LILLY LIBRARY NEWS & NOTES

Craig Simpson, Lilly Library manuscripts archivist, and his colleague Gregory Wilson, University of Akron, History Department, discussed “Above the Shots: The Kent State Shootings and the Politics of Truth, Trauma and Reconciliation” at this year’s Oral History Association Annual Conference recently held in Denver. Craig and Gregory joined a panel of scholars who described how oral histories have been used to present a more complete picture of the protests on college campuses in the 1960s and 1970s. C-SPAN 3 recorded the presentation. You can view the session online.

The Lilly Library and Indiana University’s Digital Library Program are thrilled to announce the debut of the new online presence for the Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/slocum/ The collection is one of several featured in the Indiana University’s new Image Collections Online site.

The Jerry Slocum Collection of mechanical puzzles embodies a lifetime pursuit of the intriguing and the perplexing. The collection is one of the largest of its kind in the world, with over 34,000 puzzles. Unlike word or jigsaw puzzles, mechanical puzzles are hand-held objects that must be manipulated to achieve a specific goal. Popular examples include the Rubik’s cube and tangrams. The puzzles in the collection represent centuries of mathematical, social, and recreational history from across five continents.

The online database currently allows researchers and puzzle enthusiasts to search and browse over 23,000 items from the Slocum collection, and soon it will include the entire puzzle collection. Users will also be able to request delivery of some items to the Lilly Library’s Reading Room for hands-on use and research.

The images in the database may be used for non-commercial educational or research purposes. If you use or reproduce our materials in any format, we ask that the Lilly Library always be cited as the source of the material with the credit line: Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. For commercial uses, please contact the Lilly Library at 1200 East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405-5500 or at http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/. For more information about the Slocum puzzle collection, please visit the Lilly Library web page: http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/collections/overview/puzzles.shtml

“Conducted by Charles Dickens: An Exhibition to Commemorate the Bicentennial of His Birth”
January 23 through May 5, 2012

Charles Dickens is one of the most beloved and well-known authors in the English language. The stories of characters such as Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield have moved beyond the pages of fiction and into the realm of popular myth.

The Lilly Library will display an exhibition from January 23 to May 5, 2012 commemorating the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’s birth. The title of the exhibition refers to the way in which Dickens denoted his editorship of his periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round: “Conducted by Charles Dickens.” Like the conductor of a train or an orchestra, Dickens masterfully channeled the cultural currents of his age into works of literature that still resonate with readers today.

The exhibition showcases the Lilly Library’s eclectic holdings relating to Charles Dickens’s life, literature, and the Victorian world from which he drew inspiration. Highlights include first editions of Dickens classics such as The Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations as well as examples of Dickens novels issued in serial monthly parts. The exhibition also explores Dickens’s love of theatre, the novels and stories that inspired him as a child, the numerous illustrators with whom he worked, and practices of Victorian readership and publishing. One section is devoted to the colorful and chaotic world of Victorian London, featuring London “low life” and the social reform movements which were such an integral part of Dickens’s fiction.

Hildegard Keller, professor of Germanic Studies and Medieval Studies, presents The Ocean in a Thimble, an experimental journey through the works of four extraordinary women who have a fictive encounter beyond time: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Mechthild von Magdeburg (1208-1282/94), Hadewijch (13th century), and Etty Hillesum (1914-1943).

The film will be presented in German, with no subtitles, at the IU Cinema, Friday, December 2nd, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. This abbreviated film version of her audio book of the same title was specially produced for the IU Cinema and exploits the theater’s sound technology.

The audio play The Ocean in a Thimble (Der Ozean im Fingerhut) was written in 2011 by Keller, produced with a group of actors in Switzerland and enriched with music in the form of the oud played by Mahmoud Turkmani, performed for this production. The accompanying book includes essays by various authors and numerous images, including a large number from the Lilly Library of Indiana University.

More information on the event can be found in the College of Arts and Sciences News.

Opening Wednesday, October 26th at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, is an exhibition celebrating the life and work of poet and activist, Emma Lazarus, author of the poem affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

This exhibition explores many of the facets of Lazarus’ life as a fourth generation Sephardic-American, her work as an early advocate for immigrants and a Jewish homeland as well as her life in the “gilded” intellectual and artistic circles in which she moved in turn of the century New York City. It is this aspect of her life in which the Lilly Manuscripts Department provides some insight and documentation.

The Lilly is home to the Gilder manuscript collection (1781–1984), which consists of the correspondence and papers of poet and editor Richard Watson Gilder and his wife, the artist Helena de Kay Gilder, and their family. Emma Lazarus was a part of the Gilder’s social and artistic milieu.

