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home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Books with Personality-The Final Sneak Peek!

Books with Personality-The Final Sneak Peek!

By Super Admin   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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Inventory of the General Library-Jesse Hall-University of Missouri, 1897

Before online catalogs and barcodes, librarians had to manage library collections and inventory by hand.  This 1897 inventory of the General University of Missouri Library contains records of the books, magazines, and journals that belonged to the University.  And, as many would suspect, librarians in the 19th century were just as detail oriented as those in the 21st century.  The inventory even includes the contents of the “Dark Room” which, among many other things, contained one hatchet, a spittoon, and 40 old Savitars.

This volume also holds a letter written by Walter K. Stone, the University Librarian, which was tucked inside the text block.  This letter, written in 1899 to the Executive Board of Curators, notes some library issues and the need for a “competent person” to be employed to help manage the collection.

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home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Special Collections at the Movies: Hercules

Special Collections at the Movies: Hercules

By Super Admin   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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This week's post is by Shelby Wolfe, a Special Collections undergraduate assistant.

While Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might not be the first person who comes to mind when pondering the classical humanities, his portrayal of Hercules in the most recent film version about the mythological demi-god might spark your desire to delve far back into classical mythology. If so, check out these Hercules-related materials at Special Collections.

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Hercules has entertained generations of adventure-loving readers and listeners for centuries. From pottery and poetry to compendium and comic book, illustrated depictions of the mythological hero are typically easy to identify – a large, muscular man often wielding a bulky club and donning a characteristic lionskin.

This plate in Andrew Tooke’s 1806 edition of The Pantheon details the hero’s attributes. Covered in a lionskin, the main image features Hercules resting his club on the ground. Two roundels above provide a closer inspection of the club and lionskin.

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Likewise, this illustration from Tooke’s 1844 Pantheon shows Hercules outfitted with his attributes. In addition, two roundel inserts depict Hercules in the midst of his Twelve Labors – slaying the Nemean Lion (the source of his lionskin attire) on the far left and his battle with the Lernaean Hydra on the far right.

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For a more modern depiction of the famed hero, take a closer look at this comic book from 1984. Hercules: Prince of Power features a monstrously muscular title character intent on saving the Marvel universe from rebel military forces in the year 2385.

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Whether it’s the 8th century BCE or 2385 CE, Hercules is sure to be flexing his muscles somewhere. 

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Books with Personality-Sneak Peek 5

Books with Personality-Sneak Peek 5

By Super Admin   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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Homer Croy

Our Will Rogers, c. 1953

Homer Croy, the author of “Our Will Rogers”, was an MU student from 1903-1907, where he was heavily involved in the publication of the school yearbook, the Savitar. Although Croy did not graduate from the University, he achieved great success as a playwright and novelist. In 1956, Elmer Ellis, the University of Missouri President, bestowed Croy with an honorary degree. Elmer Ellis donated this copy of “Our Will Rogers” to the University library. This volume gives us a wonderful peek into the friendship between Croy and Ellis. Throughout the book there are many notes and clippings from Croy to Ellis, which seem to be a gathering of inside jokes and friendly jabs. One can imagine what witty response Croy received in return.

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home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Amazing Engraved Plates of a Huge Party in Strasbourg, 1744

Amazing Engraved Plates of a Huge Party in Strasbourg, 1744

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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Louis XV may not have been the most popular king, but when he fell ill and was near death in 1744, his subjects across France prayed dutifully for his recovery.  In October 1744, once he was well enough, the king visited Strasbourg, and the town threw what looks to have been a huge party to celebrate his visit and convalescence. There were processions through the streets, races, dances, and even fireworks.  These events were all faithfully chronicled by J. M. Weis, "graveur de la ville de Strasbourg," and produced in the nearly monumental format of a large folio with two-page spreads. This is a fete book – a royal souvenir for a royal celebration.

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The MU Libraries copy is still in the original binding, and if you follow our Adopt a Book program, you may recognize it.  William Heyde III recently donated funds to support conservation work, and Jim Downey at Legacy Bookbindery made the repairs the volume needed.  Once the book was in stable condition, we were able to send it to the MU Libraries Digital Services unit. So, thanks to a generous donor, a conservator, a couple of rare book librarians, and several digital imaging and metadata experts, this book is now available to the world.  We think that in itself is cause for celebration!  

