Archive for the ‘Rare Books’ Category

Power of Provenance

Friday, April 26th, 2013

Exhibit on view April 5 to April 26

The true power of provenance is that it can connect the biographies of individuals from various walks of life through a shared a love of books and reading. This exhibit of manuscripts once owned by illustrious bibliophiles is intended to shed light on some of those connections.

First there was bibliographer and literary scholar Sir Walter W. Greg who lived from 1875 until 1959. With fellow bibliographers Alfred W. Pollard and Ronald Burns McKerrow, Sir Walter cofounded what is now regarded as the Anglo-Saxon tradition of analytical bibliography. Next, there was Stanley Morison, who lived and worked in England from 1889 to 1967. Morison has gone down in printing history as one of the most well-known editors, typographic consultants, and designers to have worked in the trade.  The current font known as Times New Roman is based on his revision of the type for The Times, London.

Estelle Doheny with Mr. and Mrs. Schad and Doheny Estate librarian Lucille Miller

The other two personalities featured in the exhibit, Isaac Foot and Carrie Estelle Doheny, were included because of their accomplishments in book collecting. The collections of these two book people differed greatly in both substance and style, but they were both representative of two major currents in collecting practice; namely, quantitatively-driven subject collecting and qualitatively-driven genre collecting. The former was represented in the library of Isaac Foot. Foot, a staunch Protestant who lived from the years of 1880 to 1960, built up a massive personal library which had been numbered at somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 volumes at its peak. A large portion of his collection was centered on the study of political philosophy and liberalism; and he possessed a great number of titles from some of the most renowned political thinkers and literary activists of the ages. Some of his more well-loved political influences included thinkers such as  John Milton, Thomas Carlyle, and President Abraham Lincoln. Carrie Estelle Doheny, on the other hand, who would represent the latter style, had a noticeably smaller collection than that of Foot. The aesthetic quality of Doheny’s collection, however, was appreciably richer than the quality of the Foot library in the sense that it primarily contained manuscript and printed works denotative of a sophisticated artistic taste. A devout Catholic and philanthropist, her collection, which was built up during the years following her husband’s death in 1935, included numerous illuminated manuscripts and masterpieces of fine printing. She also collected rare examples of Americana and children’s literature.

A folio from Psuedo Phalaris, Epistolae

In terms of manuscripts once owned by these figures, each seems to have been indicative of his or her collecting styles.  There was a thirteenth century manuscript copy of Stephen Langton’s Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum which was once in the possession of Sir Walter W. Greg. The fifteenth century Italian copy of Psuedo Phalaris’s Epistolae was previously owned by Stanley Morison and, therefore, was likely to have influenced his thinking on typographic design. Isaac Foot’s onetime copy of a dedicatory preface written by the Flemish humanist Victor Gislain is an item featured in the exhibit that is of particular rarity. This holograph document was discovered bound in the front portion of a sixteenth century printed edition of Prudentius’s Opera Omnia. Also included in the exhibit is a fourteenth century Ordo for the use of Rome which, for only a brief time, was owned by Estelle Doheny. The manuscript features a beautifully illustrated frontispiece on the recto of its first folio. Additionally, there are a number of supplementary archival materials on display. Among them is a photograph of Doheny with former Huntington Library curator of the rare books, Robert Schad, a catalog of a USC exhibit of Doheny treasures printed by the famous Los Angeles-based printed Ward Ritchie, and a letter from author Eden Phillpotts (d. 1960) to Isaac Foot.

Letter from Eden Phillpotts to Isaac Foot dated November 18, 1946

By Jesse R. Erickson, Library Assistant and Ph.D. student in the department of Information Studies

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An “A” List Acquisition: A New Aldine for Library Special Collections

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

It’s not easy to find an Aldine press book that UCLA doesn’t already hold in its Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection, a world-renowned collection of books printed by Aldus Manutius the Elder (1449?-1515) or his heirs, Paulus Manutius (1512-1574), and Aldus the Younger (1547-1597). The few Aldines we’re missing are usually held in institutional collections, and rarely appear on the international book market for purchase.

