The recent publication of American Paintings at Harvard, Volume 1: Paintings, Watercolors and Pastels by Artists Born Before 1826 (Harvard Art Museums, 2014) is a monumental achievement and makes fascinating reading. Theodore Stebbins, Jr., and Melissa Renn have led a distinguished team of scholars and curators and they are all to be congratulated on the…
Medicine for the masses
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Ever wondered where to buy first aid supplies, medical equipment, or prescriptions if you lived in 19th-century Europe? Look no further than Guide Medical, translated as a Medical Guide to aid recovery in case of accidents or illness : instructions on performing medical prescriptions. Authored by H….
Printed and Bound at the Monastery
A recent acquisition from Nina Musinsky Rare Books in New York is a copy of Leonardus de Utino’s Sermones de Sanctis, printed, probably rubricated and certainly bound at the Monastery of SS. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg in 1474. An inscription records it as a gift by Johannes Lescher, Rector of St. Martin’s church in…
New on OASIS in February
Finding aids for seven newly cataloged collections were added to the OASIS database this month: Processed by: Nora Garry, Laurel McCaull, Micah Hoggatt, Susan C. Pyzynski, and Bonnie B. Salt Playbills and Programs Concerning Female “Stars”, 1767-1962 (TCS 72) Processed by Irina Klyagin: Nadine Baylis Costume Designs for The Yeomen of the Guard, 1988 (MS…
A Collection of Skulls
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Ludovic Burel’s book Page_Sucker_Numero_Un_Skull.JPG is a collection of pictures of skulls. From humorous pictures like skulls on socks and action figures to scientific photographs, this book shows every kind of skull imaginable. Although there is no text written…
The “Incomparable” Katharine F. Pantzer (1930-2005)
The legacy of our late and much lamented Houghton Library colleague Kitzi Pantzer continues to live on in the Pantzer Fellowships awarded annually by the Houghton Library and by the Bibliographical Society which funds the research of new scholars of descriptive bibliography. We have also had a recent and poignant reminder of her work on…
She’s a maniac, maniac and that’s for sure!
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. The Maniac pictured here is a reprint of the original 1909 edition which claims to be an account of madness from a patient’s point of view. Mahlon Blaine is the actual illustrator of The Maniac though he used the name G….
From the library of Sarah Orne Jewett: Not to be lent
The following is the fourth in a four-part series on books from the library of Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) and her family. Though Jewett had published stories in magazines beginning in 1868, Deephaven (1877) was her first book, and its publication signaled her debut as a notable American author. Her pride is evident in the…
The temptation of St. Frusquin
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo collection. Joseph Hémard (1880-1961) was a prolific French artist who, although best known for illustrating novels, lent his humorous touch to a number of unlikely texts. He published several editions of French codes of law with humorous illustrations, for example. His…
Two of One Hundred!
Houghton Library has loaned two books to an important exhibition at New York City’s Grolier Club. One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature is the sixth in a notable series of “Grolier Hundred” exhibitions. The Grolier Club previously has organized only five such exhibitions in its 130-year history, focusing on English literature (1902), American literature (1946), science (1958),…