Author Archives: Lynda Kachurek

Autumn Exhibit 2024: Alchemy, Spiritualism, and Witchcraft

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woodblock image of two older women in dresses stirring a cauldron as a third figure flies in on a broom and a cat jumps towards them while rats and a snake scurry in front.
“Soul-Killing Witches” image from the frontispiece of the 1928 edition of Robert Calef’s _The Wonders of the Invisible World Displayed_

When our university’s mascot is a spider, it’s not surprising that the return of autumn has us excited for all things fall – football, leaves changing color, and all the spooky things the season brings with it.  In previous blog posts, we have explored some of the materials that we have in the collections, including items related to tales of folklore, witchcraft and spiritualism.

A new exhibit on display in Boatwright Memorial Library through mid-November focuses on similar themes as it highlights some of the Galvin Rare Book Room holdings on alchemy, spiritualism, and witchcraft.  Included are some new additions during the past couple of years that add to the depth of the materials available for research on this topic.  

Many of our witchcraft-related materials were highlighted in an earlier post from 2021, including the newly acquired Del Congresso Notturnao… and the artist book by Raeleen Kao, The Witch is Inside of Me, as well as our 1746 first edition of Augustin Calmet’s Dissertations sur les apparitions… with his thoughts on sorcery, demons, and vampires. Similarly, some of our works on spiritualism also had their moment on the blog as well that same fall.

The exhibit also showcases 3 works on alchemy, which have not been highlighted as of yet. These items point to a particularly fascinating time in history during which the science of alchemy – for it was considered a science based on the transformation of matter – as well as offering researchers an opportunity to explore its philosophies.  Let’s look at these 3 items in a bit more detail.

Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchemy, 1929 (Galvin Rare Book Room QD25 .N6 1652)

Norton was a noted 15th-century alchemist and served as a member of King Edward IV’s Privy Council. He believed the knowledge of alchemy could only be learned by working with a master alchemist, and his Ordinall, a long poem, he provides an account of his own initiation into the art and science of alchemy. Originally written in 1477, the Ordinall was one of the earliest works on alchemy in Middle English and became one of the most influential as it sought to educate English readers on this “new science.” Its first appearance in print in 1652, and the copy in the collection is a 1929 facsimile of that 1652 edition.

Martin Ruland, Lexicon Alchemiæ, 1661 (Galvin Rare Book Room QD25 .R9 1661)

Martin Ruland the Elder (1532-1602) was a German scientist and alchemist who practiced the beliefs put forward by fellow scientist Paracelsus, who pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine.  Born in 1569, Martin Ruland the Younger followed in his father’s path to become a noted physician and alchemist in his own right. For a time, Ruland the Younger served at the Hapsburg court under Emperor Rudolf II.  The combined knowledge of father and son allowed them to develop a foundational and exhaustive dictionary of alchemical symbols, concepts, and terms, first published in 1612.

Johann Rudolh Glauber, Tractus de Natura Salium, 1658 (Galvin Rare Book Room QD27 .C58 1658)

Born in Germany in 1604, Johann Rudolf Glauber worked in both Amsterdam and the German states as a self-described chemical philosopher. Known for his invention and refinements of scientific equipment such as his distillatory furnaces, he also worked in the wine industry and as a dispenser of medicines.  One account of Glauber’s practical work was in his book, Furni novi philosophici, in which he described materials and processes for constructing and using his chemical furnaces. Other published works included a collection of medial preparations (Pharmacopoea spagyrica)and his Teutschlands-Wohlfahrt. In 1658, he published the small book Tractus de natura salium, in which he discussed the importance of sal mirabile (“miraculous salt,” which became known as Glauber’s salt) for its medicinal properties.

Galvin Rare Book Room Works on Exhibit

  • Charles Beecher, Spiritual Manifestations (1879)
  • August Calmet, Dissertations sur les apparitions des anges, des demons et des esprits: et sur les revenans et vampires de Hongrie…. (1746)
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The New Revelation (1918)
  • Samuel Fowler, Salem Witchcraft: Comprising More Wonders of the Invisible World by Robert Calef & Wonders of the Invisible World by Cotton Mather (1865)
  • Johann Rudolf Glauber, Tractatus de Natura Salium (1658)
  • Raeleen Kao, The Witch is Inside Me, (2018)
  • Jeinrich Kramer & Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (1958)
  • Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchemy (1929)
  • Martin Ruland, Lexicon Alchemiæ (1661)
  • Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (1841)
  • Girolamo Tartarotti, Del Congresso notturno delle lammie… (1749)

Fall 2024 Exhibit: Come Sail Away!

