an entry with your name, email, and preferred size.
On March 14, our math professors will be passing out pi(e) and coffee in the hallway, in front of the library. If you are up to a challenge, stop by Dr. Malla’s table and write out pi to as many digits as you can remember.
Penny McGinnis
Technical Services Manager
Greeks and Romans — Beware of Ides of March – καὶ σὺ τέκνον!
Today is the day of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, precipitating the death of the Republic. Below are some passages from Plutarch, Suetonius, and Shakespeare speaking of the Ides of March as well as of the assassination itself, an image and description of the most famous of Roman coins, that of a bust of one of the principal assassins, Marcus Brutus, followed by a brief bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
The Curia building by the Theater of Pompey on the present day Largo Argentina in Rome, the place of Julius Caesar’s assassination. Supposedly, the place will undergo renovations and be opened to the public in a couple of years (although there have been many earlier reports to this effect), which is causing concern among the city of Rome’s many cat lovers since the spot is currently inhabited by felines who have lived there, probably ever since the murder of Caesar. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/site-where-julius-caesar-was-stabbed-will-finally-open-public-180971613/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190305-daily-responsive&spMailingID=39059296&spUserID=ODM4Njc3MTA5NjUS1&spJobID=1480462980&spReportId=MTQ4MDQ2Mjk4MAS2&fbclid=IwAR1llLQDzEH15xKhUGIe-PB25s67afhUOjMnjG6ageSAL0Hjg5hYbO9NoSU
Plutarch
“…ὥς τις αὐτῷ μάντις ἡμέρᾳ Μαρτίου μηνός, ἣν Εἰδοὺς Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσι, προείποι μέγαν φυλάττεσθαι κίνδυνον· ἐλθούσης δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας προϊὼν ὁ Καῖσαρ εἰς τὴν σύγκλητον ἀσπασάμενος προσπαίξειε τῷ μάντει φάμενος· “Αἱ μὲν δὴ Μάρτιαι Εἰδοὶ πάρεισιν,” ὁ δὲ ἡσυχῆ πρὸς αὐτὸν εἴποι· “Ναὶ πάρεισιν, ἀλλ᾿οὐ παρεληλύθασι…” (Parallel Lives, Caesar 63.3-4). https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-lives_caesar/1919/pb_LCL099.443.xml?rskey=FylsHE&result=37
“A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: “Well, the Ides of March are come,” and the seer said to him softly: “Aye, they are come, but they are not gone.”
Shakespeare
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II:
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/julius_caesar.1.2.html
Soothsayer
Caesar!
CAESAR
Ha! who calls?
CASCA
Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
CAESAR
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear.
Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
What man is that?
BRUTUS
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
Set him before me; let me see his face.
CASSIUS
Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
CAESAR
What say’st thou to me now? speak once again.
Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.
Suetonius
“Assidentem conspirati specie officii circumsteterunt, ilicoque Cimber Tillius, qui primas partes susceperat, quasi aliquid rogaturus propius accessit renuentique et gestu in aliud tempus differenti ab utroque umero togam adprehendit; deinde clamantem: “Ista quidem vis est!” alter e Cascis aversum vulnerat paulum infra iugulum. Caesar Cascae brachium arreptum graphio traiecit conatusque prosilire alio vulnere tardatus est; utque animadvertit undique se strictis pugionibus peti, toga caput obvolvit, simul sinistra manu sinum ad ima crura deduxit, quo honestius caderet etiam inferiore corporis parte velata. Atque ita tribus et viginti plagis confossus est uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito, etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse: καὶ σὺ τέκνον; Exanimis diffugientibus cunctis aliquamdiu iacuit, donec lecticae impositum, dependente brachio, tres servoli domum rettulerunt. Nec in tot vulneribus, ut Antistius medicus existimabat, letale ullum repertum est, nisi quod secundo loco in pectore acceperat” (De Vita Caesarum, The Deified Julius 82.1-4).https://www.loebclassics.com/view/suetonius-lives_caesars_book_i_deified_julius/1914/pb_LCL031.37.xml?rskey=IIrllU&result=1
“As he took his seat, the conspirators gathered about him as if to pay their respects, and straightway Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came nearer as though to ask something; and when Caesar with a gesture put him off to another time, Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders; then as Caesar cried, “Why, this is violence!” one of the Cascas stabbed him from one side just below the throat. Caesar caught Casca’s arm and ran it through with his stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound. When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its fold to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, “You too, my child?” All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some time, until finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down. And of so many wounds none turned out to be mortal, in the opinion of the physician Antistius, except the second one in the breast.”
The Most Famous of all Roman Coins!
BRVT ∙ IMP ∙ PLAET ∙ CEST with Brutus head on the obverse and EID ∙ MAR with a pileus and two daggers on the reverse.
Late summer-autumn 42 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.59 g, 12h). Military mint traveling with Brutus and Cassius in western Asia Minor or northern Greece; L. Plaetorius Cestianus, magistrate. Bare head of Brutus right; BRVT above, IMP to right, L • PLAET • CEST around to left / Pileus between two daggers pointing downward; EID • MAR below. Crawford 508/3; Cahn 22 (same dies); CRI 216; Sydenham 1301; RSC 15; RBW –. Good VF, deeply toned, a little off center and minor porosity on obverse. Very rare. This extraordinary type is one of the few specific coin issues mentioned by any classical author, in this case, Dio Cassius. Roman History 47.25.3: “Brutus stamped upon the coins which were being minted his own likeness and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland.”
