50 Years Ago Today; A Campus in Conflict

By David McCartney, University Archivist

Tuesday, December 5, marks the 50-year anniversary of what was to that date the largest anti-war protest on the UI campus. Over 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Iowa Memorial to protest the presence of Dow Chemical representatives who were on campus to interview prospective employees. There were 18 arrests and the day’s events ushered in a new era of protest, both locally and nationally. Less than four months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson, citing eroding public support for his administration’s policy on Vietnam, announced he would not seek re-election to another term.

Go here (http://dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/1967/di1967-12-06.pdf) for the Daily Iowan’s account of that day.

The day’s events were filmed and recorded by Robert Coover, an assistant professor of English, whose documentary is featured on our online exhibit, “Uptight and Laid-back: Iowa City in the 1960s.” To view the film in the online exhibit, go to https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/sixties/, scroll to videos, and click ‘On a Confrontation in Iowa City.’

Or see below:

Special Collections November Recap

Late October and November were filled with big events in Special Collections and the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Iowa Bibliophiles 15th Anniversary, 11-8-2017

The November meeting marked the 15^th anniversary of the group. In celebration, the evening’s talk was given by Arthur Bonfield, who gave the inaugural Bibliophiles talk in November, 2002.

Iowa Women’s Archives 25th Anniversary, 11-10-2017 – 11-11-2017

The Iowa Women’s Archives celebrated their 25th anniversary with an open house, a gallery tour, a gala dinner, and a full day symposium.

Teaching with Medieval Manuscripts

Teaching with Medieval manuscripts was a theme this month. Special Collections librarians and graduate student workers from the School of Library and Information Science all worked together to bring in all eight sections of the Medieval Art survey course Cave Paintings to Cathedrals (ARTH:1050:0A01).

Also this month Center for the Book faculty member Melissa Moreton partnered with librarians and graduate student workers to bring in two fifth grade classes from Horace Mann Elementary School to test a lesson teaching young students with medieval manuscripts.

“Saving Brinton” Documentary Premieres in New York City, November 9-16th

The documentary “Saving Brinton” premiered at DOC NYC. The documentary features a collection of very early motion pictures that are now housed in Special Collections. See a selection online. The documentary continues to play at film festivals around the country before a wider release next year. More.

NBC Nightly News Films in Special Collections, November 30, 2017

NBC Nightly News filmed a segment about miniature book creator, collector, and donor Charlotte Smith, and School of Library and Information Science student Bethany Kluender who has cataloged one thousand of the tiny books. The segment will air sometime in the next month.

University Archives Acquires History of Hydraulics Lab Collection

The C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory at the University of Iowa is one of the nation’s leading fluids-related research centers. Established in 1920, it is also historically significant. Recently the University Archives acquired a set of daily journals maintained by the laboratory’s first director, Floyd Nagler of the College of Engineering faculty. The typewritten logs document activity at the laboratory from 1921 to 1933, its first dozen years of operation. During this time, the laboratory was formally established as the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research (IIHR), and in 1932 ground was broken for the present-day structure on the west bank of the Iowa River.

Here is Prof. Nagler’s terse but turning-point entry from Tuesday, July 5, 1932:

“University Building Committee agreed to construct partitions in hydraulic laboratory addition. Contractor began excavation for foundation of laboratory.”

The journals have been added to the Records of the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research (collection no. RG 10.0006.001) and are open for research. The Dept. of Special Collections expresses its appreciation to Dennis A. Hill for making this acquisition possible.

To learn more about IIHR’s history, go to http://www.iihr.uiowa.edu/about/history/.

