Finding aids for nine newly cataloged collections, and preliminary box lists for two recent acquisitions, have been added to the OASIS database this month, including a collection of Japanese netsuke carved in the shape of theatrical masks, correspondence of the Emerson family, and posters for musical theater. Processed by Irina Klyagin: Ballet Scores for Productions Read More
John Overholt
The Poet as Naturalist: Thomas Gray’s copy of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae
Among the most precious books from the library of Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard’s first Professor of Art History, is the poet Thomas Gray’s copy of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae. Gray’s youthful interest in natural history was fostered by his uncle Robert Antrobus, an Assistant Master at Eton; in his later years he cherished his uncle’s copy Read More
Silhouettes: from Craft to Art
The central scene in this engraving (left) faithfully reproduces an engraved vignette that depicted a method of drawing a silhouette. The vignette was printed in the second volume of Johann Caspar Lavater’s treatise on physiognomy, Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniss und Menschenliebe published in Leipzig between 1775 and 1778.
New on OASIS in August
Twelve finding aids for newly cataloged collections have been added to the OASIS database this month, including posters from the May 1968 Paris protests and penmanship specimens from 18th century Boston writing schools. Processed by Susan Wyssen: Claude Farrère Papers, 1896-1957 (MS Fr 590) Marseille Heroin Trafficking Collection, circa 1963-1975 (MS Fr 614)
“Attribute the faute to my ivel hed, and not to my slothful hande”
Houghton has in its collection several letters written or signed by Elizabeth I of England. She wrote one of these letters (cataloged as MS Typ 686) in her own hand to her brother Edward VI, then King of England. It is dated April 21, but there is no given year. It is likely, however, that Read More