All posts by Rebekah Irwin

About Rebekah Irwin

Director of Collections & Archives at the Middlebury College Libraries.

Henry David Thoreau died today, May 6 (1862)

LIS Staff Interest, Post for MiddNotes, Special Collections

How will you observe the life and death of Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862), the American writer and naturalist?

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Thoreau, August 1861 © Wikimedia Common

By taking a quiet walk?

By turning off your cell phone? Your computer?

By having a deep conversation with a friend, colleague, or family member?

By getting out a sheet of paper and writing a letter? (Yes! By hand.)

By randomly squeezing a Thoreau quote into a conversation today?

Or, by visiting Special Collections in the Davis Library 101 to visit our display of Thoreau artifacts: his inkwell, bricks and timbers from his cabin at Walden Pond, books from his cabin library, and more.

 

 

Physics and Special Collections featured in the Boston Globe

For Faculty, For Staff

What do experimental physics and Middlebury Special Collections have in common?

The Boston Globe featured the work of experimental physicist Carl Haber, the Northeast Document Conservation Center, and Middlebury College Special Collections as well as Harvard University and the Woody Guthrie Archives in a recent article, “Technology saves echoes of past from silence.” Our newly scanned sound files will start arriving this summer, Stay tuned!

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“2-D printing, meet 3-D printing.”

For Faculty, For Staff

The Korean American novelist Chang-rae Lee’s newest novel, On Such a Full Sea appeared in January with a technological twist: Lee collaborated with the 3-D printing company MakerBot to create a first-of-its-kind, limited edition 3-D printed cover, made on a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer.

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© Riverhead books

On Such a Full Sea

Middlebury College Special Collections & Archives, copy number 465

“With so much writing migrating to digital media, it’s exciting for readers who prefer physical books to have a connection to a leading-edge technology while still enjoying the pleasures of the printed page.” – MakerBot

 

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Chang-rae Lee using a MakerBot Replicator 2 Photo © MakerBot

Middlebury’s limited edition copy, number 465 of 500 copies, will be on display in Special Collections and Archives in the Davis Library this spring.