Author Archives: Lynda Kachurek

‘Twas the night before…

One of the most iconic poems of the holiday season is “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” by Clement Clarke Moore, also known as “The Night Before Christmas.” And while it is his only notable poem, it is one that has changed the American image of Santa Claus from his appearance to his actions.

Moore was born in New York City, the only child of Reverend Benjamin and Charity Moore. He was educated at home, and attended Columbia College where he received his BA and MA, and finally his LL.D. A deeply religious man he donated a large part of his property to the General Theological Seminary where he taught Oriental and Greek Literature. He wrote on many subjects including, a two volume treatise on the Hebrew language, A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep, and a biography George Castriot, Surnamed Scanderbeg, King of Albania. Throughout his life he wrote poetry which was printed in journals and in the New-York Book of Poetry in 1837. This volume included his “A Visit from St. Nicholas” but it was attributed to anonymous.

Moore had written the verses to entertain his six (eventually nine) children on Christmas Eve. The model for St. Nicholas was apparently a local Dutch villager, with a nod to Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker tales. He cleverly has the “jolly old elf” arrive on Christmas Eve to shift the focus away from the religious observances.

He never meant it to be published, but a well-meaning friend sent it to Troy (NY) Sentinel. The poem was picked up by other papers and journals and widely reprinted. It was not until 1844, when Moore published his own collection of Poems and included “A Visit from St. Nicholas” did the world know the true author. Many had tried to claim it before.

The Galvin Rare Book Room has three of Moore’s works including a lovely stylized edition of “The Night Before Christmas.”

The Man Who Invented Christmas

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Scrooge and Marley illustration by Arthur Rackham.

Dubbed “the man who invented Christmas” by the London Times Supplement, Charles Dickens certainly captured the hearts and imagination of many generations with his wonderful novella, A Christmas Carol. Few people are not familiar with the story of the bitter old miser who through ghostly intervention comes to understand the joy of the season. You can find examples of this work in the Galvin Rare Book Room, illustrated by either Gustav Dore or Arthur Rackham.

In 1850, Dickens started his own publication—Household Words. The title was taken from Shakespeare’s Henry V’s speech, “Familiar in their Mouths as household words”. The thin publication cost two pennies with no advertisements or illustrations. With the running header, “Conducted by Charles Dickens”, the journal printed original stories and crusading social journalism. Dickens published Hard Times and A Child’s History of England in the journal along with almost 200 solo articles, stories, poems and “chips” (short satirical pieces). There were also more than 380 other contributors, 90 of whom were women like Elizabeth Gaskell. Wilke Collins, Henry Morley, and a host of unnamed writers writing in a Dickensian style filled the pages of the journal every Saturday from 1850 to 1859.

Copies of Christmas Numbers in Galvin Rare Book Room.

And come December, there was always a Christmas Edition with special stories and articles just for the season. Dickens contributed “The Christmas Tree” to the first “Christmas Number” followed by unattributed stories such as “Christmas in Lodgings” or “Christmas in the Navy”. By 1852, the Christmas number became “A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire” and finally the number carried the name of the leading story in the journal. Each story and poem chronicled Victorian life with all its light and dark moments, as so much of Dickens work did.

Come by the Galvin Rare Book Room and take a look at our collection of Christmas numbers of Household Words. We guarantee it’s no humbug.

New Materials in Rare Books & Special Collections

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Rare Books & Special Collections has acquired a number of new additions this fall, both from generous donors and from purchases, to continue building our rare book and archival collections. Many of these items will be featured in upcoming posts, but we are so excited to have these wonderful items, we thought we’d offer some highlights from our eclectic new additions:

1) The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible (currently on display in the Silent Study Area through mid-December) – This edition of the King James version of the Holy Bible illustrated by Barry Moser, the foremost American master of wood engravings, is the first such illustrated Bible since Gustave Dorè’s edition of the Le Saint Bible in 1865. Volume one contains the five books of Moses, the historical books and the books of poetry. Volume two contains the books of prophecy and the New Testament. Both measure 16 x 11.5 inches and are laid into its own full linen tray case. The beauty of this Bible does not rest on the illustrations alone. It is also a singular typographic achievement and an example of some of the finest printing of our time. The papers were made, some by hand, especially for this project and the exquisitely crafted vellum bindings are a marvel of craftsmanship. (Gift of Bruce and Suzie Kovner).

2) The Library of Julio Santo Domingo: The LSD Archive (currently on display in the Silent Study Area through mid-December) – This two-volume set was privately printed in a limited edition of 500 copies to commemorate the LSD Library, Julio Santo Domingo’s comprehensive collection of rare books, ephemera, manuscripts, art, and other materials focused on altered states of consciousness and related subjects. This 900-page set, finely bound and housed in handmade boxes, is lavishly illustrated with items chosen from the collection, representing literature and graphic arts on topics such as the occult, youth culture, rock music, and drug culture. (Gift of the family of Julio Santo Domingo).

