‘Verily, I am an odd bird’, Lear once confessed. He was also a superb illustrator of odd birds, as his Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots attests. Working from live models in the gardens of the newly established Zoological Society in London the 18-year-old Lear produced his book without any formal training, independent…
Collections Now Available for Research: February 2018
Houghton Library is pleased to announce that the following collections now have descriptive finding aids and are available for research in the library’s reading room. Francis C. Browne Journals and Ephemera, 1840-1895 (MS Am 3156) – processed by Magdaline Lawhorn Filipino American Performing Arts Broadsides and Posters, 1979-2002 (MS Thr 1724) – processed by Magdaline…
Born-Digital Blog Post #1: The Beginning
This post continues the series, “Behind the Scenes at Houghton”, giving a glimpse into the inner workings of the library’s mission to support teaching and research. Thanks to Magdaline Lawhorn, Administrative Fellow & Project Archivist, for contributing this post. Born-digital backlog! Everyone has one. When you think of Houghton Library and other special collections,…
Aspects of Edward Lear (Part II)
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word backstories enters the language in 1982. But it would seem that Edward Lear invented the word over a century earlier (it appeared in his diary entry for 19 March 1876). The diaries themselves—a mixture of confession, bewilderment, recollection, and fantasy—contain a range of backstories that take us…