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As the new semester begins, the Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books division at Boatwright Memorial Library is pleased to announce a specialized exhibit that highlights a distinctive component of its rare book and archival collections: maritime-related materials. Many of these items, which reside in the Galvin Rare Book Room & Archives, have been acquired largely through the generous endowment of the Beverly Lyle Britton Fund. Beverly Lyle Britton, an esteemed alumnus of Richmond College (Class of 1935), devoted much of his professional life to service in the United States Navy, where he held notable positions including Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and Press Liaison. Established following Britton’s passing in 1995, the fund is dedicated to procuring materials that pertain specifically to the United States Navy, maritime history, and the sea. This ongoing financial support has enabled the library to continuously enhance its collection with annual acquisitions.

The current exhibit, titled Come Sail Away, offers a curated selection of the library’s maritime-themed holdings, providing a window into the breadth and depth of the collection. This exhibit serves not only as a sampling of the diversity of the library’s resources but also as an invitation to students, faculty, staff, and the broader academic community to engage with and explore these valuable materials for research and scholarship. The exhibit is located on level 2 of Boatwright Library, just outside the administrative offices.

Below is a list of the exhibit’s categories and some of the corresponding materials on display that are available for use through the Galvin Rare Book Room & Archives. For a more comprehensive exploration of the library’s rare book holdings, we encourage the use of the online catalog—pro tip: select the “Rare Books” tab to focus your search on materials housed in the Galvin Rare Book Room. Additionally, searching for “Britton” will yield results for items procured through the Britton Fund. Archival materials are accessible through the ArchivesSpace database, where new and updated content is continually integrated as it becomes available.

Ships & Ship Life

  • David M. Clinger, Romantick & Whimsical Words of the Sea and of Sailing-ships Stingray Point, VA: 2004.  MS-35 David M. Clinger Collection, Box 26 This miniature book was hand-set in well-work Garamond foundry type and printed on the antique press of Chesapeake Bay Retriever and Sandy Bottom News at Stingray Point Farm, Stingray Point, Virginia. This first edition was limited to 20 copies.
  • Herman Melville, Moby Dick: or, The Whale New York: Norton, 1976 Illustrated by Warren Chappell, Richmond College Class of 1926 — 50th Anniversary Class Gift from the Class of 1926
  • Frank Shay, ed. Iron Men & Wooden Ships: Deep Sea Chanties Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, & Co., 1924 In 1920, Shay opened a tiny bookshop where he both sold and published books. The initial volume of this work was published by Shay in 1921, then this expanded edition was picked up and published by Doubleday in 1924. (Note: This book is a newly acquired work that is in the process of being cataloged into the collection.)

Latitude & Longitude

  • Matthew Fontaine Maury, A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation: in which the auxiliary branches of mathematics and astronomy, comprised of algebra, geometry,…. variation of the compass, etc., are treated of. Also the theory and most simple methods of finding time, latitude, and longitude…..  Philadelphia: Key & Biddle, 1836 Inscribed by the author. Maury was a naval officer and oceanographer and considered one of the founding pioneers of modern oceanography. This work was his first published book, completed at the age of 30 after participating in three extended voyages, including the first circumnavigation of the globe by a U.S. Navy vessel. Maury served as the head of the United States Naval Observatory from 1844-1861.
  • William Whiston, The Longitude discovered by the eclipses, occultations, and conjunctions of Jupiter’s planets: with descriptions of those refracting and reflecting telescopes… that are useful for the discovery of longitude both at land and sea… London: Printed for John Whiston at Boyle’s Head, Fleet Street, 1738  Instrumental in helping pass the British Longitude Act of 1714, Whiston spent a considerable amount of time working on the problem of longitude. This first-edition work explains the various instruments and experiments Whiston explored in his attempts.

