Illustration Chapter One

I picked Jack London’s The Call of the Wild for this blog post when the temperature was in the teens and snow covered the ground. Our fourth printing of the 1903 edition of London’s Yukon tale about Buck, the mixed Saint Bernard, Scottish shepherd dog, would have been a suitable blog topic but instead I chose our 1960 Limited Editions Club copy. What makes it so appropriate is the wool mackinaw material that the volume is bound in.

Book in slipcase

The monthly newsletter of the Limited Editions Club from February 1960 describes the cover thus:

… it is bound in a fine quality (and mothproof) wool, of a “buffalo plaid” weave in green and black (to live with the illustrations), such as might have been used to fashion the mackinaws worn by Perrault and Francois in the story. The striking wool jacket is embellished with leather patches stamped in gold on the front and the shelfback. The book has a woolen outer coat of the same Far North material by way of slipcase.

Ward Ritchie Press is responsible for the printing of this edition. Our copy is Number 111 of 1500 copies and is signed by the artist, Henry Varnum Poor who made the illustrations. Twenty-seven illustrations are in two-color wash and two portraits are in monochrome.

The Curtis Paper Company made a white laid rag paper for this special edition. The pages are 8 ½ by 10 ½ inches, giving the book an almost squarish appearance. The type chosen for the text is fourteen point Bodoni.

The Call of the Wild was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1903. Later that year it was published in book form by Macmillan. It has not been out of print since.

This volume would be the perfect choice when one wants to “snuggle up by the fire with a good book.”

Jim Bricker
Senior Library Technician

Occasionally Special Collections is approached by an outside institution wishing to borrow one or more of our items to include in an exhibit. There are all kinds of things to take into consideration when dealing with exhibit loan agreements – What is the current condition of the item? Is the item too fragile to be shipped or displayed? Do any damaged areas affect the aesthetic of the item?  Should any damage be fixed or stabilized before the item is displayed? How will the item be used or displayed? How long will the item be displayed and under what types of conditions? Will photographs or reproductions of the item be made for exhibit catalog and publicity purposes? – These are just a sampling of the types of questions asked before a loan agreement is made.

Special Collections recently prepared several items for shipment and display. In this particular instance, we were also responsible for making our own support cradles for the materials being loaned. This served two purposes, first we were able to make sure the cradles were made to our exact standards and that our materials were well supported. Second, we were able to hold onto our materials for almost a month longer than if the cradles were being made by the exhibiting institution.

Tracing of book profile

I was instructed to make our cradles out of black museum board. Other than that, I could construct the cradles however I saw fit. I chose to use a folded board technique to accommodate for the thickness of the books, as  both were going to be displayed laying open to a page towards the front of the volume. To create the cradles I gently opened the book to the page to be displayed and made a tracing of the profile of the open book. I then transferred the measurements from the diagram to the museum board and scored the board to create the various folds. The cradle is held in it’s final shape with archival double-sided tape.

Finished cradle

Spine support

Finished cradles

The open volumes rest easily in the custom cradles, and strips of mylar are used to gently hold the volumes and open pages in place.

Once the custom cradles were complete, we boxed the items up for shipping. This of course requires far more diligence than mailing your everyday package. In certain cases an institution may choose to hire a courier service or even hand deliver the materials themselves. We decided to go with a shipping company, and followed this guide from the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) when packing our materials to ensure their safe delivery.

The volumes are first wrapped in ethafoam

The wrapped volumes are then encased in corrugated board, which is then placed inside a larger box and surrounded with packing peanuts.

Ashley Jones
Preservation Librarian

There are 11 boxes in total – each holding about 2,400 postcards. They’re heavier than they look.

It wouldn’t be my turn at writing a blog if postcards didn’t come up, so here you go: all the postcards we had sent away to be scanned by a commercial company are now completed and returned to us. In total, we have 26,237 postcards from Ohio that have been digitized that we are now creating metadata for and adding to the Bowden Postcard Collection Online (for anyone wondering, archival-quality TIFs of the fronts and backs of 26,237 postcards take up about 577 GB of drive space). We are completing about 300 postcards every week, and at this rate we plan on completing this stage of the project by the end of spring semester 2017.

The interior of one of the boxes of postcards – to save space, we created a second layer within each box using cut-up pieces of other boxes

After Ohio, we plan to repeat the process with Kentucky and Indiana, another estimated 20,000 postcards. By 2020, the project’s goal is to have 48,000 postcards in the digital collection representing the tri-state area – and that is still less than 10% of the total collection, not to mention the new donations we’ve been receiving!

