University of St Andrews Courtyard by Jared and Corin [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

A short title catalog (Brit. catalogue) is a bibliographical resource which lists printed items in an abbreviated fashion, recording the most important words of their titles. The term is commonly encountered in the context of early modern books, which frequently have lengthy, descriptive titles on their title pages.

A selection of 17th century books from McFarlin Library

Greenlee has been cataloging rare materials for four years, but she is looking forward to working with more early modern books. McFarlin Library currently has close to 1500 books printed before 1800, and those with outdated or brief records would benefit from the extra attention that rare materials cataloging requires.

Follow Alison Greenlee’s bibliographical adventures in Scotland on this blog, on the department’s Facebook page, or on Twitter @alisongreenlee.

[I.33 : the illuminated fightbook : Royal Armouries manuscript I.33]. [London : Extraordinary Editions, 2013] (U860 .R69 2013 Oversize).

Several years ago, The University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections chose to be a sponsor for a facsimile and translation of the Royal Armouries Ms. I.33, also known as the Tower Manuscript, the Walpurgis Manuscript, and BM No. 14 E iii, No. 20, D. vi. This facsimile and translation was being produced by Extraordinary Editions, and their description may be found at http://illuminatedfightbook.co.uk/home/.

I.33 is the oldest known Fechtbuch, or fighting manual in existence. There are a number of other such manuals from the Middle Ages in Europe, but these date from later than the 13th century date, between 1290 and 1320, that has been assigned to this work. I.33 deals elusively with the use of sword and buckler.

Our interest in this piece is that this facsimile a work of bibliographic art. As an example of fine binding and printing, it is outstanding, reproducing the parchment pages on paper. The illustrations are individually and as a whole remarkably beautiful. We are pleased to make this facsimile available.

Accompanying the facsimile is a bound translation by Dr. Jeffrey L. Foreng, I.33, the illuminated fightbook. Royal armouries manuscript I.33. A translation. Dr. Foreng rediscovered the manuscript in the Royal Armouries library at the Tower of London and translated it, publishing that translation in 2003. He is an authority on this topic, and this translation beings an additional decade of research to this volume

Recent digitization work on the Special Collections fine art holdings has exposed the paintings and sketches of Anna Kavan (1904-1968), an enigmatic British author and painter who struggled with depression much of her creative life. Acquired as part of the Anna Kavan collection, over 200 individual paintings, sketches and a number of sketchbooks are joined to correspondence, photographs, writings, and personal papers.

Woman with a dish of fruit, by Anna Kavan. Coll No. 86.2.3

It is striking how personal and open the artist appears with these paintings. Borrowing from a variety of modernist styles, she moves from Cubist landscapes and robotic-like people to Impressionistic scenes that tell a story. A few seem whimsical and almost primitive in style. Then there are the myriad self-portraits, some ghostly in nature and others portraying an attractive woman. Together, they flesh out an amazing, creative individual willing to share her troubled soul with those willing to look.

The paintings and sketches cataloged to date seem to emulate the special language Kavan developed for the books written after a nervous breakdown. These use word forms of dreams, a sense of alienation from others, and a tangible instability in characters and situations. She dealt with her clinical depression in a way only those closest to her recognized.

In time, these cataloged records will be available for access on-line along with many others that reflect the artifacts and fine art held by The University of Tulsa.

– Guest post by Deborah Burke

Three nudes on plinths, by Anna Kavan. Coll. No. 1986.003.4.10

New Exhibit Poster

Starting Monday April 29^th the Department of Special Collections and University Archives will be showcasing some of our more masculine treasures in a new exhibit titled “The Manly Exhibit”. Student workers Brancen Gregory and Jacob Fritsch have compiled an assortment of objects that represent manhood. These objects include military rifles from WWI, medieval spear heads, vintage cigar boxes and much more. Come visit this exhibit Monday-Friday between eight and five at Special Collections on the fifth floor of McFarlin Library.

Special Collections Librarians

This week is National Library Appreciation Week, and according to the American Library Association, today is National Library Workers Day. Here at The University of Tulsa’s McFarlin Library Department of Special Collections and University Archives we would like to say how much we appreciate the staff of librarians that work every day to make McFarlin library the wonderful research institution that it is. We would specifically like to show honor to our librarians here at Special Collections. Our department is fortunate enough to boast three wonderful staff members who make special collections the unique treasure of the University of Tulsa. So thank you very much for all you do to Marc Carlson, Alison Greenlee, and Milissa Burkhart.

Marc Carlson working on materials for HCC library.

Librarian Marc Carlson

Librarian Marc Carlson is currently working on a collection of historical engravings for the Honourable Cordwainers’ Company library. The HCC “is a non-profit 501c(3) educational organization, incorporated in 1987 in Virginia, the home of America’s first English shoemakers. Founded in 1984 by a small group of shoemakers and historians, The H.C.C. is dedicated to promoting the study, practise, interpretation and preservation of historical and traditional shoemaking and allied trades. The guild promotes the historic preservation and research of the craft, forms, tools, techniques, artifacts and all other aspects of shoemaking and allied trades; and educates membership and the public about historical and traditional shoemaking and the allied trades.”

Milissa Burkart working on Rebecca West Collection

Milissa’s desk when she began work on the Rebecca West Coll.

Library Paraprofessional Milissa Burkart

Our library paraprofessional Milissa Burkhart is currently working on properly storing materials from the Rebecca West Collection.  These photos illuminate the progress she has made over the past few months working through this collection to bring the storage of these materials to proper library standards. In this photograph, from this morning, she is making a protective enclosure for a photograph.

Alison Greenlee cataloging books from the Hugh Douglas Ford Library

In this photo, librarian Alison Greenlee is cataloging a selection of books from the Hugh Douglas Ford library. These books cover everything from the Lost Generation, American expatriates, and the Spanish Civil War.

