New Acquisitions Category

New Acquisition: The Battle Creek System of Health Training

– September 23, 2015

By Jacque Roethler

The Battle Creek Sanitarium was opened in 1866 by John Harvey Kellogg and his brother W. K. Kellogg, promoting health through a regimen of dietetics, exercise, hydrotherapy, phototherapy, thermotherapy, electotherapy, mechanotherapy, and enemas. They were joined in this enterprise by C.W. Post. In some areas they were ahead of their time, such as their emphasis on a low fat diet including whole grains, fiber-rich foods, and nuts, as well as getting lots of fresh air and exercise. But other areas were on the fringe and were open to ridicule, such as the treatment the Sanitarium received in the book and movie The Road to Wellville, the title of which is a spoof of John Harvey Kellogg’s book The Road to Wellness. The Sanitarium suffered during the depression and was scaled back in 1933 and permanently closed in 1952. What lives on are the cereals created by the Kelloggs and C.W. Post Companies, derivatives of the healthy foods promoted by the Sanitarium.

In the Brinton collection we recently found these books, entitled The Battle Creek System of Health Training. While not emanating from the Sanitarium, the books are from Battle Creek’s Health Extension Bureau and carry a publication dates of 1922 and 1924, during the height of the Sanitarium’s popularity. There were seven volumes in the series: 1) Making Life Worth While; 2) Taking a Health Inventory; 3) The Digestibility of Different Foods; 4) Foods and Feeding; 5) Diet in Disease; 6) Weight Regulation; and 7) Simple Remedies for Common Maladies.

The books in this collection are in near perfect condition. Unfortunately volumes 3 and 4 are missing so this is not a complete set. On a search in OCLC First Search, only four other libraries were named as having these volumes.

Tags: Brinton Collection, jacque roethler, John Harvey Kellogg, kellogg, new acquisition

New from the International Dada Archives

Colleen Theisen

– September 30, 2013

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 was a key vehicle for spreading Dada beyond its origins in Zurich. Picabia published the first four numbers in Barcelona, then took 391 with him to New York, Zurich, and finally Paris. Special Collections owns ten of the nineteen issues, representing all four cities. Our latest acquisition is Number 9 (November 1919), the first issue to be published in Paris (following the single Zurich number), just as Tristan Tzara, Dada’s self-proclaimed leader, was preparing to move to the French capital. With a cover featuring one of Picabia’s famous machine drawings, and with texts by Tzara, Picabia, and future Parisian Dadaist Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, this issue anticipates the founding of the Paris Dada movement.

Published shortly after the author had established himself in Paris, Cinéma calendrier du coeur abstrait; Maisons (1920) completes our collection of Tzara’s three books of poetry in the series “Collection Dada.” The first two were published in Zurich, and this third collection marks the full fruition of Dada in Paris. Illustrated with nineteen original woodcuts by Jean Arp, this masterpiece of Dada book art is signed by the author and the artist.

Die Schammade (also known as Dadameter) is the seminal publication of the short-lived branch of the Dada movement in Cologne, Germany. Edited in early 1920 by Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld and printed on multicolored paper with magnificent woodcuts and drawings by Ernst, Arp, and others, Die Schammade typifies the international nature Dada, and includes texts in German and French, including some of the most important Dada writings of Arp, Ernst, and Baargeld.

In addition, we recently acquired the one issue of the Dada publication 291 not previously in the collection, making a complete set.

All four items will be scanned for the Digital Library of Dada.

Tags: dada

New Leigh Hunt Manuscripts

Patrick Olson

– September 27, 2013

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 these are copies of his most famous poems: “Abou Ben Adhem” and “Rondeau.” Perhaps the poem most beloved by posterity, “Rondeau” (more commonly known as “Jenny Kissed Me”) shares the poet’s excitement after having kissed Jane Carlyle, wife of the archetypal Victorian Thomas and neighbor of the Hunts.

The third manuscript is a draft fragment of The Palfrey. Only a few of the lines from this draft found their way into the published version, betraying the significant revisions the poem underwent at the author’s hand.

A transcript of “Velluti to his Revilers” is perhaps the most interesting manuscript in the lot. It’s not one of Hunt’s best known poems, but the transcript is thought to be in the hand of Julia, the author’s eighth child. While “Velluti” may not make the cut for the latest Norton anthology, Leigh Hunt writes at the end of these lines, “I think them the best (in rhyme) that I ever wrote—if I am old enough to be allowed to talk of my ‘best.’”

Tags: leigh hunt

Looking Back on a Semester of New Acquisitions

Colleen Theisen

– June 18, 2013

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.

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 Berger 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 Appelstein 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.

“New” Incunables Arrive in Special Collections

Greg Prickman

– June 14, 2013

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.

Tags: greg prickman, incunabula, new acquisitions, patrick olson

New Evidence Confirms 1973 Movement to Rename the Field House for the Allman Brothers Band

David McCartney

– June 13, 2013

New at the UI Archives: 1970s-era posters for events at Hancher Auditorium, the Iowa Memorial Union and the UI Fieldhouse. For a brief but intense time in 1973 and ’74 there was a move afoot to rename the Field House for the Allman Brothers Band, which had a memorable gig there on Nov. 9, 1973. The posters are evidence of this unofficial, ill-fated, but totally sincere effort. CUE, the Commission for University Entertainment, was a student organization that encouraged the campaign. Many thanks to Tim Meier of the Hancher Auditorium office for arranging for transfer of these materials to the Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.

Tags: allman brothers, david mccartney, field house, University archives

Earliest Known Simon Estes Recording – Now Streaming!

