“Send me a paper, I do not know what is going on:” Civil War Soldiers’ Media Dependency
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
2-3 p.m.
Ellis Library, ColonnadeWhen the Civil War distanced combatants from familiar surroundings and put them in a bloody war, their letters home often referred to the different ways they depended on newspapers and magazines. Through their reliance on the mass media of their day, Civil war soldiers demonstrated different kinds of mass media dependency during war. This lecture will include letters from Missourians and soldiers stationed in Missouri from 1861-1865.
This event is sponsored by the MU Libraries’ Faculty Lecture Series.
Resources and Services
NIH Public Access Policy Turns Three
April 7th, 2011, marks the 3rd anniversary of the NIH Public Access Policy. See our newly updated guide at: http://guides.library.muhealth.org/nihpublicaccess.
Did you know that PubMed Central now contains more than 2 million full text articles reporting on the latest NIH-funded research? Did you know that nearly a *half a million* individuals access these articles each day?
Questions about the NIH Public Access Policy? Contact Kate Anderson.
April Fools! The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus.
This April Fool’s Day we thought we’d share several editions of Moriae Encomium by Desiderius Erasmus, which, in addition to being a definitive resource on fools and foolishness, has a great Latin pun for a title.
Frontispiece portrait of Erasmus, engraving after Hans Holbein (London, 1709).
Frontispiece and engraved title page featuring Erasmus, More, Holbein, and Folly as a goddess (Leiden, 1715).
The folly of scholarship, engravings after Hans Holbein (Paris, 1715).
Frontispiece illustration of Folly as a goddess, illustration after Charles Eisen (Paris, 1757).
The folly of drunkenness, engraving after Charles Eisen (Paris, 1757).
Various types of folly, engravings after Daniel Chodowiecki (Berlin, 1781).
The folly of pedagogues, mezzotint by Lynd Ward (New York, 1953).
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) isn’t the figure one would suppose to be an authority on foolishness. Ordained as a priest and consecrated as a monk, Erasmus spent his life as a classical scholar, humanist, and theologian. Although he is best known for theological work, he was also a prolific and engaging author whose works ranged from popular handbooks on children’s table manners to bitter mockeries of Church and state officials.
The Praise of… More?
Around 1498, Erasmus moved to England, where he met Sir Thomas More, the author of Utopia. The two men worked together on a translation of the works of Lucian and became close friends. Erasmus moved to Italy to pursue a doctorate in divinity in 1500, but he and More continued to write to each other regularly.
In 1509, Erasmus returned to England and wrote Moriae Encomium during his journey, dedicating it to More. The title of the work makes an affectionate joke of More’s last name – Moriae Encomium can be translated as either The Praise of Folly or The Praise of More. Erasmus continued the wordplay throughout the text, parodying the elaborate literary style both he and More would have encountered in their classical studies.
Erasmus considered Moriae Encomium a minor work and was surprised and dismayed at its popularity upon its first publication in 1511. The work went through multiple editions and translations in his lifetime, and it touched off an entirely new literary genre – the spoof encomium, which became popular among learned Elizabethans.
Picturing Folly
Moriae Encomium also gave rise to an artistic tradition. The artist Hans Holbein, a mutual friend of Erasmus and More, decorated Erasmus’ own copy of the book with marginal drawings. Holbein’s humorous doodles were adapted as engravings in a later edition, and they were copied for the next two hundred years. They have served as an inspiration – or a point of departure – for the generations of artists who have illustrated this text.
The Division of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books has editions of Moriae Encomium ranging from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, and many are illustrated. In addition to Holbein, illustrators include Charles Eisen, Daniel Chodowiecki, and Lynd Ward. The images above are just a sampling from our collection. Enjoy!
Sources
- L’Eloge de la Folie composé en forme de declamation… , illustrated with engravings after the designs of Hans Holbein (Leiden, P. vander Aa, 1715). RARE PA8514 .F8 1715
- L’Eloge de la Folie, illustrated by Charles Eisen (Paris, n.p., 1757). RARE PA8514 .F8 1757
- Moriae Encomium: or, A Panegyrick Upon Folly, illustrated with engravings after the designs of Hans Holbein (London, Printed, and sold by J. Woodward, in Threadneedle street, 1709). RARE PA8514.E5 1709
- L’Eloge de la Folie, illustrated by Charles Eisen (Paris, n.p., 1757). RARE PA8514 .F8 1757
- Moriae Encomium: or, The Praise of Folly, illustrated by Lynd Ward (New York: Limited Editions Club, 1943). RARE PA8514 .E5 1943
- L’Eloge de la Folie composé en forme de declamation… , illustrated with engravings after the designs of Hans Holbein (Leiden, P. vander Aa, 1715). RARE PA8514 .F8 1715
- Das Lob der Narrheit aus dem Lateinischen, illustrated by Daniel Chodowiecki (Berlin: G.J. Decker, 1781). RARE PA8514 .G3 1781
AMA App Challenge
Enter the AMA App Challenge! Submit a smartphone App Idea—$2,500 in prizes and a trip to New Orleans could be yours!
