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.

Walter Crane

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was a well-known painter, book illustrator, and socialist. He was heavily influenced by the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as his study of Japanese wood-block color printing.  His decorative work and illustrations often featured garden themes, bold lines, and detailed imagery.   Along with  Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott, Crane was one of the premiere illustrators for children’s books in the nineteenth century. His trandemark style was also influential in the burgeoning Arts & Crafts movement in England.

Crane was introduced to fellow artist William Morris (1834-1896) in 1870, and the two later 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.

‘Story of the Glittering Plain’ by William Morris. Illustrated by Walter Crane. Kelmscott Press, 1894.

Both Morris and Crane were ardent socialists.  They joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), the first organized Marxist groups in England, in 1884. Frustrated by SDF leadership, Crane left the SDF to join Morris’s new organization, the Socialist League.

Like Morris, Crane believe that art should become a part of everyday life.  For both men, art provided a meaningful and creative force in society, and it should be shared by all classes.  Crane scowled at what he viewed as the commercialization and mass production of “false art” for profit.  He used his own artistic talent to create illustrations that brought beauty to the Socialist cause.  According to Henry Hyndman, leader of the SDF, the impact of Crane’s art was undeniable:

“Nobody, not even William Morris, did more to make Art a direct helpmate to the Socialist propaganda. Nobody has had a greater influence on the minds of doubters who feared that Socialism must be remote from and even destructive of the sense of beauty.”

Crane designed many of the header images that appeared on pamphlets for the Socialist League and Hammersmith Socialist Societ, each Socialist organizations started by William Morris.  Crane also designed a membership card for the Socialist League. The card features Crane’s illustration of a blacksmith, which was purportedly modeled after William Morris.  Do you think  the bearded worker bears a resemblance to Morris?

Socialist League membership card designed by Walter Crane

Socialist League header designed by Walter Crane, taken from ‘Chants for Socialists’ by William Morris

Hammersmith Socialist Society header designed by Walter Crane, taken from ‘Useful Work Versus Useless Toil’ by William 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.

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?

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.

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

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

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!

Cafés

Applause

In the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Featuring sushi, hot panini sandwiches, Unos® Pizza, freshly baked pastries and bagels, and Starbucks® coffee.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash
Pick it Up at the Shops location.

Bytes

In the A.V. Williams building. Pick up foods-to-go: prepared sandwiches and salads, breakfast pastries and bagels, microwaveable meals, bottled beverages, candy, and Frito-Lay products. We brew fresh Seattle’s Best® coffee.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash

The Dairy

In Turner Hall facing Route 1. Featuring famous University of Maryland Dairy ice cream, made-to-order deli sandwiches, sandwiches, Unos® Pizza, prepared wraps, salads, sushi, freshly prepared soups, French fries, and chicken tenders.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash.
Pick it Up at the Shops location

E+M Café

In Martin Hall (between the Math and Engineering Buildings, on the first floor). Choose freshly baked goods including donuts, flaky croissants, warm muffins, bagels, cold drinks, and freshly brewed Seattle’s Best® coffee.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash

E+M Deli

In Martin Hall (between the Math and Engineering Buildings, on the first floor). Featuring hot entrées, prepared salads and sandwiches featuring Boar’s Head® meats and cheeses.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash
Pick it Up at the Shops location

E+M Taco Bell Express

In Martin Hall (between the Math and Engineering Buildings, on the first floor), this popular stop serves beef tacos, chicken tacos, bean burritos, beef burritos, and nachos.
Terrapin Express, major credit cards, and cash.

Footnotes

On the first floor of McKeldin Library. Featuring sushi, hot panini sandwiches, freshly baked pastries and bagels, and Starbucks® coffee.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash
Pick it Up at the Shops location.

Kim Kafe

In the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building. Choose from Starbucks® beverages, and baked goods, prepared salads, and sandwiches featuring Boar’s Head® meats and cheeses.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, and cash

Off the Record

In the Knight Journalism Building. Choose from Seattle’s Best® coffee and espresso beverages, and baked goods, prepared salads, fresh sushi, and sandwiches featuring Boar’s Head® meats and cheeses.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, and cash
Physics
On the first floor of the Toll Building. Serving fresh sandwiches and salads, chili, soup, sushi, bottled beverages, chips, candy, and Starbucks® coffee.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash

Rudy’s

In Van Munching Hall. Featuring prepared deli sandwiches, hot entrées, salads, hot breakfast sandwiches, freshly baked cinnamon rolls, cold drinks, and freshly brewed Starbucks® coffee.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash
Pick it Up at the Shops location.

