by Clements Library | Dec 5, 2011 | Books, Graphics
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...
by Clements Library | May 30, 2011 | Books, Holidays
Memorial Day began after the American Civil War as a commemoration to honor fallen Union and Confederate soldiers. In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a proclamation to observe it nationwide on the last Monday...
by Clements Library | Dec 24, 2010 | Books, Holidays
In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore penned the lines of the classic Christmas poem, “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,” which begins with the immortal lines: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was...
by Clements Library | Dec 15, 2010 | Books
“I cannot live without books.” ~ Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson’s Libraries is a project based at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, to compile information about Jefferson’s libraries and his books. Jefferson read extensively and...
by Clements Library | Jul 15, 2010 | Books, Collections, Graphics, Manuscripts, Maps
“The whole purpose of summer fishing, the Old Man said, is not to worry about catching fish, but just to get out of the house and set and think a little.” –Robert C. Ruark, The Old Man and the Boy Fishing, a popular American pastime, is...
by Clements Library | Apr 28, 2010 | Books, Library Work
Alexander Shaw, A catalogue of the different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages of Captain Cook, to the southern hemisphere (London, 1787).Clements Library conservator Julie Fremuth has worked at the Library for 21 years. One of her favorite items from...
by Clements Library | Apr 19, 2010 | Books, Manuscripts
Regular contributor Emiko Hastings, Assistant Curator of Books, will be on vacation in Japan for the next two weeks. While American history (broadly defined) is the main focus of the Clements Library collections, researchers may be surprised to discover materials...
by Clements Library | Feb 11, 2010 | Books, Collections, Graphics, Holidays, Manuscripts, Maps
The Clements Library has a wealth of materials on African American history, documenting many aspects of slavery, the abolitionist movement, the Civil War, and beyond. Much research remains to be done with these materials, to more fully explore the African American...
by Clements Library | Dec 7, 2009 | Books, Holidays, Manuscripts
While the origins of this obscure December 7 holiday are unclear, the tradition of having letter-writing days can be traced back to a time when handwritten letters were the most common form of communication. Before the invention of the telegraph, the typewriter, or...
