News & Announcements – Page 24 – Special Collections and Archives at the University of Iowa

Special Collections Update 4/8/2016

Newsfeed:

Blog post: Updates on History of the Book: The Game by Amy Chen. https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/2016/04/04/updates-on-history-of-the-book-the-game/
Blog post: Felicia Rice and Guillermo Gómez-Peña Artwork Doc/Undoc on Display. https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/speccoll/2016/04/05/felicia-rice-and-guillermo-gomez-pena-artwork-docundoc-on-display/
Iconic artist Corita Kent profiled on CBS Sunday morning: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/corita-kent-an-overshadowed-pop-art-icon/Kent was born in 1918 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. You can learn more about her in the Iowa Women’s Archives, where many of her serigraph prints are preserved in the papers of her lifelong friend Josephine Pletscher.
New site proposed for UI art museum http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/education/university-of-iowa/2016/04/03/new-location-university-of-iowa-museum-art/82587646/

Events:

Wednesday, 4/13: Iowa Bibliophiles, Jane Murphy and Mark Brookfield, 36 year partners in Murphy-Brookfield Books, will talk about the enormous changes brought on by Internet bookselling in the last 20+ years. (Refreshments 6:30 PM, Talk 7:00 PM, Special Collections Reading Room).
Saturday, 4/30: Music & Magic Lanterns at CSPS in Cedar Rapids. More information: http://bestevents.us/cedar-rapids-music-and-magic-lanterns/1087032

Upcoming Deadlines:

Extended to 4/15: Apply for the Linda and Richard Kerber fund for financial support for those traveling to do research in the Iowa Women’s Archives. Read more.
Friday, 6/3: Proposals for seminars for the 2017 Rare Books and Manuscripts Conference held in Iowa City. Read More.

Instruction:

Last week, we had eight classes in special collections plus a visit from Twinrocker Paper’s Kathy and Howie Clark on Friday afternoon. The Clarks spoke to an audience of Center for the Book faculty and students and generously shared examples of their work.

New Acquisition:

Poems of Thomas Gray, illustrations by William Blake

This Folio Society reproduction is absolutely gorgeous, and while we’ve posted about it before on social media, I couldn’t resist another go. “Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Golden Fishes” also seemed to deserve highlighting.

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BD81_oQRx7i/?taken-by=uispeccoll

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Felicia Rice and Guillermo Gómez-Peña Artwork Doc/Undoc on Display

Last week Special Collections the Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professors Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Felicia Rice stopped by Special Collections for a performance and their collaborative work Doc/Undoc is now on display.

Rice performed “DOC/UNDOC: Collaboration and Metamorphosis,” followed by a conversation with Guillermo Gómez-Peña on March 31st.

Gómez-Peña is a performance artist whose live art, video, radio, photography, and writing have earned acclaim — and many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship — over the past thirty years. He is the artistic director of the transnational performance collective La Pocha Nostra.

Rice’s design, printing, and publication work for her Moving Parts Press (Santa Cruz, CA) has been exhibited at major book fairs in New York and Frankfurt, and collected by the Whitney Museum, the Bodleian Library, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. Rice is also an educator who teaches courses in letterpress printing, typography, printmaking, typography, and bookmaking at institutions ranging from UC-Santa Cruz to the Santa Cruz YWCA.

Together with their collaborators, Gómez-Peña and Rice have published artists’ books including DOC/UNDOC: Documentado/Undocumented, Ars Shamánica Performática (2014), a copy of which is held by UI’s Special Collections.

Doc/Undoc as well as selections of work from the Moving Parts Press on loan from Felicia Rice are on display in the third floor hallway gallery cases outside of Special Collections until May 20th, 2016.

Event 3/31:

Jennifer Buckley from the English Department introducing Rice

Rice's book from Doc/Undoc — Rice’s book from Doc/Undoc

Doc/Undoc Exhibition:

Display created by Ellen Wrede.

DOC/UNDOC : Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática / texts Guillermo Gómez-Peña, images & bookwork Felicia Rice, video Guillermo Gómez-Peña & Gustavo Vazquez, critical commentary Jennifer González, sound art Zachary Watkins. Santa Cruz, CA : Moving Parts Press, 2014.

Special Collections x-Collection N7433.4.G644 D63 2014

Thanks to the UI Deparment of English, The Department of Theater Arts, The University of Iowa Center for the Book, The Obermann Center, Jennifer Buckley, Tim Barrett, Ellen Wrede, Giselle Simón, Candida Pagan, Heidi Bartlett and everyone from Special Collections who worked to make the event and exhibition possible.

