![\"Cincinnati](\"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cincinnati_magazine_2.jpg\")
<\/a>They are the fruit of our archival world, those strange objects, quirky provenance discoveries, and odd functions that lend surprise to the workday.\u00a0 For example, while attending a conference just last week, I was working one afternoon in a research library to delve into a few early documents related to our UC holdings.\u00a0 Taking a break and wandering down a dark hallway, I saw a partially-opened door, poked my head in, and saw two shrunken heads in bell jars.\u00a0 Not what I was looking for, but certainly more interesting than what I had been reading!<\/p>\n<\/a>Raymond Walters<\/p><\/div>\n
So it wasn\u2019t unexpected at all when I returned home and saw that the Archives & Rare Books Library\u2019s own anatomical oddity is in the public eye, something\u00a0we\u2019ve anticipated for the past several weeks.\u00a0 In its January issue, Cincinnati Magazine<\/i> has a feature called \u201cArtifact,\u201d for which they used the jawbone of a mule from our Stephen Foster Collection.\u00a0 Having the mandible in the collection isn\u2019t as bizarre as it\u00a0might seem.\u00a0 The Foster materials were\u00a0compiled by former UC president Raymond Walters during his tenure from 1932 to 1955.\u00a0 Walters was a Foster scholar of sorts and acquired the collection as part of his research, eventually donating it to the Libraries.\u00a0 There are the typical items in the Foster material\u00a0that you would expect, such as sheet music, songbooks, images, and recordings.\u00a0 And the jawbone fits right in with these items because it is actually a musical instrument, used for percussion in the antebellum minstrel shows that traveled up and down the Ohio River, stopping in towns like Cincinnati to perform their songs and dances.\u00a0 A stick would be used to rasp up and down the teeth to provide the rhythm. But how and when Walters acquired the bone is a mystery.<\/p>\n
Stephen Foster<\/p><\/div>\n Walters was keenly interested in Foster\u2019s Cincinnati connection.\u00a0 Born in 1826, Stephen Foster came here in 1846 to work as a bookkeeper in his brother\u2019s steamboat shipping business.\u00a0 During the few years he worked along the waterfront, he composed a few songs, including \u201cOh Susannah.\u201d\u00a0 His many compositions are an important part of America\u2019s musical legacy, and of course even today we always hear \u201cMy Old Kentucky Home\u201d sung at the Kentucky Derby.\u00a0 His poignant lament, \u201cHard Times, Come Again No More,\u201d is even currently adapted for the stage by Irish American musician Larry Kirwan, who transplanted it from a cabin setting to one of immigrant tenement life in New York City.\u00a0 Tragically enough, New York is where Foster\u2019s own sad story ended. \u00a0\u00a0Mired in poverty and despair, and sick with fever, Foster was living in the American Hotel in 1864. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He fainted from the fever and fell, breaking the wash basin and cutting himself badly on the neck.\u00a0 A maid discovered him and called for assistance. Foster was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he died on January 13.\u00a0 There was a sole scrap of paper in his billfold, and scrawled upon it were the words: \u201cDear friends and gentle hearts,\u201d and that is all.<\/p>\n Foster Room Murals<\/p><\/div>\n Foster Room Murals<\/p><\/div>\n Stephen Foster Room<\/p><\/div>\n Raymond Walters\u2019 interest in Foster\u2019s life was so strong that for many years there was a room dedicated to the collection in the old Main Library (we know it now as Blegen Library, of course).\u00a0 Murals depicting Ohio River life and Foster\u2019s time in Cincinnati covered the walls.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when the building was renovated in 1983, the murals were lost.\u00a0 But we do have some black and white photographs of them.\u00a0 And, the piece of terrazzo wall that contained the words \u201cStephen Foster Room\u201d was re-purposed above the doorway for Room 405.\u00a0 The gold lettering was removed but you can still see the shadow of the words, albeit upside-down.<\/p>\n Repurposed Foster Room Sign<\/p><\/div>\n The Foster collection remains intact, however, in the Archives & Rare Books Library, accession number US-93-01.\u00a0 In addition to Walters\u2019 own account of the composer, Stephen Foster: Youth’s Golden Gleam : A Sketch of His Life and Background in Cincinnati, 1846-1850 <\/i>(call number C.U.801 .W32 st),<\/i> ARB also holds Walters\u2019 extensive diaries that he faithfully compiled during his UC presidency, http:\/\/rave.ohiolink.edu\/archives\/ead\/OhCiUAR0261<\/a><\/p>\n To learn more about the holdings of the Archives & Rare Books Library \u2013 or to see the jawbone \u2013 call 513.556.1959, email us at archives@ucmail.uc.edu<\/a>, or visit us on the web at http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/libraries\/arb\/index.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: \u00a0Kevin Grace They are the fruit of our archival world, those strange objects, quirky provenance discoveries, and odd functions that lend surprise to the workday.\u00a0 For example, while attending a conference just last week, I was working one afternoon … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>