Sea-faring Adventures

  • Hamilton M. Baskerville, My Cruise Diary: North Cape & Russia Cruise, 1931  Richmond: Whittet & Shepperson, 1932. Privately printed for the author for distribution among his friends, #62/200. This work is inscribed by the author: “For the library of the University of Richmond, presented by the author, alumnus, 1899-1900.”
  • Frank I. Wilson, Sketches of Nassau… Raleigh, NC, 1864 Teacher, reporter, and writer, Frank Wilson of North Carolina published this work documenting his travels to Nassau in 1864 aboard a blockade-runner.

Exploring the South Pacific

  • Alexander Dalrymple, An Historical Collection of Several Voyages & Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean London: Printed for the author and sold by J. Nourse, bookseller in ordinary to his majesty, 1770-1771 This important collection, published in two volumes in 1770-1771, contains accounts of notable Iberian and Dutch voyages in the southern hemisphere, translated and edited by Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808). Hydrographer to the Admiralty from 1795, Dalrymple produced this work as part of his research into the belief at the time that there existed an undiscovered continent in the South Pacific. These volumes were intended to demonstrate the knowledge of the region to date. The first volume covers sixteenth-century Spanish and Portuguese voyages, beginning with Ferdinand Magellan and including those of Juan Fernández, Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira, and Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The second volume contains the seventeenth- and eighteenth- century Dutch voyages of Jacob le Maire and William Schouten, and Abel Tasman.
  • Rockwell Kent, Voyaging Southward from the Strait of Magellan New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1924 Graphic artist and avid traveler Rockwell Kent takes readers on an illustrated adventure of his sailing the southern tip of South America, dramatically illustrated with the author’s woodcuts.

Artist Book

  • Jessica Spring, Fathoming  Tacoma, WA: Springtide Press, 2015 Book Arts Collection #37 From the colophon: “”[L]etterpress printed with handset Latin Condensed and Bernhar Gothic with vintage maritime cuts. The edition includes a varied copy for each of the seven seas, featuring collectible tobacco cards sold with packages of cigarettes from 1924-37. Printed by Jessica Spring and bound in an adaptation of Hedi Kyle’s flag book structure with Japanese maritime maps from 1945 [on exterior of concertina spine]. [Drop-spine] boxes bound and portholes scuttled by Gabby Cooksey. Removable flags are held in place with sewing rather than attached to concertina spine (as in the traditional flag book binding by Hedi Kyle). Concertina attached at either end to blue cloth over boards with three circular cut-outs in each, displaying illustrations and the title. Spine is letterpress printed with various nautical terms and their definitions on recto, with historic maritime maps on verso.”

Manuscript Material

  • SC-1: Ship’s Log of Whaling Journeys (1850s) This manuscript documents at least four different voyages during the 1850s, although the entries record varying levels of detail. Many are dated and often include the longitude and latitude of the vessel as well as information about the weather. The intent of the various sailings was clear, no matter the ship: they were hunting whales. On September 4, 1858, for example, the author documented that the crew “saw a very large school of sperm whale which is something uncommon in this latitude and longitude. Sketches and drawings of whales highlight some pages, especially when their hunt was successful.  In fact, the main image on our blog is from this manuscript! 

Please Pardon Our Dust…..

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Photo of the front of Boatwright Library under construction with dirt hill and machinery.
Construction in front of Boatwright Library Summer 2023 (Photo credit: Travis Smith)

If you have driven by Boatwright Library recently, you will have seen the large construction areas surrounding parts of the library. This summer, work started on an 18-month project that will bring beautiful new spaces and exciting things to this campus landmark.

During this time, the library is open and available to students, faculty, staff and community members as usual. Our department — Book Arts, Archives, and Rare Books — is right in the middle of the construction zone, so it requires some changes to our availability. While under construction, we will be able to continue to assist researchers by appointment only. Our resources are available for your research or class assignments, and our staff is available to assist you with book arts, rare book, or archival projects.

The best way to contact us during this time is via email: archives@richmond.edu for rare books and archival assistance and bookarts@richmond.edu for assistance with book arts projects or instruction.

We appreciate your patience during the project and look forward to enjoying these new spaces in the future!