Updates on History of the Book: The Game

Heidi Wiren Bartlett and Colleen Theisen play History of the Book: The Game.

By Amy Chen

Amy Chen hosted the fifth play test for the History of the Book: The Game. Four library staff played this time: Heidi Wiren Bartlett, the Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio Designer; Colleen Theisen, Outreach Librarian for Special Collections; Kelly Grogg, senior Olson Graduate Assistant for Special Collections; and Laura Hampton, Digital Project Librarian for Special Collections. Greg Prickman, head of Special Collections, sat in on the play test.

While the game is likely going to have a name change at some point in the future, you can continue to follow its development on Twitter by following Amy at @amyhildrethchen or the hashtag #hotb. In the next few weeks, following a short period for a few minor revisions, the game will be available for broader play testing either during the work day or for at-home check out. If you are interested in “checking out” the game, please contact Amy.

Special Collections Weekly Update 4/1/2016

Jody Braverman and Jeannette discuss his mother’s papers.

Events:

Wednesday, 4/13: Iowa Bibliophiles, Jane Murphy and Mark Brookfield, 36 year partners in Murphy-Brookfield Books, will talk about the enormous changes brought on by Internet bookselling in the last 20+ years. (Refreshments 6:30 PM, Talk 7:00 PM, Special Collections Reading Room).

Upcoming Deadlines:

Extended to April 15: Apply for the Linda and Richard Kerber fund for financial support for those traveling to do research in the Iowa Women’s Archives. Read more.

Instruction:

March instruction count: 37 class sessions
We’re starting to see an uptick in students beginning their research on final projects, so we wish to remind students interested in working with primary sources to contact Instruction Librarian Amy Chen (amy-chen@uiowa.edu) if they need help identifying and/or analyzing materials. Faculty, feel free to give students Amy’s contact information if you feel they need research assistance.

Event Recap:

Last Thursday, we celebrated Women’s History Month in the Iowa Women’s Archives with a reception and presentation by IWA Graduate Assistant Jeannette Gabriel. Jeanette works on the Jewish Women in Iowa Project, an initiative focused on collecting and preserving the history of Jewish women in our state. Jeannette’s presentation, We Did So Much Beyond the Home: Jewish Women & Community Life in Iowa, highlighted the accomplishments of women whose papers have been donated to the Archives, including Joan Lipsky, Gusti Kollman, Miriam Canter, Mildred Lavin, Elizabeth Cohn, Lillian Brodkey, and Blanche Redman.

After the talk, there was a question and answer period that touched on the history of Jewish refugees and the current refugee crisis, as well as Jewish migratory patterns across the state.

Jeannette Gabriel presents We Did So Much Beyond the Home.

Gusti Kollman talks with history professor emerita Linda Kerber and history department chair, Lisa Heineman.

donor Gusti Kollman talks with Jeannette. — Donor Gusti Kollman talks with Jeannette.

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDYzXG5Rx6Q/?taken-by=uispeccoll

Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

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Special Collections Weekly Update 3/25/2016

Newsfeed:

Blog post: Norwalk High School Artists Connect with History to Inspire New Creative Work by Heather Wacha. Read more.
Blog post: March 30: Felicia Rice “Doc/Undoc” performance followed by a public conversation with Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Read more.
Old Gold: The View From Above: UI archivist shares websites that feature aerial photos of campus, state by David McCartney. Read more.

Events:

Wednesday, 3/30: Felicia Rice, Doc/Undoc (lecture performance), followed by a public conversation with Guillermo Gόmez-Pẽna (5 PM, Special Collections Reading Room). Read more.
Wednesday, 3/30: Historic Foodies Meeting (6:00-8:00 PM, Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room B).
Wednesday, 4/13: Iowa Bibliophiles, Jane Murphy and Mark Brookfield, 36 year partners in Murphy-Brookfield Books, will talk about the enormous changes brought on by Internet bookselling in the last 20+ years. (Refreshments 6:30 PM, Talk 7:00 PM, Special Collections Reading Room).

Upcoming Deadlines:

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 15, 2016: Apply for the Linda and Richard Kerber fund for financial support for those traveling to do research in the Iowa Women’s Archives. Read more.

Instruction:

Spring Break week we had two class sessions: one from Grinnell and one from Coe College. Special collections staff co-taught a one credit museums studies spring break course with campus museum curators.

