Wednesday April 22, 2009 3:00-5:00pm

Don’t miss the opportunity to come to Olin Library and step into Special Collections & Archives between 3:00-5:00pm on Wednesday April 22 to see some of our materials selected specifically for our Earth Day exhibit. Our newly acquired atlas “EARTH” will be on display. Sure, we’ve all seen an atlas before but Wesleyan University owns the mother of all atlases in “EARTH,” which takes cartography and publishing to a new stratosphere. More than 100 international cartographers, oceanographers, and geographers have produced an astounding 355 maps covering 194 countries. Adding to this cartographic feat, the massive 580 pages contain extensive country text, covering all the nations of the world. EARTH also presents four stunning gatefolds measuring 1.8 meters across, including one titled “Earth from the Sky at Night”, a stunning image taken by NASA. More than 800 exquisite images were sourced from prestigious picture libraries, including a large number of images taken by National Geographic photographers. Only 3,000 copies of this highly prized volume have been printed. Highly detailed maps, produced by a team of international cartographers, are the foundation of this book. Each of the countries of the world is also described and illustrated in detail, with focus on the geography, history, culture, and unique features. I guarantee seeing this atlas will be worth your walk over or we will give you a free pencil. Just the fact that you read this much of this blog post means we will give you a free pencil. All you have to do is ask when you get here.

Are you wondering what ever happened to those old cards people use to have to look through one-by-one to find a book location? Since we no longer use a physical card catalog we will have on display a few ways the staff has found to repurpose, recycle, and reuse them as part of our Earth Day exhibit.

A publisher’s proof copy of a novel, with the author’s own edits and revisions hand-written throughout, gives us a rare glimpse into the author’s writing process. What sections did he or she cut? How were phrases rewritten, or words exchanged for other, better choices? We have such a view into the writing process of the 20^th-century Austrian novelist Joseph Roth, thanks to the generosity of the Kallir family.

Joseph Roth’s novel, Die Geschichte der 1002. Nacht, written in the late 1930s, has been described as an “anti-fairy tale,” mixing exotic settings and characters (a harem in Persia, the Persian Shah and his chief eunuch) with those of a morally lax and callous Vienna during the final period of the Hapsburg Monarchy.

In 1937, the Dutch publisher, De Gemeenschap, printed a small run of copies of the novel for Roth’s friends. But before the novel’s official publication in 1939, Roth made extensive revisions, cuts, and edits in a proof copy that his publisher had sent him. The final version is over 60 pages shorter than the original. That proof copy is now owned by Wesleyan’s Special Collections department. Scholars can now study exactly what cuts and changes Roth made to his text, indicated in his own handwriting.

Do you know where this window is at Wesleyan? 

Too often we are so caught up in our own lives and that we forget to look at the things around us. 115 years have passed since a certain Wesleyan student graduated but his generosity is still all around us to enjoy from one corner of the campus to the other. George W. Davison graduated in 1892, served as a Trustee from 1912 until his death in 1953 and President of the Board of Trustee’s from 1928-1943. We know the Davison Art Center, which Mr. Davison’s donation of his print collection makes it one of the most important at an American university. His many contributions to Wesleyan University include funding of the Davison Health Center and Alsop House purchase and renovation.

What does this have to do with the picture of the stained glass window?

The Davison’s funded the creation of the Davison Rare Book Room in Special Collections & Archives of Olin Library and donated a superb collection of rare books. Two of the many items donated by George Davison go mostly unnoticed because of the need to close the drapes in the Davison Rare Book Room. These two items are large stained glass windows believed to come from his home in Somerset, MA.  Two-thirds of the 1500 volumes in the room belonged to George Davison’s own collection. If you would like to see the Davison Rare Book Room, hand carved walnut paneling, built-in glass-fronted book shelves, a built-in exhibition case for his four Shakespeare folios, Bibles from the 13^th to the 20^th Centuries or the stained glass windows stop by Monday-Friday 1:00-5:00.

The book, August Spies’ Auto-Biography, appears to have the stamp of Lucy Parsons, a famous anarchist and the wife of one of the men executed in 1877 for alleged crimes related to the Haymarket Riot in Chicago. Because her books were confiscated at the time of her death, the book seemed especially rare. We called in the History Detectives to do more investigation, and were delighted when they decided to film a segment about it.

We won’t give away any secrets, but what they found out is surprising! The program will be shown some time in July, so check your PBS stations this summer.