Andrei Codrescu’s Papers Arrive

Andrei Codrescu and Curator Timothy Shipe

New Episode of Historically Yours Podcast

Historically Yours Podcast: A Tale of Woe for Miss Rosa Poe with guest Peter Balestrieri

One From Our Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcDmg46DTDl/?taken-by=uispeccoll

“Freaky Friday” October Halloween Video Series on Facebook

Elizabeth Riordan, graduate student assistant in Special Collections and student in the Scho0l of Library and Information Science wrote and directed a Halloween film series for our Facebook premiering every Friday in October. Watch the whole playlist here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/uispeccoll/videos/

https://www.facebook.com/uispeccoll/videos/vl.156522105078668/1600728359950442/?type=1

Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

Historically Yours Podcast: A Tale of Woe for Miss Rosa Poe with guest Peter Balestrieri

Listen to the podcast:

Download this episode (right click and save)

For this episode of Historically Yours, Curator of Science Fiction and Popular Culture, Peter Balestrieri takes us back into the publishing industry reading a handwritten letter from 1868 written on behalf of Miss Rosa Poe, sister of Edgar Allan Poe.

Letter information:

MsL T473d

Thompson, John Reuben to Eugene Didier

28 January 1868

Letter text:

17 Lafayette Place:

New York City, 28 Jan. 1868

Dear Sir,

I am again compelled to remind you that you have returned no answer in the matter of the Juvenile Verses of Edgar Poe, which I submitted to you some time ago for “Southern Society” and to ask either that you will return me the Ms. or else authorize us to write to Miss Rosa Poe that she may draw upon you for $15 – the sum I named as compensation for them. I explained to you when I sent the Ms. that Miss Poe was in a very destitute situation, and that I had undertaken, purely as a work of charity, to find a purchaser for the verses. If you want them, write me to that effect at once, if you do not want them, send them back to me, for delay in a case of destitution is really really unreasonable.

I desire to get two copies of your paper containing my poem of “Music in Camp,” and one copy of the number which published Simms’ Sketch of [Timrod?]. If you will be good enough to send us these, and will let me know what I am to pay for them, I will send you the amount in postage stamps.

Very truly yours,

R. Thompson

Eugene Didier Esq.

Special Collections October Update

Newsfeed

This month’s Old Gold column from University Archivist David McCartney. A virtual look at a far-out time in Iowa City: UI archivist highlights web project that chronicles campus life in the 1960s. https://now.uiowa.edu/2017/10/old-gold-virtual-look-far-out-time-iowa-city

Slate magazine interview with Peter Balestrieri, curator of Science Fiction and Popular Culture, about launching a crowdsourcing opportunity for fans to connect with 1930s fanzines. Retyping the Future’s Past: An archival transcription project from the University of Iowa invites us to explore the history of science fiction.

Read the interview here.

Events

Join Special Collection for a pop-up exhibit of STRANGER READS! We will be featuring items that inspire the series, “Stranger Things”, along with some more frightful and unusual material. You’ll even be able to take a bit of our collections with you, in button form! We’ll have the library’s button maker available for you to create a button of your very own. See Facebook event.

Monday, October 20, 3pm, Group Area D, Learning Commons

Iowa Bibliophiles 15th Anniversary with Guest Speaker Arthur Bonfield

The Iowa Bibliophiles is a gathering of book collectors and those interested in the history of books, held monthly during the academic year at the University of Iowa Libraries. The November meeting marks the 15^th anniversary of the group. In celebration, the evening’s talk will be given by Arthur Bonfield, who gave the inaugural Bibliophiles talk in November, 2002.

We will gather for hors d oeuvres and refreshments at 6:30pm in the Special Collections Reading Room on the third floor of the University of Iowa’s Main Library. At 7:00pm Arthur Bonfield will talk about mathematical and descriptive (anthropocentric) geography as depicted in representative European books printed between 1493 and 1750. These books were frequently titled a “cosmography”,”geography”, “chronicle”, or “history”, and sought to describe various parts of the world as the authors understood it. A number of the geography books from this period will be available for viewing at the time of the talk. The event is free and open to all. More information.

Professor Arthur Bonfield is Allan Vestal Chair and Associate Dean Emeritus at the University of Iowa Law School and for the last 60 years has been collecting original copies of books printed during this period.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017, Special Collections Reading Room, 3rd Floor Main Library

The Iowa Women’s Archives will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary November 10-11, 2017.

There will be an open house, exhibition tours, a gala dinner with guest speaker Rekha Basu, and an all-day symposium on Saturday.

