Things we've found and love in the Goucher College Special Collections and Archives (SC&A).
Open 10am to 4pm M-F at Goucher College on the 4th floor of the Athenaeum.
We’re having an Open House TODAY! Stop by between 12 and 4pm to get a closer look at our Jane Austen Collection, our Early American Print Collection, and our Digital Library.
There is a special focus on our Alumnae/i, with 1920’s Goucher scrapbooks, yearbooks from the honored Alumnae/i classes, and student-newspapers from Goucher.
Come stop by!
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“Primitive Dances of the Orient” from The American Dancer, August 1927
Often when we have student researchers working on papers with racial stereotypes as their topic, we often let them sift through our dance magazines. Along with descriptions of creating a riveting “Black Face” performance, there are often examples of racial stereotyping of Asians, Muslims, and Latino/as.
Often these dance magazines were used by theater directors, dance choreographers, and dancers (and enthusiasts) to stay informed and updated on the trends in the business. Art such as this were usually commissioned by the magazine and hand-drawn before being reproduced for mass distribution (the artists’ signature is found on the middle right of the page as “Payzant”. Charles Payzant did much of the cover art and supplementary art for The American Dancer).
This page caught my attention as I was helping a student look for evidence of racial stereotypes of black women in the Jim Crowe era.
The descriptions, from top to bottom:
The Cambodian girls are exponents of an ancient technique which has never changed in the slightest detail nor costume in many centuries. Owned by the Kind and retained for his sole entertainment, the Cambodian ballet has only gone on tour once or twice in their history. Every motion of the arms in their dances commemorated a certain Indo-Chinese legend and not only do their movements follow the rhythm of the music, but every joint of fingers and toes is controlled in perfect harmony.
Ability indeed is exemplified by these stilt dancers of Kweihwating! It is a rare feat to induce sticks to cavort about as one could on human legs, yet these dancers of Norther China garb themselves in fantastic head-dresses, false beards, painted faces, and various humorous disguises to celebrate their New Year. The height of artistry is conceded to by their wierdness and the native who can out do his neighbor in agility as well as makeup is voted a dancer par excellence!
These official dancers in Tibet wear strange masks representing legendary Tibetan characters and are accompanied by a somewhat primitive orchestra, consisting merely of a drum and cymbals. They perform their dances at fixed intervals in the Dalain Lama’s palace at Lhassa.
All misspellings are intentional and from the print.
This is a death threat letter addressed to Dr. Van Meter (a co-founder of Goucher College) from the Black Hand Society from 1913 (100 years ago this past month!). The Black Hand Society was a group of extortionists from Southern Italy with very little formal education, that immigrated to America in the late 1800’s. By 1900, they had established operations in most major cities with Italian communities including Detroit, NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
They threatened individuals who they knew to be wealthy, demanding money be dropped in a specific place at a specific time. In this letter, they demanded the 500 ”gold notes” be dropped at Maryland and 24th which is one of the entrances to the old Goucher campus in Baltimore.
We have no record of whether or not Dr. Van Meter went through with this, but he did not die at the hands of this Black Hand Society, so we are guessing that he probably did. Pretty neat find in the SC&A, this job never gets old, does it?
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Reblogged from How Much Art Can You Take?
18th Century glass bottle shards, found at the Epsom sight at Goucher College.
We’ve been working with Tina Sheller’s Historic Preservation class over the past two courses. Each semester reveals more of the lost history of Epsom Farm and the Baltimore found during the 1800’s.
They’re also one of the lucky classes that gets to work in our Archives and Conservation Lab.
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Reblogged from Md. Historical Society Photographs
H.L. Mencken (portrait signed by Mencken)
Baltimore, Maryland
ca. 1917
Philip B. Perlman (1890-1960)
Philip B. Perlman Collection
Maryland Historical Society
PP147.1Baltimore native Philip B. Perlman was a reporter for the Baltimore American while studying political economy at Johns Hopkins University. In 1910 while in law school at the University of Maryland, Perlman began working for the Evening Sun first as a court reporter, then as City Editor from 1913-1917. After leaving the paper, Perlman went on to a career in politics. Read more about Perlman on the photograph collection page.
If you’re interested in Mencken, keep checking back in the next few months— we might be exhibiting our collection of personal correspondences between H.L. and Sara Haardt!
