Category Archives: Cultural Studies

Theatre and film history collection

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A recent donation to IWU’s Special Collections from Emeritus Theatre Professor Jared Brown contains primary sources, including recordings and transcripts of over 150 interviews, he used in the publication of four books:
The Fabulous Lunts: A Biography of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (1986),
Zero Mostel: A Biography (1989),
Alan J. Pakula: His Films and His Life (2005), and
Moss Hart: A Prince of the Theatre (2006).
A complete collection description is available in the finding aid for the Jared Brown Collection of Biographical Sources.

Three things you can do during Preservation Week 2012

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Update on May 3, 2012:
If you missed the events below, you can replay the web versions by visiting the following links:
Talk on family textiles: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/pres/042412
Talk on digital photographs: http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/pres/042612

And I will be collaborating with McLean County Museum of History and ISU’s Milner Library for another in-person event next April, so stay tuned!

[original April 2012 message follows]

Memories and treasures should last a lifetime and be passed on to future generations. Preservation Week is designed to highlight this need and to educate people on how they can care for the treasures of their heritage.

1. Taking Care: Family Textiles with Bronwyn Eves
Tuesday, April 24; lasts 1 hour, starting at 1PM CST

An online presentation of how to care for the various types of textiles found in family collections including clothing, flags and furniture coverings and framed textiles. The session will cover how to safely store and display textiles and how to determine when the services of a professional conservator are needed.

Technical Requirements
Computer with Internet access (high-speed connection is best) and media player software. Headphones recommended. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/318517225

2. Preserving Your Cultural Heritage
Tuesday, April 24; 7-9:00PM at the McLean County Museum of History (200 N. Main St., Bloomington).

Local experts who care for archives, library and museum collections will offer tips for storing and displaying family treasures and information on preventing damage and salvaging materials.

Attendees are encouraged to bring books, photographs, textiles or small objects for one-on-one consultations about preservation housing and treatments. Additionally, a variety of preservation supplies will be awarded as door prizes courtesy of the three institutions hosting the event.

For more information, contact Jeff Woodard at the McLean County Museum of History at 309-827-0428, or email him at JWoodard@mchistory.org.

If you need a special accommodation to fully participate in this event, contact Bill Kemp at library@mchistory.org, or at 309-827-0428. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.

3. Preserving Your Personal Digital Photographs with Bill LeFurgy
Thursday, April 26; lasts 1 hour, starting at 1PM CST

Digital photos are fragile and require special care to keep them accessible. But preserving any kind of digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. Technologies change over time and become obsolete, making it difficult to access older digital photos. Learn about the nature of the problem and hear about some simple, practical tips and tools to help you keep your digital photos safe.

Technical Requirements
Computer with Internet access (high-speed connection is best) and media player software. Headphones recommended. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/666813208

The two online presentations (numbers 1 and 3 above) will be available online after their scheduled date and will join several others listed at http://atyourlibrary.org/passiton/preservation-week-your-library

One other that may interest you now is
Accidents Happen: Protecting & Saving Family Treasures
with Nancy Kraft

About Preservation Week

Sponsored by the ALA’s Association of Library Collections and Services and partner organizations, Preservation Week was founded to raise awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions can play in providing ongoing preservation information. Local libraries, museums, and archives are asked to do one thing in their communities to celebrate Preservation Week, even if the action or activity is small. For more information, visit http://www.ala.org/preservationweek.

Photographic material acquired

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Summer 2011 brought our biggest accession of the year and fulfills a need that was identified before my arrival on campus. Nearly all photographic negatives, contact sheets and slides dating from the 1960s to 1990s that were formerly stored in the basement of Holmes Hall have been transferred for processing to the archives. Once processing is complete, we estimate the collection will occupy 130 linear feet.

This collection was inadequately protected both because of the physical environment of the basement and at the item level: negatives were in legal-sized envelopes and contact sheets were in shoe boxes. We are spreading the costs over a couple of budget cycles but our goal is to re-house the entire collection and make the index publicly available.

Also included in this photo transfer were some of the newer slides stored within the campus photographer’s office in good-quality sleeves, so material from the mid-1990s only needed a stable physical space.

It should be noted that other photographic material remains in various places in Holmes Hall, but this large transfer is a great start to ensuring that the collection is protected for the future. Additionally, research requests can be handled by archives staff, instead of taking up our photographer’s already well-used time!

