Volunteer Interview: Phil Zaret

Welcome to our new series of interviews with the wonderful Clements Library volunteers, in which we’ll get to know the people who put their time and energy into processing collections, acting as docents, and assisting our curators on special projects.Phil Zaret...

Staff Favorite: Hand-Colored Astronomical Charts

Emi Hastings has been Curator of Books at the Clements Library since 2009. Although she is constantly discovering new favorite items in the stacks, one of the current top contenders is the Astronomicum Caesareum of 1540. The Astronomicum Caesareum, perhaps the most...

Staff Favorite: Map of Ticonderoga

Michel Chartier de Lotbinière’s “Plan du Fort de Carillon . . . .” (1758) Brian Leigh Dunnigan has served as Curator of Maps since 1996 and Clements Library Associate Director from 2010.  Having come from a history and historic site museum background, he has a...

Staff Favorite: William T. Washington Letter

Today in History: Greek Independence Day Cheney J. Schopieray, Assistant Curator of Manuscripts, has worked at the Clements Library since 2002. His list of favorite manuscripts grows longer on a daily basis, but in honor of the 190th anniversary celebration of the...

Staff Favorite: Helen Ledyard Drawing Book

Helen Ledyard Drawing Book, 1881-1891.Barbara DeWolfe, Curator of Manuscripts, has worked at the Clements Library since 1999. One of her favorite items from the Manuscripts Division is the drawing book of Helen Ledyard, a young woman who lived in New York in the late...

Staff Favorite: 1743 Book on Longitude by Woman Scientist

A proposal to determine our longitude, by Jane Squire. London, 1743. Rare Book Cataloger Oksana Linda, who came to the Library in 1998, is particularly fond of this little-known book on longitude by Jane Squire. Bound in calf leather, this volume is beautifully...

Staff Favorite: Tapa Cloth from Captain Cook’s Voyages

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...

Staff Favorite: First Map of the State of Vermont

Here at the Clements Library, we are sometimes asked, “What is your favorite item in the collection?” In a library full of great treasures, there is no easy answer to this question, and the answer will probably vary for each person. Starting with this...