What follows is a guest post from one of our student workers, Shawn Conley, an Eagle Scout and Boy Scout memorabilia collector. Since its founding more than a century ago, the Boy Scouts of America has striven to turn young men into well-rounded individuals and citizens of our society. Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of theContinue reading “The Boy Scouts: A Cultural History through Handbooks”
Category Archives: Collection Connection
World War II Map of Occupied Countries
Today is Veterans Day so we want to share this 1943 map of occupied countries, noted in gray. The legend reads: “Help erase the gray blots on this map by buying U. S. war bonds and stamps.” This map is part of the John N. Calhoun Papers. Calhoun lived in Burlington, Iowa. After earning his lawContinue reading “World War II Map of Occupied Countries”
New from the International Dada Archives
Three major new acquisitions from Dada’s transitional period of 1919-1920 document that movement’s spread beyond its World War I origins in neutral Switzerland to the key cultural centers of Europe during the early postwar era. Francis Picabia was one of the chief agents for the propagation of the Dada movement, and his periodical 391 wasContinue reading “New from the International Dada Archives”
New Leigh Hunt Manuscripts
This past spring was a good season for acquisitions in Special Collections, Leigh Hunt material not least among them. Not only did we pick up Percy Shelley’s personal copy of Hunt’s Feast of the Poets—a spectacular association copy, as Hunt and Shelley were remarkably close friends—but we acquired four Leigh Hunt manuscripts. Two of theseContinue reading “New Leigh Hunt Manuscripts”
Identifying our 4mm Miniature Book
The University of Iowa Special Collections and University Archives is home to the Charlotte Smith Collection of miniature books with more than 4,000 tiny tomes. Most perplexing has been this microscopic Bible that remained unidentified, likely because we lacked the tools to adequately magnify the page with the publisher’s information. Highlighting this tiny book yesterday on our social media pages brought itContinue reading “Identifying our 4mm Miniature Book”
Strolling through a Miniature Garden
In Of Gardens, Francis Bacon praises gardening as “the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man […].” Having just moved here from Bozeman, MT, and left my garden behind to start the Library and Information Science master’s program, I have been sorely missing the simple pleasure of watchingContinue reading “Strolling through a Miniature Garden”
What the Hectograph?!?!
This past weekend, the Zine Librarian (un)Conference happened here in Iowa City! Amongst the lively discussions and seminars was a Historical Zine Making Technologies Workshop demonstrating and using obsolescent printing techniques including hectography, spirit duplication, and mimeography. You may be asking yourself, at this point, what the heck a hectograph is…and we’re here to showContinue reading “What the Hectograph?!?!”
Manuscript Mystery Solved
It’s kind of like History’s Mysteries meets Antiques Roadshow. There’s an item that’s been lying in your collection for years, possibly decades, patiently awaiting investigation. What exactly is this thing? Then one day—maybe on a quiet Friday afternoon—you suddenly have the urge to dig into it. That’s what happened here in Special Collections. A medievalContinue reading “Manuscript Mystery Solved”
Rusty, Rustebar, Rust E. Barron
The James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Collection of Pulps, Fanzines, and Science Fiction Books in the Special Collections of the University of Iowa Library is a manifestation of fandom, a subculture of shared interest, networking, and activity that grows up around almost any subject. Fandom demands more of its participants than merely liking something; they mustContinue reading “Rusty, Rustebar, Rust E. Barron”
Iowa City Meteor in 1875
Last night a meteorite slammed into the Russian countryside, as captured in many videos and photographs. 138 years ago in 1875, nearly to the day, a very similar event occurred in Iowa, when a meteorite disintegrated almost directly above Iowa City. It was documented by C.W. Irish, a local surveyor and astronomer. These images areContinue reading “Iowa City Meteor in 1875”