Special Collections Category

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UICB @ 25 Exhibit in Main Library

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– January 6, 2011

The new exhibition in the North Hall of the Main Library celebrates the 25th anniversary of the UI Center for the Book, UICB @ 25: The Future of a Legacy (www.lib.uiowa.edu/exhibits).

The UICB is a unique program that conjoins training in the technique and artistry of bookmaking with research into the history and culture of books. The first twenty-five years of the UICB reach back to the University’s distinctive programs in art practice at the graduate level, while looking forward to the new media world we find ourselves in today.

Trace the history of the UICB through the work of current and former students, faculty and staff. Remarkable works held in the Libraries Special Collections as well as beautiful pieces loaned from alumni bookartists. Learn about the disciplines studied in the UICB – papermaking, letterpress printing, calligraphy and book binding – and view the tools book artists use.

The exhibit is free and open to the public in the University of Iowa Main Library during regular library hours through the end of February.

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Leafing through rare books

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– October 25, 2010

Within its overall collection of five million printed volumes, the University of Iowa Libraries holds more than 200,000 rare books. These books range in age from the 15th century to newly created artists’ books. The collection includes more than 800 manuscript collections—medieval to modern. Peruse a small sampling of these books through the fyi lens.

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LGBT Life in Iowa City, Iowa: 1967-2010 Online Exhibit Earns Honorable Mention

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– July 22, 2010

OutHistory.org, the award-winning website on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer U.S. history, announced the winners of its “Since Stonewall Local Histories Contest,” 41 years after the start of the rebellion that marks the beginning of the modern movement for LGBTQ rights and liberation.

“LGBT Life in Iowa City, Iowa: 1967-2010″ online exhibit curated by University Archivist David McCartney and Iowa Women’s Archives Curator Karen Mason earned an honorable mention in the competition. The exhibit is a timeline featuring over 70 images chronicling the history of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender communities in Iowa City. Content was drawn from collections in the Iowa Women’s Archives, the University Archives, and from the personal collections of several members of the community, who contributed their time to the UI Libraries’ effort.

The contest—the first of its kind—invited people from across the country to create exhibits on OutHistory.org about the history of LGBTQ life in their village, town, city, county, or state since the Stonewall riots, 40 years ago. The contest also offered five cash prizes, from $5,000 to $1,000, to the creators of the top five exhibits. The awards were provided by the Arcus Foundation, which funded OutHistory.org for four years.

OutHistory.org received over thirty exciting exhibits about LGBTQ history. One of the contest’s major goals was to draw attention to LGBTQ history in places that scholars have overlooked. Exhibits include entries about states such as Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, and Virginia, among others.

The “Since Stonewall” exhibits are all geographically-based, but range dramatically in subject, from one New Yorker’s memoirs, to a history of the Gay Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., an account of a long-lived gay bar in Michigan called The Flame, and a timeline of The Lesbian Mothers National Defense Fund in Seattle. All the entries are listed on the site.

Professors and historians of homosexuality John D’Emilio and Leisa Meyer served as judges of the contest.

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University Archivist McCartney Profiled

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– July 20, 2010

In the lastest edition of fyi, the online newsletter for UI faculty and staff, University Archivist David McCartney is profiled. Learn more about McCartney and the archives he manages.

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University of Iowa Extends Its Collaboration with Accessible Archives, Inc.

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– June 11, 2010

Content Expansion Will Bring New Material to Civil War Collection

The University of Iowa Libraries has signed an agreement with Accessible Archives, an electronic publisher of primary source full-text historical databases, to preserve in digital format a number of primary source publications from the Civil War era. The Libraries’ holdings include various Civil War memoirs, pamphlets, and regimental histories, which up to now have been available only for those with access to its Special Collections Department.  Once the materials have been digitized and made fully searchable, they will become a new portion – an additional part – of The Civil War, a collection from Accessible Archives that has been well received by university and public libraries.

The Libraries has already contributed missing issues of Godey’s Lady’s Book to the digital collection. Among the Civil War books soon to be preserved and made searchable are: One Year’s Soldiering, Embracing the Battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, written by the chaplain of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry and published in 1863; Sketches of the War, 2nd Edition, by Charles Henry Nott, published in 1865; and The Twenty-First Regiment of the Iowa Infantry, by George Crooke, published in 1891. Full-page images will be included, giving researchers access to the text, photographs, portraits, maps, and illustrations found in the original print format.

“We are delighted to extend the collaboration begun with Godey’s Lady’s Book and provide material from the University of Iowa Special Collections to enhance Accessible Archives’ The Civil War. Iowa provided more troops per capita than any other state in the Union, and Iowa men fought in nearly all the campaigns and major battles, were captured and imprisoned in the South, and after the war wrote about their experiences and came together frequently in reunions.  All of this is documented in the University of Iowa contribution,” said Edward Shreeves, Director of Collections and Scholarly Communication and Associate University Librarian.

“I think the publications from Iowa will be a great addition and enhancement to the material that we already have.  Many times, the Midwest is overlooked as far as Civil War coverage and I think this collection will help to improve that,” added Tom Nagy, Accessible Archives COO.

The Iowa publications will complement the Civil War newspapers and memoirs that are already online, which were obtained from the Godfrey Memorial Library and Vincennes University.

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The University’s “Diary” now online in Iowa Digital Library

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– May 14, 2010

It may be called the University of Iowa’s diary: magazines catering to its alumni. Starting with The Iowa Alumnus in 1903 and continuing today as Iowa Alumni Magazine, these publications chronicle the life and events of the University and its people on many fronts: research breakthroughs, innovations in teaching, graduates’ milestones, political and social movements, and memorable football games.

