On Wednesday April 10th, Nick Wilding, Assistant Professor in Early Modern History at Georgia State University, will give the 97th George Parker Winship Lecture. “Forging the Moon: or, How to Spot a Fake Galileo” will discuss a copy of Galileo’s landmark Sidereus Nuncius, claimed to hold Galileo’s hand-drawn images of the moon observed through a…
What’s New: A Digital Harmony
In 1626, Nicholas Ferrar and his extended family withdrew from London to the village of Little Gidding, where they lived in secluded religious devotion. As part of their practices, the women of the family created a harmony of the Gospels, literally cutting and pasting the four texts to produce a single narrative. King Charles I,…
You’ve Got Mail: Two Unpublished Letters by William Morris
Houghton Library recently acquired two autograph letters written by William Morris (1834-1896) the English designer, author, visionary socialist and proprietor of the Kelmscott Press. These letters are especially appealing because they are both hitherto unknown and unpublished, and addressed to an individual not known to have corresponded with Morris until these letters surfaced at auction…
New on OASIS in March
Finding aids for nine newly cataloged collections, and a preliminary box list for four recent acquisitions, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including a rare collection of tinsel prints, portraits of actors in character, decorated with bright metal foil costume pieces….
Recent acquisitions from the André Meyer Collection
André Meyer (1884-1974) began buying music and music-related materials at an early age, and at his death left a spectacular collection, a portion of which was recently sold at Sotheby’s. Houghton Library was lucky enough to acquire ten lots. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755). Les voyages de l’Amour : ballet en quatre actes. This Boismortier…
Auspicious Debuts: The Great Discovery
Late in 1891 Steele MacKaye embarked on one of the most outlandish enterprises in theatrical history. Without as much as a prop or a single penny, he had wooed the president of the World’s Columbian Exposition into adopting his proposal to erect the largest theatre ever built and to reenact on its colossal stage Columbus’…
Eleanor Martha Garvey, 1918-2013
Eleanor M. Garvey, retired Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library, passed away February 11, 2013, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her many friends and acquaintances will miss her warmth, vivacity, generosity of spirit, and gift for friendship. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Elli Garvey attended local schools, graduated from Wellesley College, Class of 1940, and earned…
THE REEL PLATH: On the Handwritten Track-Lists of Sylvia Plath’s 1958 and 1959 Sound-tape Reels
Graphology is not necessarily a part of my job description. But, as the curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room, I’ve had occasion to grow curious about the convergence of an author’s handwriting with the audio recordings in our collection. Sound archives offer a particularly compelling constellation of human tools and technology. In the case of…
What’s New: Given Away, Handed Down, Lost, Lost, and Found
Melville’s marginalia is a hot topic in American literary studies, and inquiry is kept fresh in the field when annotated books from his library turn up on the market. Sometimes they do so in interesting and surprising ways. Melville’s copy of Boswell’s Life of Johnson, acquired in London in 1849, appeared on the tables of…
New on OASIS in February
Finding aids for four newly cataloged collections, and a preliminary box list for one recent acquisition, were added to the OASIS database this month, including movie and television scripts and theatrical portraits. Processed by Ashley M. Nary: Theatrical Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured Portraits, 1812-1848 (MS Thr 933) For more on this collection, see this…