Currently on Display – The18th and 19th Century Botanical Illustrations from the Artemas Martin Collection

The American University Library is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit featuring illustrations from botanical publications in the Artemas Martin Collection.

The primary goal of botanical illustration is scientific accuracy.  Plants are presented so they can be recognized and distinguished from other species.  Botanical illustrations became more accurate in color and detail with the major advances in printing during the 18th century.  The most talented botanical artists such as Isaac Sprague created illustrations that went beyond their scientific requirements to become works of art. Though amateur botanists, gardeners, and natural historians were the main market for botanical publications such as those in this exhibit, the illustrations increased their allure and accessibility to the general reader.

The18th and 19th Century Botanical Illustrations from the Artemas Martin Collection will be on display on the third floor of the Library through the end of the summer.

Currently on Display – Learning through Dictation: Elementary Mathematics Problems in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce the opening of its spring 2011 exhibit, “Learning through Dictation: Elementary Mathematics Problems in the 18th and 19th Centuries.”

In the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, arithmetic was taught through a set of rules that could be used in solving problems.  Commercial topics and vocational applications were predominant.  Instructors taught by dictation.  They presented the rules along with examples and practice problems.

This exhibit features copy books and text books for both instructors and students from the Artemas Martin and Karen D. Michalowicz Collections.  The copy books on display span over eighty years and illustrate the method of teaching over this period.

Currently on Display – Special Collections Newest Acquisitions

Stop by the Third Floor of Bender Library to see our exhibit featuring Special Collections two newest acquisitions – the Barlett & Steele Archives and the Sally L. Smith Papers.

The Barlett and Steele Archive (1971-2010) consists of materials created and collected by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in connection with their research for published and unpublished newspaper and magazine articles and books.  It contains raw research on unfinished and unpublished projects, as well as leads on potential stories.  The archive includes audiovisual materials, books, corporate and government reports, correspondence, Freedom of Information Act filings, interview notes and transcriptions, manuscripts, statistical analyses, tax returns, and numerous letters from readers expressing their views on a wide range of issues or suggesting future stories. The files relate to a variety of topics including criminal justice, energy, federal housing programs, foreign aid, Howard Hughes, Indian gaming, litigation, nuclear waste, Olympics, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and taxes.  On display are materials created and collected as part of their award winning series for The Philadelphia Inquirer on the operations of the Philadelphia criminal courts including data sheets and transcripts for three aggravated robbery indictments, notes on courtroom activities, punch cards and a computer tape.

Sally L. Smith Papers (1950s-2000s) document her work as an educator at American University and the Lab School of Washington through correspondence, notes from meetings with students and parents, and syllabi.  Also covered is her work for the World Health Organization and the World Federation of Mental Health. Her expertise in learning disabilities is illustrated through manuscripts of published and unpublished monographs and speeches.   Also included are materials she compiled on learning disabilities.  On display are materials related to the Lab School and its innovative curriculum and Sally Smith’s work as author and educator.

The exhibit will be on display through the end of the semester.

Effective March 1, 2010, Archives and Special Collections began charging fees for Digital Reproductions.  The fee schedule is as follows:

Low resolution scans (300 dpi and under): $2/scan + $10/hr. after the first hour of staff time

High resolution scans (greater than 300 dpi): $5/scan + $10/hr. after the first hour of staff time

Item already scanned (requires copying only):  $1

CD-RW: $1 per disk

Researchers with valid student IDs will be provided with two images per order at no cost.  We accept the following payment types: cash, check, credit card, and Eagle bucks.

Currently on Display – Japanese Illustrated Books from the Charles Nelson Spinks Collection

Charles Nelson Spinks began collecting books when he lived in Japan.  He donated over 1,000 books to American University Library in the 1970s.  The books cover a variety of subjects including art, history, philosophy, recreation, and travel during the Edo Period of Japan (1603-1868).

Japanese printed books on secular themes date from about 1600.  Some of the earliest books were produced using moveable type but by the middle of the 17th century all commercially produced books were printed from woodblocks.  Many of the schools and styles of Japanese art are represented in illustrated books.  There are a number of different types of books such as gafu ‘drawing books’ which were usually produced by a single artist to give didactic examples of his style.  Artists could also combine with poets, novelists, and travelers to produce illustrated poetry collections, comic illustrated novels, travel guides and erotic books.  Popular titles were probably printed in ‘editions’ of thousands, and were regularly reprinted if there was demand.  Most Japanese books were printed on kozo, paper made from mulberry bark.  Rare Japanese books are defined as those predating 1867.  Numerous earthquakes and fires over the years and the allied bombing of World War II destroyed many old Japanese libraries.

On display are three examples of illustrated books including a gafu and two examples of albums of woodblock prints.  To limit exposure to light, the pages are turned every two months.   The exhibit will be on display through the end of April 2010.

