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Tag: donation

Jul 28 2021

Celebrating Beatrix Potter’s Birthday with New Acquisitions

Posted on July 28, 2021July 28, 2021 by Elizabeth Riordan

The following is written by Public Services Librarian, Lindsay Moen

Today marks the 155th birthday of renowned children’s book author, Beatrix Potter. Potter was best known as the author and illustrator of cherished tales such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, and The Tailor of Gloucester. While Peter Rabbit might be the primary character people recognize today, Potter has many additional works credited to her name, which emphasizes her literary accomplishments.

At University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections & Archives, we are fortunate enough to hold a few treasures from the Beatrix Potter catalog. First and foremost is our copy of Potter’s privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which she published independently in 1901 after being turned down by at least six publishers. You can read more about our copy here.

As we commemorate Potter’s 155th birthday, our department has another reason to celebrate as we have welcomed some wonderful new Potter additions to our holdings. These new materials come from the personal collection of Kara Sewall, a longtime member of the Beatrix Potter Society and expert on Potter collectibles and merchandise. Longtime friend and fellow Beatrix Potter Society member, Kathy Cole, reflects that Kara “devoted her own time and resources to sharing her love of Beatrix Potter with others. She did this well before the days of the internet by typing and posting a ‘Potter-gram’ to update collectors of new items that became available.” (1) 

Sewall passed away in February 2020, leaving behind a legacy in the Beatrix Potter world. We at Special Collections & Archives are very fortunate to hold a selection of materials from her personal collection. We know these materials will be appreciated by Peter Rabbit fans and researchers for years to come.

Sewall’s donation includes a lovely selection of new materials, but some highlights include copies of Sister Anne, and first editions of The Pie and the Patty Pan and Ginger and Pickles.

Sister Anne is Beatrix Potter’s version of the story of Bluebeard and is one of her lesser-known tales. This is primarily due to the book being illustrated by Katharine Sturges, rather than Potter herself. At the time of publication, Potter was 66 and her eyesight was too poor to complete the illustrations. This book was only published in the United States by David McKay Company in1932 and was the last of Beatrix Potter’s stories to be published in her lifetime. (2)

The first editions of The Pie and the Patty Pan and Ginger and Pickles are also wonderful additions to Iowa’s collection. These are prime examples of the variety involved in collecting Potter’s works. Both titles went through various publication changes. For example, for The Pie and the Patty Pan, the early printings have plain, mottled lavender endpapers, which were shortly replaced by an endpaper design featuring the pie and the patty-pan. The cover picture was then changed from a cat in a small circle, to one of Ribby, the cat sitting by the fire in a large circle. Our newly acquired copy is a first edition, and therefore features the cat in the portrait circle. (3)

We hope fans of Beatrix Potter and children’s books alike will enjoy these new additions to our collection.

Special Collections & Archives would like to thank Kathy Cole for facilitating this donation.

 

Cover of Ginger & Pickles, 1909
Illustration from Ginger & Pickles, 1909
Cover of The Pie and the Patty-Pan, 1905
Illustration from The Pie and the Patty-Pan, 1905

Resources

  1. “Obituaries”. The Beatrix Potter Society Journal and Newsletter No. 152. The Beatrix Potter Society, May 2020, pp. 33.

      2. Linder, Leslie. A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter. Frederick Warne & Company, 1971, pp. 324-326.

      3. Linder, Leslie. A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter. Frederick Warne & Company, 1971, pp. 425.

Additional Resources

Click here to see the digitized version of our privately printed Tale of Peter Rabbit

Learn more about Iowa’s privately printed Tale of Peter Rabbit in the Summer Seminar Series YouTube video: Into the Vault: Iowa’s Privately Printed Peter Rabbit

Posted in New Acquisitions, NewsTagged beatrix potter, children's literature, donation, Lindsay Moen, peter rabbit
Portrait photo of Tom Brokaw - public domain image
Nov 10 2016

Tom Brokaw Donates His Papers and Artifacts to UI Libraries

Posted on November 10, 2016December 2, 2016 by Colleen Theisen

Collection spans five decades of work as TV journalist, correspondent for NBC

Tom Brokaw, former anchor of the NBC Nightly News and co-anchor of the Today show, attended the UI early in his academic career and has been a longtime Hawkeye supporter. This morning he announced on the Today show that he was donating papers and artifacts representing his 50 year career to UI Libraries.

