Today in History: Valentine’s Day Letters
This year for Valentine's Day, we have selected three items from the Manuscripts Division to show the variety of ways people have observed this holiday over the years. From children exchanging cards at school to poems proposing marriage, this holiday celebrates love and friendship in all its forms.Sidney Platt to Maria Perit, 1800. From the Huntington scrapbook.The first is a love letter from 1800, included in the Huntington scrapbook. This lighthearted letter hints at a happy and loving...
Support the Clements Library in 2012
An Update from the Clements Library Development Office The Clements envisions an even brighter future than its luminous past by establishing endowed curatorships, prestigious research fellowships, a full schedule of speakers and exhibits, and most importantly, by continuously adding unique materials to our collection. In the past year, the Clements has been able to raise funds for a variety of projects that will advance scholarship and learning for years to come. Maybe you’ve been to the...
Today in History: National Chocolate Cake Day
Guest post by Molly Malcolm, Clements Library volunteerToday is National Chocolate Cake Day, and although it is not an officially recognized holiday, the Clements Library is celebrating it by offering a short history of the evolution of chocolate cake in the United States – and by trying our hand at cooking a chocolate cake recipe from our culinary collection. Until the 1830s or 40s in America, chocolate was consumed primarily as a beverage. Cakes as we think of them today did not yet exist in...
Today in History: Michigan’s 175th Anniversary
Guest post by Cheney Schopieray, Assistant Curator of ManuscriptsOn January 26, 1837, Michigan became the 26th state of the Union.This detail from David Burr's Map of the Northern Parts of Ohio, Indiana And Illinois With Michigan And That Part of the Ouisconsin Territory Lying East of the Mississippi River (Washington, 1836) shows the disputed Toledo Strip. Michigan's statehood would have been established earlier, were it not for the territory's disputed southern border. The designated border...
The Latest Quarto: The West Indies
The Fall-Winter 2011 Quarto is now available. 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 Clements Library collections related to the West Indies. "From the Director," by J. Kevin Graffagnino, Director of the Library. "Taking Havana," by Clayton Lewis, Curator of Graphic Materials. Broadside prints of the1762 British siege of Havana, Cuba, during the Seven...
From the Stacks: A Fashion Flip-Book
In the 19th century, women's popular literature was full of advice about fashion and beauty. Numerous books and magazines offered hints on clothing styles, cosmetics, hygiene, and other aspects of women's appearance. Female Beauty, as Preserved and Improved by Regimen, Cleanliness and Dress, by Mrs. A. Walker (London, 1837), is a noteworthy example of this type of book. Particularly striking are the unusual hand-colored double illustrations, which have a cut-out in the top plate so the same...
Current Exhibit: “The Languages of Early American History”
The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts has designated language as the theme of its Winter 2012 semester. Language plays a central role in virtually all human activity, and it was a critical element in the encounters of peoples that characterize the history of the Americas. While linguistics is not a collecting area for the Clements, the primary source material held by the Library - books, manuscripts, maps, and graphics - were produced in a wide variety of languages representative of...
Happy Holidays from the Clements Library!
The Clements Library often sends holiday cards to members of the Clements Library Associates. Below is a selection of our earliest cards, featuring illustrations from library materials. The Clements Library Associates, founded in 1947, has purchased an estimated $5,000,000 worth of historical material for Clements Library. Members of the Associates receive invitations to library events, discounts on publications, and semi-annual mailings of The Quarto, an award-winning magazine with...
In the News: “Exhibit Examines Death Customs of Early America”
University Record article by Kevin Brown, December 12, 2011.This week's University Record issue includes a front-page article by Kevin Brown about the current Clements Library exhibit, "So Once Were We": Death in Early America. Focusing on the 19th century, the exhibit includes many photographs, manuscripts, books, and artifacts concerning death and mourning in early America. Exceptional rarities include handwritten eyewitness accounts of the deaths of the deaths of George Washington and...
Ghosts in the Library? Spirit Photography at the Clements
Photograph by Mrs. H.F. Stuart, ca. 1865 One of the tools of the ghost-hunting trade is spirit photography, the attempt to capture images of ghosts. Early spirit photographs were usually portraits of living people with faint, ghostly images floating behind them. These figures, supposedly the impressions of departed loved ones, were actually produced by photographic editing methods such as double exposures. William H. Mumler made the first known spirit photograph in 1862, a self-portrait...