However, this summer, Library Special Collections was able to add not one, but two, Aldines to its collection. One of them, now on display for a short time in the LSC lobby, is a 1520 edition of Erasmus’ Adagia, a collection of Latin and Greek proverbs.

The Adagia, beautifully printed in roman and Greek type, and bearing the characteristic Aldine anchor-and-dolphin device on both the title-page and last page, once belonged to the famous French binder, Jean Grolier (1479-1565), an early collector of Aldines. His ownership inscription appears on the last leaf.

Later, the book was owned by Pierre Séguier, a 17th-century French statesman whose personal library was surpassed in value only by the royal collection. His initials, “PS” are gilt-stamped in the spine panels of the binding.

Most recently, the Erasmus was part of the library of Herman and Aveve Cohen, owners of the Chiswick Bookshop in New York City.


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Hidden San Francisco History in UCLA stacks

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

While browsing the stacks at UCLA’s Young Research Library, looking for materials for a personal research project, I discovered an interesting title from 1862:

Gillespie, W. M. A manual of the principles and practice of road-making; comprising the location, construction, and improvement of roads (common, macadam, paved, plank, etc.) and rail-roads. New York: A.S. Barnes & Burr, 1862.

Okay, it’s not the most dynamic title, but I couldn’t help but notice the obviously older title sitting among its newer neighbors. And as a librarian, I have a natural bibliographic curiosity about older materials like this one. But when I opened to the title page, the inscription caught my attention immediately: “A. S. Hallidie.”

Title page with Hallidie signature

The name Hallidie normally wouldn’t have meant much, but as it happens I’ve come across that name numerous times while researching the history of San Francisco’s public parks and squares. In downtown San Francisco there’s a small public space called Hallidie Plaza where the Powell Street cable car line ends on the north side of Market Street. Sightseers line up in the plaza to watch the cable cars turn around on a turntable and to ride the iconic cars from Market Street to either North Beach or Fisherman’s Wharf. Appropriately, this plaza is named after Andrew Smith Hallidie, the mechanical engineer who built the city’s first cable car system in the late 19th century. I realized I was having one of those exciting moments of research synergy. Or perhaps it was simply serendipity!

I brought the book to the attention of one of our rare books catalogers, who not only recognized its potential historical value but quickly figured out that the second inscription on the title page says “San Francisco.” Hallidie. San Francisco. Okay, this was getting interesting and clearly required more bibliographic investigation!

ANDREW SMITH HALLIDIE

Andrew S. Hallidie

Hallidie, who was a trained mechanical engineer, emigrated from Britain to California in 1852 to work in the state’s gold country. He worked variously as a blacksmith, surveyor, bridge builder and inventor (Kahn, 2). While working at a mine along the American River in 1856, he produced the state’s first wire rope pulley system, replacing the traditional fabric rope system, which wore out quickly. Seeing a commercial opportunity, Hallide began manufacturing wire rope from a workshop in San Francisco, and during the 1850s and 1860s became well known for building wire suspension bridges over many of the rivers throughout gold country (Kahn, 3).

In the late 1860s, Hallidie began experimenting with a new “elevated traveling wire rope” capable of bending around a turn and straightening out without fracturing (Kahn, 6). He soon considered the possible commercial applications of this so-called “Hallidie Ropeway (Hallidie, 1),” particularly in the field of transportation. By the early 1870s, Hallide, along with several business associates, formed the Clay Street Railway Company and constructed the first underground cable railway along Clay Street. The cable ran from Portsmouth Square in today’s Chinatown up to the top of Nob Hill. In the early morning of August 1, 1873, Hallidie and his associates boarded a test car at the top of Nob Hill and slowly went down Clay Street to the end of the line at Kearny Street. At the bottom of the hill, they turned the car around and went back up marking the first successful test of cable traction technology in California (Kahn, 8).

Clay Street Hill Railroad, 1873
(Cable Car Museum)

There was an immediate rush on cable car franchises in the city. New lines soon opened on Sutter, California, Geary, and Union streets. The cable car succeeded in opening up San Francisco’s inaccessible hilltops, once considered “waste areas,” to urban development and real estate opportunities. The city’s wealthy population migrated away from neighborhoods in the South of Market area to the newly accessible hilltops in the Western Addition, Russian Hill, and Nob Hill where they built mansions, luxury apartments, and hotels (Kahn, Cable Car Days, 42).

