This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. What exactly is a Commune? I’ll use the words from the Commune : Journal of the Commune Movement to explore the concept. According to Joan (one of the contributors) there are many different types of Commune scenes. You have…
New on OASIS in October
Finding aids for two collections have been added to the OASIS database this month: Minimally Processed by: Melanie Wisner Opera Boston records, circa 2003-2013 (MS Thr 1536) Minimally Processed by: Dana Gee with assistance from Andrea Cawelti and Adrien Hilton Edward C. Vose collection of sheet music, 1870-1950 (MS Thr 1546)…
Top Secret Weapons Systems of 1792
In late 1792, most of Europe was becoming increasingly troubled by the aggressive actions of France’s revolutionary First Republic, which had declared war on Austria and Prussia in April 1792. The War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) was the first attempt by the European monarchies to defeat the French in their political ambitions. The Austrian…
A picture is worth a thousand words
We have all heard it. If you think of googling it, by the way, don’t—nobody really knows who said it first. We have all said it. Ironically, even writers are fond of it. “The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book,” says Evgenii Bazarov, the revolutionary-inclined…
Bear’s foot?
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. I have to say as we have processed this immense collection one of the things that never ceases to delight me are the names of various plants. For example Bear’s foot, which is named because it has…
Olé!
Dance notation is one of those tricky subjects which has been discussed for centuries: no matter how you write it down, you’re sure to miss something important. I’ve discussed some examples here in in the blog, particularly regarding Feuillet notation (which was a particular interest of Professor Ward’s). But sometimes folks just take things into…
New on OASIS in September
Four finding aids for newly accessioned or cataloged collections have been added to the OASIS database this month. Newly cataloged by: Irina Klyagin and Christine Jacobson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana papers on Soviet theater and film and university lecture notes, 1902-1955 (MS Thr 402) Minimally Processed by: Melanie Wisner Tina Howe papers, circa 1958-2015 (MS…
Dope is falling from the sky
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Marijuana monthly is a periodical unsurprisingly devoted to all things marijuana. Smuggling, growing, dealing, legal cases and aspects, and even some curious adventures that the staff experienced. One of the included articles reveals a story of aerial marijuana…
Stranger things…indeed
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Sometimes it is uncanny how we find materials in the collection that relate to popular culture right now, this week in fact. I recently watched the new Netflix series Stranger Things, a nostalgic 1980s show which features isolation tanks and…
Houghton Incunable finds its Mate after Two Centuries
Not long ago, Houghton Library acquired a copy of the first half of an edition of the works of Thomas Aquinas printed in Basel by Michael Wenssler in 1485 (Inc 7508) – the first half, I say, because the collection was issued in three parts, of which the second itself consisted of two parts, and…