This week, we’re clearly back in business! We’ve supported 12 class sessions including: a graduate Spanish class, a graduate English class, a high school visit to see medieval manuscripts, English as a Second Language, Center for the Book, undergraduate English, and a class for the School of Library and Information Science. – Amy Chen

New Acquisitions:

These broadsides have been here for some time, but haven’t made it all the way through processing yet, so I’m still counting them as new! I’ve been walking by them every day admiring the color and fine lines of the illustrations. -Margaret Gamm xf PS3569 P48 R3 1986

Half music, half murmur / David Hamilton. Iowa City : Empyrean Press, 2009. x-Collection Broadside FOLIO PS3558.A44279 H35 2009
Rabbits do not know what they are : aphorism / by Jack Spicer. Los Angeles, Calif. : Printed at the Bieler Press for Granary Books, 1986. x-Collection Broadside FOLIO PS3569.P48 R3 1986
Jurassic seas / Hugh Fox. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Mudborn Press, c1979. x-Collection Broadside FOLIO PS3556.O9 J87 1979

Social Media:

The Iowa Women’s Archives had a post featured by Tumblr as part of a special curated group of posts for Women’s History Month. Consequently, the post now has nearly 1000 likes and reblogs. See the post about Gwendolyn Fowler and life after graduating as a certified pharmacist from the State University of Iowa in 1936 here: http://iowawomensarchives.tumblr.com/post/139180162183/top-gwendolyn-fowler-in-honolulu-bottom-fowler

In this episode of Staxpeditions a trip to the DQ call number range does lead to book exploration, but also to thoughts that drift to another DQ…

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Norwalk High School Artists Connect with History to Inspire New Creative Work

By Heather Wacha

On Tuesday March 22, 2016 Special Collections welcomed 28 students from Norwalk High School, Norwalk, IA. The students were those of art teacher Maggie Harlow-Vogt. They had traveled all the way from Norwalk to Iowa City seeking inspiration from Special Collections and the Library’s Conservation Lab for their next art projects!

The Norwalk students have been tasked with using their experiences and insights from the Special Collections visit to think more profoundly about what makes a book a book. Their conversations and interactions with the books will be used to inspire pottery, metal-smithing and 3D design projects. The group of 28 split into two smaller groups so that while one was was visiting the Conservation Lab, the other was able to learn about and experience an array of rare books, manuscripts and artists’ books from the twelfth to twenth-first century. Of special note on display was a 1699 Spanish will, the manuscript at the heart of this collaboration.

Heather Wacha, a graduate student in the Department of History, has been working to introduce area high school students to the value and importance of resources held in Special Collections. The Norwalk visit is part of a larger project that involves University of Iowa students transcribing and translating a 1699 Spanish will held in Special Collections for digital publication. The art students from Norwalk High School, along with Spanish students from Central Academy in Des Moines, are interacting with the Spanish will in a variety of ways that both fit their class curriculum and simultaneously generate enthusiasm and creativity. Each student’s final project will be able to be published on the same website that will hold the manuscript’s digital publication created by the UI students.

From Harlow-Vogt’s perspective, Tuesday’s visit sparked amazing conversations in the bus on the way home. The following day in their art classes, Harlow-Vogt noted that “The students who did not go to the University of Iowa were a bit overwhelmed by the passion and excitement that the other students brought back with them. Those that could not go felt that they had really missed out on a great adventure!”

Heather Wacha is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History researching the history of the book and 12th/13th century women in northern France. She is also a Specialist Researcher in Special Collections working to identify and describe Medieval manuscript leaves. You can see her work with History Corps and view her If Books Could Talk videos on the UISpecColl YouTube channel. She tweets @hgwacha.

March 30: Felicia Rice “Doc/Undoc” performance followed by a public conversation with Guillermo Gómez-Peña

Two artists, Felicia Rica and Guillermo Gómez-Peña will be on campus next week as Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professors, working with students and appearing in several public performances. As part of this event series, Rice will perform on March 30th at 5pm in the Special Collections Reading Room, performing with Doc/Undoc, an incredible multi-media artwork housed in Special Collections. The performance will be followed by a conversation with Guillermo Gómez-Peña, who collaborated on the work. This is a unique opportunity to hear from the artists as they interact with the work. Following the performance, Doc/Undoc will remain on display in Special Collections through the month of April along with other Moving Parts Press work on loan from Felicia Rice.