In addition to his technological and commercial achievements, Hallidie was involved in the city’s civic life as a supporter of public libraries and public education. He served as President and Secretary of the Mechanics’ Institute, a private library to support the mechanical arts, as one of the original regents of the University of California, serving from 1868-1900, and as a member of the board of the San Francisco Public Library system when it opened in the late 1870s.

THE HISTORY OF A BOOK

Using the Online Archive of California, I eventually tracked down a collection containing a document signed by Hallidie. The James L. Warren Papers, 1846-1889, held at UC Berkeley, contains documents related to Warren’s activities as editor of the California Farmer, including an 1864 correspondence from the Mechanics’ Institute, penned and signed by “A. S. Hallidie, Secy, Lecture Committee.” I was able to obtain a copy of the original letter from our wonderful colleagues at the Bancroft and you can see that the signature from the letter appears to match the signature in our book.

Hallidie signature located in the James L. Warren Papers

The book’s backstory is I think one of the most fascinating things about this bibliographic investigation. It’s not a stretch to say the book was very likely part of Hallidie’s personal library. He was no doubt a book lover and the subject matter is certainly within his area of expertise. We can see from the preface page that the book was originally acquired by Berkeley in about 1935 and was probably transferred to UCLA as a duplicate copy. But where the book was between Hallidie’s death in 1900 and its acquisition in 1935 is unknown. The book contains no significant marginalia, only some circled page numbers and pencil markings highlighting certain paragraphs.

It’s also fascinating to think about when he owned the book. Was Hallidie using it before he developed the cable car as a sort of professional reference material? Perhaps we can imagine the “mechanical genius” consulting it in the early 1870s, struggling to figure out how to modify a road surface so he could install and operate a continuously running cable underground. I guess we’ll never know.

The book, which has been in UCLA’s collection since 1936, was removed from the circulating stacks and transferred to Library Special Collections where it was fully cataloged including more information on its provenance. The book now includes the copy of the signature which validates the Hallidie signature.

By Chris Salvano, Research Support Librarian, CRIS, Charles E. Young Research Library

Works cited:

“About the Mechanics’ Institute.” Mechanics’ Institute Library & Chess Room. Accessed June 26, 2012. http://www.milibrary.org/about.

Hallidie, Andrew S. The invention of the cable railway system. [San Francisco, 1885].

Hilton, George W. The cable car in America: a new treatise upon cable or rope traction as applied to the working of street and other railways. San Diego, Calif. : Howell-North Books, 1982.

Kahn, Edgar Myron. Andrew Smith Hallidie: originator of cable railway transportation. San Francisco: [s.n.], 1940.

Kahn, Edgar Myron. Cable car days in San Francisco. Stanford University, Calif. : Stanford University Press, [c1940].

“The Regents of the University of California.” University of California Regents.  Last modified June 21, 2012. Accessed June 26, 2012. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regentslistb.pdf.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors. San Francisco Municipal Reports. San Francisco: Board of Supervisors, 1878/1879.

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Library Special Collections at the Transit of Venus

Friday, June 8th, 2012

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Janss Steps on the campus of UCLA on Tuesday afternoon to see the Transit of Venus for the last time this century, and see some of the materials documenting a previous transit in 1769.

The display from Library Special Collections included rare books and the playing of Sousa’s “Transit of Venus March,” along with the transit itself, thing you don’t often see (or hear) at the Janss Steps.

For those of you who weren’t able to make it, here are some photographs from the event.

 

Library Special Collections display at the Transit of Venus viewing.

Transit of Venus viewing at Janss Steps, June 12th.

Above photographs courtesy, Tom Hyry, Director of UCLA Library Special Collections

Talking about the traveling exhibit

The start of the transit as seen through binoculars

Student using binoculars to project the sun

Students using a telescope to view the transit

Viewing the Transit of Venus at UCLA Janss Steps

Above photographs courtesy of Octavio Olvera, Visual Art Specialist, UCLA Library Special Collections

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In the News: The Transit of Venus … 1769 edition

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

 

UCLA astronomers invite the public to join them at the head of Janss Steps on Tuesday, June 5, from 3:06 pm until sunset, to safely use their filter-equipped telescopes to watch Venus cross the face of the Sun.