Check out the Museum class exhibits!

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Four groups of students prepared exhibits for ANTH 270 this semester. This project required them to become familiar with artifacts on a topic, research it using primary and secondary sources, and create a visually appealing and informative display.

One of the groups used ethnographic material collected by Dr. Rebecca Gearhart. Their exhibit, titled Rhythms of the East African Coast is located in a display case by the Anthropology department on the second floor of CLA.

The remaining three groups used materials from the University Archives. The exhibit titles and locations are as follows:

The Long Lost Fame of the IWU College of Law, 1st Floor, John Wesley Powell Rotunda

     –photographs and documents related to the Bloomington law School and IWU College of Law.

Turbulent Titans: Student Issues from 1970-1971, 1st Floor, across from Circulation

     –an analysis of issues tackled by the student publication “Rhetoric and Propaganda.”

The Center of the University: Its Rise and Its Demise, 3rd Floor, outside Thorpe Center

     –photographs, an architectural plan and documents surrounding the history of Old Main/Hedding Hall/Duration Hall.

Great job, ANTH 270!

Conduct of Life

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The collection we call “Conduct of Life” holds over 200 books from secular and religious perspectives dating from 1560. The topics include moral, social and practical considerations aimed at youth of both sexes and women. French, Latin and English seem to the the languages represented in this collection, but you can browse the entire list from our online catalog by following the directions on this guide.

Note: A few of the titles in the catalog are also held in the Main Stacks.

Religion collections

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As can be expected, given IWU’s origins, special collections holds an array of books related to Methodist Church governance, history and liturgy. Sermons and insights into the religious and philosophical leanings of IWU presidents, many of whom were also Methodist ministers, are available in the archives. Samplings of other religions represented in special collections are below.

Additionally, we hold one manuscript collection of former Bloomington Wesley Methodist Church minister and mystery writer Charles Merrill Smith. Our collection holds photographs, book manuscripts, publicity material, correspondence and more. Smith was also an IWU Board of Trustee’s member from 1958-1968.

A selection of more traditional religious texts in the collection follows. Many are in languages students on campus are studying, and the varying publication dates offer opportunities for exposure to different type-faces. These books could be great for developing reading skills in languages over time!

[al-Qurơān]. Manuscript of undetermined date, written in Naskh letters within gold leave border and occasional floral illumination. (Call no.: BP100 1000z)

Lombardica hystoria. An incomplete incunable also known as Legenda aurea regarding the lives of saints. (Call no. BX4654 .J3 1496)

The life of Mahomet : together with The Alcoran at large / translated out of Arabick into French, by the Sieur De Ryer, Lord of Malezair, and Resident for the French King at Alexandria : now faithfully English’d. (Call no.: BP75 .L57 1718)

Directorio para informaciones de los pretendientes de el santo habito de N. seraphico P.S. Francisco. (Call no: F1381 .C37 1737)

Evangelische Deutsche Original-Bibel : das ist, die gantze heilige Schrift. Polyglot Bible in German fractur, Hebrew and Greek. (Call no.: BS701 1740)

Biblia Hebraica. (BS715 1753)

Vollständiges marburger Gesang-Buch. (Call no: BV410 .V65 1774)

The whole book of Psalms collected into English metre. “This Sternhold and Hopkins version of the psalter was given a first class treatment, with its green morocco binding with gilt decoration, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, and, most important, a fore-edge painting. Such paintings were expensive additions to books printed between the 1780s and the 1830s. A watercolor, applied to the edges of the pages as they were fanned, was evident only when the book was open. This scene shows an English cathedral.” (Call no.: BX5145 .S74 1787)

Codex sinaiticus petropolitanus. Two facsimile volumes of the Greek New Testamaent held at the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg. (Call nos.: BS64 .S32 1911 and BS64 .S3 1922)

Codex juris Canonici (Call no.: BX1935 .C31917)

And some texts mentioned in the last blog post. Click on the images for a larger picture and available descriptions:

Medieval manuscript Bible Leaf from a Medieval manuscript Bible.

We have 10 matted Medieval manuscript leaves with accompanying descriptions like this one: Medieval manuscript leaf
Manuscript accordian book Untitled Buddhist manuscript in Pali

This is a Burmese text with gilded edges, decorated front cover; written in ink on hand-made paper; accordion folded. The physical description is [247] p. ; 1072 cm., folded to 16 x 39 cm. And that’s everything we know about it!