This indispensable source of University of Iowa history, spanning over a century, is now available online as part of the Iowa Digital Library, managed by the University of Iowa Libraries. The University of Iowa Alumni Publications Collection, based on holdings in the University Archives, includes every issue of The Iowa Alumnus (1903-1925), Iowa Alumni Review (1947-1993), Iowa Alumni Quarterly (1993-1999), and Iowa Alumni Magazine (2000-2004). Except for a 22-year interruption from 1925 to 1947 when there was no alumni publication, these magazines tell the stories of faculty, staff, students, alumni and others associated with the University.

When it premiered on December 15, 1903, The Iowa Alumnus made a modest promise to its readers in the foreword: “[The Alumnus] will not be a mere news-gatherer, a gossip-monger, or a hobby-horse. It will, however, aim to be of interest to alumni and other friends of the University, and to the University itself; but by what precise process these two things are to be worked out, will be disclosed in successive numbers.” Since its first issue, the alumni magazine has been published by the University of Iowa Alumni Association.

The more than 80 volumes of alumni publications are full-text searchable or can be browsed by year. More recent issues – those published within the last five years – will be available exclusively to members of the University of Iowa Alumni Association as a benefit of membership.

To access the University of Iowa Alumni Publications Collection, go to http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/uap.

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Morrow Emmy on display at Main Library

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– April 13, 2010

The Emmy Award that Barry Morrow received for writing the 1981 TV movie “Bill” is now on display in the University of Iowa Main Library in the Special Collections on the third floor. Morrow, an award-winning screenwriter who worked at the UI from 1974 to 1981, gave the Emmy to the university earlier this year.

Included as part of the Emmy display is a video loop that contains selected clips from the acclaimed documentary “A Friend Indeed: The Bill Sackter Story,” produced and directed by 1990 UI graduate Lane J. Wyrick. The display is available during the Library’s regular business hours. The film will be shown in its entirety at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13, in Room 1505 of the Seamans Center as part of the second annual Bill Sackter Day. Other Sackter Day festivities will begin at 4:30 p.m. that day at Wild Bill’s Coffee Shop in North Hall on the UI campus.

The special “Bill” Emmy display and video loop in the UI Main Library were made possible in part by gifts to the UI Foundation from Richard S. and Jeanne M. Levitt of Des Moines, Iowa, and Eileen S. Schmidt, of Greenwich, Conn.

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Reading the Fine Print in Special Collections

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– February 22, 2010

In the latest issue of fyi: Faculty & Staff News at the University of Iowa, the Charlotte M. Smith Miniature Book Collection is featured in a photo spread.

A tiny collection of books held in Special Collections is dwarfed by the library’s other five million volumes. These 4,500 itsy-bitsy books are “miniatures.” From pocket-size to micro-miniature, most books in the collection were donated by one person, Charlotte M. Smith. The gift inspired others to add to the collection. Visitors may get an up-close look at the miniatures in Special Collections on the third floor of UI Main Library.

You can find more information about this unique book collection or Charlotte M. Smith, the woman who collected these miniatures in the UI Libraries’ Special Collections.

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A “Notorious Affair” Highlighted Special Collections Exhibition

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– November 4, 2009

Between October 1943 and March 1944 the German Embassy in Ankara had access to documents from the British Embassy. These included documents relating to the Teheran, Cairo and Casablanca conferences, at which Allied strategies were discussed, including Operation Overlord and the disposition of Europe after the war in the event of an Allied victory.

The German Embassy received this information from a very unlikely source: not a trained spy but an unscrupulous Albanian servant with a chip on his shoulder. This exhibit, “The Singing Spy,” examines some of resources at the University of Iowa relating to this incident, drawing from almost every department in the Library (Special Collections, Media Services, Maps, Government Documents, and online collections) and provides a glimpse into this “notorious affair.”

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Leigh Hunt Online Gets a Nod

By
The University of Iowa Libraries
– September 10, 2009

This week the “Internet Scout Report” noted the UI Libraries Leigh Hunt Online: The Letters.

Not familiar with British Romantic writer Leigh Hunt? After going through the University of Iowa Library’s collection of his letters online, visitors will know Hunt intimately. For those visitors who don’t have the stamina to pore over the more than 1600 letters that have been digitized thus far, an excellent history of him can be found by clicking “Who is Leigh Hunt?” in the “About the Project” link. The link “About the Brewer-Hunt Collection” reveals that Brewer, an Iowa native of modest means, began collecting Hunt’s work in the last 13 years of his life and amassed such a collection, that it was purchased by the University of Iowa Libraries in 1934. The link also mentions the correspondence in the collection that Hunt had with many other noted authors. Visitors should click on “Digitized Letters” to view the thumbnail gallery of Highlights of the Collection and see a host of Sample Searches. “Search Hints” are given in a link on the left hand side of the page, right above “NINES Collaboration”.

The Scout Report is the flagship publication of the Internet Scout Project. Published every Friday both on the web and by email, it provides a fast, convenient way to stay informed of valuable resources on the Internet. Our team of professional librarians and subject matter experts select, research, and annotate each resource.

Published continuously since 1994, the Scout Report is one of the Internet’s oldest and most respected publications. Organizations are encouraged to link to this page from their own Web pages, or to receive the HTML version of the Report each week via email for local posting at their site.

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