home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Hands-on History in Special Collections

Hands-on History in Special Collections

If you teach at MU, Stephens College, Columbia College, or any of the surrounding schools, we'd like to invite you to explore Special Collections with your students this semester. As part of a class session in Special Collections, your students will have hands-on access to the most inspiring and intriguing materials the Libraries have to offer. And we librarians can make it easy for you by contributing presentations, helping to orient students to primary source research, creating customized course guides, and consulting with you on ideas for assignments or projects.

To help you get started, take a look at our Resources for Instructors Guide and browse our Teaching Spotlight for innovative ideas from your colleagues.  Ready to jump in?  Contact us for assignment or activity ideas, or go ahead and schedule a class session through our online form.

home Budget, Special Collections and Archives, Support the Libraries Donate to the Special Collections Wish List

Donate to the Special Collections Wish List

In Special Collections, we provide the opportunity to touch history, creating amazing learning experiences for over 1,500 students whose classes visit our reading room each year.  Special Collections is a fantastic resource for teaching at MU!  But don't take our word for it – listen to what the professors have to say:
 

"Students who go on this field trip always do better in the class as a whole than those who miss the field trip. This is the fourth time I've done this and it's very clear that this experience has a significant impact on student engagement and investment."

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"In both classes, students were substantially more enthusiastic about the material, and had a much clearer understanding of where our texts come from and why they are in the sometimes problematic state in which we possess them."

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"Students were very enthusiastic. 'This was the coolest thing ever!' 'I can't believe they let us touch this stuff!' 'This made the books come to life!'"


The Special Collections librarians have created a wish list of books we would have loved to have on hand for these enthusiastic students and faculty, but weren't able to purchase due to budget cuts.  Browse the full list of titles and donate to support teaching and learning at Mizzou.

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

New Digital Exhibition: Winds of Change

Climate is weather with history, and to truly explore what climate change means for the future, we must understand the weather patterns of the past. Winds of Change: Weather and Climate from Antiquity to Present is an exhibition in support of Confronting Climate Change, the 12th annual Life Sciences and Society Symposium here on the Mizzou campus. It was originally exhibited in the Ellis Library Colonnade in March 2016, and a digital version is now available online. This exhibition investigates the relationship between weather and time by questioning past perceptions, examining measurement and prediction practices, and surveying sources of historical data.

View the exhibition

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Cycle of Success, Government Information, Special Collections and Archives Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse with Special Collections and Government Documents

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse with Special Collections and Government Documents

Emilee Howland-Davis’ English 1000 classes spent this semester reading the post-apocalyptic novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which is presented as a series of first-hand accounts of the social and political implications of the zombie outbreak.  To provide a real-world perspective to this work of science fiction, they also studied materials related to disaster and survival in Government Documents and Special Collections. Materials the students considered included:

The students presented historical and rhetorical analyses of the materials in Ellis Library. Kudos to them for their hard work, and hats off to their innovative instructor for making such great use of library resources!

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Meet the Special Collections Intern: Kayla

Meet the Special Collections Intern: Kayla

This semester we have two new interns working on metadata, provenance, and digital projects with us in Special Collections. Last week we introduced Olivia; this week, say hello to Kayla.

Hello!

My Name is Kayla Thompson and I am one of the new interns in the Special Collections department at Ellis Library. I am senior studying English Creative writing with a varied collection of minors. Here are some fun facts about myself:

  1. My dream is to work in either a library or museum working with old books, manuscripts, and artifacts. For this reason, I am applying to graduate school for the fall for Library and Information Sciences.
  2. I love reading. Books are my favorite things in the whole world. At the moment I own somewhere around 500 of them, so old or new you can find just about any genre on my shelf, though, I prefer fiction. Currently I am in the middle of about five books including Homer’s Iliad, Cassandra Clare’s Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, and Skye Alexander’s The Modern Witchcraft Spell Book: Your Complete Guide to Crafting and Casting Spells.
  3. I am writing a novella about a young witch with no powers. Not quite sure where it’s going yet (if it’s going). I have wanted to write a book since I was 12, but have yet to produce something that I feel is worth putting out into the world. It’s mostly just a hobby at the moment.
  4. This summer I am going on a trip to study abroad in Greece. It has been a dream of mine since I was little. It will also be the last six credits I need to finish my Classical Studies minor.
  5. I own one fat and fluffy cat named Tora.
  6. And I probably drink way more coffee than could possibly ever be good for me.

