French Pamphlets, Education, Thermometers, and Goodbyes

Hey there again, welcome to another blog post from the UMD Pamphlet Project! With the semester coming to a close, we’d like to give a general update with the latest developments from the trenches, provide a couple images from the most recent string of pamphlets, and discuss the next steps for the project going into the summer.

Towards the end of April, we finished inputting the last of our pamphlets concerning the French colonies. Although we’re sad to see no longer have any more colonial pamphlets to work with, we’re equally as excited by the works we’ve found in the collections related to education. Within this collection we’ve found some of the works of D’Alembert, Robespierre, and Abbé Grégoire.

In addition to these crucial figures of French intellectualism, we’ve found some really interesting designs and diagrams in our pamphlets like these below (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1	Figure 2

Figure 3

Both designs are from a pamphlet discussing experiments on latent heat using the thermometers shown in the two figures. These experiments were presented at the Académie de Sciences de Rouen in July 1787. In addition to the images from the experiments, we’ve also found a student schedule from l’École Royale Polytechnique for the 1826-1827 academic terms (see figure 3). If you thought you had routines, think again!

Figure 4

Lastly, I want to share another cool stamp, among a list of many others, from the Instruction Nationale de la République Française (See figure 4).

As the project moves forward we would like to wish a fond farewell to Annie Rehill, who will not be able to collaborate with us during the summer.

Please join us in wishing her well as she prepares for her PhD qualifying exams. As far as the pamphlets are concerned themselves, we are working with our collection of court cases for the time being. I was very excited to see that we are in possession of a number of documents concerning a case Beaumarchais filed to clear his name of slanderous accusations.

The pamphlets are no doubt rich, and we look forward to the next blog post to bring you another update from the UMD Pamphlet Project. Until next time, au revoir.

William Morris’s Ideas about Art and Socialism

William Morris

Walter Crane and William Morris

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was a well-known painter, book illustrator, and socialist. He was introduced to fellow artist William Morris (1834-1896) in 1870, and the two became close friends and collaborators. Crane’s illustrations most notably appear in the 1894 edition of The story of the Glittering Plain printed by Morris’s Kelmscott Press.

Both Morris and Crane were members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), the first organized Marxist groups in England. Frustrated by SDF leadership, Crane left the SDF in 1884 to join Morris’s new organization, the Socialist League. Like Morris, Crane believed in the power of art to provide a meaningful and creative force in society. He scowled at what he viewed as the commercialization and mass production of “false art” for profit. He used his own artistic talents to create beautiful illustrations that served as propaganda for the Socialist cause.

Socialist League membership card designed by Walter Crane

Crane also designed a membership card for the Socialist League. The card features Crane’s illustration of a blacksmith, which was reportedly modeled after William Morris. Does the bearded worker bear any resemblance to Morris?

Look for additional Crane illustrations in How We Might Live: The Vision of William Morris exhibit now on display in the Maryland Room Gallery in Hornbake Library. Here’s a hint. Keep an eye out for socialist pamphlets written by Morris.

William Morris Built the Foundation for Historic Preservation

Morris preserved his beloved summer home, Kelmscott Manor, using non-invasive techniques.

Did you know that May is National Preservation Month? We can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to recognize the work of William Morris (1834-1896), one of the pivotal figures in the early preservation movement in the West. Many people know Morris for his role as a designer, printer and socialist, but this opinionated Englishman was also a preservation activist, founding the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) in the UK in 1877.

Morris began his crusade to protect old buildings after observing the invasive restoration techniques in use by architects and restorers of the 19th century. He held restorers responsible for what he called the “reckless stripping” of buildings resulting in the destruction of their original characteristics. The SPAB came to be called “Anti-Scrape” for its insistence that historic structures be preserved without altering their original structures. Of course, restorers themselves thought they were improving structures by replacing decaying elements with new materials.

For Morris, beautiful, authentic architecture provided a benefit to society. He felt that individuals had a responsibility to preserve these structures without changing them. Do you believe we have a social responsibility to save historic buildings? If so, do you approve of Morris’s no-change approach, or are you in favor of the restoration approach?

‘How We Might Live’ Features Medieval Woodcut Illustrations

How We Might Live: The Vision of William Morris, an exhibit highlighting the life and work of English designer and author William Morris (1834-1896), will showcase a new Morris-related item every month.

Visit the Maryland Room Gallery in May to view Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth Century, printed by the Kelmscott Press.  William Morris was a collector of early printed books.  He was particularly fond of illuminated manuscripts and illustrations.  Printed by the Kelmscott Press in 1898, Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth Century features 35 reproductions of illustrations, 29 of which were chosen by Morris to appear in an annotated catalog of his library.  Plans for the catalog ultimately fell through with his death in 1896.  You can read more in Sydney Cockerell’s forward and view all the illustrations in the digitized version of Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth Century.

Maryland Day 2013, The East Asia & Gordon W. Prange Collections’ Activities

This was a banner year for Maryland Day!  The glorious weather was ideal for the University’s annual open house.   In spite of the fact that many of the 100,000 visitors to campus would have preferred to be outside, the East Asia & Gordon W. Prange Collections welcomed over 450 people to the 4^th floor of McKeldin Library for East Asian crafts and a musical performance.   Our principal activities — origami, calligraphy, and Chinese paper-cutting — have attracted numerous repeat visitors over the years, and this year was no exception.  Demonstrations of children’s games from China, Korea, and Japan were an added feature.  Several of the games originated in East Asia, such as ayatori (a string game similar to cat’s cradle) and jianzi  (keeping  a lightly weighted shuttlecock in the air using your feet and other parts of the body, except your hands –  similar to hacky sack), but were very familiar to our visitors.  A performance of Japanese music by a mother-son duo on piano and violin drew a substantial crowd.

Jianzi, with colorful shuttlecocks–Chinese hacky sack!

 We were fortunate to have staffing support from the University of Maryland Origami Club, John Montroll (origami master), and many members of the Eleanor Roosevelt High School National Honors Society.

We’re already preparing for next year!

 East Asia Collection

Gordon W. Prange Collection

"Why Boys Come to Maryland"

Reblogged from Terrapin Tales:

We found this great sketch in the 1925 Reveille, the University of Maryland yearbook, that seems to imply flapper girls comprised the majority of the female population on campus.  The drawings, attributed to Julia Louise Behring - Class of 1927, paint the comely UMD co-eds as look-alikes to characters in an F. Scott Fitzgerald story.  For anyone looking forward to the new…

Read more… 36 more words

And all that jazz... at the University of Maryland! "For anyone looking forward to the new Great Gatsby movie (in theaters May 10), these photos should hold you over until then."

Share your Maryland Day with us!

Yesterday was another great year for Maryland Day.

The weather was perfect and the mood on campus was infectiously exciting. Everywhere you looked there were masses of people with smiles on their faces. Ok, there was the occasional dissatisfied toddler, but even that made us smile.

A few high profile friends stopped by, include Roaming Testudo and his cousin, our official live-action Testudo. You can find more coverage of Maryland Day in the following locations:

• Flickr
• Instagram
• Storify
• Facebook
• Twitter

If you want to share your experiences with us, please remember to use the #MarylandDay and #UMDLibraries tags so we can include them in our story on Storify. We have already seen a lot of great photos, tweets, and posts and can’t wait to see even more.

Can’t wait to start planning for next year!