Collection Spotlight: MS-41 The Earl & Jewell Ratliff Collection

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Note: This post was written by Savannah Etzler as part of her internship through Simmons University with Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books in Boatwright Library. Savannah also processed the Ratliff collection and curated an exhibit about the collection’s football ephemera.

The Earl and Jewell Ratliff Collection contains University of Richmond memorabilia, service awards, ephemera, photographs, and postcards representing the life of Earl and Jewell Ratliff and their support of the University of Richmond, volunteer organizations, and their passion for travel. On April 10, 1926, Earl was born in McComb, Mississippi, and in 1944 he received his high school diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia. Following his service in the Army, Earl and Jewell were married in Newport News, Virginia on March 24, 1951, the same spring that Earl graduated from the University of Richmond with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Jewell was born on September 7, 1929 in Jacksonville, Florida and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1946 before beginning work at the C&P Telephone Company, where she would work for over 36 years.

Earl was a guard for the University of Richmond football team in 1949 and was known as one of the ‘Portsmouth Boys,’ a group of students hailing from the nearby city. His participation in Spider athletics is documented in event programs, newspaper clippings, and football rosters that provide valuable insight into the university’s history. Between the 1960’s and the 1990’s, Earl and Jewell continued to support the university’s athletic program, attending many sporting events and amassing a substantial collection of tickets and sideline passes. The couple were also involved in the Spider Club and participated in the Homecoming Action Committee as documented in their collection of university ephemera. These materials are evidence of the legacy of alumnae support that continues to shape the university.

The couple were avid travelers and preserved their memories in the pages of several scrapbooks, which detail their trips across the United States, Mexico, and Canada during the 1990’s. Peppering these pages are labels that identify sites, note travel arrangements, and preserve special memories, and it is here that Earl and Jewell’s personalities and sense of humor shine through the passage of time. The following images reveal the charm of this collection, that of a unique couple who enthusiastically pursued their passions and found joy not only in the natural wonders of the world, but also the whimsy of the mundane. These annotations, whether documenting exceptional meals, amusing signs, or the beauty of the U.S. National Parks, provide an intriguing peek into the experiences of travel enthusiasts during the 90s. Together, Earl and Jewell explored the continent and documented their adventures, leaving behind a valuable collection which allows us to see world through their eyes.

This collection was acquired as part of an estate donation upon Jewell’s passing in 2016. This collection represents the couple’s posthumous support of the University of Richmond and its students.

photo of scrapbook page showing Jewell Ratliff eating a lobster. Her captions read "jewell at the lobster pond, pick one, cook one, crack one, eat" and "total cost $5.80, pick $.20".
One of Jewell Ratliff’s travel scrapbook pages.

Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection Update

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Note: This post was authored by Taylor McNeilly, Processing & Reference Archivist.

Welcome back to another #wyattwalkerwednesday! I know it has been a while since I posted any updates about the collection, but I have some big updates today to make up for it. In fact, I have what may be the most significant announcement to date: we are opening a portion of the physical collection for research! But first, some earlier updates about work we have done recently.

Just before and during the pandemic, we have opened up a number of digital portions of the collection. These started with what we call the Birmingham Tapes, recordings of ten mass meetings held during the Birmingham Campaign in 1963. Because these were thought to be the oldest audiovisual material in the collection, they were deemed top priority for digitization, since that process not only allows for easier access via the Internet but also preserves the material in a new, digital format. Magnetic media such as audio cassettes or VHS tapes have an estimated “shelf life” of approximately 40 years, so you can understand the concern we had for recordings that were nearly 60 years old.

After the Birmingham Tapes were digitized, preserved, and accessible online, we turned our attention to the nearly 700 recordings of Dr. Walker’s church services, most of which were held at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem. While the digitization portion of this project is complete, the work to make them accessible is still ongoing – although we have made good strides in that since the last progress report I posted. We now have up to tape #275 available online along with the master inventory that lists the title and date of each recording (where that information is available). I will go into detail about this project in a future update, but progress continues.

Finally, we have also digitized and made available online the five film reels that were included with the collection. Although these are silent films, we worked with a prominent scholar in the field to transcribe these films, describing each scene for the visually impaired as well as providing a brief analysis of each. Dr. LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant, the scholar who provided the transcription and analysis, has our eternal gratitude for her illuminating work on this project that enabled us to make this material accessible online.