“The book invites us to consider an ongoing tension as we navigate a world of politics

and appearance, racism and immigration, self and other.” —Jennifer A. González

Wednesday, 3/30: Felicia Rice, “Doc/Undoc” (lecture performance), followed by a public conversation with Gómez-Peña (5 p.m., Special Collections Reading Room, 3rd Floor Main Library).

DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática is a limited edition artists’ book. The outcome of a seven-year collaboration, this edition of 65 books features Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s performance texts and Felicia Rice’s relief prints and typography, accompanied by Jennifer González’s critical commentary. Of these, a deluxe edition of 15 is housed in a hi-tech aluminum case containing a video by Gustavo Vazquez, an altar, and a cabinet of curiosities. Opening the case triggers light and Zachary Watkins’ interactive sound art.

This series of short monologues traces Rice’s metamorphosis from book artist/printer to artist/performer. The performance begins with the publication of DOC/UNDOC and wends its way through a series of experiences and epiphanies that reach back to her early years. DOC/UNDOC’s subtitle, Documentado/Undocumented, points to a painful dichotomy: “documentado” in Spanish implies having access to cultural traditions and rituals that flourish in Mexico, whereas the term “undocumented” in the United States implies a lack of citizenship, power, rights and knowledge. The second subtitle, Ars

Shamánica Performática, speaks of the very personal, transformative experience offered by the book and case, an invitation to “Choose an object, find a poetic way of using it. Reimagine yourself, tell a new story.” In some way every immigrant must reinvent his or her self, just as every artist must cross into the unknown and return to tell the tale.

More information on the event series: http://book.grad.uiowa.edu/events/march-2016/gomez-pena-and-rice

Special Collections Weekly Update 3/18/2016

Newsfeed:

Blog post: The History of the Book: The Game to be used in Fall 2016 curricula by Amy Chen.
Blog post: In Plain Sight: Autograph Collections Yield Unrealized Riches by Jacque Roethler.
Blog post: Rescuing Photographic Negatives by Nancy Kraft.
“Equity at Iowa” a collaborative project between English professor Judith Pascoe and UI Libraries staff: http://equityatiowa.tumblr.com/
This week, “Talk of Iowa” played an encore of “Treasured Ink: Is Cursive a Thing of the Past” featuring Greg Prickman http://iowapublicradio.org/post/encore-treasured-ink-cursive-thing-past
On March 10, Tim Shipe gave a gallery talk at the Des Moines Arts Center in connection with the exhibition “Arts and Letters.” Three works from U of I Libraries Special Collections, including Salvador Dali’s illustrations of Alice in Wonderland, are on display in the exhibition, which continues through May 1st. http://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/exhibitions/arts-letters

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, 3/24: Jeannette Gabriel, We Did So Much Beyond the Home: Jewish Women and Community Life in Iowa (4 p.m., Iowa Women’s Archives). http://events.uiowa.edu/event/we_did_so_much_beyond_the_home_jewish_women_and_community_life_in_iowa
Saturday, 3/26: Latin Paleography Workshop, Instructors: Sarah Bond, Yvonne Seale, Heather Wacha, Room 1140 Main Library. Register: https://uiowa.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9XZkqhyaFTrY4Wp
Wednesday, 3/30: Felicia Rice, Doc/Undoc (lecture performance), followed by a public conversation with Guillermo Gόmez-Pẽna (5 PM, Special Collections Reading Room). http://book.grad.uiowa.edu/events/march-2016/gomez-pena-and-rice
Wednesday, 3/30: Historic Foodies Meeting (6:00-8:00 PM, Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room B).
Wednesday, 4/13: Iowa Bibliophiles, Jane Murphy and Mark Brookfield, 36 year partners in Murphy-Brookfield Books, will talk about the enormous changes brought on by Internet bookselling in the last 20+ years. (Refreshments 6:30 PM, Talk 7:00 PM, Special Collections Reading Room).

Upcoming Deadlines:

DEADLINE MARCH 21, 2016: Apply to be our next Olson Graduate Assistant http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/graduate-assistant-job-postings/6409/olson-graduate-research-assistantship-at-special-collections
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 15, 2016: Apply for the Linda and Richard Kerber fund for financial support to research in the Iowa Women’s Archives http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/kerber/

New Acquisition:

This week’s new acquisition arrived with a large donation of community cookbooks from the collection of Dorothy Mallinger. Since I was very confused about what to do with a plethora of rhubarb last year, these five dessert recipes should come in handy as the weather warms up. – Margaret Gamm

Instruction:

Amy Chen continues to develop The History of the Book: The Game. Read more, or follow the hashtag #hotb on Twitter.
Members of University of Iowa Collections Coalition from museums and libraries around campus, including Colleen Theisen from Special Collections, are teaching a week long spring break seminar on the continuing role of physical collections.