3) New photographic materials include a handheld stereoscope with 14 St. Louis World’s Fair stereo cards and 21 stereoviews of destinations such as Jerusalem, Cairo, Italian catacombs, Kyoto, Tokyo, and the Swiss Alps. Also added were 2 cased ambrotypes of a bookbinder/author and his book.

Opening pages of our new Mother Goose book

4) Historic children’s literature additions include 5 early American titles dating between 1820 and 1850: Grandpapa Pease’s New Mother Goose (ca. 1848) contains beautiful hand-colored illustrations. The Little Esop (1845) measures just 3 3/16” x 2 ¾” and is a miniature book bound in purple cloth with gold gilded edges. Other titles include Henry and his Garden (ca. 1830), Rhymes by our Good Old Nurse (ca. 1835), and History of Beasts (ca. 1848). We are also anxiously awaiting a new gift, a 3-volume set of miniature children’s books (2×2”) published in London in 1742-1743, which should arrive in early December.

Our 1906 C&P Platen Press

5) Book Arts materials: As we work on creating our Book Arts studio, donors continue to delight us with special gifts. This fall we were privileged to receive a 1906 Chandler & Price Platen Printing Press along with letterpress printing type in 108 fonts, the corresponding type cases and cabinetry, type forms, engravings and cuts, along with tools and other equipment. In a separate donation, we also received an extensive set of tools, projects, and related materials to help us begin supplying our studio.

6) Cutters: There is nothing I hate more than Myself, a limited edition artists’ book exploring words, photographs, and art about the practice of self-harm (gift of the author).

7) University scrapbooks: In the past few months, we have received several scrapbooks documenting Westhampton and Richmond College and the lives of alums, including students who attended in the early 1900s, the 1940s and the 1950s. Along with the scrapbooks, we’ve also received some letter sweaters and even a UR boater hat!

The generosity of our donors continues to amaze us with each new addition. Our collections are certainly strengthened through their kindness. We hope that if you are around campus, you’ll drop by Rare Books & Special Collections to explore our materials, new and old!

Happy Halloween!

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Our front door, modified for Halloween!

The Galvin Rare Book Room was transformed Wednesday night into a festival of thrills and chills! Spooky music and dimmed lights enticed some brave souls into the room to explore skeletons, witches, and things that skitter in the dark!

Enjoy some of Angie White’s great pictures of our evening of fun.

A long-lost reader?

A motion-activated owl captured a few in his eerie gaze.

A Dickens of a good time!

We’ll keep the lights out for you……… and hope to ~~see~~ scare you next year!

Trick or Treat Open House in the Galvin Rare Book Room

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Come explore some hauntingly-fun rare “boo”ks! Drop by the Galvin Rare Book Room, located on Level B1 in Boatwright Memorial Library, Wednesday evening, October 29, between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. for a trick-or-treat open house and explore books about witches, mummies, and other ghostly delights. We’ll keep the lights out for you!

Also, don’t forget to visit our October exhibits in the library. On the first floor, discover some mythical beasts and monsters from the collection, while in the second floor silent study area, we’ve gathered some thrillers and chillers to keep you reading into the night. Learn more about our October exhibits in the previous post here on the blog.

New Exhibits Around the Library

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Fall is here with it’s changing colors and moods. And we have some exhibits to match.

On the first floor in the Reference Commons, we have captured a bevy of mythical beasts and monsters for your entertainment. There are witches on trial and monsters of every description. We have centaurs, gremlins, woodwives, unicorns, dragons, and really ugly bugs from the Rare Book Room and Special Collections. Then, we found some chimera, man-beasts, mythical monsters, and zombies roaming around the circulating collection.

On the second floor in the Silent Study area, we have gathered some chilling reading to keep you busy in the dark. From the Rare Book Room come warnings from the dead, witches from Eastwick, treatises on poison and remedies against Satan. There are hauntings, villagers turned against each other, vampires old and new, man-made monsters, werewolves, and headless horsemen. Just remember not to scream; it’s silent study.

In Recreational Reading, we are showcasing our 1856 whaling journal, from whence came our blog’s name and image, along with other books and images of whales from around the library.

And don’t miss the display in the open shelves on the second floor. You can read about the making of your favorite horror movies and learn about some you didn’t know. See the movies the staff picked as favorites and decide whether you will go for monsters or ghosts or chainsaws for your viewing pleasure. Whatever you choose, keep the lights on.

Archives Month – October 2014

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Celebrating Virginia Archives during Archives Month, October 2014

Beginning in 2006, archives across the country celebrate Archives Month during October. Throughout the month, special events and exhibits highlight the many ways that archives provide education and give the profession the opportunity to talk about the work we do in preserving, protecting, and providing access to important historical materials. The Virginia poster offers some tantalizing glimpses into the kinds of treasures you can discover by exploring archives around the state. Did you spot our whale?