In 2012, the New York Times released a piece titled ‘Snow Fall’ about an avalanche at Tunnel Creek. The design of the piece – a single, long-form narrative embedded and enriched with a variety of media – has since become increasingly popular on websites such as Slate, Atlantic, Outside Online, and ESPN. Based on this dynamic and engaging style of digital storytelling, members of the Emerging Technology Cluster have been developing a new way of telling stories from our Special Collections.

Along with creating an interactive and appealing space to share stories from our Special Collections, the “Snow Fall” template allows us to preserve the exhibits digitally. This digital preservation and presentation allows for continuous interaction once the physical exhibit is taken down.

Below is a current list of the completed digital stories based on our past and current exhibits. As we continue to develop new exhibits physically and online, they will continue to be accompanied by these new websites. A complete and up-to-date list is available at http://spec.lib.miamioh.edu/home/digital-storytelling-projects/. Please note that these sites are optimized to run in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Internet Explorer and other browser users may encounter some difficulties.

Stories of Freedom Summer: From the Western College Memorial Archives: When the administration of the Western College for Women, now a part of Miami University, opened its campus to civil rights activists in 1964, an estimated 700 young and idealistic college students from across the north arrived in Oxford, Ohio for voter registration training. The exhibit centered around the experiences of three volunteers. The exhibit ran August 25 – December 12, 2014. Learn more about the exhibit here.

Covington’s Cincinnati: Samuel F. Covington was an Indiana native who built a successful career in the crowded Cincinnati insurance industry during the second half of the 1800’s. His experiences and those of his family typify the growing middle class that evolved in industrial America. The exhibit ran June 4 – August 1, 2014. Learn more about the exhibit here.

Cradle of Coaches: A Legacy of Excellence: Miami University has a long and proud tradition of producing exceptional coaches. In 1959, Bob Kurz (Class of 1958) coined the term the ‘Cradle of Coaches’ in reference to the many star football coaches to have passed through Miami University. The exhibit ran August 19 – December 13, 2013. Learn more about the exhibit here.

Marcus Ladd
Special Collections Digital Librarian

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennett amusingly admits to her sister Jane that she may have begun to like Mr. Darcy just a bit more after visiting his grand estate at Pemberley. What’s fascinating about this development in the novel, besides the hint at Elizabeth’s more practical reasons for warming to the character of Mr. Darcy, is that she was able to visit the estate as a tourist, not as a particular guest of its owner. Just as today one can visit historic homes or see how the other half lives by attending open houses and Parade of Homes events, our eighteenth century counterparts also enjoyed visiting opulent country estates and their beautifully tended gardens.

Between 1779 and 1786, William Watts, an English engraver, published a series of 84 plates, entitled The seats of the nobility and gentry: in a collection of the most interesting & picturesque views.  Taken from the originals by artists such as Paul Sandby, the plates depict landscape views of the country estates of the English aristocracy.  The details of the architecture, flora and fauna, and even the people on the estate, are intricate and finely wrought and are accompanied by a brief one page text describing the estate.  A bound volume of the plates was issued in 1786 by J. and J. Boydell and our copy eventually made its way into the collection of John Hough James and later Miami’s Special Collections.  One can imagine this book set out in a library or drawing room for casual browsing.  Who doesn’t love a nice coffee table book?  The following are selected images from the volume, along with contemporary photographs of the estates.  Enjoy!

Kimberly Tully
Curator of Special Collections

Wrotham Park in Middlesex

Wrotham Park today

Front view of Chiswick House in Middlesex

Chiswick House in Middlesex, the Seat of the Duke of Devonshire

Chiswick House today

The Seat of Sir Charles Asgill, Baronet near Richmond in Surrey

Asgill House today

Glamis Castle in Scotland, the Seat of the Earl of Strathmore

Glamis Castle today

Thorndon Hall in Essex

Thorndon Hall today

Lyme Hall (also familiar as the stand-in for Pemberley in the 1995 BBC Pride & Prejudice miniseries)

Lyme Park today

I recently came across an older brochure for a collection of sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century books in our stacks referred to as the Robinson Collection. I had not seen the brochure before and was intrigued by the description of the collection. I found a folder in the department files containing the records and correspondence pertaining to the Robinson collection, including a list of the books.  We often don’t know how books have ended up in our Special Collections, so finding these records was quite a treat for me, and seems like a story worth sharing.