Librarian Alison Greenlee

For more information on National Library Week and to view a PSA from the National Library Week Chair Caroline Kennedy please follow this link.

Arriving promptly at 6:30PM, the crowd gathered in the Faculty Study for drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and to meet with Dr. Staley during what turned out to be a very lively and entertaining reception. Following the reception, the attendees made their way to the Pat and Arnold Brown Reading Room for dinner, which began with a Tuscan white-bean salad on a bed of mixed greens with fresh mozzarella and black olives. The main course consisted of beef manicotti with stuffed mushrooms and tomatoes. To cap off the meal, dessert was a warm cannoli with ricotta filling and topped with whipped cream and sliced roasted almonds.

Following the dinner, the crowd was treated to Dr. Staley’s lecture, “The Changing Shape of the Modern Archive,” which touched on many important points within the topic of the archive and the treatment of its components, ranging from rare books and manuscripts, to artifacts and born-digital items.  Dr. Staley, a world-renowned authority on Modernism and the Archive, is the director of Director of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is also Professor of English and holds The Harry Huntt Ransom Chair in Liberal Arts. Dr. Staley has written and edited numerous books on James Joyce, Italo Svevo, modern British women novelists, including Jean Rhys and Dorothy Richardson, and modern literature in general. His critical articles on a wide range of subjects have appeared worldwide in scholarly journals and other publications. Dr. Staley is also a former faculty member of the University of Tulsa, where he founded the James Joyce Quarterly,  served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1981-1983 and Provost from 1983-1988.

The University of Tulsa is delighted to have hosted Dr. Thomas F. Staley on such an entertaining evening, and the Department of Special Collections and University Archives is proud to have been part of such a memorable occasion.

Gas Mask

Dr. Jeff Drouin’s English 3733 class, on World War I has been engaged in a project this semester, examining some of the holdings of World War I materials held by this department. 

The students have completed their exhibits of WWI materials from Special Collections, using Omeka. The materials include sheet music (an interesting and scary story behind that one), prisoner escape plans, recruitment posters, diaries, letters, photographs, official documents, gas masks, and other gear. 

This Exhibit can be found at http://courses.utulsa.edu/wwi/exhibit.

In honor of Dr. Kings memory a series of poems were commissioned and published in Drum Major For A Dream. Here at Special Collection we have a copy of this book which was edited and arranged by Ira G. Zepp Jr. and Melvyn D. Palmer. This book is full of beautiful poetry but also bound and typed artistically. Every page in the book was hand typed on a “hand operated” typewriter. The reader can run their fingers across the page and feel each letters texture. The paper pages in this book are made from maplitho paper made in India. Lastly the book was hand bound with cotton handloom sari cloth woven in India. The book was commissioned in India because of Dr. King’s admiration of Gandhi and Gandhi’s message of universal love and peace, an ideal that Dr. King hoped to replicate in the United States.  

One poem from Drum Major for a Dream that I found particularly stunning was written by Charlotte Nuby a ninth grade African American student, the poem is titled He Had A Dream.

He Had A Dream

There was a man who loved this land.

But hated discrimination

And took his stand.

He had a dream, this great man,

That someday Negroes could

Shake ever white man’s hand.

He had a dream, goes the story,

That he had been to the mountaintop

And seen God’s glory.

He had a dream as a lot of men do;

But his was different because he

Was one of God’s chosen few.

He never wanted glory, he never wanted thanks;

All he wanted was his equal rights.

He was our Moses as in the past

He stood and shouted

“Free at Last”

He was shunned and criticized by some;

But he always said

“We Shall Overcome”

He fought for all to see the light

And in their hearts they knew he was right.

He fought for equality; he fought for peace

And knew that someday

All prejudice would cease.

He fought against war; he fought against strife

Until a sniper’s bullet took his life.

And when we say our prayers of silence

Remember he died for non-violence.

To see this beautiful poem and the others in Drum Major for a Dream come visit us at Special Collections located on the 5^th floor of McFarlin library.

In commemoration of Ellman’s birthday, Garrison Keillor dedicated a portion of his Writer’s Almanac podcast to Richard Ellmann.

After a brief lecture on the mission and responsibilities of our department, the students were shown some items of our collection, beginning with the oldest book in our collection, a 12^th-century illuminated manuscript of the books of Romans and Hebrews from the Bible. Then the students were shown and 1829 copy of Thomas Morre’s Lalla Rookh: an oriental romance, which has a fore-edge painting of two men playing badminton, an 1818, three-volume, first edition of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, and D.J. Cunningham’s Stereoscopic Studies of Anatomy, showing the inside of the human face. In addition to these items, our young friends from the Sapulpa Public Schools were shown a variety of comic books, including adaptations of materials from the 2008 presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Afterwards the visitors were shown some of Specials Collections’ artists’ books including Ronald King’s Anansi Company, Michael Shützer-Weissman’s In Nomine Domini: lives of the composers, and Jacques Fournier’s Le 6 avril 1944. This final piece is a box-shaped artist’s book that uses an Edward Hillel photograph of the children’s orphanage where the “Butcher of Lyon” Klaus Barbie kidnapped forty-four children to be sent to the Auschwitz death camps during World War II.

Subsequently, the students were shown a number of artifacts from our World War I collections, such as a soldier’s helmet, gas-mask, web belt and mess kit. The World War I items also included a disarmed hand grenade. Finally, the students were shown a piece that caused excitement among our young friends: an ornate 19^th-century British ceremonial sword.

The Department of Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Tulsa would like to thank our young friends from the Sapulpa Public Schools for their visit. We encourage our communities to organize these types of activities for their students. These young men and women are the future of our nation and our department is committed to contribute to that future by providing education and access to our resources.