Library Special Collections will bring a rolling exhibit case to join part of the festivities (3:00-4:30pm) in order to show half a dozen reports from an earlier Transit of Venus … the renowned 1769 event for which scientific teams were sent worldwide to make observations.  We will have a paper from Lt. (later Captain) James Cook’s voyage on the Endeavour to the south Pacific Ocean, Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche’s posthumous report from Baja California, and James Ferguson’s 1769 astronomy textbook “for young gentlemen and ladies.”

For more about the history of the Transit of Venus, visit NASA’s website for the 2012 event.

Please be sure to read the advisory on the UCLA Planets website about viewing the Transit of Venus  phenomenon ONLY with proper protection!

Russell Johnson
History & Special Collections for the Sciences
UCLA Library Special Collections

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin(s)

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Two coincidental events set me to musing about the longstanding American awkwardness with a less glorious part of our history, still unresolved. The first is the contentious presidential campaign season which seems designed to open old wounds. The second was the 160th anniversary of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on March 20.

The universe moves in mysterious ways; so, too, the archive. Last month on a cataloguing assignment, I was searching the backlog for the works of an obscure 19th century British novelist when I retrieved what I thought was one of her interminable historical novels. I peeled back the protective dust jacket and discovered instead a lavishly illustrated British edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a book I have never read, except in excerpted form, compelled by well-meaning language arts teachers. We’ve become a nation adept at moral contortion and collective amnesia, haunted by haints past. And present.

British edition cover

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was originally published and distributed as a serial circa June 1851. Less than a year later the novel was a publishing sensation. It was second only to the Bible as the ethical needle that Abolitionists used to prick the conscience of a nation. The first edition, first issue was published by Jewett & Proctor of Boston with especially commissioned illustrations. So great was the demand for the book that several editions were issued that same year domestically and abroad; the Library has six iterations from 1852 alone. However, these editions are not uniform.

American edition title page

Differences between the American and British editions bear closer examination especially in the area of thematic emphasis. The variations of the subtitle are telling. The British title page reads as an indictment: “Negro Life in the Slave States of America.” The American version, in comparison, has all the bite of a languid Sunday stroll in the countryside: “Life Among the Lowly.”

Illustrated editions had as few as four up to as many as 40 etchings or woodcuts. What aspects of slavery were depicted and how they were represented seems to have been driven less by the text and more by the respective cultural proclivities. For example, the contrast between the cover art of the American and British editions is stark. American squeamishness at the brutality of slavery precludes realism. Better to show the carefree, contented “exotic race” (quoted from the preface) in their simple habitat.  Tellingly, Tom is absent. Instead, the American edition’s picturesque rusticism paints a cheery gloss on abject squalor though, to borrow from Faulkner, it is “not fittin’ for hogs.” From my perspective the British illustration, with its frank depiction of the violence of slavery, especially the accompanying outraged caption, emerges as much more sympathetic and effective in persuading readers the Abolitionists’ cause.

By Lauren Buisson, Technical Services Division

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For Downton Abbey Fans

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

As devotees of Downton Abbey know, the upstairs and downstairs worlds of Lord Grantham’s estate have not been spared the horrors of World War I: the grand house has been pressed into service as a triage hospital for grievously injured officers.  The Great War impacted all strata of British society and the country moved to aid in the rehabilitation of a devastating number of maimed young men.  One of the more unusual fundraising items during the war, and its immediate aftermath, was the commemorative gift book. Gift books, or annuals, were originally aimed at adolescents who enjoyed reading.  Often lavishly illustrated, these anthologies featured original work by writers and poets and were must-haves for diehard fans; these special publications were ideal Christmas presents. However, even this niche area of publishing was repurposed for the war effort.