Read about this historic donation in Iowa Now: http://spr.ly/60188GHGm

Pan Am bag, photo, and letters from Tom Brokaw's papers
Selections from Tom Brokaw's Papers
Portrait photo of Tom Brokaw - public domain image

In describing his donation on the Today Show on November 10, 2016, Brokaw praised the UI Libraries and cited the “World Class” library as being one of the reasons for his donation. Stay tuned to this space to learn more about the collection, how to access it, and for future news about Mr. Brokaw.

Watch the video segment from The Today Show here: https://goo.gl/5EACfA

new-piktochart_17994151_1f966390b7725f0ec35b26cb7806bb552b4b619f

 


Donate to the University Libraries’ Special Collections Fund

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Posted in NewsTagged berlin wall, donation, greatest generation, today show, tom brokaw, UI Libraries
Image of John Fifield Presenting about the library at the Recoleta
Oct 16 2015

News From Special Collections 10/16/2015

Posted on October 16, 2015January 14, 2019 by Colleen Theisen

Librarians in the Wild:

ICON Science Fiction Convention October 16-18th, 2015

Image of the front cover of the first ICON convention program
ICON Program, 1975

The ICON Science Fiction convention began 40 years ago, born from a passionate group of fans that met in a science fiction class taught here at the University of Iowa by the Hugo and Nebula award winning author Joe Haldeman, and the same group who formed a U.I. student group called S.F.L.I.S. (Science Fiction League of Iowa Students). This weekend marks the convention’s 40th Anniversary. (See the program booklet for the first ICON convention from 1975: Here).

The 40th Anniversary convention is taking place this weekend at the Doubletree in downtown Cedar Rapids.  (There is still time to register). A partner exhibition is being held at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art including works created by each Artist Guest of Honor that has been a featured guest in the history of the convention.

Special Collections staff with an oversized checkAt the opening ceremonies Friday night, University of Iowa Librarians Peter Balestrieri and Colleen Theisen will be officially presented with a check for $1955.00 that was raised by the community in an auction last year to be used to support the digitization of the 1930s-1950s fanzines in the James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Science Fiction Collection. Rusty was a beloved member of the ICON community, and the community came together both donating items to be auctioned and bidding on those items in a heartwarming display of support for the University of Iowa’s role in carrying on the care and legacy of Rusty and his collection.

You will be able to catch the University of Iowa librarians throughout the weekend at the convention, both at a table in the dealer’s room where you can pick up our zine detailing the current status of the Hevelin Fanzine Digitization Project, and also at various panels throughout the weekend about Science Fiction and zine history, about using a University Library for research as a writer, and as co-conspirators for a project to make a mimeographed fanzine over the course of the weekend.

Read more about the Fanzine Digitization Project: Slate article or Official FAQ.

Read more about the donation: Here

 

Event Recap:

Iowa Bibliophiles October Meeting

Image of John Fifield Presenting about the library at the Recoleta

Wednesday, October 14th, John Fifield, one of our current Olson Graduate Assistants, presented about his work this summer at the Convent of the Recoleta in Arequipa, Peru, where he assisted with identifying and cataloging early printed books in the convent’s collection.  In the photo on the screen (click thumbnail to enlarge) you can see images of the exquisite handcrafted display cases in the convent library that were built by Bill Voss, of the University of Iowa conservation lab, on an unrelated trip in years past. Thanks to everyone who attended, especially the many new faces this month! The lively Q&A that followed the talk had to be cut short due to time constraints, so any unanswered follow up questions can be directed to john-fifield@uiowa.edu.

An example from UI Special Collections of a typical 17th-century Peruvian book will be in the case just inside the doors of Special Collections for the rest of October if you would like to stop by and learn about printing in Peru during the Spanish Colonial period.

 

 

From the Web and Social Media:

1. This month’s Old Gold column

1960 U I Football Team Photo

Remembering a time when postseason play was limited: 1960 Hawkeye football squad loses once, misses out on Rose Bowl

University Archivist David McCartney’s monthly Old Gold column tasks him with being a sports writer this month.

