Yale University
“I have no Knowledge of it at all,” wrote Ezra Stiles of alchemy. “I never saw Transmutation, the aurific Powder, nor the Philosophers Stone,” the early President of Yale College continued, “nor did I ever converse with an Adept knowing him to be such. ...
New Political Alphabet, or, a Little Book for Great Boys This twenty three page book of alphabet rhymes was published in Windham, Connecticut in 1813, by Samuel Webb. For the letter A: "Great A stands for Adam’s administration and B for betraying the rights of the nation." This rhyme refers to John Adams, the second president of the United States and a conservative Federalist who signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. Although the New Political Alphabet was published twelve years after Adams left office, the author likely remains anonymous due to the political tone of this rhyme.
Search through one hundred maps, drawn from the Beinecke's vast collection of American and European cartography, depicting early representations of New England and North America. The Collection 100 maps, primarily woodcuts and printed engravings, from the Beinecke Library's Western Americana and General collections. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
New Haven resident William H. Townsend made pen-and-ink sketches of the Amistad captives while they were awaiting trial. Twenty-two of these drawings were given to Yale in 1934 by Asa G. Dickerman, whose grandmother was the artist's cousin. Townsend, who was about 18 years old when he made the drawings, is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, beside the Yale University campus. Call Number: GEN MSS 335
Documenting the construction of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, this collection of photographs captures the transient stages of a massive, three year project. One of the largest buildings in the world devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts, the library was designed to have room in the central tower for 180,000 volumes and in the underground book stacks for over 600,000 volumes; it now contains well over 500,000 volumes and several million manuscripts. The building, of Vermont marble and granite, bronze and glass, was designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; the George A. Fuller Construction Company of Hamden, Connecticut was the general contractor.
James Baldwin, 1955 September 13, by Carl Van Vechten The provenance of the James Baldwin Early Manuscripts and Papers collection is a matter of some intrigue. The donor, Bart Kaplan, acquired the papers through eminent domain, after his company took possession of a storage building in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sometime in the early 1960s. The space in which they were stored had apparently once belonged to a publishing company which had left behind a suitcase containing these materials from James Baldwin. The relationship between Baldwin and the publishing company, as well as how a small parcel of his earliest literary effects was left with them, is uncertain.
The Arthurian Romances, or MS 229, is one of the jewels in the crown of medieval manuscript illumination. Written in Northern France toward the end of the 13th century, this copy of the great French romance is known for the abundance and richness of its illuminations, and even more so for the intricacy, mystery, and wildness of the images in the margins including animals, jesters, archers, and musicians. About the Codex Parchment, ff. i (paper) + 363 + i (paper). Written in elegant gothic textura by one scribe, with a few interlinear corrections in later hands.
The Elizabeth Jenks Clark Collection of Margaret Anderson contains correspondence, writings, photographs, sound recordings, and other papers of writer and editor Margaret Anderson. The material documents Anderson's life, work, and personal relationships with many noted writers, poets, artists, photographers and performers of the twentieth century, in particular her romantic relationships with co-editor and writer Jane Heap, writer Solita Solano and close friendship with sculptor Elizabeth Jenks Clark. The papers span the entirety of Anderson's life, though the bulk of them document her personal and professional life after the Little Review .
Amos Gerry Beman, a Black minister in New Haven, Connecticut, was a national leader during the mid-nineteenth century. He was a proponent of abolition, suffrage, temperance and educational and moral reform. Beman grew up in Colchester, Connecticut and later Middletown, Connecticut, where his father, Jehiel Beman, was appointed pastor to the first African American church in Connecticut. Beman’s father had worked tirelessly for emancipation and civil rights, and his grandfather, Caesar Beman, had been manumitted after serving in the Revolutionary War. The Collection
On May 21st, 1969, police found the body of 19-year-old Alex Rackley on a riverbank in Middlefield, CT. Rackley was a member of the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary Black Nationalist organization founded in 1966 in California. At the time of Rackleys murder, the organization had several thousand members operating in regional chapters in major American cities; the Panthers growth and their call for violent action against racist institutions made the Party a subject of investigations by local and federal law enforcement agencies.
In 1916 Elizabeth Willis DeHuff’s husband, John David DeHuff, became superintendent of the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Elizabeth, twenty-four years old and educated as a teacher at Barnard College in New York, quickly became interested in the art and culture of the couple’s new home, and in the students who attended the school. DeHuff began inviting boys from the school into her home for afternoon painting lessons. Students that received training included Fred Kabotie, Otis Polelonema (both Hopi) and Velino Shije Herrera (of Zia Pueblo).
