Day: April 23, 2015

Front facade of Houghton Library

Exploring the origins of “African American”

Update: The sermon has now been digitized in full and can be seen here. Fred Shapiro, associate director of the Yale Law School Library, recently brought to our attention an important and possibly unique sermon in Houghton’s collections. A 16-page pamphlet entitled A Sermon on the Capture of Lord Cornwallis is notable for the attribution…

Beloved Detective Holmes

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Although fan fiction is cropping up everywhere now and seems to be a new fad, it has actually been around for quite some time.  Fictitious characters have often inspired imaginative readers who go on to write their own…