Digitizing the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department records

In May 2021, Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) began a three year grant project with Georgia State University’s Southern Labor Archive – “Advancing Workers Rights in the American South: Digitizing the Records of the AFL-CIO’s Civil Rights Division.”

SCUA will digitize and make accessible online approximately 45 linear feet (or 20-25%) from the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department records (listed below), as well as 20 – 16mm films from the AFL-CIO Labor Film collection.  Georgia State University’s Special Collections & Archives will be digitizing 119 linear feet and some audio recordings from the Records from the AFL-CIO’s Southern Area Director’s Office Civil Rights Division for online access.  This project is supported by a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  For more details about the grant award visit CLIR’s list of 2020 funded projects and the University of Maryland Libraries’ announcement.

Upcoming Exhibit: Fall 2017

For Liberty, Justice, and Equality: Unions Making History in America

Opening in September, we are pleased to present Hornbake Library’s first major exhibit about labor history.  The exhibit will feature materials from the AFL-CIO Archive that were transferred to University of Maryland’s Special Collections four years ago in 2013.

The exhibit explores the labor movement’s involvement with issues of economic equality, including the struggle for the eight-hour day and a living wage; reveals its deep roots with the civil rights’ and women’s movements; and documents lesser-known connections with the movements for LGBTQ equality, immigrant rights, religious freedom, environmental justice and international workers’ solidarity.

We hope you will join us as we explore how the labor movement has evolved from discriminatory positions to progressive ones, fighting for equality for all people. Hundreds of unique documents, images, videos, and artifacts will be on display from the Labor History Collections within the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Maryland Libraries.

The exhibition will run from September 2017 – July 2018 in the Maryland Room Exhibit Gallery, located in Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland, College Park.

For more information, email us at askhornbake@umd.edu, and visit the online exhibition.

Follow us here, on Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about the exhibit.
@hornbakelibrary #UMDlabor

5 Curious Reasons to Visit Alice 150 – Opening October!

As we are putting the final touches on our exhibit opening this October, we wanted to show you a couple of our favorite reasons to visit! Come celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  with our exhibition: Alice 150 Years and Counting…The Legacy of Lewis Carroll: Selections from the Collection of August and Clare Imholtz.

5. Did you know Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and logician? Here’s a game invented by Carroll called “Doublets”. The object is to transform one word into another in as few steps as possible, changing only one letter at a time. The first “puzzle” in the book is “Drive Pig into Sty.” Carroll says in the Preface that he invented the game on Christmas Day 1877 for two bored young ladies, who had begged him to send them some riddles. Having none at hand, he instead invented this game, which he originally called “Word-Links.”

Books Published Before 1850

The ‘History of the Book’ class being offered through the iSchool at the University of Maryland often has an assignment requiring students to compare a book published before 1850 with its more modern equivalent. It gives students the opportunity to examine differences in binding, paper, size, and many more details that distinguishes books produced in different eras. They are able to examine a rare book up-close, taking in the tactile nuances that you don’t always find in a modern paperback or ebook.

Special Collections and University Archives has a wonderful Rare Books collection that can serve as a teaching tool for those interested in book history. Stop by the Maryland Room in Hornbake Library North and ask a librarian for more information about our Rare Books holdings.

Interested in more history of the book resources in Hornbake Library? Check out our subject guide.

SO, HOW DO I FIND A BOOK PUBLISHED BEFORE 1850?

If you are interested in locating a book published from a particular time period, use the ‘Advanced Search‘  function in the Classic Online Catalog and limit the date range to the years you would like to search, then limit the location to ‘Marylandia & Rare Books’. If you would also like to view books from McKeldin and other libraries on campus, simply skip this step.  You can also narrow your search by title, author, or keyword.

If you have any questions, we are here to help! Visit us in the Maryland Room in Hornbake Library North and ask a librarian.

SOME POSSIBILITIES FROM OUR COLLECTION INCLUDE:

• Balzac. Eugénie Grandet. (1841) Rare Stacks PQ2166 .A1 1841

• Balzac. Le Pere Goriot. (1839) Rare Stacks PQ2168.A1 1839

• Boswell. Life of Johnson (1807)  Rare Stacks PR3533.B6

• Bryant, William Cullen. Poems. (1832) Rare Stacks PS1150.E32 & PS1150.E32a

• Bunyan, John.  Pilgrim’s Progress.  Rare Stacks PR3330.A1 1844 (other editions also available)

• Burke, Edmund.  Reflections on the Revolution in France.  (1790) Rare Stacks DC150.B8

• Byron, Lord. Childe Harold’s pilgrimage. (1812). Rare Stacks PR4357 .A1 1812b

• Chaucer, Geoffrey. The works of Geoffrey Chaucer. (1721). Rare Folio PR1850 1721

• Defoe, Daniel.  Robinson Crusoe (1810) Rare Stacks PR3403.A1 1810 (2 v.)

• Dickens, Charles. American Notes (1842) Rare Stacks E165.D53 1842

• Dickens, Charles.  The Old Curiosity Shop. (1841)  Rare Stacks PR4566 1841

• Dickens, Charles. The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. (1842). Maryland Rare Stacks PZ3.D55 Pi 1842

• Goldsmith, Oliver.  The Vicar of Wakefield. (1830)  Rare Stacks PR3490.A1 1830

• Homer.  Iliad.  (1795) Rare Stacks PA4025.A2 1795 (other editions also available)

• Homer. The odyssey of Homer. (1818) Rare Stacks PA4025.A5 P6 1818 (other editions also available)

• Livy.  Roman History (Ab urbe condita) (1578) rare Folio PA6452 .A2 1578

• Locke, John.  Letters Concerning Toleration (1765) Rare Folio BR1610.L4

• Marshall. Life of George Washington (1804) Rare Stacks E312.M342

• Milton, John. Paradise lost. (1739) Rare Stacks | PR3560 .A1 1739. (other editions available)

• Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven and Other Poems. Maryland Rare Stacks | PS2609 .A1 1845b

• Thomas Paine. Rights of man; being an answer to Mr. Burke’s attack on the French revolution. (1791) Rare Stacks JC177 .C128

• Richardson, Samuel.  Clarissa. (1751) Rare Stacks PR3664.C4 1751

• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Contrat social; ou, Principes du droit politique. (1762) Rare Stacks JC179 .R83 1762a

• Scott, Sir Walter.  Kenilworth (1821)  Rare Stacks PR5319.A1

• Scott, Sir Walter. Rob Roy. (1818) Rare Stacks PZ3.S43 Ro 1818

• Shakespeare. The merchant of Venice. (1802). Rare Stacks PR2838 .A1 1802. (several of Shakespeare’s works are available in altered editions)

• Shakespeare, William. The plays of William Shakespeare, in ten volumes. (1773) Rare Stacks | PR2752 .J6 1773

• Shelley. Poetical Works (1840) Rare Stacks PR5402 1840

• Smith, Adam.  Wealth of Nations  (1789) Rare Stacks HB161.S612 (other editions available)

• Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. (1774)  Rare Stacks PR3714.T4 1774

• Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War (1588)  Rare Folio PA4452 .A2 1588

• Virgil.  Aeneid (1529)  Rare Folio PA6801 .A2 1529

• Voltaire. Historical and critical remarks on The history of Charles XII, King of Sweden. (1732) Rare Stacks DL732 .L33

• Wollstonecraft, Mary. Vindication of the Rights of Women.  (1794) Rare Stacks HQ1596.G62

FIND AN INTERESTING BOOK NOT LISTED? SHARE IT WITH US ON TWITTER @HORNBAKELIBRARY!

#HornbakeRareBooks