The Robinson Collection brochure outside

The Robinson Collection brochure inside

Howard Robinson joined the faculty of Miami University in 1924 as Professor of History. He soon struck up a friendship with Edgar Weld “Ned” King, the Librarian at Miami. Both men were book collectors and, together, they used to go searching for old and rare books. Our Edgar W. and Faith King Collection of Juvenile Literature resulted in part from King’s book collecting interest. Robinson left Miami in 1935 to join the faculty at Ohio State University. Two years later he moved to Oberlin where he was professor of British History, and later served as Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He retired from Oberlin in 1949. His close friendship with King continued until King’s death.

In his later years Robinson wanted to place his small library of rare books where it would be of benefit to others. After considering other institutions he finally chose Miami University so that his gift could honor and serve as a memorial for his friend “Ned” King, who had passed away in 1969.

Robinson described his collection in the written inventory that he provided:

Robinson chose this depiction of Erasmus for his personal bookplate.

There are about 200 books in the collection, which includes examples of presses from the days of incunabula (before 1501), although the earliest book in my collection was printed in 1491. The collection includes books that were published before the end of the eighteenth century, when the printed book had reached a form like those of our time. Most of the important early presses are represented along with their interesting devices. The selections, apart from miscellaneous examples of presses, tended of course, to include the writings that were of special interest to me, books of writers who were opposed to the rabid intolerance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when efforts to obtain freedom of the press was being sought. Erasmus of Rotterdam might serve as an example of such a leader and his books are well represented in the collection. Another of his time would be Sir Thomas More, and later the efforts were brought to some degree of success by such advocates as John Locke, Pierre Bayle, the Encyclopedists and Voltaire. A few books published after 1800 are included because of their relation to earlier volumes in the group.

When Robinson offered his gift in 1971 construction on the last phase of King Library had begun. Dr. Charles Churchwell, then Director of Libraries, was able to tell Dr. Robinson that once the construction was finished his collection would be housed in the new Special Collections.

The Robinson Collection was received by Miami in 1972.  An exhibit of select books from the gift were on display in May of that year when Dr. and Mrs. Robinson visited King Library. In a letter to the Head of Special Collections, Helen Ball, he writes: “I was decidedly impressed with the new library, as you showed it to me on Tuesday. It is a fitting memorial to my friend, and seems to be well planned. I want to thank you also for the display that the visitors on Monday evening were able to look over, and for the folder with its interesting description and illustrations.”

The illustrations below are from the two incunabula from the Robinson Collection.

Antoninus. Opus Historiale: Part 1. 1491

Opera Luciani Philosophi Luculentissimi 1500

We are fortunate to have this collection here, and it is fitting that it shares the same home as the Edgar W. and Faith King Collection of Juvenile Literature.

Jim Bricker
Senior Library Technician

Mark Levy, at right

During the summer of 1964, the Western College campus in Oxford, Ohio served as the training ground for a remarkable undertaking: the coordinated and determinedly peaceful effort to register African-Americans to vote in the hostile and heavily segregated state of Mississippi. Most of the volunteers were white college students who felt a personal calling to support the civil rights of beleaguered African-Americans. A few were themselves African-Americans. Three young men – two white, one black – left Oxford for Mississippi and were never seen alive again.

But there was more to that summer than those three tragic deaths. There were many acts of individual courage, many acts of connection and enlightenment, and many lives, both of Mississippi residents and of volunteers that were forever changed by the experience of that summer. Next weekend about 50 of those volunteers will return to Oxford to remember that summer and to share the impact on their lives during a special reunion and 50th anniversary conference.

On Friday, Oct. 10, three of them will share their stories with us in a panel presentation, “Telling Our Stories: Building the Freedom Summer Legacy,” beginning at 4:15 p.m. This panel serves as the Second Annual Special Collections Lecture, highlighting the Freedom Summer Archive in the Western College Memorial Archives.

Carole Gross Colca, in front with children

Our three guests – Carole Gross Colca, Mark Levy and Roland Duerksen – have all donated personal materials to the Freedom Summer Archive. During the panel presentation they’ll talk about the impact of Freedom Summer on their lives, as well as why they felt it was important to preserve and share the documents of that experience.

The fall exhibit in the Special Collections gallery showcases materials they have donated. “Stories of Freedom Summer from the Western College Memorial Archives” will be on view before and after the panel presentation and through the remainder of the semester, until December 12.

Please join us on October 10 from 4 to 6 p.m. for a fascinating presentation, followed by a reception and an opportunity to view the exhibit and interact with our speakers. The event is free and open to the public.

Elizabeth Brice
Assistant Dean for Technical Services & Special Collections

Prof. Roland Duerksen, at right behind children