Sneaker’s

In the Eppley Recreation Center. Offering Freshens® fruit smoothies, Naked® juices, prepared salads, sandwiches, and microwavable meals.
Terp Bucks, Terrapin Express, major credit cards, cash

More…

The Adele H. Stamp Student Union
Center for Campus Life

Try one of the eight eateries located in the Stamp food court or stop by the TerpZone Bowling and Billiards for a Subway sandwich. If coffee is what you need, the Stamp Coffee shop provides signature Starbucks coffee. Adele’s Restaurant features cutting edgel cuisine created by Dining Services executive chefs. Adele’s is open to the public for lunch and dinner (no dinner service in the summer) and is located on the first floor of “The Stamp.”

Mulligan’s Grill and Pub

Located at the famed University Golf Course, Mulligan’s overlooks rolling greens and tree-lined fairways and offers enticing clubhouse fare. The menu includes classic Maryland cooking, golf course standards, and specialties that are all our own. Generally opened for lunch and dinner.

ICA Café at Comcast

Located on the mezzanine level of the Comcast Center. ICA offers ready-to-go sandwiches made with Boar’s Head^® meats and cheeses.

Another common sticking point for working groups is the existence of (real or perceived) external dependencies. “We can’t finish our work until they finish theirs!” The Born-Digital Working Group consists of two active subgroups, Tools and Policies/Procedures, supported by a less-active Administrative group for when higher-level support is needed. As we drafted policies, it became increasingly obvious that many decisions depended on input from the Tools group and on the larger institutional capacity for digital preservation. What file formats can we safely claim to preserve? What physical formats are we equipped to work with? The Tools group was facing a similar quandary: How could they firmly select tools without knowing the workflows (i.e. procedures) and the policy requirements that the tools need to meet?

Although the sub-groups were partly created to avoid the difficulty of finding large blocks of time compatible with diverse schedules, there was no helping it—the two groups had to spend some time together to solve these issues. With deadlines looming, we scheduled a joint meeting for April 1, informally dubbed “The Conclave.” No one was allowed to leave until we resolved the problems and had clear tasks to see us through to our All-Hands meeting in May.

Some of the topics we discussed included a debate over the creation of disk images and how we can clearly articulate the implications of this process to donors; the need to determine more precisely what file formats we will commit to migrating over time; and the identification of multiple work spaces for files that would ensure the appropriate levels of access. Perhaps the most helpful exercise was a detailed walkthrough of the BitCurator workflow, led by Porter Olsen and drawn on the whiteboard by Joshua Westgard. Doing this clearly illustrated where each group needed input from the other, allowing us to break off and tackle specific problems for 30 minutes before reconvening to wrap-up and assign concrete next steps.

One of the outcomes of this three-hour discussion was a realization that we need to more clearly define the goals of a Special Collections born-digital records program. Drawing on previous surveys of staff needs and expectations we have begun to concisely define the staff and system needs for working with these materials. We have also been coordinating more closely with Jennie Knies in the UMD Libraries’ Digital Stewardship unit to translate the collection requirements into technical requirements. This will be used by our IT developers to examine software and tools. The goal is to make sure that we have documented our full vision, regardless of technological limitations (or possibilities).  Our development team will then work to identify the best way to implement this within the context of our other requirements, and our existing systems.  We have created a spreadsheet that attempts to tie all of this information together, linking requirements, potential tools, workflow stage, policy, and priority.

We will all come together as a group in May to see what we have accomplished over the course of the semester. Sometimes it seems like we have been spinning our wheels, but the Conclave helped pull us out of the mud and sharpened our focus and priorities for the future.

UnMasc: Maryland Day Is Here!

April 28th, 2012 by Student

It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for–Maryland Day 2012! Come on down to Hornbake Library and join us for a day of activities and programs for people of all ages. We’ll see you soon!

11:00 a.m. We’re off to a great start, and even have a crowd gathering at the REAL Testudo, our mascot from 1933.

11:45 a.m.  Things are really starting to pick up here in Hornbake. You can create your own postcard at our coloring station, learn how to knit your own Testudo, and create an international terrapin!

12:15 p.m. Fear the Turtle! (and come on down to make your own international terrapin)

1:50 p.m. The Broadcasting Archives is celebrating its 40th birthday!

2:15 p.m. We’ve got some fantastic new postcards AND the littlest terrapin of them all here at Hornbake Library!

3:40 p.m. Things are starting to wind down, but there’s still a bit of time left to come to Hornbake and learn how to knit your own turtle or create an international terrapin!

4:08 p.m. Goodbye to Maryland Day 2012! We’ll see you all next year!