Exhibits in 2009
Holdings about Lapland
April 28 through mid-May 2009
To welcome those attending the conference and preconference for the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study and to showcase strong holdings in Special Collections related to Lapland, the Department mounted a small exhibit, including such titles as
- John Scheffer, The history of Lapland (1674)
- Arthur de Capell Brooke, Winter sketches in Lapland (1827), with large color illustrations
- Frank Hedges Butler, Fifty years of travel by land, water, and air (1920), inscribed by the author “To Orville Wright.”
Special Collections also contains several thousand 18th-century dissertations (mostly from Uppsala and Lund), more than 200 titles in the Linnean Collection, as well as the strengths in science, natural history, and Icelandic publications to be found in the Thordarson Collection.
Religion in Print
January – April 2009
With the invention of movable type, religious institutions were able to produce texts and documents much more quickly and to reach an increasingly literate and diverse audience. Scholars, theologians, clergy, and missionaries alike used this technology to spread ideas and doctrines to far-flung places, in some cases challenging widely held religious beliefs. Drawing on the rich holdings of the Department of Special Collections, the exhibit “Religion in Print” explored aspects of religion in print culture, including religious practice, religion and revolution, cults and new religious movements, prophecy, science and religion, saints and martyrs, and censorship. The exhibit also featured two prints from the Chazen Museum of Art.
The exhibit was the work of a team of guest exhibit curators, all members of the Print Culture Society (PCS) and graduate students in the School of Library and Information Studies. Led by Lisa Muccigrosso, PCS chair, the guest curatorial team also included Sarah Andrews, Sam Boss, Emily Johnson, Cindy Lundey, Kara Blue Miller, David Mindel, Simone Munson, and Katie Riel. The exhibit complemented the “Religion in Print” symposium (April 10, 2009), also organized by the Print Culture Society.
Appearing Elsewhere
Honoring the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Louis Braille
A small exhibit on the first floor of Memorial Library honored the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Braille, born in 1809 in Coupvray, near Paris, France, and died in 1852 in Paris. The system of printing and writing Louis Braille developed while still in his teens now bears his name and enjoys wide use. The exhibit, on display through mid-September 2009 , explored the Braille system and its variants, alternative systems with embossed type, and other technologies such as large-print books and audiobooks.
The exhibit was sponsored by the Eye Research Institute. We thank Daniel M. Albert, M.D., past chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and currently Emmett A. Humble Distinguished Director of the Eye Research Institute, for suggesting such an exhibit. Several titles from the riches of the Daniel and Eleanor Albert Collection in the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, appeared in this exhibit. The Department of Rare Books & Special Collections in Ebling Library of the Health Sciences also lent works for the exhibit, and we appreciate their cooperation. Other titles on display came from the circulating collections of Memorial Library.
A title list is available.
The image above shows the US Mint Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar (2009), with Louis Braille on the obverse and on the reverse a child reading a book in Braille. The word Braille (in Braille code) is depicted in a tactile representation.
One volume from our four-volume set of Audubon's Birds of America (the double-elephant folio edition in the Thordarson Collection) appeared in the exhibition entitled “Catesby, Audubon, and the Discovery of a New World: Prints of the Flora and Fauna of America” at the Milwaukee Art Museum, December 18, 2008 – March 22, 2009. More »
Exhibits in 2008
The Art of College Humor:
Highlights from the Dobbertin Collection of Campus Humor Magazines
September 22 - mid-January 2009
This exhibit recognized the generosity of John and Barbara Dobbertin, who have assembled and donated to Special Collections an extensive and lively collection of campus humor magazines. The magazines on display, from the Harvard Lampoon to the UW’s own Octopus, are part of what may be the largest collection of college humor magazines in the United States. The collection ranges from the late 19th century to the 21st, and addresses topics both light-hearted and controversial. Some of the humor stands well the test of time, while other jokes and cartoons make today’s readers cringe.
John Dobbertin, an alumnus of the University of Michigan, served as editor of the Michigan Gargoyle — hence his deep appreciation for campus humor magazines and their history.
Some issues of the UW–Madison Octopus and Sphinx in the exhibit, along with printed ephemera about the Octopus, came from the holdings of the University Archives.
We are eager to broaden the coverage of the campus humor magazine collection, and invite additions to the collection from your own piles of college memorabilia, whatever your alma mater.