This exceptionally rich and interesting collection consists of 23,000 items and is open for use by researchers and the interested public.

The Lilly Library continues to develop an impressive collection of Indiana authors’ manuscripts, most recently with the processing of the Sanders, Scott Russell mss. and the Thom, James Alexander mss.

Indiana University professor Scott Russell Sanders has enjoyed a long and successful writing career. His twenty books include novels, collections of short stories, collections of essays and personal nonfiction. His writing often explores the human place in nature, the character of community, the relation between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path. Sanders has won the Indiana Authors Award, the Mark Twain Award, and several other accolades for his literary achievements; his 2006 memoir, A Private History of Awe, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The Sanders, Scott Russell mss. documents his writing career and provides insight into his writing, his editing, and his publishing history. In addition to an extensive series of correspondence written to Sanders, the collection also contains a letter written by Sanders to Joyce Carol Oates, as well as a letter of recommendation, written also by Sanders, for Barbara Kingsolver.

James Alexander Thom is a best-selling author who was born in Gosport, Indiana, began an early reporting career at the Indianapolis Star and later joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Journalism. His major historical novels include From Sea to Shining Sea, Follow the River and Panther in the Sky, the last two of which were turned into television movies. The Thom, James Alexander mss. provides researchers access to the drafts and proofs of Thom’s works as well as insight into the extensive research that Thom is known for performing. The collection also contains Warrior Woman, the novel Thom co-wrote with his wife Dark Rain Thom. Another highlight is Thom’s correspondence with fellow Indiana authors Richard Cady, Scott Russell Sanders and Kurt Vonnegut. Other correspondents include former Indiana Governor Otis R. Bowen, politician and writer Ken Coates, and historian and author Howard Zinn. Drawings, clippings and biographical materials in the Thom, James Alexander mss. help to complete the picture of this significant Indiana author.

A manuscript subject guide is available for researchers to search for more collections of Indiana-related literature.

-Cassie Brand and Danielle Emerling, Lilly Library Manuscripts Interns, Summer 2011

Well-known as one of the Lilly Library’s manuscript treasures is the collection of the papers of poet Sylvia Plath. Perhaps less well-known, but very engaging are her works of juvenile art, particularly her paper dolls, currently the centerpiece of an exhibition at the Owens Art Gallery, in Sackville, New Brunswick. We were very pleased to participate in this exhibit, guest curated by Dr. Anne Koval, associate professor in the fine arts department at Mount Allison University in Sackville. Dr. Koval discovered the handmade paper dolls and doll’s clothes in the Plath Archive of juvenilia during a visit to the Lilly.

The exhibition also showcases the responses of several well-known contemporary artists to the paper dolls, including an early short film by Cindy Sherman, a new immersive installation by Ed Pien, exquisite miniatures by Cybèle Young, large scale steel-cut dresses by Barb Hunt, the colourful embroideries of Anna Torma, an installation of cutouts by Jeannie Thib and the ephemeral paper doll chains of Lynne Yamamoto.

The exhibition opened September 16th and is scheduled to run until November 6th 2011 at the Owens Art Gallery. It then will travel to the Mendel Gallery (Saskatoon, SK) in spring 2012 accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with an essay by the curator, produced with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, artsnb and a CultureWorks Development Grant from Mount Allison University. We would also like to express our appreciation to the Sylvia Plath Estate for their support and kind permission to exhibit the paper dolls.

Starting today, the Main Gallery will be featuring the exhibition “James I and the English Bible.” “James I and the English Bible” showcases the Lilly Library’s collection of early English Bibles, from the Coverdale Bible of 1535 to the King James Bible of 1611. This exhibition, which commemorates the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, also features a number of other important books related to James I and his reign, including the great Shakespeare First Folio of 1623. This exhibition will run through December 21.

To kick off this exhibition, Joel Silver, Associate Director and Curator of Books, will be giving a gallery talk on the subject. Silver has written numerous essays on rare books, book collecting, and the antiquarian book trade. The talk will start at 5:30pm with a reception sponsored by the Friends of the Lilly Library following.

Currently on display in the Lincoln Room, the exhibition Tell Me a Story: Folklore and Folkloristics at the Lilly Library highlights materials of interest to folklorists visiting Bloomington for the 2011 Annual Conference of the American Folklore Society, October 12-15. The exhibition includes selections from the manuscript collections of Indiana University folklore scholars Stith Thompson and Richard Dorson, as well as materials from the library of British folklorists Peter and Iona Opie, books and manuscripts by Andrew Lang, and examples of several different types of collections of tales including legends, ballads, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes.

front cover of The Brown Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang ; with eight coloured plates and numerous illustrations by H.J. Ford. London, New York and Bombay : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904.