So, that’s who I am. I can’t wait to get to know more about everyone I work with. I am already having fun and can’t wait to see where this semester in Special Collections takes me.

Be sure to tune into our Tumblr to see posts by Olivia and Kayla this semester.

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Meet the Special Collections Intern: Olivia

Meet the Special Collections Intern: Olivia

This semester we have two new interns working on metadata, provenance, and digital projects with us in Special Collections. First up for introductions is Olivia:

Hey! Hi! Hello, my fellow bibliophiles! I’m very excited to introduce myself to you as the new social media intern for Ellis Library’s Special Collections and Rare Books Department. My name is Olivia Mikus and I am a senior here at MU, double majoring in French and English Literature. I hope to become a French educator in the high school, and eventually college, setting. 

Here are some more interesting (at least I hope) tidbits about myself:

  • I am obsessed with all things French, so look forward to (or feel free to skim over) a few interesting French finds, should I stumble upon any, during my semester cataloging for Special Collections.
  • I have two pets, both named after a character or an actor from my most favorite television programs: My cat, Jess, named after a character from Gilmore Girls and my pittie, Topher, named after Topher Grace (Eric Foreman) from That 70s Show.
  • *queue Harry Potter theme* All things Harry Potter, all the time. Need I say more? Oh yeah, #ravenclaw4life
  • My favorite book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I read this for the first time in my 12th grade English Comp. course and have read it 3 more times since. That is where my love of classic English literature began and I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to channel that love into a major and, of course, this internship. (Here in special collections, we have an original hand-written manuscript of Charlotte’s and her sisters’ early childhood works. #geekingout)
  • If I could narrow my music interests down to a few groups they would include: The 1975 (Haven't heard of them? You should fix that…go on, I’ll wait), The Beatles, Blink-182 (Fun fact: Blink-182 and I were born the same year, 1992!) and Alanis Morissette, with whom I connect on a spiritual level. #90skid
  • I’m a definite foodie. I love to cook (though I’m no Julia Child) but even more so, I love to eat. Favorite foods? The edible kind, I don’t discriminate. I’m currently teaching myself to cook and I hope to someday start my own foodie blog about myself and my (sometimes disastrous, though always entertaining) cooking escapades. It’ll happen…one day.
  • Wanderlust: I have an unquenchable thirst to see every inch of this beautiful sphere we call Earth before I have to part with it.
  • Lastly, my most favorite movie is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Love, loss, brain damage, a sprinkle of science-fiction, Jim Carrey, and Kate Winslet with mood-changing hair…Seriously, what more could you ask for?

Thanks for tuning in to A Bit About Me with Olivia Mikus. I’m super looking forward to sharing with you all the interesting texts I find while working in Special Collections. I hope you will find them as interesting as I do!

Watch for Kayla's intro post next week, and tune into our Tumblr to see posts by Olivia and Kayla this semester.

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

Color Our Collections 2017

Color Our Collections is back! We’re going to be releasing coloring sheets as the week progresses this year, so make sure to come back and check this page regularly.  Our first set of coloring pages is adapted from Hesperides, sive, De malorvm avreorvm cvltvra et vsv libri quatuor by Giovanni Battista Ferrari, published in 1646.  This book is all about growing citrus fruits, and we thought the weird and wonderful illustrations of lemons, oranges, and fruits we can’t quite identify would brighten up your winter day.

We’ll have some art nouveau/Jugendstil offerings, medieval costumes, and more for you throughout this week, including some bookmarks to cut out and color. If you’re in Columbia, be sure to stop by the coloring table on the first floor of Ellis Library to pick up coloring pages and show off your work.

Thurnier Buch Coloring Book


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jugendstil Bookmarks Coloring Book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hesperides Coloring Book 

 

 

 

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Events and Exhibits, Special Collections and Archives Special Collections exhibition travels to Kansas City

Special Collections exhibition travels to Kansas City

An exhibition from Special Collections was recently featured at the Mid-America Arts Alliance in Kansas City as part of First Fridays at the Crossroads Art District.  The photos show selections from the traveling exhibition Beyond Words: Visual Narratives from the Block Book to the Graphic Novel, which looks at the ways artists have used words and pictures to tell stories over a span of 500 years. Our exhibition partner, Exhibits USA, did a wonderful job of installing the exhibition in their gallery space! 