The nature of the pandemic and the University of Richmond’s response to it moved us into a purely digital work mode, but as we have returned to working in person, I have been able to return to processing the physical materials of the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection as well. After sorting through all of the physical material, I have focused my work on the earliest material first, and specifically on manuscript (unpublished, paper) material. I am happy to announce that I have now worked through all manuscript material dated up to Dr. Walker’s departure from SCLC in 1964!

Six grey, legal size, archival boxes sitting in a row on a wooden desk. Each box bears a white label reading "Boatwright Memorial Library Book Arts, Archives, and Rare Books, MS-24 Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection" followed by a box number.
The first six boxes of the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection.

Since Dr. and Mrs. Walker were already incredibly busy by 1964, this material is arranged into a number of series and subseries. Please note that these series and subseries may end up holding material from later (or much later) in Dr. and Mrs. Walkers’ lives, and that material is not yet available, meaning the series and subseries may not be fully open to research. You can view the finding aid, including a folder-level inventory of the material now open for research, in our online collection inventories.

If you have any questions or would like to request access to material, please email archives@richmond.edu and let us know what boxes or folders you would like to access. As we announced last week, we now have open hours four times a week and are happy to accommodate researchers who need to come in outside those hours by appointment.

Fall 2022 Open Hours

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After several years of closure due to construction and the ongoing pandemic, we are finally able to reopen the newly renovated Rare Book Reading Room for regular open hours! The newly renovated space is part of the newly renovated floor B1 of Boatwright Memorial Library in the heart of the University of Richmond campus. The fall 2022 semester schedule for open hours is as follows:

Tuesdays: 12pm-2pm
Wednesdays: 12pm-3pm
Thursdays: 9am-12pm
Fridays: 11am-2pm

We can of course accommodate researchers by appointment outside of these hours, and we encourage all researchers to reach out before arriving so we can have material pulled and ready for your research. You can reach out directly by emailing us at archives@richmond.edu. Please also bear in mind that these hours are subject to change, especially in regards to University or federal holidays and staff availability.

When planning a research visit, you can find our rare books, including the Book Arts collection, in the library catalog and review our open archival collections in our online collection inventories. For questions on our holdings or assistance in locating material, please email us at archives@richmond.edu.

Witchcraft, Werewolves, & Vampires

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Sepia toned image of black cat, old woman, and woman flying on broomstick in the countryside.
Image from the title page of Salem Witchcraft.

In addition to the various ghost-related books discussed in the previous post, the Galvin Rare Book Room is also home to a variety of materials pertaining to witchcraft. While the notion of “a witch” existed for hundreds of years, the witch trials in Europe and the British colonies in the Americas reached their peak between 1450 and 1750. Historians continue to study the many aspects of this phenomenon, exploring the varied cultural, social, religious, and political foundations that led to, and supported, the belief structures behind them. A quick search in the Boatwright Library catalog offers many options to read further on this topic.

The collections of materials on witchcraft in the Rare Book Room offer research opportunities into the topic, especially for students in Professor Sydney Watts’ History 199 course “Witches, Heretics, and Unbelievers: Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy in Western Europe, 1520-1800.” In this course, students focus on the basic elements of historical thinking and research by exploring the challenging concepts of the problem of truth and reality through the lens of witchcraft and heresy in early modern Europe. Examining primary and secondary sources are part of that research journey, and we always appreciate the opportunity to work with faculty, students, and staff on their research projects.