Photo: The 1960 Hawkeye football team. Image courtesy of University of Iowa Yearbooks collection, Department of Special Collections and University Archives, UI Libraries.

 

2. Weekly Dada related posts on Instagram – #dadagrams

Tim Shipe, curator of the International Dada Archives, has been posting about Dada on Instagram once a week on Thursdays. The #dadagram series will continue as a lead up to the 100th Anniversary celebration in 2017.  Fans of Dada should definitely keep tabs on this series on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

This week's #dadagram is Walter Serner's Letzte Lockerung! Serner was active in the Dada movement on Switzerland and France. His "Letzte Lockerung" was published as a "Dada Manifesto" in 1920; in the expanded 1927 edition, he would change the subtitle to "A Handbook for Swindlers (and Would-Be Swindlers). [xPT2639 E8 L4 1920] #uiowa #specialcollections #libraries #dada #dadaatiowa #walterserner #switzerland #france #letzelockerung #20thcentury

A post shared by U. of Iowa Special Collections (@uispeccoll) on Sep 24, 2015 at 12:52pm PDT

 

3. Milestone Reached – 20,000 likes & reblogs

Sometimes it is nice to step back and recognize milestones. This animated GIF of re-sewing a text block on single raised cords upstairs in the UI Conservation Lab is now one of the most popular social media post we’ve ever made. With comments like “OMG, I’ve wondered how to do that for the longest time!”, it’s clear that even a momentary snippet can bring to light some of the otherwise invisible work that happens behind the scenes in the library.

https://uispeccoll.tumblr.com/post/121122960772/re-sewing-a-text-block-on-single-raised-cords

 

New Acquisitions:

1. Georg von Logau. Hoc volumine continentur…poëtæ tres egregii. Augsburg 1534

Latin classes return to Special Collections every semester to survey the material history of the transmission of Latin authors through time. We hope to see this little book used in many Latin classes over the years. Featuring work by Gattius , Nemesianus, and Calpurnius, it focuses on hunting, fishing, sporting dogs, and country life, and should be a very approachable text for even brief visits.

Title Page Image
Inside Text Image

2. Peter and Donna Thomas The Renaissance Pleasure Faire Broadsides, 1974-2011.

A retrospective collection of ten typographic broadsides that Peter and Donna Thomas made when working at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The broadsides were all letterpress printed on Peter’s handmade paper. They were illustrated with linoleum cuts and watercolor rubrication by Donna. An introductory broadside and a book they published in 1988 with a photographic history of the Faire are included with the broadsides.

https://vine.co/v/eQraX7BnZwD

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Posted in News, Weekly UpdateTagged 1960 Hawkeye Football, colleen theisen, dada, donation, greg prickman, Hoc volumine continentur, icon, Iowa Bibliophiles, Old Gold, Peter and Donna Thomas, Peter Balestrieri, The Renaissance Pleasure Faire Broadsides, tumblr
Special Collections staff with an oversized check
Jul 28 2015

Science Fiction Fans Raise $1,955 To Support Hevelin Collection Digitization

Posted on July 28, 2015January 14, 2019 by Colleen Theisen

Every year at the ICON Science Fiction convention in Cedar Rapids the organizers collect fan created artwork, crafts, and donated memorabilia which are auctioned off to support charities and projects.  Last fall, the chosen project was The University of Iowa Libraries’ initiative to digitize the James L. “Rusty” Hevelin Science Fiction collection, an especially meaningful choice to the community, resulting in an outpouring of donations and fast-paced bidding wars.

Rusty Hevelin was a science fiction fan, pulp collector, fanzine creator, huckster (a dealer at conventions), and voracious reader for most of his 89 years. He was also involved with the Iowa Science Fiction conventions ICON and Demicon from the time of their founding.  After his death in 2011, his collections came to the University of Iowa Special Collections where a recent unprecedented initiative to digitize around 10,000 of the earliest fanzines from roughly 1930s-1950s has begun.

The University of Iowa Libraries’ Community is deeply grateful for the generosity of the science fiction community and for their support.

The next ICON science fiction and fantasy convention will be at the Cedar Rapids Doubletree on October 16-18, 2015.  Details here.

Special Collections staff with an oversized check

 

Posted in News, Science Fiction and Popular CultureTagged donation, fundraising, hevelin collection, icon, science fiction3 Comments

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