The exhibition will be on tour throughout the United States through 2019, sharing the richness of Special Collections with libraries and museums across the country.  For more information about booking the exhibit in your area, see the Exhibits USA bookings page.

Photos provided by Mid-America Arts Alliance. Used with permission.

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Events and Exhibits, Special Collections and Archives Color Our Collections – Homecoming Edition

Color Our Collections – Homecoming Edition

This week is homecoming at Mizzou, and to celebrate, we’re releasing another coloring book based on images from Special Collections. Unlike our last offering, this one is entirely focused on Mizzou and includes drawings, cartoons, and images from the Savitar, the yearbook of the University of Missouri, published from 1894 to 2004. There are also a few covers and illustrations from student magazines such as the Showme and Outlaw as well.  All of the materials in this coloring book are freely available in the University of Missouri Digital Library, so you can browse and turn the pages of Mizzou history for yourself.

Download the coloring book here, or stop by Ellis Library for the Homecoming Open House after the parade for a coloring table and more goodies.

Mizzou Coloring Book

 

Share your work with us online through Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and be sure to use the official homecoming tag, #MIZ106HC.

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives The Lucubrator and the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia

The Lucubrator and the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia

This post is the eighth and final part of our continuing series on Dr. Juliette Paul's English 4300 class and their research on an early American manuscript in Special Collections.

By an Anonymous English Major, Recently Graduated

While researching the origins of a mysterious manuscript that was donated to Ellis Library many years ago, our Early American Literature class learned not only about who might have written the book, when, and why, we also learned a great deal about what life was like in the time period in which it was written. The Lucubrator is a commonplace book, written in late eighteenth-century America. It includes many essays, one of which, “On Female Education,” helps to reveal how eighteenth-century readers felt about the roles of women in society.

The author of the essay begins by recalling the recent opening of a local school for women: “The admittance of females into the Academy in the United States, is an eminent instance, of their refined cultivation and advancement in literature.” The academy to which the author refers is likely the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia. The opening of this particular academy would have been deeply significant to many Americans, as it was, according to Marion B. Savin and Harold J. Abrahams, “the first chartered institution for the higher education of young women in the United States and perhaps in the world” (59). The Academy was established on June 4, 1782, by John Poor, and, five years later, on January 9, 1792, it was granted a charter by the laws of Pennsylvania. By that time, one hundred women were in attendance. They studied the expected subjects, such as reading, writing, math, and history. They also studied singing, piano, and astronomy.

It was considered a prestigious accomplishment to graduate from the Academy, though often completion meant women might be better wives and mothers, rather than opening doors for careers. In James A. Neal’s An Essay on the Education and Genius of the Female Sex (1795), he writes, “When admitted to an equal participation of the illuminating beams of science, we observe women rising to the most conspicuous and enviable state of eminence” (2). Neal published his Essay on Education with his account of the Academy’s commencement activities held on December 18, 1794. Neal’s praise for the Academy shows his faith in women’s intellectual capabilities, but his was not the prevailing opinion of the time. Indeed, when Benjamin Rush delivered an address to the Academy on July 28, 1787, he made glowing remarks on female learning, but only because he believed that receiving a liberal education would make a girl “an agreeable companion to a sensible man” (79).

Domestic life was quite important in the eighteenth century and women often played an important role in making domestic life run properly. The essay “On Female Education” seems to convey this idea. Its author writes of women: “If they are never to fill a public seat or harangue in public, will they never have an occasion to read in a company of friends, or, to teach what they have leart [sic] to their families and children?” While researching this essay in the The Lucubrator, we learned that when it was written, America was beginning to come around to the idea that women deserve an education in order to become happier, more productive people.

People, most often, will be as great as they are allowed to be. When we continue to treat women as inferior, less intelligent people, it makes it hard for them to prove otherwise. Many are not given the chance to better themselves, and when they are, their accomplishments are overlooked by people who only seem to pay attention to what they want to see. While there is still a long way to go before people who are not white men are treated with equal amounts of respect, education continues to be the best route to achieving this.


Works Cited

Rush, Benjamin. Essays, Literary, Moral & Philosophical (Philadelphia, 1798).

Savin, Marion B. and Harold J. Abrahams. “The Young Ladies’ Academy of Philadelphia.” History of Education Journal. Vol. 8. No. 2 (Winter, 1957): 68-67.