David McCartney

– June 4, 2013

Following up from our earlier announcement about the donation and digitization of the earliest known Simon Estes recording, the clip is now streaming!

Read about the original donation and the March 17th concert where Simon Estes was presented with a copy of the recording.

Soloist: Simon Estes , Corrine Semler

Performance by the Old Gold Singers

Hi-Tran Recording Co., Cedar Rapids, IA in 1959 or 1960

I Got Plenty o’Nuttin’ from the musical Porgy and Bess. Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin.

via I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’. <– Click this link to hear the recording!

Tags: david mccartney, simon estes, University archives

1878 Dante: Smallest Movable Type

Colleen Theisen

– May 10, 2013

This is the first of a long string of announcements of new acquisitions that we will be announcing, so follow our blog to hear all the latest!

Tiny is the only word to describe this 58mm volume La divina commedia di Dante. This is the second smallest edition of Dante ever printed and is notable for using the smallest movable type ever cast. It was printed in Milan in 1878 by Ulrico Hoepli.

If you want to test your eyesight, stop by to give this one a try.

Tags: dante, miniature books, movable type, new acquisition

Earliest Known Simon Estes Recording Restored

Colleen Theisen

– March 28, 2013

Simon Estes and the Old Gold Singers – Courtesy UI Alumni Association

This story starts in 1959 when a UI undergraduate student from Centerville, IA, named Simon Estes auditioned for, and joined, the Old Gold Singers, a university chorus made up of non-music majors. The Old Gold Singers was a new organization, formed just two years before. It quickly established itself as a highly-talented goodwill ambassador of the University, thanks in no small part to Simon Estes’ rich baritone voice.

The University Archives had no recordings of the singers from those early seasons until only recently. In 2010, UI alumnus James Crook, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, donated to the archives a set of phonograph disks featuring the troupe. Mr. Crook was a founding member of the Old Gold Singers and participated in its first three seasons. Mr. Estes, a classmate of Crook’s, went on to an acclaimed operatic and solo vocal career, after completing his UI degree and studies at the Julliard School. He has performed with the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and throughout Europe in a career spanning over 50 years.

Among the phonograph records that Mr. Crook donated is one featuring Mr. Estes as a soloist during his first season with the Old Gold Singers, while a sophomore. The rare recording was made in a Cedar Rapids recording studio in 1959 or 1960, and playing it on a turntable more than 50 years later yielded a lot of scratches and pops with the music. Still, it was a valuable addition to the archives, believed to be the earliest-known recording of a young singer at the dawn of a remarkable and distinguished career.

The UI Libraries’ Preservation Department cleaned the record thoroughly and shipped it to the Media Preserve, a Pittsburgh firm specializing in recovery of audiovisual recordings. There, staff produced a digitally-reformatted version of the recording, one that sounds as good as new. The University Archives now has a digital copy of this rare recording, along with the original phonograph disk.

But the story doesn’t end there. On Sunday, March 17, Mr. Estes performed in Osage, Iowa, at a special dedication program recognizing that community’s new Krapek Family Fine Arts Center. The program was also part of his Roots and Wings tour in which he hopes to eventually perform in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. High school choruses from Osage and nearby Riceville and St. Ansgar also performed with Mr. Estes that afternoon.

Following the performance, UI Archivist David McCartney, representing the UI Libraries, presented Mr. Estes with a CD copy of the recording, housed in a case made for the occasion by staff in the Conservation Lab. The audience of over 600 also heard a one-minute excerpt, featuring a 21-year-old Mr. Estes singing a selection from “Porgy and Bess,” a number he coincidentally sang earlier in the afternoon as part of the program.

The UI Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to honor Mr. Estes and to preserve an early and important part of his outstanding career.

Tags: david mccartney, simon estes, University archives

Kelmscott Proof Among Our Recent Acquisitions

Patrick Olson

– February 7, 2013

Ask three different people why we remember William Morris, and you just might get three different answers. The social activist might mention his work in leftist politics. The designer might recall—with varying degrees of affection—his vivid wallpapers. The literature professor might quote a few lines of verse from the man who, upon the death of Tennyson, politely refused his country’s Poet Laureateship.

Those of us in special collections, however, best remember William Morris for his pioneering work with the Kelmscott Press. And pioneering is just the word. Morris bemoaned the state of bookmaking in Victorian England. (To be sure, he bemoaned just about anything made by machine.) Put off by the industrialization of book production, he returned to the roots of his craft, adopting as role models some of Europe’s earliest and greatest printers, and even tapping into the manuscript tradition that preceded them. His books were produced entirely by hand. In bucking the machine-made trend, Morris founded what has come to be called the fine press movement.

As you might imagine, Morris was a meticulous printer. Lucky for us, Special Collections recently acquired a rare witness to his attention to detail: twenty-two pages of proofs for his Poems by the Way. A proof is a copy of a text run off the press before the first printing intended for publication. Printers and authors would review the proofs and make needed changes. In this case, William Morris was both printer and author. Poems by the Way was only the second book to come off his Kelmscott Press, and the first in which he used both black and red ink.

Some changes aren’t surprising: a typo corrected, an ampersand spelled out. Others betray a much more careful attention to detail. Compare, for example, the decorative initials below. The letter used in the proof (on the left) and that used in the published version (on the right) are remarkably similar. But to a craftsman like Morris, those nuances were the difference between a good book and a great book. Subtle though they are, the changes we see between the proof and the published text offer a rare glimpse into the process behind some of Morris’s earliest book design.

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