Selections of the Month 2012-2013
June 2013
[Beowulf Rockwell Kent Title page]
Beowulf
Verse translation by William Ellery Leonard
Illustrations by Rockwell Kent
New York: Random House, 1932
Gould Library Special Collections
The library owns copy 861 of 950 numbered copies that were illustrated with lithographs by Rockwell Kent and designed and the text handset by Pynson Printers in New York. This illustration depicts the hero Beowulf in his final battle with the dragon that threatened his kingdom.
May 2013
[Moses Starr Atlas of Nerve Cells]
Atlas of Nerve Cells
Moses Allen Starr (1854-1932)
New York: Columbia University Press by Macmillan, 1896
Gould Library Collections
[A]ll such drawings are necessarily imperfect and involve a personal element of interpretation. It has seemed to me, therefore, that a series of photographs presenting the actual appearance of neurons under the microscope would be not only of interest but also of service to students. – M. Allen Starr in the Introduction
April 2013
[Alice in Wonderland]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832-1898)
With the John Tenniel illustrations colored by Fritz Kredel
New York: Random House, 1946
Gould Library Special Collections
Alice and the many characters she meets on her adventures appear in the illustrations of this two-volume edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland likely look very familiar. The illustrations come from the drawings of John Tenniel, who created his memorable characters for an 1865 edition of Carrol’s text. For this edition, Tenniel’s black-and-white illustrations were colored by designer and illustrator Fritz Kredel.
Alice’s adventures continue to fascinate artists -- and readers – even today. To see how some contemporary artists have reimagined this quirky childhood classic, visit Alice AND Wonderland, an exhibition on view through April 28 in the Perlman Teaching Museum.
March 2013
[Handel]
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Messiah : An Oratorio in Score as it was Originally Perform'd
London: printed by Messers Randall & Abell successors to the late Mr. J. Walsh, 1768
Gould Library Special Collections
George Frideric Handel’s most famous oratorio, Messiah, debuted in Dublin on April 13th, 1742 and premiered in London on March 23rd of the following year. Since that time the oratorio has gained in popularity, becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Originally intended for performance during the Easter season, since the 19th century it is associated more closely with the Christmas season.
Handel composed the music for the oratorio, in an autograph score of 259 pages, in just 24 days in late August and September of 1741. Our 1768 London edition is one of the earliest published scores of the work. The beauty and luxury of the edition attest to the high status the oratorio had achieved only 27 years after its composition, as does the edition’s list of subscribers which includes the following: The King, The Queen, His Royal Highness the Duke of York, His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, poet William Cowper, poet and scholar Samuel Johnson, and music historian Charles Burney.
February 2013
Sylvia Plath
Above the Oxbow: Selected Writings
Original wood engravings by Barry Moser
Northampton, MA: Catawba Press, 1985
Gould Library Special Collections
This slim volume, illustrated with four wood engravings by master printmaker Barry Moser, is a collection of poems, a short story, and a journal entry written by Sylvia Plath. All the writings date from 1958, when Plath lived with her husband, poet Ted Hughes, in Northhampton, Massachusetts. The poem on view here, Fable of the Rhododendron Stealers, takes its setting from Child’s Park in Northampton, which Plath described as her “favorite pace in America.”
January, 2013
[Macondo]
Macondo: the Gulf Oil Disaster: Chief Counsel’s report
National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
Washington, D.C.: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
and Offshore Drilling, 2011
Gould Library Government Documents
This final report of the findings of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling commission was named a Notable Government Document by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association. The Commission was charged with studying the root causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the oil industry. The commission concluded that the series of breakdowns, oversights, and mistakes that contributed to the disaster could all be traced back to “overarching failure of management” by BP and its contractors.
December 2012
[December 2012 Voyage of the Chelyuskin]
The Voyage of the Chelyuskin
Otto IUlvich Shmidt
Translated by Alec Brown
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935
Gould Library Special Collections
The s.s. Chelyuskin was a Soviet ship specially built to navigate the treacherous and icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. In July, 1933, the Chelyuskin left Leningrad with a crew that included, besides sailors, engineers, and scientists, several journalists, a photographer, a film-maker, and a poet. The crew also included women: some were the wives of crew members, others were hired to work on the ship. Each chapter of the book is narrated by a different member of the crew.
As the illustration on the cover makes clear, the voyage of the Chelyuskin was ill-fated: a typhoon disabled the ship and it drifted in the ice, finally sinking on February 13, 1934. The crew was forced to evacuate. They camped on the ice for two months, until a team of pilots made a daring – and dangerous – rescue.
The Selection of the Month is often chosen from the Library's Special Collections.
November 2012
[November 2013 Selection of the month]
Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)
The American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to Those who are not Ashamed of Economy
Boston: Carter, Hendee, 1835
Gould Library Special Collections
True economy is a careful treasurer in the service of benevolence; and where they are united respectability, prosperity and peace will follow.
In The American Frugal Housewife, Lydia Maria Child offers recipes, housekeeping advice, and tips for domestic economy: Stored properly in a mixture of lime, salt, and water, eggs will keep for years. New England Rum is superior to brandy for washing the hair: brandy strengthens the hair but is too drying in a Northern climate. Save ashes and grease to make your own soap.
When she wrote The American Frugal Housewife, Child was already a published author, editor of the first American children’s magazine, and outspoken proponent of the rights of Native Americans. Shortly after the publication of The American Frugal Housewife, Child published a book on child rearing in which advocated for the education of girls. She was also an active abolitionist who published the first anti-slavery book in America, edited an abolitionist journal, and published a series of essays that argued for the elimination of slavery.
October 2012
[The First Lunar Landing]
The First Lunar Landing, as Told by the Astronauts in a Post-flight Press Conference
Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins
Washington: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of Public Affairs, 1970
Gould Library Government Documents
On July 20, 1969, the astronauts of Apollo 11 became the first people to walk on the moon. As he stepped off the ladder of the Lunar Module onto the surface of the moon, Neil Armstrong announced, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This pamphlet, a transcription of a press conference held with the Apollo 11 crew in August, 1969, commemorates the astronauts, the mission, and the accomplishments of the agency.
The Selection of the Month is often chosen from the Library's Special Collections.