A complementary exhibit at Kohler Art Library, “College Humor to Italian Tesserae: Celebrating the Centennial of James S. Watrous,” ran through September 30. “Jimmy” Watrous produced cover art for the Octopus in his student days; he later held the title Oskar Hagen Professor of Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A preview exhibit of cover art from campus humor magazines closed September 16, 2008, in Memorial Union. The Union's Web site includes an audio podcast for the Memorial Union exhibit.
For more about “The Art of College Humor” and the Dobbertin Collection, see such stories as
- Jenny Price, “New exhibits show art of college humor, James Watrous,” University of Wisconsin-Madison News
- Jay Rath, “Funny business: Exhibitions celebrate the glory years of humor magazines on college campuses,” in the Wisconsin State Journal
- Doug Moe, “UW-Madison home to famous college pranks,” also in the Wisconsin State Journal
- Scott Bauer, “History of college humor magazines on display,” for the Associated Press
- “The wit and wisdom of campus humor,” in the Friends of the Library Magazine
(Un)Binding Empire: French and Russian Imperial Albums
November 3 – December 1, 2008
On display in Special Collections were two elaborate and encyclopedic visual projects from Napoleonic France and Tsarist Russia demonstrating the scientific scope and ambitious scale of the modern colonial survey:
- Description de l’Egypte, ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte pendant l’expédition de l’Armée française. 2 ed. Paris, 1820 (large albums from the holdings of Special Collections).
- Turkestan Album, 1871-1872 (digital reproductions from the Library of Congress-Prints and Photographs Division, sponsored by the UW-Madison Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia).
Guest exhibit curator Heather Sonntag, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, installed this exhibit in conjunction with Photography and the Technology of Empire and Race, a conference organized by the UW-Madison Visual Culture Center. A companion exhibit in the Kohler Art Library included additional photographs and manuscript volumes from the Department of Special Collections.
Color Enhanced: Use of Color in Scientific Books
June - mid-September 2009
Using inexpensive digital cameras, photo-editing software, and inkjet technology, 21st-century consumers can readily experiment with color printing. Authors, illustrators, printers, and publishers of an earlier age did not have it so easy: they incorporated color into illustrations of science and natural history at considerable cost and with mixed success. The exhibit “Color Enhanced: Use of Color in Scientific Books” explored the results from the 15th through the 20th century, drawing on strong holdings of illustrated books of science and natural history in the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The exhibit looked at the physics of color through works like Newton’s Opticks (1704), famous for the experiment on the composition of white light. Ironically, diagrams of color phenomena used in the Opticks, like most illustrations in early scientific books, were in black and white. Illustrations in color were more likely to appear in books of natural history, usually result of hand-coloring applied to engravings or lithographs; and both amateurs and specialists seemed willing to pay a premium for illustrations that teemed “with Nature’s lively hues.“ The phrase comes from George Dyer’s verses as included in R. J. Thornton’s Temple of Flora, one of the works on exhibit.
Tasks of identification and classification demanded accuracy and consistency, and naturalists and serious collectors struggled with the definition (and reproduction) of color standards against which to measure a valuable mineral or a rare bird. For armchair explorers, the exotic in nature held particular appeal; for readers seeking relief from the gray world of coal-powered industrialization, the brighter the better. Ambitious publishers and authors in the 19th century could offer subscribers a regular dose of color mixed with learning, thanks to less expensive publishing technology and a stable of hand-colorists.
The exhibit also explored the use of color to convey abstract concepts from chemistry to geometry, early manuals for hand coloring, and innovations in color printing. Taking advantage of the riches of the Library’s holdings, multiple copies of hand-colored illustrations were compared side by side, showing inconsistencies in the application of color and the effects of time on specific hues.
This exhibit was designed to complement The Culture of Print in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine, a conference organized by the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America, held September 12-13, 2008, in Madison, Wisconsin.
An online illustrated checklist of the exhibit is in preparation.
WorkBooks
February 18 - May 19, 2008
Workbooks — seen as places for inventing, sketching, and reflecting — offer raw and unmediated views of taking notes and shaping information. This exhibit explored the history of workbooks and focuses on the book as an active “site.” It drew on the workbooks and sketchbooks of UW-Madison faculty and staff and other invited artists, complemented by related holdings of the Department of Special Collections. Guest exhibit curator was Derrick Buisch, associate professor of art, UW-Madison. An exhibit at the Kohler Art Library featured other titles that speak to the theme of sketchbooks and workbooks.