Brief Bibliography
- Beware of Ides of March. But why? By Martin Stezano, Match 13, 2017. History Channel stories — https://www.history.com/news/beware-the-ides-of-march-but-why
- Caesar. TNT presents a De Angelis Group and Five Mile River Films production; a film by Uli Edel; producers, Giuseppe Pedersoli, Jonas Bauer; written by Peter Pruce and Craig Warner; directed by Uli Edel. Featuring Jeremy Sisto, Richard Harris, Christopher Walken, Christopher Noth, Valeria Golino, Heino Ferch, Tobias Moretti. New York: Good Times Entertainment, 2004 — CLASS Reserves DG 261.C337 2004
- Caesar Must Die. San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2014 — https://uc.kanopystreaming.com/video/caesar-must-die
- Dando-Collins, Stephen. The Ides: Caesar’s Murder and the War for Rome. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010 — CLASS Stacks DG 267.D26 2010
- Freeman, Philip. Julius Caesar. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008 — CLASS Stacks DG 261.F784 2008
- Julius Caesar. Festival Films (1948). New York: Distributed by Films Media Group, 2016. Films on Demand — http://fod.infobase.com/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=115179
- Julius Caesar. San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2015 — https://uc.kanopystreaming.com/video/julius-caesar-0
- Life and Death of Julius Caesar. Arden Shakespeare. MIT —http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/full.html (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare http://shakespeare.mit.edu/index.html)
- Living History: Experiencing Great Events of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: The Final Days of Julius Caesar. San Francisco: Kanopy Streaming, 2016 — https://uc.kanopystreaming.com/video/living-history-experiencing-great-events–10
- Mackay, Christopher. The Breakdown of the Roman Republic: From Oligarchy to Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009 — CLASS Stacks DG 254.M25 2009
- Manfredi, Valerio Massimo. The Ides of March [fiction]. New York: Europa Editions, 2010 — Langsam PQ 4873.A4776 I3513 2010
- Parenti, Michael. The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People’s History of Ancient Rome. New York: New Press, 2003 — CLASS Stacks DG 267.P37 2003
- Plutarch. The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives. Translated by Pamela Mensch; edited, with preface and notes, by James Romm; introduction by Mary Beard. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017 — CLASS Stacks DG 260.A1 P53 2017
- “The Real Story behind the Assassination of Julius Caesar” by Larry Getlen, March 1, 2015. The New York Post — https://nypost.com/2015/03/01/the-real-story-behind-the-assassination-of-julius-caesar/
- Strauss, Barry S. The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2015 — CLASS Stacks DG 267.S77 2015
- Suetonius. Lives of the Caesars. With an English translation by J.C. Rolfe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014 — https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL031/1914/volume.xml
- Sumi, Geoffrey S. Ceremony and Power: Performing Politics in Rome between Republic and Empire. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005 — CLASS Stacks DG254.2.S86 2005
- Tempest, Kathryn. Brutus: The Noble Conspirator. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017 — CLASS Stacks DG 260.B83 T46 2017
- The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Open Source Shakespeare (see esp. lines 96-110) — https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=juliuscaesar&Act=1&Scene=2&Scope=scene
- What Are the Ides of March? March 12, 2014. History Channel stories — https://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-are-the-ides-of-march
- William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. BBC Play of the Month adaptation, originally broadcast on the 13th of April 1969. Featuring Robert Stephens as Mark Antony, Maurice Denham as Julius Caesar, Frank Finlay as Brutus and Edward Woodward as Cassius. YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JInTNKLaEI4
- Woolf, Greg. Et tu, Brute?: The Murder of Caesar and Political Assassination. London: Profile Books, 2006 — CLASS Stacks DG 267.W66 2006
UC Libraries Seeks Books Good Enough to Eat for the International Edible Books Festival
2018 Best Overall – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jessica Ebert
Know of a good book to eat?! Create an Edible Book for UC Libraries International Edible Books Festival!
It’s time once again for the fan-favorite International Edible Books Festival scheduled for Monday, April 1, 2019, from 1-2:00pm in the Walter C. Langsam Library’s 5th floor lobby. UC Libraries is seeking people interested in creating an edible book for the enjoyment (and consumption) of all in attendance. There are few restrictions – namely that your creation be edible and have something to do with a book – so you may let your creativity run wild.
As in previous years, entries will be judged according to such categories as “Most Delicious,” “Most Creative,” “Most Checked Out” and “Most Literary.” Those awarded “Best Student Entry” and “Best Overall” will win a limited-edition UC Libraries t-shirt.
If you are interested in creating an edible book, please e-mail melissa.norris@uc.edu by Friday, March 22 with your name and the title of your creation.
Looking for inspiration? Visit UC Libraries on Facebook to see photos from the 2018 festival.
A Complete Qual Lab : Notes from the Oesper Collections, No. 54, January/February 2019
The extraordinary
lab bench, chemicals
and equipment for
performing qualitative
chemical analysis offered for sale in the 1902
catalog of the Viennese
laboratory supply house of Lenoir and Forster.
Issue 54 reviews the various chests of reagents and apparatus sold over the last 250 years to private chemists and students wishing to perform qualitative chemical analysis and as highlighted in our collections of apparatus catalogs and monographs.
Click here for all other issues of Notes from the Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.