One of the primary texts defining the concept of a witch was the Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer of Witches, first published in 1486. Written by Catholic clergymen, the book functioned as a handbook for secular courts across Europe to assist in the identification, and eradication, of those deemed guilty of witchcraft.  Its three sections use natural philosophy and theology to prove the existence of evil, illustrate how witches recruit protégés, offers remedies and reversals for the spellbound, and provides legal guidelines on how to run a witch trial. The Galvin Rare Book Room copy is a facsimile edition featuring an English translation of the 1486 text. This edition totaled 1275 numbered copies, of which this item is number 537; it was a gift from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.  (catalog link)

Earlier this year, we added a new work to the materials available to study the history of witchcraft, Del Congresso Notturnao delle lammie libri tre. (catalog link) Published in 1749, this item is a first edition printing highlighting arguments about practical magic and witchcraft coming from the Venetian Inquisition.  Arguing against the more traditional viewpoints, the author Girolamo Tartarotti, claims that rather than demonic possession and satanic pacts, the behaviors tagged as magic relate more to medicinal herbs and potions and the fantasies and visions those concoctions produced. Even further, he suggests that the public spectacles of witch burnings fueled additional charges and outbreaks, noting that implementing less harsh measures might reduce the allegations by giving them less public attention.  One notable chapter focuses specifically on werewolves, which Tartarotti believed were also the result of drug-induced visions.

Studying witchcraft in the American colonies focuses primarily on the trials held in Salem, Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693 when more than 200 people were accused and 19 executed by hanging after being found guilty of the charges. Several items in the collection relate directly to the happenings in Salem, including:

Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World: being an account of the tryals of several witches lately executed in New-England; to which is added, A Farther Account of the tryals of the New-England Witches by Increase Mather. London: John Russell Smith, 1862 (catalog link)

Robert Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World displayed: in Five Parts Boston: T. Bedlington, 1828.  (catalog link)

Salem Witchcraft: Comprising More Wonders of the invisible world, collected by Robert Calef; and Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather; together with notes and explanations by Samuel P. Fowler. Boston: W. Veazie, 1865 (catalog link)

R.R. Hinman, The Blue Laws of New Haven Colony, usually called blue laws of Connecticut; Quaker Laws of Plymouth and Massachusetts; blue laws of New York, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. First record of Connecticut; interesting extracts from Connecticut records; cases of Salem witchcraft; charges and banishment of Rev. Roger Williams, and other interesting and instructive antiquities. Hartford: Case, Tiffany, 1838 (catalog link)

Other materials in the Rare Book Room also offer information on the study of witchcraft, including Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841 (catalog link).  Witchcraft appears in other texts as well, including fictional works and in the artists’ books collection. Mary Johnson’s The Witch, published in 1914, is a novel set in 1600s England about a young English girl and a county physician who were part of the accused of sorcery and witchcraft (catalog link). Stories of witchcraft in colonial Virginia include James Bowyer’s The Witch of Jamestown, a story of colonial Virginia, published in 1890 (catalog link) in the Rare Book Room collection, while various depictions of the case of Grace Sherwood can be found in the circulating collection of the library. Even the historic children’s literature collection has two books on the topic: Tomie DePaola’s Strega Nona meets her match, published in 1993 (catalog link) and perhaps my personal favorite, Ib Spang Olsen’s The Marsh Crone’s Brew, translated by Virginia Allen Jensen in this 1960 version (catalog link).

Finally, one of the items in the artists’ books collections brings a contemporary experience to the study of witchcraft with the recently added work by Raeleen Kao, The Witch is Inside of Me. As indicated in the accompanying information sheet with the work, Kao describes it as a piece that “upends the nefariousness attributed to curiosity, sexuality, and disobedience in females and imbues the characters who raised me with power by embracing the corruptible, dual-faced nature within all of us.” (catalog link)

Oh, in case you were wondering when we’d get to the vampires in the title? There is indeed a work about vampires available.  The Galvin Rare Book Room is home to a first edition, printed in 1746, of Augustin Calmet’s Dissertations sur les apparitions des anges, des demons & des espirits. Et sut les revenans et vampires De Hongrie, de Moheme, de Moravie, & de Silesie. This comprehensive study contains nearly 500 pages of analysis about sorcery and witchcraft, demons and angels, and perhaps his most controversial comments about vampires.  As with some of the studies on witchcraft that attempt to reframe the conversation away from psychic or demonic elements and more towards physical aspects, Calmet’s opinions on vampires center on the effects of chemical substances in the soil on corpses. (catalog link)

Although under construction through Summer 2022, materials in the Galvin Rare Book Room are made available to UR faculty, staff, and students by appointment during this time.

Spiritualism & Ghost Stories

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Cover image of Ghosts of Virginia, grey with white flowers.

