The Society of American Archivists College and University Archives Section Winter 2012 newsletter, “The Academic Archivist“, includes news from ZSR! Section III, News from our colleagues, highlights the completion of the Gertrude and Max Hoffman Papers finding aid, The Gertrude and Max Hoffman Music Manuscript Collection, as well as The Biblical Recorder project. What a... Continue reading “Special Collections and Archives in “The Academic Archivist”” ›
We are happy to announce that the Wake Forest Catalogues and Bulletins are online! Thanks to the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center for doing the scanning and to Vicki Johnson for organizing and transporting the bulletins. Varying titles and binding made this project no easy feat, but the benefits far outweigh any challenges this project... Continue reading “Now Online: Catalogues and Bulletins of Wake Forest” ›
A genteel English woman of the 18th century had few resources to fall back on if her husband proved unable to support her financially. A girl’s education generally emphasized elegant accomplishments like drawing, music, and fine needlework, rather than practical skills. So when Elizabeth Blachrie Blackwell’s neer-do-well husband landed in a London debtor’s prison in... Continue reading “A Curious Herbal, By Elizabeth Blackwell (1739)” ›
In conjunction with the Words Awake celebration of Wake Forest writers, the spring exhibit in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives features six Wake Forest authors whose papers reside in the archives and manuscripts collections. Laurence Stallings, Harold Hayes, John Charles McNeill, W.J. Cash, and Gerald Johnson received their undergraduate degrees from... Continue reading “Wake Forest Writers’ Archives on Exhibit” ›
In the fall of 2012 ZSR Library will offer a new class called History of the Book, 1500-2000 (LIB260). Taught by Special Collections Librarian Megan Mulder, the 1.5 credit class will introduce students to the exciting interdisciplinary field of Book History. Book History (sometimes called History of Print Culture) combines history, literary studies, and bibliography.... Continue reading “New class in Book History offered Fall 2012” ›
Lindsey has been working in Special Collections for two years now and we couldn’t be luckier to have her. She is currently working on the tremendous “Bio File” project that includes creating a finding aid and digitizing thousands of biographical files. This is a highly used collection and will be a great online resource when... Continue reading “What Are You Working On? With Lindsey” ›
The author’s object in this work, was to place before the reader a constant succession of characters and incidents; to paint them in as vivid colours as he could command; and to render them, at the same time, life-like and amusing. Charles Dickens In February of 1836 the young publisher William Hall dropped in unannounced... Continue reading “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, by Charles Dickens (1836-37)” ›
Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) never intended to be a children’s author. A former editor at Punch magazine, Milne was by 1924 a successful playwright and author of several volumes of essays and poetry for adults. When he announced to his editors (at Methuen in London and Dutton in New York) that his next manuscript was... Continue reading “Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne (1926)” ›
We found a very interesting photograph in a book undergoing repair last week. The scene is a 1930’s vintage cocktail party- held somewhere in London. On the reverse of the photo is a stamp from the processor which reads: A.V. Swaebe, Society & General Press Agency, 11 Mitre Court, London. A note on the reverse... Continue reading “Found in a Rare Book” ›
I recently brought a group of old theater posters, which are about one hundred years old, out of the flat files they’d been stored in. These posters are part of the Clarence Herbert New Collection (http://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/xmlui/handle/10339/28053). I knew we had these posters, but had not seen them or handled them. I was prompted to look... Continue reading “Thanhouser Theater Posters from the C. H. New Collection” ›