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home Resources and Services Help Us Preserve Our Collection

Help Us Preserve Our Collection

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Resources and Services
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In October 2013, mold was discovered growing on books and bound journal volumes throughout the University of Missouri System's secondary offsite facility, UMLD2. This facility holds approximately 600,000 volumes that belong to the University of Missouri-Columbia campus. To assist with MU Libraries' response to the mold bloom, we have established the Collection Enhancement fund. Your gift will be used to treat, relocate and in some cases, replace items impacted by mold. Our goal is to ensure the MU Libraries' ability to serve the needs of our users is not compromised by this sad event. A gift of any amount is greatly appreciated!

No one cares more about preserving knowledge and scholarship than our librarians and staff. As we work through our response plan, know that we are making every effort to save items with special value and to retain ready access to information in the collection. 

If you would like to help us preserve this collection, click here to donate to our Collection Enhancement Fund.

home Resources and Services, Zalk Veterinary Medical Library New Web Site!

New Web Site!

By Kate Anderson   Posted in Resources and Services Zalk Veterinary Medical Library
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We've updated our look!

What's new about the site?

  • Responsive web design so that the site looks good on tablets and mobile devices
  • New New Books format
  • Fresh, clean look
  • Some (major) behind the scenes improvements to the scripting language (thank you, Mike, Mathew, Caryn, and Ernest!!)

Please let us know if you have any trouble with the new site.

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Fragments from a Book of Hours

Fragments from a Book of Hours

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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No librarian is happy to see a broken book, but we're lucky to have eight leaves from this sixteenth-century book of hours.  Two of the leaves in Special Collections were originally part of John Bagford's Fragmenta Manuscripta collection – meaning they were removed from the book by the late seventeenth century.  Bagford's fragment collection passed to St. Martin-in-the-Fields in the eighteenth century. The collection was sold in 1861 to Sir Thomas Phillipps, then to Sir Sydney Cockerell in 1913. In 1957, the collection was bought by the bookseller William Salloch, and it came to the University of Missouri in 1968.

The remaining parts of the manuscript (it's not clear how much) were eventually broken around 1920. In the 1980s, Margaret Howell, then director of Special Collections, noticed a set of six leaves on the market, and she was able to reunite at least a portion of this beautiful book of hours. 

All eight of the leaves are cropped in the same manner and show signs of damage from flooding in London in 1846. The manuscript was produced in the style of Geoffroy Tory, an influential type designer of the Renaissance.  This humanistic script may look printed, but it's all written by hand. See more in the Digital Scriptorium: Fragmenta Manuscripta #212, #213, and the six additional pages.

For a great recent overview of the topic of book breaking and its implications for libraries, see This Just In: Breaking Bad by David Whitesell at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Book-of-Hours-Manuscript-4

Book-of-Hours-Manuscript-1

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives The worst love letters no one’s ever read

The worst love letters no one’s ever read

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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In honor of Valentine's Day, we're posting a few pages from a one-sided collection of love letters that make up a French epistolary novel called Lettres de Bendé, a Monreset.  The novel has an imprint of Amsterdam (fictitious?), and is dated 1762.  A researcher in France recently emailed us with a question about this book, and in the course of our investigations we found that we have the only recorded copy, according to WorldCat.

It's always exciting to find a unique copy, but there may be a good reason for this title's near extinction.  This isn't a happy love story.  Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, explains in a review published in his Correspondance litteraire:

Ce sont les lettres d'une femme qui aime et qui n'est point aimée. Ajoutez qu'elle ne mérite pas de l'être, car elle est insipide, guindée, sans naturel, sans grâce. Si ces lettres n'étaient pas si mauvaises, on serait tenté de croire qu'elles ont été confiées à l impression par une femme qui n'avait que cette voie pour apprendre à son amant sa situation et ses sentiments.

These are letters written by a woman who loves but is not loved. What's more, she does not deserve to be loved because she is dull, affected, stiff, and ungraceful. If these letters were not so bad, one would be tempted to believe that they have been entrusted to printing by a woman who had no other way of apprising her lover of her situation and feelings.

Ouch.  Are they really that bad?  You be the judge.  Brush up on your French, and take a look at the few, perhaps not-so-tantalizing pages we offer below; the rest will be freely available in our digital library soon.

Title page

letterscolor_Page_275

letterscolor_Page_276

letterscolor_Page_277

letterscolor_Page_329 

letterscolor_Page_330

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail with Prints by Faith Ringgold

King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail with Prints by Faith Ringgold

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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This week we're highlighting Faith Ringgold's illustrations for Letter from Birmingham City Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.  Produced in 2007 for the Limited Editions Club, the book contains eight original serigraphs by Ringgold alongside a beautifully printed text by King. Special Collections has copies 119 and 132 from an edition of 400.

Title page and frontispiece

Faith Ringgold illustration from Letter from Birmingham City Jail by Martin Luther King

Faith Ringgold illustration from Letter from Birmingham City Jail by Martin Luther King

Faith Ringgold illustration from Letter from Birmingham City Jail by Martin Luther King

home Resources and Services Celebrate MU’s 175th Anniversary!

Celebrate MU’s 175th Anniversary!

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Resources and Services
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This year marks the 175th anniversary of the University of Missouri’s founding Feb. 11, 1839. Stop by the Student Center for the official kickoff starting at 11 a.m. with a brief program featuring Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, student leaders, Mini Mizzou, free surprises and birthday cake (while supplies last).

Happy 175th Mizzou!

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Happy 175th Birthday, Mizzou!

Happy 175th Birthday, Mizzou!

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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Today is the 175th anniversary of the founding of the University of Missouri on February 11, 1839.  We're joining in on the celebrations by sharing the very first University of Missouri catalog, one of the oldest items in the University of Missouri Collection.  It wasn't issued until 1843 – that's the first year the university had a senior class – but it's an important piece of our history and shows just how far we've come over these 175 years. 

Title page

As you can see below, the first senior class was made up of five students – two of whom were named Robert Todd.  If you've been around Columbia for a year or two, you may recognize some of the other last names on buildings and street signs around town.

Student roster

There were no majors back then.  Everyone took the same course of study, which was divided into three sessions per year.

Courses of study

"The University of Missouri having been permanently organized by the Board of Curators, and being now in successful operation, invites the candid attention of the public to its claims for general patronage."

Other considerations

For more on the history of the university, check out the digital exhibits available through the University Archives.

home Resources and Services POYi Photography book collection

POYi Photography book collection

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poyilogo280POYi began as a photographic contest in the spring of 1944 in Columbia, Missouri, when the Missouri School of Journalism sponsored its “First Annual Fifty-Print Exhibition” contest.  The entries for book submissions to the contest are given to the Journalism Library every year and kept as a collection in the upstairs of the library.    Read more…..

home Resources and Services Angus & Betty McDougall Photojournalism Collection

Angus & Betty McDougall Photojournalism Collection

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angusbettymcdougallAngus and Betty McDougall were life partners for 70 years. He relied on her to be his best critic and advisor and their devotion to each other was inspirational. Their gift of their entire library includes predictable professional aspects of their lives like photo books but also high school yearbooks and cookbooks. This is a rare opportunity to explore the interests and values of Mac and Betty through the books they valued and kept in their home.  Read more….

home Resources and Services The Jack and Dorothy Fields Photojournalism Book Collection

The Jack and Dorothy Fields Photojournalism Book Collection

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JackFields

“Jack and Dorothy Fields were partners in life and partners in journalism. A travel photographer/writer team, they worked extensively in the South Pacific, and also in Europe and Scandinavia, as well as other places around the world.  Read more….