A new exhibition highlighting
“Critical Collections” at the Lilly Library will be on display in the Lincoln Room through the month of August. The exhibition features the papers of some of the most significant, controversial writers of cultural criticism in the modern era. Noteworthy items include: American literary critic Anthony Boucher’s pioneering reviews of J. R. R. Tolkien and Ian Fleming; British literary critic Desmond MacCarthy’s correspondence with James Joyce and George Bernard Shaw; drama critic Kenneth Tynan’s original handwritten journals; and materials pertaining to the Orson Welles/Citizen Kane screenplay debate between film critics Peter Bogdanovich and Pauline Kael (pictured here).

—Craig Simpson, Lilly Library Manuscripts Archivist and exhibition curator

On May 9, 2011, contractors began working on a re-roofing project at the Lilly Library. The original copper roof sections were thinning in some areas so new roofs were needed to make sure water does not enter the building. Since ice in the gutters during the winter months can cause leaks, the gutters of the copper roofs will have new gutter melt devices installed.

In addition to replacing the three copper roof sections of the building, some mortar joint repair is also part of the project. The mortar joint repair is being done on part of the upper outside walls of the building. This should ensure that water does not enter those upper walls through cracks in the mortar joints of the stone. The installation of the new roofs has gone smoothly despite the bad weather. Wind and rain caused a few snags but the roofers have been very helpful and know the importance of keeping the building dry.

The projected is scheduled to be completed Friday, July 1.

View more images

Seen here in a photo taken in the Lilly Library Reading Room using one of his favorite reference sources is Indiana University Librarian Emeritus Marty Joachim. Since his retirement from the IU libraries at the end of 2002, Marty has given valuable service to the Lilly Library, devoting thousands of hours adding records to IUCAT (IU’s online library catalog) for the Lilly Library’s early printed books. Marty’s own academic background in Classical Studies and his knowledge of Latin and Greek made him the perfect cataloger to do this work. He estimates that at least 75% of the incunabula are in Latin. The remainder are mostly in Italian, French, German, Greek, and Spanish with an occasional work in English. Marty notes that working with the Lilly’s incunabula was endlessly fascinating. He often marveled at working with items that were unique to the Lilly Library or existed in only a few known copies. He completed the project in early June 2011. During his second retirement, Marty plans to do a lot of traveling; so far this year he has already been to Israel and Austria and will be going to China in August.

Before Marty’s stellar accomplishment, most of the Lilly Library’s holdings in books printed before 1501 were found only in the manual card catalog in the Lilly Library Reading Room, and most of these records were brief with a minimum of description and entries. Now fully cataloged records with multiple access points for all titles are available in the online catalog. Since the time these materials were originally cataloged, scholarship has added greatly to what is known about the early years of printing in Europe. Major bibliographical tools such as the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue and the Bodleian Library incunabula catalogue have been developed or published. Marty was able to benefit from the work of other scholars and incorporate new information into the bibliographic records he created. Genre headings on each record provide access by the term Incunabula, further subdivided by place and date. Try searching IUCAT for the keyword phrase Incunabula Italy Venice.

A big thank you to Marty Joachim for bringing our 15th century books out into the 21st century.

Last week’s storms in central Indiana hit the Bloomington campus twice: Monday night (May 23) and Wednesday night (May 25). Nearly 300 trees on the campus were affected. Several were downed in the area of the Lilly Library, but fortunately there was no damage to the building. Clean up continues this week with the sound of chain saws and shredders all around.

Read about the storms in the Indiana Daily Student or read the IU News Room press release.

View more images.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Monroe County Public Library and the Monroe County History Center have partnered with the Lilly Library and the Wylie House Museum to create a new, publicly accessible digital collection: At War and At Home: Monroe County Timeline 1855–1875. Many of the materials included come from the Lilly Library’s manuscripts collections, from diaries and letters to church records and meeting minutes.

At War and At Home is part of the Indiana Memory Digital Library and is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Indiana State Library.

Learn more about the Civil War era in Bloomington and Monroe County. Click here to search the collection.

View image in collection

For a recent (May 9, 2011) IU Cinema podcast entitled “Exploring The Lilly Library”, Craig Simpson, Lilly Library Manuscripts Archivist, spoke with Andy Hunsucker and Jason Thompson about some of the film manuscripts at the Lilly Library. Andy and Jason examine pieces from the Orson Welles, the John Ford, the Pauline Kael, the David Bradley, and the Willis Pyle manuscript collections with genuine relish.