Today marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. As Goucher’s Special Collections and Archives is home to one of the largest collections of Jane Austen material in the world, we are celebrating in style! Come check out the exhibit on the top floor of the Atheneum. It will run from January 28th-July 26th. For more information about the events around this celebration (including cake!), visit: the Jane Austen Exhibit
This is one of my personal favorite books in the SC&A here at Goucher. It is a 1936 edition of Edgar Alan Poe’s collected short stories; Tales of Mystery and Imagination. One of the things that makes this edition special are the beautiful, and haunting illustrations by Harry Clarke (1889-1931). Clarke is considered to be the leader in the Irish Arts and Crafts movement of the 20th century, while Poe (1809-1849) is widely considered to be one of the most prolific American authors of the 19th century. This particular edition of Tales of Mystery and Imagination is one of the most successful unions of text and image in a book, combining the grotesque with the erotic, in a profoundly ornate fashion.
In 1945, Lessing Rosenwald organized a meeting with the Folger Shakespeare Library. Rosenwald was already well known in the Washington D.C. museum community as an influential benefactor who had begun to donate his monumental collection to the Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art only two years prior. In 1943 Rosenwald publicly announced that he was collecting rare art and books for the nation. He firmly believed that “A work of art that is never seen is little better off than a work of art that has never been created.” His visit to the Folger Library was important, but the donation he was about to make was to be one of the greatest the Library had seen. In that meeting he donated what is now known as The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608, a huge manuscript detailing mundane details, historical accounts, and even design patterns from the era of Shakespeare.
The 594 page manuscript was in a poor state— 300 of the leaves were too fragile to even be handled. Despite its condition, the manuscript was soon to become one of the most valued treasures of the Folger Library. The preservation and reconstruction of the manuscript was time-consuming but the Miscellany is currently the only book in the Folger Collection that has had an entire exhibit dedicated to it.
In 1608 Thomas Trevelyon, a scribe and pattern-maker, finished the manuscript at the age of 60. The posthumously titled “Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608” was meant to inform his close friends and family of Biblical stories, encyclopedic information of the year, and design suggestions for print-making and artwork. Although Trevelyon was a commoner he had remarkable access to English and European woodcuts, engravings, broadsides, almanacs, and emblem books. In a time when the printing press had revolutionized his profession, Trevelyon dedicated his time to documenting the important information he found necessary for every-day life.
For the seventy-fifth anniversary in the Collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library reproduced the manuscript in a facsimile edition with an introduction by Heather Wolfe, Curator of Manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library. In the introduction Wolfe explains “this is the mental world of Thomas Trevelyon: a world where looking to the past was a key means of understanding the future, where faith in the providence of a merciful God was the primary comfort against life’s unpredictability.” The manuscript was both a personal creation and a public donation of information on the era.
The manuscript begins with practical and historical information—an illustrated calendar, detailed information about each month, astronomical diagrams—but continues with the family members connected to William the Conqueror. Almost immediately after it plunges into Genesis and then follows the generations of Adam that pass into the kings and queens of England and Scotland. The rest of the manuscript covers everything from popular designs to advice on dealing with different people (the physician, the strumpet, etc). Additionally Trevelyon added multiple typefaces, maze designs, and patterns for admiration and recreation. Each page was painstakingly created and attentively designed—there are even mistakes, carefully edited out by Trevelyon to avoid misinformation.
A few days ago, one of our professors walked into our office and donated a copy of the Folger’s 75th anniversary facsimile edition of The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608. Like Rosenwald, the Goucher community has always believed in the importance of sharing information. The Miscellany is already being added to the syllabi of our art courses at Goucher, and has attracted my attention for the hours we have had it in our office. It humbles me when I’m reminded of how much our community values us. While my days at work are often spent dealing with the average matters of a library, occasionally an impromptu visit from a professor turns into a gift of an expensive rare book that we might not have thought to add to our collection. I love the books, manuscripts, and memorabilia from my job, but I often think the people who donate to our collection are even more valuable.
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The winners of the Applestein-Sweren Book Prize have been selected, and their collections are now on display outside the Special Collections and Archives!
The collections span from the themes found in Middle Earth, to biographies and photographs of early-Hollywood starlets. Stop by and take a look!
While flipping through one of the Baltimore 1913 Almanacs, I noticed a few announcements of events that are now very historical…
The sinking of the Titanic and the assasination attempt on President Roosevelt (which he is remembered for waiting until his speech ended to deal with the wound).
