Patrick Olson inspecting packages

Patrick Olson joined us at the beginning of last semester as a new Special Collections Librarian in charge of collections analysis and acquisitions.  Patrick was most recently a rare book cataloger at M.I.T and came to Special Collections librarianship via the rare book trade.  Stop by and ask him about rare books or climbing mountains!

With Patrick in place, Special Collections has seen a flurry of activity this semester with boxes arriving almost daily with new donations and purchases.  The items are in various stages of being catalogued and processed so what follows here is an overview of new arrivals, with more announcements to follow soon.

Books:

Most recently we announced an extremely important purchase of twelve incunables (books from ~1450-1501).  Read our blog post and stay tuned, we’ll have updates as they are cataloged and ready for research.

W.Morris proof (left)

Morris, William, Poems by the Way [corrected proof pages], 1891, X – PR5078.P4 1891a  Infohawk record  Blog post

Huxley, Aldous,  After Many a Summer [inscribed to H.G. Wells], 1939, X – PR6015.U9 A68 1939, Infohawk record

Asturias, Miguel Angel,  Leyendas de Guatemala, 1930.  Infohawk record

Hunt, Leigh, A Day by the Fire [Luther Brewer's copy], 1870.

Baskerville title page

Von Siebold, Philipp Franz, Manners and Customs of the Japanese, 1841.  X – DS809.M28 1841 Infohawk record

Byron, Lord, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers [extra-illustrated], 1818.

Virgil, Bucolica, Georgica, et Aneis [Baskerville Virgil], 1757. X Folio – AC4.E28 1757. Infohawk record

West, Wallace, Alice in Wonderland [novelization of the 1933 film], 1934. X – PR4611.A73 W47 1934 Infohawk record

Gifford, Thomas, Praetorian, 1993. Iowa Authors Collection. Infohawk record

Rogers, Bruce (OUP), [Prospectus for the 1935 Oxford Lectern Bible], 1935.  Infohawk record

Wilcox, Daniel, Ernie the Cave King, 1975. X – PZ5.W698 1975 Infohawk record

Miniature books:

Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [miniature book with Rackham illustrations], 2011.  Smith – PR4611.A73 2011  Infohawk record

Pit and the Pendulum

Poe, Edgar Allan, [J. & J. Sobota Press] The Pit and the Pendulum [miniature book], 2005. Mab – PS2618.P5 2005a Infohawk record (Tumblr post)

Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia [miniature book], 1878. (Blog post)

Sweet, Pat, The Dragon Gallery [miniature book], 2010, Smith – GR830.D7 S944 2010, Infohawk record (Tumblr post)

Amato, Christina,  Tale of Herville [miniature book], 2010.  Smith – PS3551.M183 T354 2010 Infohawk record

The Dragon Gallery

Amato, Christina, Swells & Spines, or, The Man Who Bound at Sea [miniature book], 2011.  Smith – PS3551.M183 S94 2011 Infohawk record

Artist’s books:

Sara Langworthy book and broadsides:

New Patterns Primer [artist's book], 2013.  Infohawk record

Solid Phases, [artist's book], 2013. Infohawk record

Solid Fragments, [artist's book], 2013. Infohawk record

Atlantis, [broadside], 2009.

2013. Invisible Ink

Healong, [broadside].

In the Trance , [broadside], 2009.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost, [broadside], 2010.

Practice, [broadside], 2009.

Small Study [broadside], 2009.

Pi

Szymborska, Wislawa and Susan Angebranndt of GreenChairPress, Pi, 2003.  [artist's book] X – PG7178.Z9 A222 2003 Infohawk record (Facebook post)

Reed, Justin James, 2013 [invisible ink], 2012.  [artist's book] X Folio – N7433.4.R424 T8 2012 Infohawk record  This text can only be viewed using a black light [included].

Hanmer, Karen, Letter Home, 2004. [artist's book] X – N7433.4.H35 L48 2004 Infohawk record

Hanmer, Karen, Nevermore, Again, 2010, [artist's book] Mab – PS2633.K372 2010 Infohawk record

Szathmary Collection:

Rowley Cook Book and Sunshine Cook Book [early 20^th century community cookbooks]

64 community cookbooks

64 community cookbooks [mostly Iowa] (Facebook post)

Hayward, A., The Art of Dining [railroad edition], 1852.  Infohawk record

Locke, John and Henry, Commercial Cookery Archive (English Catering Company), [Mid 1800s bulk dates], Szathmary Culinary Manuscripts, Collection Guide

Chicago Sun Times, Three original photos of Chef Louis Szathmary, 1970s (Facebook post)

Obama, Michelle, American Grown, 2012.   Infohawk record

Manuscripts and Archives:

Arthur Asa Burger notebooks

Arthur Asa Berger Papers  [University of Iowa alum and professor emeritus of Broadcast and Electronic
Communication Arts at San Francisco State University, where he taught between 1965 and 2003 and author of more than 60 books.].  More than 90 journals with a mix of drawings, photographs, personal life, and plans for books.

Mike Applestein Collection, [Zine maker and writer who worked for VH1].  1990s zines, particularly music zines. This will especially complement the Sarah and Jen Wolfe Collection of Riot Grrrl and Underground Music Zines.

Joshua Glenn’s zines

Joshua Glenn Collection, 1980s-1990s music fanzines, letters from zine publishers, and zine ephemera. (Joshua Glenn’s Blog). (Tumblr).