Ghost stories have long been a part of American storytelling traditions.  During the 19th century, however, those stories took on new depth as the beliefs of Spiritualism took hold. Many historians date the beginnings of the Spiritualist movement to the 1848 occurrences in Hydesville, New York, where the young Fox sisters engaged in rapping games with unseen spirits. These three sisters raised the possibility of having not merely encounters but conversations with those who had passed away, including the exchange of information and knowledge between this world and the next.  Although talking to spirits was nothing new, their work, which included founding the first Spiritualist society, is credited as being the start of Spiritualism, a movement that would eventually expand worldwide and capture the imagination of millions, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Much like the time of the Scientific Revolution, where the triumph of reason was expected to destroy magical belief systems, many individuals at the end of the 19th century expected the rising industrialism and new science to quickly stamp out what appeared to be mere ghost stories. Such was not the case, as Spiritualists quickly adapted the tools of science to help further their cause, developing their own language of communication and tools during an era which saw tremendous advances in technology.  Historian Molly McGarry noted, “Speaking to the dead may have seemed no less strange than communicating across cables or capturing the living on film. Like freezing an image on a photographic plate, the Spiritualists’ ghost catching was a collapsing of time: the past perceived in the present for the future” (McGarry, 20). Spiritualism in the 19th century, then, was much less about the reality of life after death and communicating with the spirit world, as this belief predated the Spiritualist movement. Rather, it was the guiding rubric of science and technological development which shaped Spiritualism in this age, as practitioners “aimed to authenticate the immaterial presence of spirits of the dead through ‘objective,’ observable, and repeated experiences and through a rationalist discourse of ‘factual’ evidence” (Weinstein, 126).

While no ghosts (that we know of anyway), the Galvin Rare Book Room is home to a small collection of works about Spiritualism and ghost stories.   

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The New Revelation. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1918 Galvin Rare Book Room BF1272 .D7 1918  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Verser Todd. (catalog link)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first became interested in Spiritualism around 1881 after attending a lecture. With further reading and study, Conan Doyle became a supporter and advocate of the movement. He was involved with organizations such as the British Society for Psychical Research and the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, where he served as vice-president. In addition to his two-volume work on The History of Spiritualism, he also wrote about spirit photography (The Case for Spirit Photography) and about his own experiences with Spiritualism (The New Revolution, and The Wanderings of a Spiritualist). With the loss of his son during World War I, Conan Doyle continued his work and was considered an international expert in the field. Some credit his work in Spiritualism for one of his more famous quotes from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Charles Beecher, Spiritual Manifestations Boston: Lee & Shepard; New York, C.T. Dillingham, 1879.  Galvin Rare Book Room BF1251 .B42 1879 (catalog link)

Charles Beecher was a noted American Congregationalist minister, composer, and author, something common among his siblings, including his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe and brother Henry Ward Beecher. His book, Spiritual Manifestations (1879) offers descriptions of his own experiences and encounters with Spiritualism.

Walter Cooper Dendy, The Philosophy of Mystery. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1845. Galvin Rare Book Room BF1031 .D5 1845 (catalog link)

Practicing surgeon as well as an author.  A collection of anecdotes about spectral apparitions, this work highlights dreams and spectral illusions in an attempt to explain or demystify the mysterious nature of fantastical things, and it is written in the style of a narrative dialogue.

Ray Bradbury, The Ghosts of Forever New York: Rizzoli, 1981.  Galvin Rare Book room PS3503 .R167 G47 1981 (catalog link)

Originally started as a script for a Smithsonian planetarium show that was never produced, The Ghosts of Forever combines the wordsmithing of Bradbury, in poems and a short story, with illustrations by Aldo Sessa into a delightful space-age adventure as only Bradbury’s mind could conjure up.

Amélie Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy). The Ghost Garden: A Novel. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1918.  Galvin Rare Book Room PS3092 .G47 1918 (catalog link)

Best known for her book The Quick and the Dead, Rives’ work is set in colonial Virginia and tells the tale of lovelorn struggle between the living and the dead. Richmond-born, Rives was a prolific writer who was especially interested in educational reform and women’s suffrage. Also of note is the study of Rives’ life written by prominent UR faculty emeritus W.D. Taylor in 1973.