Rescuing Digital Oprhans
EndNote X4.0.2 & PubMed Journal Abbreviations
PubMed journal abbreviations not working correctly? The PubMed connection file included with EndNote X4.0.2 for both Windows and Mac places the full journal name in the Journal field rather than the abbreviated journal name. A new connection file is now available to import journal names correctly.
Note: not all veterinary journal abbreviations are loaded into the journal terms list, so this new connection file may not fix all the abbreviations. But it should help!
Instructions from EndNote:
The Medical terms list in EndNote keys on the abbreviated journal name for presenting the appropriate variation in your bibliographies. By replacing your X4.0.2 PubMed connection file with this copy, you will restore the journal name substitution with the terms list. This only applies to EndNote X4.0.2, other versions are not impacted. To properly install this new connection file:
- Download the connection file from the link above and save it somewhere easy to find, such as your Desktop.
- Double-click on the downloaded file to open it in the EndNote software.
- Click the File menu in EndNote and select Save As.
- IMPORTANT: Make sure that the name shows here as PubMed (NLM). You may need to remove the word “Copy” to get it to show exactly correctly. Then, click Save.
- The correct connection file is now installed in EndNote. You can delete the copy that you downloaded.
Questions? Email Kate.
Fun Stuff in the Library
Think Like a Doctor (Contest)
Try your best to make the diagnosis. Can you solve a medical mystery involving a healthy child who is losing her hair?
This is a one day contest posted on March 23 in the New York Times.
Tennessee Williams’ first two plays
Before Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Glass Menagerie, there were Beauty is the Word and Hot Milk at Three in the Morning. And before he went by Tennessee, playwright Thomas Lanier Williams was an MU student. This weekend kicks off campus-wide celebrations of Williams’ 100th birthday, and to join in the festivities, we’re featuring two manuscripts of his earliest plays.
Beauty is the Word was Williams’ very first play. It was submitted for the MU Dramatic Arts Club’s Dramatic Prize Plays contest in 1930. The play was produced on stage as part of the competition, but it appears not to have won an award in the contest. Over the course of one act, two young and worldly aesthetes visit their austere and forbidding missionary relatives somewhere in the South Pacific. When the natives revolt and threaten to burn down the mission, the young couple saves the day by appealing to the natives with dance and music rather than fear of damnation.
Hot Milk at Three in the Morning was Williams’ sophomore submission to the Dramatic Prize Plays contest. The play focuses on an argument between a young married couple who are trapped by poverty and illness. It was staged in 1932, and like Beauty is the Word, it received an honorable mention. Williams revised the play in 1940, titling it Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry. It was included in a compilation of the best plays of 1940 and was the first of Williams’ plays to be published.
Both manuscripts are a part of the University of Missouri Collection, which features official publications along with the works of faculty, staff, and distinguished alumni.
Green Fire Showing on April 7
Join us for the Missouri premiere of Green Fire! The film shares highlights from Aldo Leopold’s extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation and the modern environmental movement. See how Leopold’s vision of a community that cares about both people and land continues to inform and inspire people across the country, highlighting current projects that put Leopold’s land ethic in action.
DATE: Thursday, April 7, 2011
TIME: 7 PM; doors open at 6:30 pm
LOCATION: Conservation Hall, Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources building
ADDRESS: On Rollins Street, between the Christopher Bond Life Sciences building and the Agricultural building.
This event is free and open to the public. After 5 pm, free parking is available at the Hitt Street, University and Virginia Avenue Garages.
Sponsored by MU Libraries, MU School of Natural Resources, MU Department of History, Missouri Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, Missouri River Relief, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture and Columbia Audubon Society.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS EVENT, contact Christine Montgomery, MU Libraries, (573)814-9134, montgomeryc@umsytem.edu; FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ALDO LEOPOLD AND GREEN FIRE, visit www.GreenFireMovie.com.