Finding aids for 16 newly cataloged collections were added to the OASIS database this month. This marks the last time this list will be compiled by Senior Manuscript Cataloger Bonnie B. Salt, who created more than 580 of these finding aids in the course of her distinguished career at Houghton. We are sorry to see…
Early Home Entertainment: Engelbrecht’s Miniature Theatres
The Harvard Theatre Collection has recently acquired three works by Martin Engelbrecht, an eighteenth-century engraver and printer. He is perhaps best known for the series of intricate, hand-colored prints he created, designed to form theatrical scenes when viewed in peepshows. A form of entertainment very popular in Europe by the mid-18th century, peepshows could be…
“Shine on my love in all her ways”
This intriguing piece of vernacular art, recently acquired by Houghton, tells a tale of heartsick woe from late 18th century New England. We know little about the author beyond his initials, E.W., and that he apparently created this piece after the object of his affections turned down his proposal of marriage. This item, known as…
Ginsberg for sale
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring material from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. The Beats continue their expansion onto Houghton’s shelves by means of Santo Domingo Collection accessioning; Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) is the most recent author to attain fuller representation in our catalog. Ginsberg books in the collection range from the slightest volume…
Morbid beauty
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring material from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Of the many altered states of consciousness chronicled in the Santo Domingo Collection, death may be merely the most permanent; as a subject often circumnavigated out of discomfort, fear, superstition, or propriety, it takes its place alongside sexuality and drug…
A surprising Scandinavian lithograph
Harvard Library’s holdings in Scandinavian imprints are extensive. Quite aware of this, Wake Forest University recently gifted to Harvard a small but rich collection of Scandinavian books, including autographed copies of Karen Blixen first editions, unique 18th century imprints, and unusual 19th century military manuals. One volume seems diminutive on the surface. Carl Rothlieb’s Beskrifning…
Fashion in Vienna
Want the latest fashions for the 1820s? Just head to Vienna. I’ve seen fashion plates (and in the Ward Collection, costume plates of course) from Paris, but how did Ward manage to find fashion plates for the enlightened Viennese theater-goer?…
New on OASIS in April
Finding aids for 13 newly cataloged collections, and preliminary box lists for three recent acquisitions, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including toy theaters and set designs, Colonial U.S. manuscripts, and a collection of science fiction fanzines. Processed by Ashley M. Nary: Andrew Eliot Letters, 1767-1776 (MS Am 882.5) Processed by Rebekah…
There’s an app for that
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring material from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Henri Austruy, born in 1871, was an attorney and editor of the journal La nouvelle revue from 1913 to 1940, when occupying Nazi forces shut the journal down. 1940 is also the approximate date of Austruy’s unrecorded death, which may…
Venom for Luther, Spectacles for Calvin
A Poet and Scourge of Heretics Collects His Verses, Binds Them for Presentation, Tidies Up His Texts, and Touches Up the Illustrations. Houghton Library’s excellent Neo-Latin poetry collection (thank you, Roger Stoddard) received a notable and rare addition this month when Bill Stoneman, Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts, purchased a sammelband of more than…