In 1908, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his British Polar Expedition made publication history: they created the first book ever produced on the continent of Antarctica. Produced “at the Sign of the Penguins” while the team overwintered at Cape Royds before attempting the South Pole, Aurora Australis consists of about one hundred and twenty unnumbered loose…
What’s New: annotated Lully score
The Harvard Theatre Collection has recently acquired a sensational annotated Jean Baptiste Lully score of Proserpine. Printed in 1680, this score was the second partition générale (full orchestra score) printed by Christophe Ballard (1641-1715), following Bellérophon, which was printed in 1679. These luxurious large folio scores broke out of the previous French printing tradition of…
A Cannabis Lovers Guidebook
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Les Très Riches Heures du Cannabis is a cannabis lovers must have. Full of colorful illustrations and advice, this book has everything you need to know and more. From descriptions and step by step instructions on how…
(Shock)ing! therapy
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. The use of electricity in medical treatment is hardly a new concept, Guillaume Duchenne was a French neurologist and developer of electrotherapy. Duchenne announced in 1855 that alternating current was more effective than a direct current for electrotherapeutic…
A Love Affair in Camera
To mark Vivien Leigh’s centenary year, we thought of reproducing here a few of the hundreds of portraits of her by photographer Angus McBean. McBean was the dean of theatrical portraiture for the London stage at midcentury. For over three decades Vivien Leigh was his muse. A single portrait—his favorite of her—hung in his home…
The Enduring Classical Tradition II
A second recent acquisition which reflects the theme of the Enduring Classical Tradition is Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen’s Verses Written in the Portico of the Temple of Liberty at Woburn Abbey, on the Placing before it the Statues of Locke and Erskine, in the summer of 1835. London: James Moyes, 1836. According to the colophon in the…
Atomic emergency
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. When I first looked at this cover I thought it was some sort of science-fiction title, but upon further inspection it is actually a guide on what to do in the event of an atomic emergency. The atomic…
New on OASIS in December
Finding aids for five newly cataloged collections have been added to the OASIS database this month, including a collection of documents on the history of Cambridge High School. Processed by Clinton Johnson (Simmons intern with Suzanne Sutherland): Hester Lynch Piozzi, Samuel Johnson, Anna Seward letters, and other letters, 1758-1820 (MS Eng 1755) Processed by Ashley…
Dr. Rose’s Sanitarium
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. For the Scientific Treatment and Cure of the Alcohol, Morphine, Opium, Chloral, and Cocaine Habits! Designed especially for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse this pamphlet advertises the virtues of Dr. Rose’s Sanitarium. Located in bucolic Connecticut…
Ba(rnum) humbug
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Newly represented among the authors in the Santo Domingo Collection is the showman and author P.T. Barnum. Shown here is an 1866 copy of Barnum’s survey/memoir The humbugs of the world, translated into French as Les blagues de…