An online illustrated checklist of the exhibit is in preparation.
Some of the worksbooks and sketchbooks loaned for the purpose have since traveled to the University of Minnesota, where they appeared in an exhibition entitled WorkBook at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery in the Regis Center for Art, on the West Bank campus of the University of Minnesota.
Exhibits in 2007
Stormy Weather
November 12, 2007 - February 8, 2008From Shakespeare's "pelting of this pitiless storm" to Snoopy's "It was a dark and stormy night," storms have driven plots, guided metaphors, afflicted travelers, and attracted scientific popular attention. The exhibit Stormy Weather explored storms and weather, drawing upon a wide range of rare books and manuscripts in literature, humor, history, and science. Highlights included "Raining Cats, Dogs & Pitchforks" by George Cruikshank, English almanacs, Ben Franklin's kite experiment, winters in Lapland and Iceland, violent storms at sea, and, of course, the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. News of the exhibit also landed on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal for January 26. More »
An online illustrated checklist of the exhibit is in preparation.
Guest exhibit curator: Sarah Boxhorn
Under the Medicean Stars: Medici Patronage of Science and Natural History, 1537-1737
July 9 - November 2, 2007
In 1610 Galileo Galilei published an account of his discovery of moons orbiting Jupiter. In the hope of gaining financial support, he named these the Medicean Stars after Cosimo II de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. While this may be the best-known instance of Medici patronage of scientific inquiry, it was neither the first nor the last. From the time that Cosimo I became duke of Florence in 1537, members of the Medici family supported the study of nature and inquiry into the workings of the universe.
Using books of science and natural history, often lavishly illustrated, this exhibit traced the financial and intellectual support provided by the grand dukes of Tuscany to members of their courts and to scholars working throughout Italy. Viewed in tandem with the exhibition Natura Morta: Still-Life Paintings and the Medici Collections on display at the Chazen Museum of Art August 25 to October 21, 2007, Under the Medicean Stars highlighted the interests of the Medici in both artistic and scientific endeavors. An online illustrated checklist is available.
Guest exhibit curator: Meghan Doherty
Making Maps, Mapping History
March 19 - June 29, 2007An exhibit of original maps of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region from 17th-century drawings concocted from travelers' accounts to 21st-century images captured by satellites. The exhibit featured an illustrated, hand-colored map of North America made in 1670, one of the first maps to show all five Great Lakes.
For more information, see Exhibit traces 300 years of Wisconsin and Great Lakes maps and the Great Lakes Maps Web site.
Celebrating the Cairns Collection: Works by American Women Writers Before 1935
December 11, 2006 - March 9, 2007Highlighted the breadth of topics represented in the Cairns Collection, including fiction, poetry, drama, essays, biographical and autobiographical works, sheet music, travel accounts, devotional works, and advice books. The exhibit also featured titles by women writers on education, natural science, temperance, slavery, and women's rights, as well as manuscripts, handwritten diaries and letters.
Exhibits in 2006
Secrets Reveal'd: Pseudo-science, the Occult and the Paranormal
from the Holdings of the Department of Special Collections
May through November 2006
This exhibit ranged from early printed books of astrology and numerology to recent studies of UFOs, psychic phenomena and alternative cosmologies. It drew heavily on the Robert Schadewald Collection, which features rare printed books, periodicals, printed ephemera and research files assembled in the course of Schadewald's decades-long investigation into aspects of 19th- and 20th-century pseudo-science. The exhibit also took advantage of the strengths of the Duveen Collection of Alchemy and Chemistry.
Lothar Meggendorfer and Movable Books
Feb. 1, 2006 - April 14, 2006This exhibit highlights color lithographic proof sheets of movable children's books from the Lothar Meggendorfer Collection. Meggendorfer (1847-1925) created more than 100 children's books over the course of his career, many in multiple editions and translations. To set Meggendorfer's "paper engineering" in context, the exhibit also contains books with movable parts from the Renaissance through the 21st century, including treatises on cosmography, geometry, landscape design, and the automobile as well as contemporary artists' books from the Kohler Art Library. Curated by Robin Rider, Curator of Special Collections, and Tracy Honn, Director of the Silver Buckle Press.
Shown here is a volvelle from Peter Apian's Cosmographia (1574), one of the early printed books included in the exhibit.