Marguerite du Pont Lee, Virginia Ghosts & Others. Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1932. Inscribed “To my ghosts” by the author to the Marion Garnett Ryland Virginiana Collection at the University of Richmond. Galvin Rare Book room F227 .L48 1932 (catalog link)

Printed in Richmond in 1932, Virginia Ghosts contains more than 100 ghost stories from around the commonwealth, many with pictures of the haunted sites and homesteads. Stories from Richmond include ones near Englewood and Westover as well as the governor’s mansion.  Not surprisingly, the author was a serious student of psychic phenomena of Richmond and beyond as well as being a proponent of women’s rights.

Works Cited

McGarry, Molly. Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Practices of Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.

Weinstein, Sheri. “Technologies of Vision: Spiritualism and Science in Nineteenth-Century America,” in Jeffery Andrew Weinstock, ed. Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination, 124-140. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.

Early Views of Richmond

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Two recent additions to the Galvin Rare Book Room collection offer a glimpse of life in Richmond and surrounding areas during the late 1700s.  Travels in North-America, in the years 1780, 1781, and 1782 by the Marquis de Chastellux (1787) and A Tour in the United States of America… written by J.F.D. Smyth (1784) describe journeys around the country, and both men visited Richmond during their travels.  Both authors offer descriptions of the Richmond area and especially travel on the James River; Smyth also described an excursion to Westham. These two works join others in the collection that offer historical insights into travel, commerce, tobacco, and other cultural elements of the region.title page from Chastellux

Currently open to UR students, staff, and faculty, Rare Books & Special Collections in Boatwright Library is home to a growing collection of materials covering a wide variety of topics across the disciplines.  The department preserves and provides access to a significant collection of books and printed materials dating between 1472 and 2019 and archival collections pertaining to the Civil War, World War I and II, UR history, civil rights, maritime adventures, and other 19th and 20th century events.  You can also explore a variety of artists’ books in the collection. Use OneSearch to explore holdings in the collection, and if you are interested in incorporating these materials in your classes or for an assignment, we’re happy to work with you by appointment.

Chastellux, Francois Jean, marquis de. Travels in North America in the years 1780, 1781, and 1782. London: Printed for G.G.J.&J. Robinson, Pater-noster Row, 1787. 2 volumes (Catalog record)

Stuart, John Ferdinand Smyth. A Tour in the United States of America: containing an account of the present situation of that country, the population, agriculture, commerce, customs, and manners of the inhabitants, anecdotes of several members of Congress and general officers in the American army, and many other interesting and singular occurences[sic]: with a description of the Indian nations, the general face of the country, mountains, forests, rivers, and the most beautiful grand, and picturesque views throughout that vast continent: likewise improvements in husbandry that may be adopted with great advantage by Europe. Dublin: Printed by G. Perrin for Messrs. Price, Montcrieffe, Walker, Exshaw, Wilson, Burnet, Jenkin, White, Burton, Byrne, Whitestone, Colbert, Cash, Heery, and Marchbank, 1784. (Catalog record)

Under Construction (again)

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Last week’s Library Minute by University Librarian Kevin Butterfield highlighted some of the exciting new changes coming to Boatwright Memorial Library and specifically to the B1 level as it goes under construction for the 2021-22 academic year. The Rare Books, Special Collections & Book Arts team is very much looking forward to moving into new spaces next summer, areas that will allow for greater interaction and activities with students, faculty, and staff as well as increased opportunities for collaboration, especially with University Museums.

Even though Level B1 is under construction, we are definitely not closed and are already actively engaged in fall instruction and outreach. Work with students and faculty in classes, on specific assignments, and on individual projects and research requests continues as we creatively work around some temporary spaces. If you are considering adding instruction sessions for book arts, rare books, or archives, please reach out to any of the department’s staff or use the links below.  If we can be of assistance with a research or reference request, we are happy to accommodate those requests as well. There are also lots of materials available to explore through the library’s Digital Collections.

We’re looking forward to new spaces in the coming year but know that throughout the construction process during this academic year, we are here to assist your research, reference, and class projects.

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Rare Books & Special Collections Materials Reference Request