Get a closer look at the plates or page through the text in the University of Missouri Digital Library.  Be sure to use the zoom feature to take in the details – the variety of tiny figures that populate these prints is really amazing.

Weis, Johann Martin, d. ca. 1795. Représentation des fêtes données par la ville de Strasbourg pour la convalescence du Roi; à l'arrivée et pendant le séjour de Sa Majesté en cette ville. Inventé, dessiné et dirigé par J. M. Weiss, graveur de la ville de Strasbourg. Paris: imprimë par Laurent Aubert [1745]. MERLIN catalog record

home Resources and Services Saving the news: When your server crashes, you could lose decades of digital news content – forever

Saving the news: When your server crashes, you could lose decades of digital news content – forever

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In 2002, the Columbia Missourian suffered a server crash. Their backups were hold in an obsolete version of a CMS.

Read more at the Reynolds Journalism Institute blog: Saving the news: When your server crashes, you could lose decades of digital news content – forever

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Book with Personality-Sneak Peek 4

Book with Personality-Sneak Peek 4

By Super Admin   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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Victoria, Queen of Great Britain

Leaves from the journal of our life in the Highlands, from 1848 to 1861…

This published journal contains excerpts from the personal accounts of Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century. Perhaps one of the most interesting details about this particular volume is the signature on flyleaf. It reads, “To Robert Downie from Victoria Queen. Sandringham Jan. 2 1872”. Scottish-born Robert Downie was a “footman” or “equerry” to Victoria’s son, Prince of Wales. Downie’s duty was to support the Prince in official duties and private life and may have also been responsible for the Royal horses. Downie, 47 years old at the time, must also have held a high rank in the military as it was a requirement of employment.

In the signature, Queen Victoria notes, Sandringham, a privately owned Royal residence located in Norfolk, England. The property was purchased in 1862, however, the Queen made her first visit to Sandringham in 1871, only a year before the book was signed.

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home Resources and Services The MU Libraries Receive Funding from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Recovery of Materials Damaged by Mold

The MU Libraries Receive Funding from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Recovery of Materials Damaged by Mold

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Resources and Services
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COLUMBIA, Mo.− The University of Missouri (MU) Libraries have received $400,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support remediation or content replacement of materials damaged by an extensive mold outbreak in an off-site storage facility. This outbreak, discovered in October 2013, is presumed to have contaminated all of the approximately 600,000 volumes housed in that facility.

Partnerships with Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and Missouri State University (MSU) will provide access to replacement copies of federal government documents and inter-library loan access to Missouri state materials, respectively. Subcontracts with these universities through this project will support the cataloguing, retrieving and preparing of relevant materials to share with MU Libraries on an as-needed basis. The funding also will help MU review the availability of online or print-ready copies of needed replacements through cooperation with membership organizations. WUSTL will benefit by regaining space vacated by federal documents transferred to MU, while MSU will benefit by having its Missouri state materials catalogued in order to provide access to MU and other area libraries.

“The MU Libraries are deeply grateful to the Mellon Foundation for their support of this project that leverages tools of digital librarianship to help preserve scholarship in traditional formats,” said MU Libraries Director Jim Cogswell. “Institutional partnerships will enable the preservation of regional documents collections. The Mellon Foundation funding will allow MU Libraries to remediate mold for key groups of materials, work effectively with partner institutions for resource sharing, provide continued access to needed content of the damaged materials, and support part of the recovery effort.”

MU Libraries also will spend up to $600,000 from a self-insurance fund; additional sources are being explored. MU Libraries has contracted with a company for remediation services and negotiated for rental of two storage spaces, one in which pre-treated materials will be stored until they are cleaned, and one for storage of the remediated materials. As a longer-term solution, the Libraries are working with University of Missouri (UM) System's risk and insurance management department to develop a new strategy for fully insuring all collections, including those in storage, and will work with campus and UM System leadership to restore a plan for building an expansion to an existing storage facility and to accelerate fund allocation for its construction.

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Books with Personality-Sneak Peek 3

Books with Personality-Sneak Peek 3

By Super Admin   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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Girolamo Mercuriale

De arte gymnastica…, 1577

This title loosely translates to “Of Jerome Mercvrialis the Art of gymnastics of book six: in which exercises of all kinds of ancient, places, modes, faculties. In short, whatever pertains to the exercises of the human body, carefully explained.”