Exhibits in 2005
More from the Fry Collection: Italian History 1450-1900
October 10, 2005-January 13, 2006"More from the Fry Collection: Italian History 1450-1900" includes manuscripts, printed ephemera and books from the extensive collection assembled by William F. "Jack" Fry, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "It is the microhistory that's interesting," as Fry describes his collecting, "not the big things.
The common life captured in letters, small town government, the bread baker and shoemaker." This exhibit, showcasing aspects of Italian "micro history" before Mussolini's rise to power, complements an earlier exhibit of the Fry Collection titled "Italian Life Under Fascism" (1998), now available online. The current exhibit was organized by Robin Rider and Cindy Lundey of Special Collections with help from Jack Fry and installation assistance from Susan Stravinski of Special Collections.
Birds in Books
July 11- September 30, 2005The much-heralded sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in spring 2005 prompted this exhibit of "Birds in Books" featuring books with illustrations, most hand-colored, of birds both familiar and exotic, extinct and otherwise. The books on display, largely from the Thordarson Collection in the Department of Special Collections, dated from the 16th through the 20th century and included the Library's magnificent copy of Audubon's Birds of America. The exhibit was curated by Ann Myers of Special Collections and the School of Library and Information Studies.
Shown here is the "Pigeon of Passage" (passenger pigeon, now extinct) from Mark Catesby, The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1754), part of the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/DLDecArts/DLDecArtsHome.html.
Paragraphs on Typography
January 20 - June 10, 2005Inspired by typographer Bruce Rogers' classic treatise Paragraphs on printing, this exhibit featured significant works in the history of typography and book printing with an emphasis on exemplary uses of letterforms. The exhibit drew from Special Collections materials on the history of the book and printing types and pressroom tools from the Silver Buckle Press. The exhibit was co-curated by William Reeder, president of the Friends; Tracy Honn, director of University of Wisconsin-Madison's Silver Buckle Press; and Robin Rider, curator of Special Collections.
Exhibits in 2004
Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature
September 1 - October 15, 2004Developed by the American Library Association and the National Library of Medicine , this traveling exhibit visited 80 libraries across the country by 2005. The display was made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Library of Medicine. An exhibit of books and manuscripts from Special Collections supplemented the traveling exhibit throughout the semester, as did a parallel exhibit, "Creating Life at the Ebling Library," which focused on medical issues raised by Mary Shelley's famous novel Frankenstein .
Chivalry
July 12 - August 31, 2004Chivalry encompasses both "the knightly system of feudal times" and "the brave, honourable, and courteous character attributed to the ideal knight," according to the Oxford English Dictionary. This exhibit highlighted various forms of chivalry from the medieval period through the twenty-first century with manuscripts, musicals, illustrations, and more. Curated by Kelley Osborne. Held in conjunction with the Eleventh Triennial Congress of The International Courtly Literature Society, July 29 - August 4, 2004.
Layers of Knowledge: Illustrated Books from the Historical Collections, Health Sciences Libraries and Special Collections, Memorial Library
March 17 - June 30, 2004Layers, especially exposed layers, inform the visual language of discovery in a wide array of subjects. Drawing on the resources of the Historical Collections at the Middleton (now Ebling) Health Sciences Library and the Department of Special Collections in Memorial Library, this exhibit cut across a variety of medical and scientific fields in exploring the depiction of layers in book illustrations. Examples ranged from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, and included printed flaps in anatomical illustrations, representations of geological strata, results of Roentgen rays and nature-printing, and parallel visual metaphors in widely differing subjects.
The exhibit, designed by Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, Curator of the Historical Collections, Ebling Health Sciences Library, and Robin Rider, Curator of Special Collections, Memorial Library, was installed in conjunction with the annual meetings of the American Association for the History of Medicine and the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences.
Carl Rakosi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
March 29 - April 2, 2004Carl Rakosi first gained fame as a poet in the 1930s. Rakosi attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he earned an M.A. in educational psychology. His first book, ironically titled Selected Poems, was published in 1941. Because of his association with the Communist party, Rakosi stopped writing poetry during the height of the McCarthy era and dedicated himself to social work. He would not return to poetry until his retirement in 1965. In 1969 Rakosi returned to Madison as writer-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin. Among Rakosi's many awards was a lifetime achievement award from the National Poetry Foundation.
This exhibit was created in conjunction with Felix: A Series of New Writing, a series devoted to providing an audience for new literary works by young writers.