Curated by Lynne M. Thomas Feb 21 – May 24, 2019 On display in the Ellen and Nirmal Chatterjee Exhibition Gallery Join us in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library for our spring exhibition, “Making Mr. Darcy: Cultural Context for the Regency Gentleman,” curated by Lynne M. Thomas, Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Rare Book […]
Author: Becker Xena
Making Mr. Darcy: Cultural Context for the Regency Gentleman
February 21, 2019
Books of Hours: Devotional and Decorative Practices
February 19, 2019
written by Katie Funderburg Developing out of increased veneration of the Virgin Mary that occurred throughout Western Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Books of Hours are devotional texts that allowed the average person to model their daily approach to worship after the ordained clergy. The genre receives its name from the organizational structure of […]
Happy Birthday Jane Austen!
December 19, 2018
Happy (belated) birthday to Jane Austen! Jane Austen’s novels have remained in print almost non-stop since they first began appearing in 1811, and her fame and popularity have grown to iconic status, incorporating numerous adaptations of her novels in other mediums. During her lifetime her name was much less well known. She anonymously published her […]
Happy Birthday Emily Dickinson!
December 10, 2018
Born on December 10th, 1830, Emily Dickinson was a prolific and reclusive poet whose writing ranged from descriptive and observational to introspective and theoretical and touched on themes of flowers, death, and religion. Though very few of her works circulated during her life, over 1,800 poems hand-bound into “fascicles” were discovered in her room after […]
Women Authors: Louisa May Alcott and Gertrude Jekyll
November 29, 2018
This week, we will be highlighting four women authors from our collection in honor of their birthdays. These authors wrote on a range of subjects, from gardening to slavery, and show the many different areas in which the Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds important histories. Born on this day in 1832, Louisa May Alcott […]
Women Authors: Fanny Kemble and Katherine Milhous
November 27, 2018
This week, we will be highlighting four women authors from our collection in honor of their birthdays. These authors wrote on a range of subjects, from gardening to slavery, and show the many different areas in which the Rare Book and Manuscript Library holds important histories. Fanny Kemble was born on this day in 1809 […]
On the Origin of Turkeys
November 21, 2018
Turkeys are a staple of the western holiday dinner table, especially associated with Thanksgiving in the United States. First domesticated in Mexico, the turkey was a central food of Mexican cuisine since 800 BC or earlier, and has appeared in the diet of Native North Americans since around 1100 AD. There is no clear answer […]
Elijah P. Lovejoy, “Liberty’s Martyr”
November 7, 2018
Elijah Lovejoy was a reverend and printer in Alton, Illinois, in the 1830s. He was the editor for the Alton Observer, a religious newspaper with a pro-abolition stance. His journey to Alton was not a smooth one. He had three printing presses destroyed before he settled in Alton—all three times the vandalism was in response […]
First Appearances: Jane Eyre, Moby-Dick, and Winnie-the-Pooh
October 18, 2018
by Katie Funderberg, Xena Becker, and Kellie Clinton Jane Eyre Significantly impacting the genre of prose fiction, Jane Eyre, originally subtitled An Autobiography, was first appeared on October 16th, 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell. Speculation over the author’s identity and the novelty of a book commenting on issues such as religion, class, and […]
This Just In: Happy Birthday H.G. Wells!
September 21, 2018
Herbert George Wells was born on this day in 1866 and we want to take the occasion to celebrate his life and work. The Rare Book and Manuscript Library is proud to serve as the steward for the author’s papers and correspondence, as well as a large collection of manuscripts and print editions of Wells’ […]