Students examining historic clothing and dolls — Students investigating mystery objects

Students learning to look like a history detective

Students visiting the State Historical Society

Social Media:

The Hevelin Collection Tumblr posted this gloriously purple hectograph fanzine from the Rusty Hevelin Science Fiction Collection.

https://www.tumblr.com/hevelincollection/141217061614/this-issue-of-fanfare-is-a-lovely-example-of-pink

Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

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The History of the Book: The Game to be used in Fall 2016 curricula

Image of Katie Hassman, the winner of the game

By: Amy H. Chen

“The year is 1450. Johannes Gutenberg is printing a book, one of the first in the world. When he is finished, the printed book is born. Follow the history of the book through the next six centuries, through technological advancements, scientific breakthroughs, artistic triumphs, shifts in the socio-political climate, and the fluctuating financial market.”

The following comes from the introduction to Special Collections Instruction Librarian Amy Chen’s game based on book history. This game can be played with cards only, as an enrichment activity within a traditional course, or as a stand-alone class.

Amy developed her game out of her interest in how gamification contributes to increased student learning outcomes in the classroom. Gamification offers students the ability to combine pedagogical challenges with play, motivating them to use fun to work through learning curves. To read a longer introduction to gamification, read Bohyun Kim’s “Keeping up with… Gamification” on the ACRL Blog.

On Tuesday, March 8, Amy conducted a play test of the card version of the game. A play test is when the game is played in order to figure out how the game’s design could be improved. Eight librarians, in two separate rounds of play, contributed their feedback. The first photograph is from the beginning of one of the play tests. The second photograph is of Katie Hassman, Undergraduate Engagement Librarian, who won her round.

After revising the game back on the comments she received, Amy will be interested in reaching out to partner faculty who might like to integrate the game into their course discussions or assignments. If you are an instructor or faculty member at the University of Iowa and you are interested in learning more about the game or testing it for yourself later this spring, please email amy-chen@uiowa.edu.

Additionally, Amy will be teaching an honors first year seminar (1 credit hour) this fall on book history using the game to structure the entire semester’s class meetings, readings, and discussion.

You can follow the development of this game, which began in December 2015, by watching the hashtag #hotb on Amy’s twitter feed @amyhildrethchen.

In Plain Sight: Autograph Collections Yield Unrealized Riches

signatures for Arthur Conan Doyle, George Gershwin, Harry Houdini, Helen Keller, and Carrie Nation.

By Jacque Roethler, Manuscripts Processing Coordinator Librarian

We recently came across two autograph collections in our stacks from collectors named Charles Alrich and Peggy LeBold which we have combined into one collection. Each one was very sparsely described and their catalog entries did not tell the full story of the riches inside. One was collected by Charles Aldrich, who was active in archives in Iowa, helping to establish the Iowa Historical Department. A newspaperman, he founded the Hamilton Freeman paper in Webster City, Iowa. He also had an interest in ornithology and was a founding member of the American Ornithological Union. He broke his collection down into the following seven categories: Authors, Artists and Editors; Iowa Autographs; Reformers, Philanthropists, Educators, Clergymen, Scholars; Rossetti Collection; Scientists; Soldiers, Sailors, and Explorers; and Statesmen and Lawyers. The Rossetti collection is the collection of William Rossetti, editor and critic and brother and Christina and Gabriel Dante, and includes signatures from many of the people in the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

About Peggy LeBold less in known. She and her husband Foreman M. (Mike) lived in Chicago and were great collectors. Mike LeBold was president of the Morris Paper Mills. Their primary areas for collecting were presidents of the United States and Lincolniana. Before his death he distributed his collections among many institutions. This collection represents many disciplines and contains photographs of some of the signatories.

The image contains items from the Le Bold portion of the collection. Reading clockwise from the left are signatures for Arthur Conan Doyle, George Gershwin, Harry Houdini, Helen Keller, and Carrie Nation.

Find out more about this collection newly combined and described:

Autograph Collection: MsC1052 http://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/2685