Peter Thomas collection of papermaking and paper sample books.

Continuing fanzine acquisitions from the Organization for Transformative Works from many donors including a large donation of early Star Trek fanzines.

Morgan Dawn Collection addendum. [Zines for many TV shows and movies – Dr. Who, Harry Patter, Lord of the Rings, The Professionals, Quantum Leap, Star Trek & more].

George Ludwig papers. [Graduate Student under James Van Allen] (Two blog posts here and here)

George Ludwig Papers

Dave Morice Collection [1970s Actualist movement.  Poet, illustrator, and performance artist.]  Large addendum including personal papers and lesser known comic books such as Cosmic Boy
and Power of the Atom.  Spanish language comic books, including Condorito.

Iowa Library Association, 20 feet of records.

Hancher Auditorium, 1970s posters. (Blog post)

Gary Frost, administrative and teaching files.

Hancher Auditorium Posters

Janine Canan papers [Publications, CDs and DVDs of the feminist poet].

Cloe Mayes Yocum, [Hollywood scripts].

Marquis Childs [Iowa Author]. Manuscript for Cabin.

Sam Becker, [Emeritus faculty], we received a copy of a Saroyan lay Western Awakening.  This was Sam’s copy from a production at the University of Wyoming and is signed by Saroyan.

Adam Boyce.  Collections relating to Charles Taggart, a Chautauqua performer, for our Redpath Chautauqua collection.

Beatrice Abrahamson’s WWII diary

Letter from Marion, Iowa [Regarding settling in to a new life in 19^th c Iowa]

Glowgramme, [1933 glow in the dark theater program] X - FOLIO PN2093 .G59 1933  Infohawk record

Stein Collection

2 photo albums:

Trip to India c. 1900 [professional souvenir in lacquered Japanese binding]

Trip to Fiji & area c. 1920s [amateur photos]

Stein Collection, Muscatine Business owner’s diverse “gentleman’s library.”  This collection will be kept together.

Brian Harvey Collection of 2000+ 19th and early 20th century dog books.

Dog books

Records of the Progressive Party, and we got an addendum of Pennsylvania Progressive Party papers.  [Papers and press releases].

Other:

Reading room overhead scanner.

If you have been following any of our social media feeds over the past few days, you may have noticed photos popping up of newly-acquired incunables. So, what’s going on here? First, some background:

Incunables are books printed in Europe during the fifteenth century, between 1450 and 1501, examples of the earliest printed books. The incunabula period is the focus of a great deal of study—the development of printing, and how it affected the design, distribution, and reception of books, remains central to our understanding of book history.

Here at Iowa, we have long held a respectable collection of incunabula, and these books are frequently called for in classes and exhibitions. In recent years, these books have been examined extensively by Tim Barrett for his study of early papermaking, and Iowa is also home to the Atlas of Early Printing, an interactive overview of the spread and development of printing in Europe. The UI Center for the Book continues to pass along the art and craft of letterpress printmaking that first flourished in the incunabula period.

Our recent acquisitions are an attempt to add examples of books and subjects in the incunabula period that we have not had previously. This collection development has been made possible due to the support of the University Libraries acquisitions fund and the Libraries’ Collection Management Committee.

Special Collections Librarian Pat Olson took charge of this opportunity and identified an outstanding mix of possibilities that enhance our collection in many ways. Among these dozen new titles is the first illustrated edition of Dante printed in Venice. Until now, our incunables largely represented just a single language: Latin. The occasional ancient Greek was the only exception. Our new Dante, however, is in Italian, and so it’s one of our first incunables printed in a vernacular language. The other, also just acquired, is Monte dell’orazione, a private devotional text intended specifically for women. The copy we just acquired is particularly notable for retaining the very rare illustrated wrapper—or to risk oversimplification, the original illustrated paperback binding.

We filled one of our more significant gaps with the acquisition of our first 15th-century Bible, and in an early pigskin binding to boot. Another first for us is our first Spanish incunable, a book of music printed in red and black at Seville in 1494. We purchased our first 15^th-century edition of Ovid, too, here in its original leather-covered wooden boards and retaining its original brass furniture. Early science has been another sparsely covered subject for us, so we acquired a lavishly illustrated astrological text. (NB: What passed for science in the 1400s may not pass for science today.) We also acquired a rather crude dialogue intended for children and the less sophisticated—a rare survival, insofar as such texts were less commonly printed and more commonly read to pieces.

In all cases, we sought books in early (if not original) bindings. Given the serious interest in early papermaking here at Iowa, we made it a point to pursue books with untrimmed leaves, which serve as uncommon witnesses to original paper sizes. We searched for books with valuable marginalia, interesting provenance, and varying degrees of decoration by hand. Most of these books do have early marginalia, an invaluable resource to support the growing scholarship on the history of reading. Perhaps the most remarkable in terms of provenance is a sammelband (multiple books bound together) printed by the famous scholar-printer Johann Amerbach. Our copy is not just a well preserved example of a 15^th-century sammelband, but it contains an inscription noting its donation to a local monastery by the printer himself. As far as textual decoration is concerned, these new acquisitions run the gamut from crude DIY initials to professionally executed penwork and illumination.

There really is something for everyone, and we can’t wait to share them. Once they have been catalogued and properly housed, these books may be viewed by request in our reading room during regular hours. And keep an eye out for an announcement coming at a later date of an opportunity to view these new acquisitions in person, while learning about how incunables are being studied today.