Here at the University of Richmond, we have special exhibits up for the month which highlight October-themed items from our collections, including spooky tales and scary beasts that live in our collections. We hope you’ll visit us throughout the month and explore the many ways our archive contribute to the educational experience of our students, faculty, and staff.

Be sure to check out other great Archives Month activities across the state of Virginia! You will find opportunities to go behind the scenes and explore rare materials wherever you might travel this fall. A full list of Virginia Archives Month activities can be found on the Library of Virginia’s Archives Month website.

Gustave Doré

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Gustave Doré was an amazingly popular illustrator; some say the most popular of all time. He produced more than 10,000 engravings in more than 4,000 editions of literature, travel, and history. In the forty years between 1860 and 1900, a new Doré illustrated version of the Bible, with his 238 engravings, was published every 8 days. Millions of people came to see a gallery of his paintings, along with hundreds of watercolors and dozens of sculptures. His monument to Alexandre Dumas sits in Paris today.

While his name is now unfamiliar to most people, they are not unfamiliar with his work. His engravings have been on the cover of Time magazine, used in such classic movies at King Kong, Great Expectations, and The Ten Commandments, as well as many recent films, like Amistad, Seven, and What Dreams May Come. His Don Quixote drawings have influenced generations of illustrators as well as theatrical and cinema producers.

Doré was born in Strasbourg, Germany, in January of 1832. By the age of 12 he was carving his own lithographic stones and making sets of engravings with stories to go with them. At 15, on vacation with his family, Doré noticed a set of engravings in a publisher’s window. He went back the next day with his own set of drawings and proclaimed his drawings were how the illustrations should be done. The publisher, Charles Philipon, agreed and hired Doré on the spot.

By the time he was 16, Doré was the highest paid illustrator in France. He had published his first book at 15 and become the featured artist in the weekly Journal pour Rire. He produced more than 2,000 satirical caricature engravings before launching into the field of literary engravings in 1854, for Rabelais and Balzac. He produced a giant literary folio of Dante’s Inferno. His publisher refused to publish the book, declaring it too expensive at a hundred francs. Doré paid the bill and in two weeks, the 100 he printed were sold and more were ordered.

Throughout the next 20 years, he illustrated everything from Don Quixote to Baron Munchausen to Perrault’s fairy tales. The Doré Bible was so famous it is mentioned in Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He tried his hand at painting with varying success in France, but his art was embraced in England. In 1867 a gallery opened on Bond Street in London, and later his work toured the United States. At the Chicago Art Institute, his exhibit drew more than 16,000 daily. In eight months, 1.5 million people came to see Doré’s work. (The previous record for attendance at any US art museum had been 600,000 for an entire year.)

In the 1870’s, Doré turned to sculpture where he redeemed himself with the French. Then he toured the Alps and Scotland, producing watercolor landscapes. In 1882 he had his only US commission to illustrate The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

Illustration for The Raven by E. A. Poe.

Only 51 at his death in 1883, Doré had attempted and excelled at almost every form of art and won over the critics and the people. The Galvin Rare Book Room holds many editions of his work and several are currently on display on the first floor of Boatwright Library through September 2014.

A Whale of a Name

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Naming a blog isn’t easy. We thought long and hard, enviously looked at other blog names, and tentatively settled on Something Uncommon—a kind of definition of rare and how we feel about the collection. The next step was the image to personalize the page. We looked at several images taken from our shelves and settled on the hastily penned drawing of a whale from our 1856 whaling journal. (SC-1–Journal of a Whaling Voyage in the Atlantic Ocean onboard of the Brig Gem of Beverly, Nathaniel Ryder Master.)

Once we had the image, we decided to look through the journal for a tag line, or something that might make a more unique title. The ship weighed anchor April 7^th from Provincetown Harbor, the wind from the northwest. Most entries give the longitude and latitude, the weather, and what transpired that day, such as “Wensday[sic], June 4^th. This day lost a 30 bbl whale through Periwinkle.” And while the adventures of Periwinkle and his cohorts are interesting, it did not present us with a likely title.

Then, after some time we came to the page with the whale on it, and, like some karmic gift, directly above the drawing were the words: “Saw a very large school of sperm whale which is something uncommon in this latitude and longitude.” No need to look any further.

So visit us often to see what other uncommon things we have uncovered in the Galvin Rare Book Room.

Welcome!

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Welcome to our new blog, Something Uncommon! We are thrilled to launch this site where we will be sharing information about our incredible collections and the work we do.

The blog is managed by the Rare Books and Special Collections division of Boatwright Library at the University of Richmond. Posts will be made primarily by our staff members, but you may also discover some of our interns and volunteers posting occasionally as well. Our goal is to share news from our department as well as resources that may be of interest to our researchers, patrons, and colleagues.

We hope you’ll enjoy discovering something uncommon along with us.