3rd Week of March 2023
March 19th, 2023
Frances Clayton and the Women Soldiers of the Civil War
Clayton was reputed to be able to pass as a male soldier in part because of her enjoyment of “manly vices” such as drinking, smoking, swearing, and gambling.
Classics Illustrated Comics at Falvey Library
Great works of literature like you’ve never seen them before!
Radiocarbon dating confirms an 18th century origin for a woodblock long thought to be centuries older.
Modern Books and Manuscripts and the Reese Sale
Houghton added six items to its incomparable Melville collection at the sale.
A heavily annotated copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle.
4th Week of February 2023
February 26th, 2023
The Typography of W.E.B. Du Bois
A new Cooper Hewitt exhibition examines the remarkable data visualizations he made for the 1900 World’s Fair
Mapping the Battle of Fredericksburg
Images from the Library of Congress Map Collection
Restoring a volume of prints by the great British caricaturist William Hogarth.
Henry writes to his owners while they’re away on vacation.
2nd Week of February 2023
February 12th, 2023
Digitizing a collection of historical musical instruments that look as beautiful as they sound.
Mapping “Points of Interest underneath the Harlem Moon”
The making of A Night-Club Map of Harlem” (1933)
Magnificent margins in the Alexander Romance
Images from the manuscripts on display in the British Library’s Alexander exhibition.
The Archives of the East Village Eye Go to the New York Public Library
Leonard Abrams started the paper, which chronicled the cultural life of downtown New York, in 1979. After trying for eight years to place its archives, he handed them off to the library last fall.
The donation of more than 2,700 books, newspapers, and magazines included funding that enabled Princeton to digitize the collection, making it keyword-searchable and openly available.
1st Week of February 2023
February 5th, 2023
NYPL Acquires Archive of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne
“The dual collection comprises the couple’s literary and personal papers and stands as a rich testament to two of the most successful and important writers in postwar America.”
An Extraordinary New Acquisition!
Michigan acquires a beautifully illuminated book of hours ca. 1505.
Uncovering the secrets of PUL items through spectral imaging
Collections display more than meets the naked eye when photographed under other wavelengths of light.
The Early Days of Women’s Suffrage, Archived
PACSCL’s In Her Own Right digital; project collects materials from a dozen Philadelphia-area institutions.
50 years of powerful Bay Area posters collected by Oakland library go online
Oakland Public Library’s César E. Chávez branch digitizes its poster collection.
SONY DSC
4th Week of January 2023
January 29th, 2023
Restoring an 1883 lifesize papier mache model of a giant octopus at Harvard’s Museums of Science and Culture.
Video: Hesburgh Libraries Analog Preservation and Conservation
A short video about preservation work at Notre Dame Libaries (featuring an appearance by my former Houghton colleague Luke Kelly!)
An introduction to the poster collections at the Library of Congress.
Three Alexander the Great manuscripts newly digitised
More items from the British Library’s current exhibition Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth.
3rd Week of January 2023
January 22nd, 2023
UAlbany Professor Finds New Poem by Famed Early American Poet Phillis Wheatley
The poem “On the Death of Love Rotch” dated 1767, was found in a Quaker commonplace book at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania attributed to “A Negro Girl about 15 years of age.”
The Anne of Green Gables Manuscript
An extensive new site makes the fully digitized manuscript available along with explanatory notes and other supporting material.
A new Grolier Club exhibition available in person or online on the golden age of American decorated paper.
Brrr–Frost Fairs on the Thames
The Thames River completely froze over during several winters between 1608 and 1814, providing London denizens with a sudden new space to utilize for work and play.
2nd Week of January 2023
January 15th, 2023
Early Astronomy in the University of Michigan Collections
A new online exhibit featuring a selection of manuscripts, early printed books, and artifacts illustrating Mesopotamian, Greek, Islamic, and Western European astronomies.
Jane Segar, an artist at the Elizabethan court
A newly digitized manuscript made as a New Year’s gift for Queen Elizabeth and inscribed “the handyworke of a maiden your majesty’s most faithful servant … graced with my pen and pencell.”
The Secret (Past) Lives of Library Books
Documenting the history of Library of Congress collections for the Material Evidence in Incunabula project.
Master tailor Diego de Freyle’s 1583 manual, Geometria y Traça para el Oficio de los Sastres
Top 9 of 2022 from NLM Collections on Instagram
NLM reviews the year’s most popular posts.
1st Week of January 2023
January 8th, 2023
Caught Our Eyes: More Brünnhilde the Cat
No contest for which story I’d put in the top slot this week. Brünnhilde!
A Year in Review: Newly Scanned Maps of 2022
Recent digitization from the Library of Congress Geography and Maps Division
Meg Piorko’s Weekly Picks: Public Domain Day 2023
To celebrate Public Domain Day, Villanova’s Falvey Library highlights newly public domain publications from 1927 in its digital collections.
A Tiny Press Calls for a Tiny Book
Duke conservator makes a miniature book to go inside a miniature book press for an exhibition on conservation work.
Wax Cylinders Hold Audio From a Century Ago. The Library Is Listening.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts acquired a machine that transfers recordings from the fragile format. Then a batch of cylinders from a Met Opera librarian arrived.
4th Week of December 2022
December 25th, 2022
Digitized Cookbooks on the Getty Research Portal for your Holiday Feasting
The Getty Research Portal’s newest Virtual Collection is available just in time for the holiday season! The Virtual Collection includes more than 100 digitized cookbooks from the Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky Gastronomy Collection.
Iraqi conservators strive to preserve ancient manuscripts
In an annex of Iraq’s national museum, a conservator pores over a 17th-century manuscript, carrying out delicate restoration work as part of efforts to preserve and digitise 47,000 precious texts.
Irv Koons Product Design Archives Digitized
The Hagley Library and Museum has digitized its collection of the influential product packaging designer Irv Koons, showcasing work from a nearly 50-year career.
Library Acquires Rare Codex from Central Mexico
“The Library purchased the rare codex this fall. It contains new details about the earliest legal structures in Mexico after Spanish colonization and the way Indigenous people used Spanish laws to defend their rights. The codex is one of only six 16th-century pictorial manuscripts from central Mexico known to still exist. With its acquisition, the Library now holds three of the six manuscripts.”
3rd Week of December, 2022
December 18th, 2022
The Huntington Acquires Thomas Pynchon Archive
“Comprising 70 linear feet of materials created between the late 1950s and the 2020s—including typescripts and drafts of each of his novels, handwritten notes, correspondence, and research—Pynchon’s literary archive offers an unprecedented look into the working methods of one of America’s most important writers.”
The Most Important Science Book Ever Written
Adam Savage visits the Royal Society Library to see the 1st edition and manuscript of Principia Mathematica, and Newton’s death mask. (Despite the cover image, the book handling is blessedly gloveless.)
Lincoln Presidential Museum offers a virtual gallery of artifacts
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has released a collection of 100 3D models of artifacts ranging from Abraham Lincoln’s desk to Mary’s bloomers.
New Interactive Map Showcases the Panoramic Maps Collection
The Library of Congress’s collection of bird’s-eye maps of the late 19th and early 20th centuries spans the U.S. as can be seen in its new browseable map interface.
20 years after its online debut, the National Library of Medicine has revamped its pioneering exhibition Dream Anatomy.