Among the many rare treasures of our Galsworthy book collection (Collection 1596) are fine examples of philanthropic literary keepsakes produced for adult and juvenile audiences. The gift books within this collection are all tomes to which Galsworthy, and other prominent authors, contributed an original work no doubt stoking greater public interest. The proceeds from three of the gift books pictured here were conceived to assist with the care and rehabilitation of Britain’s scores of wounded veterans. Especially poignant are the photographs in The Blinded Sailors and Soldiers Gift Book of patients in vocational training even as they adapt to their post-war physical challenges. Galsworthy also lent his name and pen to a fourth volume sponsored by the English Committee on behalf of the Belgian Princess Marie-José’s children’s charity for the nurture and care of Flemish youngsters. Written in English, this particular keepsake contains “sixteen color plates and a profusion of black and white illustrations,” was calculated to enthrall and delight the young who, like the Crawley clan, were not immune to the vagaries of the 20th Century’s first great tragedy.

John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was an astonishingly prolific, pre-eminent English author and dramatist of the early 20th century. He is perhaps best known for The Forsyte Saga, his multi-part chronicle of Edwardian upper-class social mores, a theme that will resonate with Downton Abbey aficionados. In addition to crafting bestsellers (and a potentially endless source for future Masterpiece Classics?) the industrious Galsworthy was a socially active citizen-artist who leveraged his name and passion on behalf of humanitarian causes. His novels, and especially his plays, explore class bias, women’s rights, the plight of workers, and the struggle for democracy. Much like his American contemporary Theodore Dreiser, Galsworthy was tireless in his devotion to social justice. He donated his 1932 Nobel award money to Pen International, an institution that he helped found.

By Lauren Buisson, Technical Services Division

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Dickens’ 200th birthday gives UCLA Library chance to reencounter author

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Before Scrooge, the Artful Dodger and Miss Havisham became imprinted on our collective memories with their delightful quirks and singular charm, the imagination that conceived of these and countless other unforgettable characters was born.

Now through March 29, 2012 in the Lobby Gallery of the Young Research Library visitors can explore his works and celebrate his live in the exhibit “’. . .the Sum of a Life’: Charles Dickens at 200.”

The display covers three aspects of Dickens — his life, the serialization of his novels and his American tours. The items in the exhibit come primarily from UCLA Library Special Collections, as well as other UCLA Library and University of California holdings. The exhibit was organized by Jonathan H. Grossman, UCLA Department of English and Dawn Setzer, UCLA Library Communications.

In addition to the exhibit, on February 7th, Dickens’ birthday, Grossman will deliver a talk at noon “’A Tale of Two Cities’ and the Passengers of History.” Then at 1:30 p.m., there will be an exhibit viewing with the organizers in the research library, followed by a dessert reception. Then at 3 p.m. in Humanities 193, a free screening of David Lean’s acclaimed film, “Great Expectations,” will take place, hosted by the Department of English.

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LSC Receives Gift of Bebe & Louis Barron’s Copy of House of Incest, Inscribed by Anaïs Nin

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

UCLA Library Special Collections is pleased to announce the recent gift by Adam Barron of a unique copy of Anaïs Nin’s House of Incest, Number Four in a limited edition of 50 copies, published in New York in 1947 by Gemor Press, and signed and numbered by the author. The text is illustrated with original engraved prints signed by the artist Ian Hugo, pseudonym of Nin’s husband, Hugh Guiler.

But what makes this copy so exciting is the inscription by Anaïs Nin, dated September 19, 1953, addressed to Adam’s parents, Bebe and Louis Barron.  The Barrons, pioneers in the field of electronic music who wrote the first electronic music for magnetic tape, and created the first electronic film score for the movie Forbidden Planet, first met Anaïs Nin in 1947 in San Francisco, when they attended her reading of House of Incest, and asked if they could record the session with a tape recorder they had received as a wedding gift.  It was the beginning of a long friendship between the two couples, which endured over the years they lived in New York and, later, Los Angeles.

Adam’s generous gift, made in honor of his parents, complements LSC’s extensive Anaïs Nin holdings, which include another copy of House of Incest, copy Number Eight of the 1947 Gemor edition; almost 100 of Nin’s holograph diaries to 1965—including her first diary begun in 1915 at the age of 12; manuscripts of some of her short stories and erotica; correspondence; and taped interviews, speeches, and appearances by Nin in underground films.

By Jane Carpenter and Lilace Hatayama, Collections Management

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