All events are free except the gala dinner. Please RSVP for the dinner and the symposium.

More information.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Colleen Theisen in advance at colleen-theisen@uiowa.edu or 319-335-5923.

From the Web and Social Media

Our podcast, Historically Yours, has a new episode reading a letter from Arkham House Publishers with details about printing and paper in 1943 during war time.

More information: https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/2017/10/25/historically-yours-podcast-episode-7-academics-fans-h-p-lovecraft-and-the-price-of-paper/

Our most recent Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BauRBFPjZhJ/?taken-by=uispeccoll

Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

Historically Yours Podcast: Academics, Fans, H.P. Lovecraft, and the price of paper

For this episode of Historically Yours, School of Library and Information Science graduate student Kathryn Heffner reads a typed letter on Arkham House letterhead with details relating to what it took to get HP Lovecraft published during World War II, both figuratively and literally.

Listen here:

Download this episode (right click and save)

Letter:

Msc0429, Thomas Ollive Mabbott Papers

August Derleth to Thomas Ollive Mabbott

9 June 1943

Dear Mr. Mabbott:
Many thanks for your card. However, Dyalhis is dead, I understand. What with WPB paper restrictions, slowness of the fans to buy, etc., half our authors will be dead and we’ll have trouble with their estates before we can public the books we want to do. For instance, we have Whitehead’s JUMBEE AND OTHER UNCANNY TALES ready to go, but we can’t get a release for the estate, nor could we get enough paper for even so little as 1000 copies! If we were to publish it now, we could get paper enough for 900 copies, but then we couldn’t publish the 2nd Lovecraft. As it is, we’ll probably have to publish half the Lovecraft edition this autumn, and then the other half after January 1st, if we can’t get enough paper released so that we can use it. We also have coming Donald Wandrei’s THE EYE AND THE FINGER, but this, too, is likely to be held back until 1945, unless we can get the paper for this second Lovecraft, which will in any case be delayed into later September.
All best wishes to you.
Sincerely,

Guest:

Kathryn E. Heffner

The University of Iowa, BLIS Student

Upcoming October Events

Handy Books exhibit reception.

Friday, October 6th, 12-1pm

Special Collections Reading Room

Saving Brinton,

The documentary was extended at Film Scene in Iowa City and has additional showings through at least October 11th.

The Reformation and Books – 500 Years Later

Wednesday, October 11 at 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Raymond Mentzer, Daniel J. Krumm Family Chair in Reformation Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, and Greg Prickman, Head of Special Collections will present about books and the Reformation during the 500th Anniversary Year. A selection of related books will be on display. Read more.

William Anthony Conservation Lecture—Mark Esser “Bookbinding Has Been Very Good to Me”

Thursday, October 12th. Light refreshments at 6pm. Talk at 6:30PM.
E105 Adler Journalism Building

Special Collections September Update

Newsfeed:

Tim Shipe has published an article on the Dada Archive in Romania’s leading art magazine, Revista ARTA. Entitled “Serving Dada Scholarship: The International Dada Archive at the University of Iowa,“ the article appeared in issue # 26/27 (2017).
The documentary Saving Brinton premieres tonight, Friday, September 29, at Film Scene in Iowa City. Read more.

Upcoming Events:

The Reformation and Books – 500 Years Later

Wednesday, October 11 at 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Current Exhibitions:

Current 3rd Floor Exhibition – Handy Books. Details here.

Current Main Library Gallery Exhibition – Iowa Women’s Archives 25 Collections for 25 years. Details here.

From the Web and Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZeszv9DbzV/?taken-by=uispeccoll

Heading to ICON Science Fiction Convention?

Curator of Science Fiction and Popular Culture, Peter Balestrieri, and Outreach and Engagement Librarian Colleen Theisen will be at ICON in Cedar Rapids this weekend speaking on panels and with a table in the dealer’s room. Once again this year the generous fan community has chosen the Rusty Hevelin Collection at the Special Collections at the University of Iowa Library as the recipient of all of the money raised at the charity auction to support the continued digitization and work on Rusty Hevelin’s collections, as part of his continued legacy.