196 boxes containing the correspondence, diaries, and manuscripts of James Boswell; estate records, letters, personal and professional papers, and other materials documenting the lives and careers of generations of Boswells and their possession of the barony of Auchinleck; and correspondence relating to the political career of Alexander Bruce, Earl of Kincardine. Currently, only a portion of the Boswell Papers are available online. Call Number: GEN MSS 89 Really As It Was: Writing the Life of Samuel Johnson September 18, 2009 - December 19, 2009
The Collection 16 volumes (in 1 case) : illus.; 22 cm. or smaller. Cite as: Joseph Goldsborough Bruff Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks. Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
The Bryher Papers document the personal life and literary career of Bryher. Her extensive correspondence includes letters from H. D., Robert MacAlmon, Kenneth MacPherson, Norman Holmes Pearson, Sylvia Beach, Norman Douglas, Horace Gregory, Islay Lyons, and Edith Sitwell, and from many other figures in the fields of literature, psychoanalysis, and film. There are manuscripts of many of her works, including fragments of an unpublished volume of autobiography; financial and personal papers; material collected by Bryher on "boys’ books" authors such as R. M. Ballantyne and G. A. Henty; and documentation of Bryher’s interest in film and the making of Borderline (1930). Currently, only a portion of the Bryher Papers are available online.
Rachel Louise Carson, noted biologist and environmentalist who fascinated readers with three books on the wonders of the sea and awakened the American public to the dangers of pesticide misuse with a highly controversial bestseller, was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She was interested in writing at an early age and submitted a number of juvenile stories, poems, and essays to leading youth magazines. Rachel Carson's first book, Under the Sea Wind , attracted little notice on its appearance in 1941. However, her second book on the sea, The Sea Around Us (1951), remained on the best-seller lists for eighty-six weeks, was eventually translated into thirty languages, and received many awards.
The author and dramatist J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) created this adventure story in 1901 for the Llewelyn Davies family, in particular, four of the five Llewelyn Davies children, George (1893-1915), John, known as "Jack" (1894-1959), Peter (1897-1960), and Michael (1900-1921). Barrie befriended the Llewelyn Davies family in the 1890s and his famous character "Peter Pan" was inspired by the children. This novel, titled, The boy castaways of Black Lake Island, being a record of the terrible adventures of the brothers Davies in the Summer of 1901, faithfully set forth by Peter Llewelyn Davies , includes thirty-five mounted photographs with typeset captions and a preface by Peter.
The Most Peculiar History of the Chewing Gum Man, Gelett Burgess (1866-1951), San Francisco, California, 1894 November. About the Author Gelett Burgess was a very prolific author, writing rhymes and stories, drawing pictures, teaching art, and editing a famous humor magazine, The Lark . Among his best-known creations are The Goops, round little creatures he used to demonstrate good and bad behavior. Burgess made a few special books for his friends and family. The ?Chewing Gum Man? was made for his sisters. This story was eventually published in The Burgess Nonsense Book in 1901.
The Volume Childrens talk, English & Latin : divided into several clauses : wherein the propriety of both languages is kept : that children by the help of their mother-tongue, may more easily learn to discourse in good Latine amongst themselves : there are also numbers set down betwixt both, which do shew the place and natural use of any word or phrase , by Charles Hoole, Master of Arts, L.C. Oxon, teacher of a private grammar-school betwixt Goldsmiths-Alley in Redcross-street, and Maidenhead Court in Aldersgate-street, London.
John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and Its People, 1873-1874 John Thomson (1837-1921), a pioneering Scottish geographer and traveler, was the first known photographer to document the people and landscape of China for publication and dissemination to the Western world. Between 1868 and 1872, he traveled over 6,500 kilometers with his cumbersome camera and equipment, darkroom and chemicals capturing all aspects of Chinese life. The photographs in these four volumes show the many sides of China: sweeping landscapes, royalty and ruling classes, merchants and economic activity, everyday life, and the faces of men, women, and children. Thomson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a tobacco spinner and seller.
About the Crawl Space The poems in Crawl Space were composed using a typewriter, working on commercial paint sample cards; each card is an example of a different shade of white interior house paint. The tools of composition provided useful constraints and suggestions, which are evident in both the form and content of the poems-a meditation on walls, both real and metaphorical, in marriage and the trappings of domesticity. I drafted versions of each of the poems (necessitating frequent trips to Home Depot to replenish paint card supplies) and eventually made a few complete sets, one of which is housed in the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
, which described the second Powell expedition, in 1908. He died in New York City on January 29, 1935. Over 800 digital images shown selected from nearly 900 photographic prints, relief halftones, postcards, negatives, tintypes and pen and ink drawings in Dellenbaugh’s personal collection. Depicting the Colorado River region and other areas of the West, these photographs include works by E. O. Beaman, James Fennemore, and John K. Hillers, photographers on the 1871 Powell expedition, as well as halftone prints of their images, apparently created for inclusion in Dellenbaugh's books. Photographs by Dellenbaugh and other amateur photographers are accompanied by images from professional photographers William Henry Jackson and the Kolb Brothers.
Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme Archive Artist and collector Katherine Dreier joined Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray to found the Société Anonyme, an organization designed to support and generate awareness of modernist art; the group’s name, a French phrase meaning “incorporated,” highlighted the fact that the organization was not allied with any particular artistic school. The Société Anonyme promoted new artists by arranging exhibitions to introduce audiences to their work and develop their reputations among galleries and collectors. Critics praised the Société Anonyme for its commitment to new artists and its inclusion of their work in exhibits and catalogs. Dreier played an essential role in generating American interest in and acceptance of modern art.
These two volumes from the Beinecke's collections were digitized to coincide with The Great Mirror of Folly: Finance, Culture, and the Bubbles of 1720 , a symposium co-sponsored by the Yale School of Management International Center for Finance , held at Yale University in April 2008. The starting point for this conference was an extraordinary volume likely published in 1720, The Great Mirror of Folly (or, in the original Dutch, Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid ). Early versions of this folio were published in Amsterdam within months of the 1720 economic crashes that roiled the stock markets of England, France, and the Dutch Provinces.
Jonathan Edwards, among the foremost theologians and philosophers of his time, was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, on October 5, 1703. He attended Yale College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1720. Upon leaving Yale, he succeeded his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, as minister of the Congregationalist Church at Northampton, Massachusetts from 1726 to 1750. There he became known as an evangelical preacher and stern Calvinist, helping inspire the "Great Awakening" of the 1740s. His writings, which were widely circulated, included A Faithful Narrative and Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. In 1751 he became a missionary to the Mahican and Mohawk Indians at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and minister to the English congregation there.
1 July 1944 Richard Wright (1908-1960) is perhaps best known for his critically-acclaimed collection Uncle Tom’s Children: Four Novellas (1938), his groundbreaking novel Native Son (1940) and his autobiography, first published as Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (1945). Black Boy was the on the bestseller list from April 29 to June 6 of that year, despite being denounced as obscene in the U.S. Senate by Democrat Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, and it solidified Wright’s reputation, at the time, as the most famous black author in America.
244 posters and ephemera in both b&w and color Cite as: Philippe Zoummeroff Collection of May 1968, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University The Postwar Avant-Garde and the Culture of Protest, 1945 to 1968 and Beyond Thursday, October 1, 2009 - Saturday, December 19, 2009 Share |
In the autumn of 1609, the Italian mathematician and astronomer Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to the heavens, deciphering the cratered face of the moon, the four satellites of Jupiter, and other previously opaque features of the heavens. When, in 1610, Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius, or Starry Messenger, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler responded with enthusiasm, praising the significance of Galileo’s observations with his own Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo, or, Conversations with the Starry Messenger (1610). To whom else did the stars speak in the early modern period?
American photographer Robert Giard is renowned for his portraits of American poets and writers; his particular focus was on gay and lesbian writers. Some of his photographs of the American gay and lesbian literary community appear in his groundbreaking book Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers , published by MIT Press in 1997. Giard’s stated mission was to define the literary history and cultural identity of gays and lesbians for the mainstream of American society, which perceived them as disparate, marginal individuals possessing neither. In all, he photographed more than 600 writers. The archive is a unique and important collection providing a significant resource for the study of literary America in the late twentieth century.
Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), was a Polish novelist and playwright. His novels and plays include Ferdydurke (1937), Trans-Atlantyk (1953), Ślub (1953), Kosmos (1965), and Pornografia (1966). Considered one of Poland's foremost literary figures of the twentieth century, Gombrowicz's novels and plays have been translated into many languages. The Collection The archive consists of correspondence, writings, personal papers, photographs, audiovisual material and memorabilia documenting Gombrowicz’s life and literary activity chiefly during the last two decades of his life (1949-69). Currently, only a portion of the Archive is available online.
The H.D. Papers are the bequest of Norman Holmes Pearson, H.D.'s literary executor. Most of the material in the H. D. Papers came to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library after Professor Pearson's death in 1973. Prior to this time, selected groups of materials were given to the library by Professor Pearson and were placed with related documents in other collections; these materials have been retrieved and placed in the H.D. Papers. Materials from other sources are also found in the papers, with specific provenance information on the appropriate folders. Permission from the H.D. Estate is required to publish H.D. materials in any format. To learn more, contact the Curator, Yale Collection of American Literature. Call Number: YCAL MSS 24
