Toledo Museum of Art Exhibit: In Fine Feather, April 25-July 6, 2014
This week, an exhibit called In Fine Feather: Birds, Art & Science opens at the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibit, coinciding with the Biggest Week in American Birding, highlights the intersection of natural science and art in the pursuit of describing and identifying birds, from a medieval treatise on falconry to John James Audubon’s Birds of America to the modern field guide. The exhibition features works by noted bird artists and illustrators including Audubon, Alexander Wilson, John...
From the Stacks: Looking Forward to Spring at the Clements Library
Post by Jayne Ptolemy, Reading Room SupervisorWe may have gotten several inches of snow in Ann Arbor Monday night, but at the Clements Library we are looking to our collections to get us in the spirit of spring. Flowers are not fully in bloom in Michigan, but they are represented beautifully in the William L. Clements Library’s holdings.The Charles E. Flandrau Letters in the Manuscripts Division includes a short note that Flandrau, a lawyer who had recently moved to Minnesota, sent to...
Forging Forward: Sources on Post-Civil War Black Education
Post by Jayne Ptolemy, Reading Room Supervisor Here at the Clements Library our collections continue to expand in new and exciting ways. With acquisitions and donations, established collections grow and new ones are formed. The manuscripts division acquires many individual letters and documents, which we incorporate into subject-specific collections. One letter interfiled in the African American History Collection was penned by Paris Arthur Wallace (1870-1952), an African American man who...
Latest Quarto: Move Accomplished
The Great Moving Day (1888). The Fall-Winter 2013 Quarto is out! The Quarto is a semi-annual magazine published by the William L. Clements Library and sent to members of the Clements Library Associates. This issue of The Quarto focuses on the library collections move that took place in August 2013. "Move Accomplished," by J. Kevin Graffagnino, Director of the Library. "A Moving Experience," by Brian Leigh Dunnigan, Associate Director & Curator of Maps. An overview of the move process from...
From the Stacks: Valentine’s Day Cards
Happy Valentine's Day to our readers! These Valentine's Day postcards are from our ephemera collection. They are postmarked from 1907-1909 and were sent to Mr. Andrew Swords from several people."We pledged our hearts my love and I. I in my arms the maiden clasping.""Which is it to be? A loving heart with a dear little wife, Or a selfish, lonely bachelor life.""Love's Offering.""You are the [apple] of my eye."
Lecture by Frank Boles, “The Collections of the Clarke Historical Library,” January 28, 2014
UPDATE 1-28-2014: Due to the extreme wind chill temperatures, we will be canceling our scheduled lecture today. We are currently working with Frank Boles on rescheduling his lecture, and will repost when a date has been secured.Please note: Due to the Clements Library's upcoming renovation, the 2014 Lecture series will be held at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery, Room 100.Frank BolesDirector of Central Michigan's Clarke Historical Library"The Collections of the Clarke...
From the Stacks: The Great Snow Storm
The Great Snow Storm of Jan. 1857. Philadelphia: L.L. Magee, ca. 1857. This satirical print from the Graphics Division depicts a city street buried in snow, with residents using various methods to dig themselves out. A man stuck in a carriage says, "Help me first, I'm to be married at four o'clock & I would'nt disapoint the company for the wourld." Another man climbing a ladder exclaims, "I must go to the office! I've got a Heavy Draft to meet." An ice seller advises the ice cream...
Happy Holidays from the Clements Library!
For this year's festivities, we offer a selection of cat-themed holiday cards from the ephemera collections of the Clements Library. May you have a purr-fect holiday season!"Though a Kitten, quite able I ought to be, To carry a Christmas wish to thee." "A Merry Christmas To You.""Wishing You a Merry Christmas. Side by side the cold and warm, Side by side the shine and storm, Blending in communion gay Neath the glow of Christmas day."[Photograph of kitten with...
Happy Thanksgiving from the Clements Library
For this week, we offer a selection of Thanksgiving postcards from the Graphics Division. All three of these postcards depict the iconic Thanksgiving turkey. Two contrast the turkey with our other national bird, the bald eagle. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin famously preferred the turkey to the eagle, writing in a letter to his daughter, "For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America."
In the News: Clements Library on C-SPAN
C-SPAN Book TV visited the Clements Library on October 22nd as part of the national network's 2013 "Cities Tour," a production featuring the history and literary life of selected cities across the country. C-SPAN spent a week in Ann Arbor, interviewing area professors, authors, curators, and the Literati bookstore owners. The Clements Library segment aired on C-SPAN2 on November 16 at 12:00noon and November 17 at 10:30am (ET). Items shown in the segment: Columbus, Christopher, and Gabriel...