American University’s Web Harvesting Project: A Work in Progress

As we recently completed our first year of web harvesting, it seems a fitting time to make a progress report. The original scope of this project was to document the online presence of student organizations and to collect web only publications. We presented our proposal in the fall of 2008 just as AU was finalizing plans to launch its new website the following spring. In light of this, we expanded our scope to cover the University’s entire website.  American University selected the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service for this project. Archive-It has a user friendly web interface through which you can set up and schedule crawls. The Internet Archive stores the web sites collected, generates reports, and offers technical support. Because of the evanescent nature of the web, it is important to review the reports generated by Archive-Its crawler. These reports document the success/failures of the crawl. By reviewing this data, we can identify crawler traps and write code to prevent future problems. Over the course of the last year, we have conducted four major crawls and several smaller ones. We reaped the benefits of this project within several months of starting. We have already received inquiries from students seeking copies of articles they had written for an online publication. The publication’s web site was temporarily down and the harvested version was the only source of their work. The archived version of AU’s website is available through the Archive-It site. I invite you to browse the archives. Start at the following site: http://www.archive-it.org/public/all_collections and select one of AU’s Collections. For those of you familiar with the Wayback Machine, it only has data for http://www.american.edu/ from 1996-2008.

New Digital Collection

American University Library is pleased to announce its newest digital collection – The Photographic Materials and Other Art Work of Herbert E. Striner

Herbert E. Striner is an economist and the former Dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University.  He got his first camera when he was waiting to return home from the China-Burma-India Theater at the end of World War II.  Dr. Striner took his camera with him on his personal and professional travels depicting the people he met and the places he visited.  Dr. Striner switched to digital photography in 1999.    His collection consists of over 9,000 black & white negatives, color slides, and color negatives depicting a wide variety of subjects in the United States and abroad from the 1940s to 1998 including Washington, DC landmarks such as the National Cathedral and C&O Canal.  Some of the earliest photographs in this collection document life on a troop ship.   Digitization and cataloging of this collection is ongoing.  Please visit the site at http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/collection/hdr?striner

New Acquisitions – Fall 2009

Jeremy J. Stone Papers (1956-2006)

Jeremy J. Stone served as President of the Federation of American Scientists from 1970 until 2000 when he founded a small non-profit, Catalytic Diplomacy. After earning his PhD in Mathematics from Stanford in 1960, Stone began working on issues of war and peace with an emphasis on arms control. Stone calls himself a “public interest activist.” His advocacy efforts covered a variety of topics including scientific exchange, the nuclear arms race, human rights, ethnic violence and civil conflict, and U.S. international relations. His papers include articles, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and reports compiled for his two memoirs, “Every Man Should Try”: Adventures of a Public Interest Activist (1999) and Catalytic Diplomacy: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran (2009).

Political Study Club of the District of Columbia (1937-1957)

This collection consists of the annual breakfast programs and yearbooks from the Political Study Club of Washington, DC collected by member, Constance C. Truesdell. The Political Study Club was formed in 1899 as a suffrage club “to study and discuss politics and kindred subjects and endeavor to right the wrongs of women in the District of Columbia.” After the adoption of the 19th amendment, the Study Club changed its mission to the “study of the United States Government and its home and foreign relations.” Membership was capped at 400 members but was not limited to residents of Washington, D.C. The yearbooks include the annual membership roster including officers and committees, the list of speakers and topics for that year, and the club’s history, constitution & by-laws, and song.

George Washington offers financial support for a national university in the federal city

While developing the plans for American University, Bishop John Fletcher Hurst discovered that George Washington was an early supporter of a national university in the nation’s capital.

In a letter to the Governor of Virginia, Robert Brooke, dated March 16, 1795, Washington proposed designating his shares in the Potomack (Canal) Company for an early initiative to create a national university in the “federal city.”  Washington’s support for this project stemmed from his concerns about the state of graduate education in the United States.  He was worried that “the youth of the United States [are] migrating to foreign countries for the higher branches of erudition” and “that a serious danger is encountered in sending abroad among other political systems those who have not well learned the value of their own.”

Hurst purchased this letter in the 1890s and carried it with him on his early fundraising trips.  Hurst felt his plan for a graduate institution which would be open to “both young men and women alike” matched George Washington’s goals for a national university.  Upon his death, Hurst’s Library was sold at auction but W.L. Davidson, Secretary of the University, purchased the letter with his own money.   Davidson was eventually reimbursed through donations.  This letter and its connection to American University’s past are treasured by the campus community.

Visitors are welcome to stop by Archives and Special Collections to read the letter.

Bishop John F. Hurst Autograph Collection (1532-1883)

AU’s founder, Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, was an avid collector. In addition to a large library, he amassed a small autograph collection. The books, correspondence, and documents in this collection highlight Hurst’s interest in astronomy, Italy, mathematics, nature, and religion. It includes letters written by Michael Faraday (1851), Lamarck (1822), and Alexander von Humboldt as well as letters relating to the unification of Italy three of which were written by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Of note are several 19th century papal bulls, 16th century astronomical text entitled Liber Ioannis de Sacro Busto De sphaera / / addita est præfatio in eundem librum Philippi Mel. ad Simonem Grineum, and a 1581 decree of King Philip II of Spain.