I’m Insulted We Haven’t Talked about This Sooner

By: Sydney Vollmer

When the stupid *$&@___ in front of you in line can’t make up their *@($-ing mind, don’t you just want to pull out your hair and tell them what an %*$%&*! they’re being? But you can’t. Why? Because there are children around. And because we live in a “civilized” society where doing such things would get you kicked out. After all, you just want your #$*(-ing coffee! Four letter words won’t save you this time. You’ll have to get more creative.

William Shakespeare Continue reading

New Website for Digital Collections & Repositories

Update, May 16, 2016, 4pm: The website migration has been completed. Let us know what you think about the new site!

Next Monday (May 16), the Digital Collections & Repositories department will launch a new website. The website will be fully responsive and will work on all devices. Graphics will be prominently featured with less text overall. New features include a card-based collections page that can be filtered by library, subject, or format. We’re very excited to launch this new site and hope our users will find it easy to use.

During the transition on Monday, May 16, you may experience difficulties using the website as we copy new files over and remove  old files.

New Digital Collections & Repositories website home page.

New Digital Collections & Repositories website home page.

The History of Textiles Displayed at Clermont

Textiles5

In collaboration with Dr. Sharon Burns, Clermont College Library is pleased to present the History of Textiles; May through June in the Peters-Jones and Snyder display cases. Quilts, lace tablecloths, clothing, and other fine household fabrics are now on loan from the personal collection of Dr. Burns. Included in the displays are examples of 19th century handmade lace, international textiles, and a vintage wedding gown.

The textile books are available for check out. Give your request to the library staff and we will pull the item for you.

We are here to help-

Natalie Winland
Public Services Manager

Kevin Grace Receives Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence

kevin grace

Kevin Grace, University Archivist and Head of the Archives and Rare Books, with Little William Shakespeare.

Dean and University Librarian Xuemao Wang has selected Kevin Grace, University Archivist and Head of the Archives and Rare Books Library, as the 2015-2016 recipient of the Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence.

The newly created award from UC’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Beverly Davenport and Vice President for Research Patrick Limbach is intended to recognize outstanding faculty members in each college who represent excellence in all its forms. These faculty development awards are meant to recognize their contributions to their respective colleges and to UC, as well as support their professional efforts. Each recipient will receive $2,000 in discretionary funds to be used to support their teaching or research. Continue reading

ARB and the Enlightenment

By: Bridget McCormick, ARB Student Assistant

Thomas PaineOne of the strengths of the rare books collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library is 18th c. British literature, encompassing poetry and drama, history, political treatises, social commentary, and homiletics among several genres. And, these works are complemented by materials for the same time period from the Continent, particularly France and Germany. Brought together, these important volumes highlight the Age of Enlightenment, that period of intellectual development and reasoning that took place in Europe between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To “enlighten” is to provide knowledge or understanding to and indeed, this chapter of European history introduced significant developments in art, philosophy, science, and politics. Continue reading

Libby Holman: Fresh Painting the Town Red

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

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

The Intriguing History of Cincinnati’s Dunham Hospital

Inscription and tuberculosis symbol from the
stone entrance to Dunham Hospital.
This photo serves as a link to the finding aid for the Cincinnati Branch Tuberculosis (Dunham)
Hospital Collection.

By: Nathan Hood

A few miles west of downtown Cincinnati is the Dunham Recreation Center: a significant expanse of land mostly open to the public. The land however, was not always recreational; at one time it was the location of the Dunham Hospital – the same hospital after which the Center is named. Now long since abandoned, Dunham Hospital was once a branch of the Cincinnati Hospital and a means of treating as well as quarantining tuberculosis patients. But such facts are only a small portion of this institution’s rich history! Indeed, the hospital’s story arguably begins sometime during the early 1800’s.

Continue reading