Listen to the entire “Exploring the Lilly Library” podcast, or explore IU Cinema’s A Place for Film – The IU Cinema Podcast.

Donald Friedman, author of The Writer’s Brush: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Writers, called “one of the most fascinating books of the year” by The London Times, will speak informally on authors and their art at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 23, 2011. Friedman’s talk celebrates the opening of the Lilly Library’s exhibition entitled “Literary Sketches: Authors as Artists,” which will include works of art by Kurt Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath, Lewis Carroll, G.K. Chesterton, Amiri Baraka, James Whitcomb Riley, Gunter Grass, Orson Welles, Henry Miller, Jean Cocteau, Federico Fellini and others.

Donald Friedman received his J.D. from Rutgers University and an L.L.M. from New York University Law School, started practicing law, married and raised two children. He also began to study fiction writing. In 2000, his novel The Hand Before the Eye won the Mid-List Press First Series Award and he was launched into a new career as a novelist.

Mr. Friedman’s book will be available for purchase at the event and is now in stock at the Friends of Art Bookshop (foabooks@indiana.edu, 812-855-1333).

View larger image

Go ahead and judge a book by its cover at the T.C. Steele State Historic Site on May 11 at 6:30 p.m. Cherry Williams, Curator of Manuscripts at the Lilly Library, will lead this program on how the Arts & Crafts Movement influenced books and the printed media. See examples of rare books hand-picked from the Steele’s own library. Participants are welcome to bring a few of their own from this time period to share. End the evening making a book of your own that you can take home to enjoy. The cost is $15 per person and registration is requested but not required. For more information or to register, please contact tcsteeleshs@dnr.in.gov or 812.988.2785. You can register online at www.tcsteele.org.

T.C. Steele State Historic Site is located on Hwy 46 just west of Nashville in the heart of artistic Brown County. Part of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, a division of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the site is where nature’s beauty meets the artist’s canvas. The home, studio and gardens of this noted Hoosier artist still provide inspiration today through site tours, outdoor painting competitions and artist-in-residence programs. For more information, call 812.988.2785 or visit indianamuseum.org/tc_steele.

—Christine Atkinson, Arts Program Developer
T.C. Steele State Historic Site

View larger image

On Saturday, May 21 at 1:00 PM, the Friends of the Lilly Library will sponsor the concert Pastoral Dialogues: Amorous Duets from Mid–17th Century England in the Slocum Room of the Lilly Library on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. Christopher Goodbeer and friends will perform selections from Ayres and Dialogues (1653-1658) and Select Ayres and Dialogues (1659) as written by Henry Lawes, his brother William, and other mid–17th century English composers.

‘Dialogues’ refers to a music genre of conversational style duets set as solo exchanges in alternation with chorus.

Come and celebrate spring and hear the witty banter as shepherds and shepherdesses muse on the nature of a kiss, propriety in courtship, advice for the lovelorn, the misbehavior of Cupid, and their fortunate lives of Arcadian bliss.

Ensemble Performers:

Mary Roosma — Soprano
Priscilla Borges — Soprano
Thea Smith — Soprano
Jeremy Woodard — Tenor
Christopher Goodbeer — Bass
Beth Garfinkel — Harpsichord

The program was developed by Christopher Goodbeer, a recent graduate of the Jacobs School of Music and School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University Bloomington.

A bound volume of four music books, originally published separately by John Playford in London from 1653 to 1659, on which this program is based, will be on display during the performance.

Light refreshments will be served.

—Jocelyn Karlan, Graduate Intern, The Lilly Library

View a larger image

How did a forest near Bloomington become Indiana’s only national wilderness area—the Charles C. Deam Wilderness? People made it happen, and some of them will gather at the Lilly Library on the Indiana University campus on Wednesday, April 20 at 5:30 p.m. to remember how it all came about.

This event celebrates the Indiana Forest Alliance’s donation to the Lilly Library of Deam Wilderness papers collected by Claude Ferguson, supervisor of the Hoosier National Forest when the creation of the Deam began. A panel discussion consisting of those involved in the establishment of the Deam Wilderness will moderated by David Haberman, president of the board of the Indiana Forest Alliance. Participants who will share Deam Wilderness memories include Bill Hayden, Jeffrey Stant, Bill Miller, and Jeffrey St. Clair.

The files and the recollections to be shared at this session could provide inspiration and ideas for expanding the Deam Wilderness, a goal of the Indiana Forest Alliance. After the one-hour session in the Slocum Room of the Lilly Library (1200 East 7th Street), there will be a reception and an exhibit of selected items from the Deam Wilderness collection.

View more images

Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Lilly Library