News From Special Collections 10/5/2015 – 10/09/2015

From the Web and Social Media

Looking for a fun way to celebrate the University of Iowa’s Homecoming week? Check out our Historical Hawkeyes series, compiled by our Olson Graduate Research Assistant, Kelly Grogg.

crowd waiting to buy football tickets in 1920

Staff Changes

We are all very pleased to announce that Lindsay Moen has been hired as our LAIV in Special Collections, taking over Department Liaison responsibilities from Kathy Hodson, following her retirement. Lindsay has worked in Special Collections since she was an undergraduate, and she brings to the position years of experience with all manner of projects, collections, and circumstances. She has spent the past year as a temporary librarian working with our implementation of ArchivesSpace for finding aids.

New Acquisitions

Firrufino. El Perfeto artillero. Madrid 1648

While the focus of this book is on artillery, we selected it because of its interesting assortment of illustration styles. With 30 engravings and 131 woodcuts, the publisher’s focus on economy, while still maintaining a high quality of work, will start many discussions in classes on book and printing history.

Image of the inside of the book, featuring an illustration of a man firing a cannon

An image of the inside of the book, featuring three illustrations of cannons

Student Scrapbooks in the University Archives. 1912-1916.

Alveda (Eva) and Jennie Markle, sisters from New Hampton, attended the State University of Iowa between 1912 and 1916. The liberal arts majors were also meticulous record-keepers of their time as students. Recently their family donated the sisters’ scrapbooks to the University Archives, a collection that gives us a closer look at student life from a century ago. Iowa Fights!

Image of scrapbook with "Iowa" written on the front

an image of the inside of the scrapbook featuring an Iowa Fights label, and other university promotional material

Image from inside of the scrapbook featuring a photograph of a young woman

Upcoming Events

John Fifield talk, “A Summer at the Recoleta”

Wednesday, October 14, 2015
6:30PM: Please join us for conversation as light refreshments are served

7PM – Talk by guest speaker, John Fifield

The newly-appointed Olson Graduate Assistant in Special Collections will recount his experience at the Convent of the Recoleta in Arequipa, Peru, where he assisted with identifying and cataloging early printed books in the monastery’s collection in the summer of 2015. He will describe the collection and comment on its place in the history of the transatlantic Spanish book trade.

Special Collections Reading Room, 3rd Floor Main Library, 125 W. Washington, Iowa City, IA.

Updates from Instruction

This week, we had ten classes visit Special Collections and University Archives. One of these classes was Stephen Voyce’s New Media Poetics, a graduate course in English. This visit was the second of three they are making over the fall semester. First, they came to learn about the Dada Archive from curator Tim Shipe on September 10. On October 6, this Tuesday, they enjoyed hands-on time with objects within the Fluxus collection under the supervision of Amy Chen, the instruction librarian. On October 13, they’ll return for their final session, during which the students will help Jacque Roethler, processing coordinator, arrange and describe Fluxus periodicals. We’re glad to have classes come in for multiple trips to gain a wider understanding of our holdings as well as to complete different types of assignments and learn from variety of expertise we offer.