Six books on the art of gymnastics is the oldest known book on physical culture and sports medicine. This particular book has survived 437 years and has a story to tell. Throughout the book there are many bookworm trails, brown foxing, tears, and a broken spine. By the looks of it, the life of the book seems to have been pretty rough, but useful. There are notes and underlining by a reader, possibly used as a study tool, but what is most interesting are the images. Classically inspired plates show images of men wrestling, fighting, bathing and exercising throughout the volume. It appears someone with access to the book took ink to paper, covering many of the male figures’ pelvic areas. We can only speculate why this was done. Could it be someone felt the images were not modest enough and were compelled to censor the images? Is the defacing akin to a more modern prank, such as drawing a mustache on a photograph? Was someone just plain bored? The reason may remain a mystery.

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home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Napoleon, the War of 1812, and July 4, 1814

Napoleon, the War of 1812, and July 4, 1814

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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00000001Have you ever wondered what Independence Day celebrations were like 200 years ago?  For many people, the main event at Fourth of July festivities wasn't a fireworks display or even a concert; it was a sermon. The Fourth of July Orations Collection offers a glimpse into these commemorations and provides important documentation of American politics and identity from 1791 to 1925.

On July 4, 1814, the United States was still embroiled in the War of 1812.  As we saw last year, the American military was poorly trained and equipped compared to the British forces, but by the middle of 1814, its outlook was beginning to improve.  The American navy controlled part of the Great Lakes, plagued British shipping, and captured British warships.  American army troops repelled attacks from the British and allied Native American tribes.  

Throughout early 1814, many Americans were also paying close attention to the situation in Europe. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and exiled to Elba in April of that year – an event that many Americans celebrated, even though it was a victory for their enemy.

00000002Daniel Dana noted the problematic nature of the European peace in an 1814 Fourth of July speech.  Dana was a minister in Newburyport, MA, a member of the influential Dana family, and, for a short time, president of Dartmouth College.  In his speech, he celebrates the "deliverance of suffering Europe" from "France, the scourge of other nations" (8).  However, he acknowledges the awkward position this created for the United States:

Do any object, that to rejoice in the recent triumphs of the allied powers, is to rejoice at the success of our enemies?  Let me ask: Suppose it were a known, or a highly probable fact, that these successes would terminate in our injury; still, are we on that account wholly excused from rejoicing?  Am I permitted to grieve that a great good has come to my neighbor, or to the community, because thereby some degree of inconvenience accrues to myself?  No; the great law of love calls me to rejoice. (15)

Dana goes on to note that it is impossible to tell how the defeat of Napoleon would affect the conflict between Great Britiain and the United States, but remarks, "If peace is the blessing for which above all others, our country pants, the late Revolution in Europe is calculated rather to hasten, than to retard it" (16).  Dana ends his speech with a call for the world to embrace Christianity rather than warfare, hopeful that the nations would "imitat[e] not the Prince of darkness, but the Prince of peace" (18).  Little did he know that the Burning of Washington, a humiliating and traumatic event for the young republic, was less than two months away.

Read the entirety of Dana's speech online.  The entire Fourth of July Orations Collection is available at the University of Missouri Digital Library, and also in traditional format in the Special Collections Reading Room. 

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home Resources and Services Updated hours at the Information Desk

Updated hours at the Information Desk

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Resources and Services
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Starting July 7th, you can reach a librarian anytime from 9am to 5pm. However, there will be some changes at the information desk:

From 9am to 5pm, you can instantly reach a librarian via email, chat, or by phone–see contact details below.

From the hours of 10am to 2pm, you can additionally get in touch with a librarian in person at the information services desk. Outside of these hours, feel welcome to ask for a librarian at the circulation desk–we will be happy to assist you as we are available or by appointment.

This is planned to continue until the end of the summer term. For updates to this schedule, please keep an eye on the news feed on the HSL webpage.

Need help with a search? Stuck with an Endnote concern? The Health Sciences Library is here to help you:

Phone: (573) 882-0471
Email: AskLibrary@health.missouri.edu
Feeling chatty? Talk with us here: https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/contact

Have a wonderful and safe Independence Day Holiday!