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Charles and Caroline Ingalls (Pa and Ma)
Image taken from Let the Hurricane Roar by Rose Wilder Lane
New York and Toronto 1933
Written by their grandaughter, Rose Wilder Lane, Let the Hurricane Roar tells the story of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The novel recounts events in the lives of the young newlywed couple making their way West, detailing the challenges and adventures encountered along the way.
Oh my!
Throughout October the Fantastic Beasts series will be taking a turn for the creepy as each week in October we feature spooky creatures and things that go bump in the night. For the first week we'll start with some of the tamer creepy-crawlies that lots of us see on a daily basis: bats, rats, and spiders. Each of these are commonly featured in tales of terror, and are associated with death, disease, or mystery, among other things. They can also serve as familiars to witches and sorcerors, which is where they picked up a lot of their negative associations. Truth is, many of these fears are largely unfounded, as bats, rats, and spiders are important parts of any ecosystem and for the most part are either scared of or not a threat to humans. Giant versions of any of these (such as those pictured below) are, of course, another matter entirely.
Dick, Jane, Sally and Spot: icons in 20th century American education.
The New We Work and Play by William S. Gray, A. Sterl Artley, and May Hill Arbuthnot. Published 1951.
The Dick and Jane Reader Series was an extremely popular Reader collection used in American classrooms from the 1930's-1970's. Peaking in popularity in the 1950's, it is estimated that almost 80% of Readers used in 1st grade classrooms were from the Dick and Jane series. These Readers focused on whole language and repetition to teach children how to read. University of Missouri-Columbia professor, Dr. A. Sterl Artley, played an important part in the production and study of these books. Dr. Artley won the Thomas Jefferson Award and was a Reading Hall of Fame winner for his work on the series.
Try out MU Libraries' latest trial database CRCnetBASE. This database includes searchable access to more than 12,000 eBook titles, covering scientific, technical, business, engineering, medical, and veterinary medical references. Trial ends Oct. 23, 2014. Be sure to leave feedback to let us know what you think about this resource.
The mighty griffin, with the head, wings, and talons of an eagle and the body of a lion, is said to represent power and majesty as the ruler of all creatures. Which makes sense since the eagle is commonly cited as the king of birds and the lion as the king of beasts. The griffin is quite common in tales and mythology throughout the ages, and is one of the more well-known fantastic beasts, like unicorns or dragons.
Griffins are incredibly strong, and are often used in heraldry and crests. Griffins were also said to be extremely wise, and, like dragons, had a tendency to seek out and hoard gold. Adrienne Mayor suggests that the origin of the griffin myth comes from fossil findings of the pentaceratops (a dinosaur with a beaked face and four-legged body), whose bones would have looked much like a griffin's were supposed to, near known gold veins.
Lewis Carroll even includes a gryphon (pictured below) in his stories as a demanding guide to take Alice to the Mock Turtle.
To find the king of the beasts for yourself, all you need to do is pay a visit to us here at Special Collections – no digging in the mountains necessary!
The cooler, drier weather, though not unwelcome,
always gave Marge fly aways.
Micrographia restaurata, London 1745
Rare Folio QH271 .H8
Original image taken from Album Lokner : artes y letras 1898, Madrid.
"And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!"
With an imagination as great as Lewis Carroll's was, it's no wonder he was able to create such a range of creatures to inhabit the appropriately named Wonderland. In addition to the Jabberwock above, Wonderland is home to a host of bizzare beings. Most famously, perhaps, is the Cheshire Cat, who appears and disappears to give Alice some cryptic advice from time to time.
Other denizens of Wonderland are the toves, mome raths, and borogroves; talking flowers, a mock turtle, and even a caterpillar that smokes a hookah while dispensing even more crytpic advice to poor Alice.
More fabulous beasts from the mind of Lewis Carroll can be found by visiting us at Special Collections! (Perhaps you might stop by on a hunt for the elusive Snark?)
This limited edition was signed by Theodore Roosevelt!
Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter by Theodore Roosevelt
Published 1905, New York
Journalists are dependent upon access to back files for research and context, but those back files may no longer be there. Almost all news content created in the U.S. today is digital, but digital content is even more fragile than print.
Read more at the Reynolds Journalism Institute blog: Digital preservation: Why is this important to me?