News and more from ZSR’s Special Collections & Archives
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) was a French scholar and philosopher who spent most of his adult life as a Huguenot exile in the Netherlands. His most famous work was the Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, a multi-volume biographical encyclopedia that encompassed Bayle’s wide-ranging and often unorthodox ideas. His arguments, carried out largely in the footnotes of the... Continue reading “Repairing Mr. Bayle’s Dictionary” ›
Book-making now-a-days, is done for money-making; and he who takes the Indian for his theme, and cannot go and see him, finds a poverty in his matter that naturally begets error, by grasping at every little tale that is brought or fabricated by their enemies. Such books are standards, because they are made for white... Continue reading “Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indian, by George Catlin (1841)” ›
We go to training for a variety of reasons, but often because you may have good basic skills, but need to get to another level. You need someone at a higher skill level to show you the ‘tricks’ that will help you excel and help your work rise to a higher level of accomplishment. Isabella... Continue reading “Preservation Training From Our Friends at UNCG” ›
If you were a holiday shopper in the 1830s, one item on your list might well have been an annual gift book—an anthology of illustrations, poems, stories, and essays, in an affordable but decorative binding. Several examples of 19th century holiday gift books are now on exhibit in the ZSR Library Special Collections & Archives... Continue reading “A Token of My Affection: 19th Century Christmas Annuals” ›
The recently completed Joseph Severn Watercolors digital collection is a beautiful addition to ZSR’s online content as well as another chapter in the story of these materials. Prompted by a researcher and Severn scholar, we have been researching the provenance of the three pencil and watercolor images and have come up with some surprising and entertaining results.... Continue reading “Joseph Severn Watercolors” ›
One of the shelves in my office has a small label that reads “Problems.” On it are books that were found, in a recent inventory of ZSR’s Rare Books Collection, to have incorrect or nonexistent catalog records. One of my summer projects this year is to evaluate and create records for this small collection of... Continue reading “Sarum Breviaries (1555, 1556)” ›
One of the oldest printed books in ZSR’s Rare Books Collection is a Latin translation of Alī Ibn Abī al-Rijāl’s principal scientific work, Kitāb al-bāriʻ fī aḥkām al-nujūm. The text, commonly known as Liber in iudiciis astrorum, is a treatise on astrological methods by an 11th century Arab mathematician, printed in 1485 by a German printer... Continue reading “Complete Book on the Judgment of the Stars, by ʻAlī ibn Abī al-Rijāl (1485 Erhard Ratdolt edition)” ›
The Gertrude and Max Hoffmann Collection is enjoying the limelight once again. An article by ZSR Special Collections Librarian Megan Mulder about the collection is featured in the Winter 2014 issue of Performance!, the publication of the Performing Arts Section of the Society of American Archivists. The entire publication is available in PDF format here. ... Continue reading “Hoffmann Collection in the News” ›
When William Wells Brown’s Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter appeared in London in 1853, it was the first novel ever published by an African American author. Brown’s novel was reissued four times over the next fifteen years, and with each edition the author made changes to the characters and the narrative. ZSR Special Collections recently... Continue reading “Clotelle, by William Wells Brown (1867)” ›
Thursday, June 20 3:00 p.m. ZSR Library Special Collections and Archives Reading Room Dr. Ed Blum of San Diego State University, who is currently in residence as a 2013 ZSR Provost’s Grant researcher, will give an informal talk about his current research. Ed is co-author of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and... Continue reading “Provost’s Grant Researcher Presentation: Sin and the Civil War” ›