Learn more about ICON.

Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

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“Saving Brinton” Documentary Premieres at Film Scene on Friday, 9/29

Frank and Indiana Brinton from Washington, Iowa toured the Midwest starting in the late 1890s putting on shows with motion pictures. More than 30 years ago, Washington, Iowa history teacher Michael Zahs took in their collection of early film history and kept it safe for more than 30 years, donating the collection to the University of Iowa in 2014. As that process started, a documentary crew started following Mr. Zahs and created Saving Brinton, a documentary about “Two men, born a century apart, bound together by 20,000 feet of film and the gently rolling hills of Washington County, Iowa.”

See selections from the collections, including a few of the only surviving copies of films thought lost, and selections of films that were colored by hand!:

https://brinton.lib.uiowa.edu/

And catch the film starting Friday at Film Scene in Iowa City. Greg Prickman, head of Special Collections is there throughout the film, and you can catch glimpses of many other UI librarians and faculty in the film.

University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives Greg Prickman and his family walking the red carpet at State Theatre in Washington, Iowa.

Read press coverage:

Smithsonian Magazine

Iowa City Press Citizen

Des Moines Register

Cedar Rapids Gazette

Little Village

Watch the trailer for the film below:

“Handy Books” Exhibit Comes to Special Collections September 15th

Sunday, August 20, 2017 – 8:00am to Friday, September 15, 2017 – 5:00pm

Friday, September 15, 2017 – 8:00am to Wednesday, November 1, 2017 – 5:00pm

UI Special Collections, 3rd Floor Main Library

An exhibit of works that engage not just the eye, but also the hands—through folds, flaps, tabs, slices, pop-ups, embossing, decay, wear, mutilation, feel—mind and hand linked by the book. On display with the historic books that inspired the artists’ creations.

September 15 – November 1,
Unversity of Iowa Special Collections
Main Library, 3rd Floor

Big Events from Summer 2017 in Special Collections

BIG EVENTS FROM SUMMER 2017:

UI Libraries Hosted the Rare Books and Manuscripts Conference

The University of Iowa Libraries hosted the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association for their annual conference June 21-23. Staff from Special Collections spent more than a year planning for the event and dozens of librarians, faculty and artists from The Center for the Book, and local volunteers assisted the 500 librarians experience a conference that was “fulfilling” and “excellent.” The event included guest speakers, panels, workshops at the Center for the Book, and a record breaking Instagram Meetup.

https://www.tumblr.com/uicb/162097731714/rbms17-uicb-experience-sessions-papermaking-and

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVpZVz4AlPY/?taken-by=americanantiquarian

“Power to the Printers” Exhibit and Iowa City Feminists’ Reunion

The summer exhibition in the Main Library Gallery closes today, August 25, 2017. “Power to the Printers: The Alternative Press in Iowa City 1965-1985” featured underground printing from Iowa City underground newspapers like the “Iowa City Oppressed Citizen” to printing from the Iowa City Women’s Press Cooperative.

Iowa City feminists and members of the Women’s Press Cooperative returned to Iowa City for a reunion in early June to coincide with some of their materials from the Iowa Women’s Archives being on display. You can read the Cedar Rapids Gazette coverage of the Power to the Printers exhibit and the Feminists’ Reunion.:

STAFF CHANGES:

Special Collections Instruction Librarian Amy Chen has moved to the Research and Library Instruction Department to take a position as the English and American Literature Librarian. You can still reach her at amy-chen@uiowa.edu.
John Fifield finished two years as our Olson Graduate Assistant. Join us in thanking him for two years of incredible work and wishing him well on the job market!
Micaela Terronez has joined us as the new 2017-2019 Olson Gradate Assistant. Micaela is a graduate student in the School of Library and Information Science and holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Anthropology from Augustana College.
Margaret Gamm is now Assistant Head and Curator of Rare Books.
Lindsay Moen is now Public Services Librarian.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

40 Years of Work: Peter and Donna Thomas

40 Years of Work: Peter and Donna Thomas

You can RSVP to this event on the UI Events Calendar.

Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

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