Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection (HHFBC), one of the important holdings in Middlebury College’s Special Collections, is one of the nation’s great archival collections of New England folksong, folklore, and balladry….Continue Reading Historic Folk Music Archive Gets 21st Century Update
Publius Ovidius Naso, fondly known as Ovid, died in exile about 2,000 years ago. Since, his most influential work, the Metamorphoses, has served as a source and inspiration to authors and artists from Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton to Dante, Boccaccio, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In recognition of Ovid’s 2,000 year legacy, a lecture and reading will be…Continue Reading Celebrating Ovid in the Library March 5th
Fun and games in the library! The spring exhibit by Special Collections, Game Changers, focuses on vintage entertainments from the 19th- and 20th-centuries, exploring their historical significance as cultural artifacts and technologies of yore. From innovations in printing and manufacturing to technological advancements in media and the changing landscape of popular culture, these relics of entertainment offer historical…Continue Reading “Game Changers” on display this Spring
Vinyl records are so 2010. Special Collections bookmaking gurus are back to celebrate the millennium renaissance of audio cassette tapes, those small, plastic, blasts from the past. We’ll provide vintage cassette tapes and you will go home with a hand-sewn, blank notebook with covers fashioned out of “upcycled” audio tapes. Low fidelity, high reward. All…Continue Reading DIY Bookmaking is back this J-Term!
The Spanish Summer Language School celebration its 100th anniversary this summer, and the library joined in the celebration with a colorful display….Continue Reading Spanish Centennial Exhibit
Last summer, Special Collections & Archives rolled out new swag: black tote bags (er, book bags) and stickers emblazoned with the slogan My books smell good. First, we want to thank Carey Bass, Middlebury’s talented graphic designer, for the bold serif font and brash ending punctuation. But… “What does it mean?” (people have asked, with a skeptical…Continue Reading What’s Up With “My Books Smell Good.”
Special Collections visitors often ask how the rare books in our collection make their way onto our shelves, and indeed, the question of provenance is one of great importance in the world of antiquarian items. For the materials in Special Collections & Archives, the trajectories of their journeys range from rare books and maps donated…Continue Reading Hostage Negotiations with Homeland Security, or, Rare Book Buying, Italian Style
Middlebury Libraries’ Special Collections & Archives has recently acquired some 19th-century European peep shows! Peep shows burst onto the European scene in 1825 with Austrian printer Heinrich Friedrich Müller’s first “Teleorama.” These tunnel viewers, constructed from folded paper, became immensely popular in Germany, Austria, France, and England. Special Collections is now the proud custodians of…Continue Reading Peep shows at Middlebury
2016 marks the centennial celebration of Mead Chapel, dedicated on June 18th, 1916. In 1914, former governor Dr. John Mead, class of 1864, fulfilled President Thomas’s desire for a space large enough to accommodate the entire student body and faculty, pledging $60,000 to construct Mead Chapel in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation from Middlebury….Continue Reading Mead Chapel turns 100
When Tillinghast Professor of Religion Shalom Goldman heard mention of a mysterious room that used to exist in Starr Library, he knew to turn to Special Collections….Continue Reading Historic Saudi Arabian Room Revived