Halloween Hoodoo

"To catch a spirit, or to protect your spirit against catching, or to release you caught spirit – this is the complete theory and practice of hoodoo."

The above quote opens the five volume set of books entitled Hoodoo–conjuration–witchcraft–rootwork : beliefs accepted by many Negroes and white persons, these being orally recorded among Blacks and whites by Harry M. Hyatt that can be found in Special Collections.  Published in 1970, these books represent the culmination of years of interviews conducted by the author over a large portion of the Southern United States.

Not to be confused (as it commonly is), with voodoo or vodou, which are both religions derived from West African religions with a dash of Christianity thrown in, hoodoo is often classified as folk magic and is practiced mainly in the Southern United States.  The difference between hoodoo and voodoo and vodou is similar to the distinction between Wicca and witchcraft.  Also similar to Wicca and witchcraft is the fact that people often use all these terms interchangeably, though they have different meanings. Thus, one can belong to the voodoo religion and practice hoodoo, but they don't have to, and vice versa.

In hoodoo, a practitioner draws upon the spiritual power residing within them to perform a ritual to bring about power or success.  Today's mainstream culture often portrays hoodoo as a negative thing because of the common misconception that all who practice it are greedy or corrupt.

Hoodoo–conjuration–witchcraft–rootwork is a record of people's interactions with hoodoo, containing many accounts about how the interviewee was affected by a conjure or how someone they knew was affected.  One woman relates the experience she had when her neighbor put a conjure on her by burying a bottle containing  sulfur, hair, a bluestone, and roots of some sort.  According to her, this was the reason she was unable to stay up past ten o'clock each night.  She proceeds to relate how she destroyed the bottle and its contents and was able to stay up much later the following night while the next day the woman next door had to go to the hospital due to a major problem with her leg.  Another interviewee tells the author about a common practice of putting sulfur and ashes from the fireplace in a bag and keeping it in your pocket to ward off those that would do you harm.

Whether or not you believe that hoodoo works, these books make for interesting reading and are a comprehensive relation of a common practice here in the United States that most of us are largely unfamiliar with.  So if you get a chance between your Halloween celebrations, come see us at Special Collections where you can find the books mentioned here along with many others!

 

"Difference Between Hoodoo and Voodoo | Difference Between | Hoodoo vs Voodoo." Difference Between Hoodoo and Voodoo | Difference Between | Hoodoo vs Voodoo. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/culture-miscellaneous/difference-between-hoodoo-and-voodoo/>.
"Haitian_Vodou." Reference.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Haitian_Vodou>.
"Louisiana_Voodoo." Reference.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Louisiana_Voodoo>.

 

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Halloween Costume Ideas in Special Collections

Halloween Costume Ideas in Special Collections

Are you tired of wearing that same old zombie costume year after year?  Fed up with being lost in the crowd of witches and ghouls?  Special Collections is here to help, with costume inspiration by the book!  Here are a few ideas for Halloween inspired by our collections.

Go Medieval or Go Home

If you're limited on time or materials, you can't go wrong with the Middle Ages.  All you need is a long bathrobe, a large scarf or sheet, a pair of pointy-toed shoes, and a pageboy wig.  Voila!  Tell all your friends you're a character from the Roman de la Rose.  Add a red hat, a fake beard, and a book, and you could be St. Jerome.


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Find a New Trade

Forget dressing up like a doctor, firefighter or astronaut.  How about a Victorian butcher, milkman or baker – or better yet, a cat'smeat-man, park-keeper or waterman?  You could be dressed as a sixteenth-century German piscator or a French marchande de poissons.  The numerous books of occupations and street cries in Special Colllections are a field guide to the merchant and artisan classes from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries

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Be a Fashion Plate

Halloween and Homecoming are less than a week apart this year, so party like it's 1839.  Fashion magazines like Allgemeine Modenzeitung can give you an idea of what was in style back then. 

Dapper gentlemen from Allgemeines Modenzeitung, 1839

Dapper gentlemen from Allgemeines Modenzeitung, 1839

Dress like a Peasant…

Special Collections has numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ethnographic studies of the native dress of Europe, Asia, and the Americas.  Little did those ethnographers know they were creating a treasure trove of obscure Halloween costume ideas for us early 21st-century folk.  Here are a couple of examples of Italian peasant dress.  Choose your time and place; with our collections, the possibilities are endless. 

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…or like Royalty

Of course, if you're more ambitious, you could impersonate a famous king or queen for the day.  How about Elizabeth I?  Or maybe someone from the court of Marie Antoinette

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Embrace the Surreal

Perhaps you're looking for something more, shall we say, fanciful? The work of illustrators like J. J. Grandville and Walter Crane should provide ample inspiration for weird and wonderful costumes of all kinds.

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Or Dress Like your Favorite Author

How about Leonhart Fuchs?  Or Charles Darwin!  Of course, here in Missouri, we're partial to Mark Twain.

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Mark Twain 

We can't guarantee you'll win any costume contests, but it's a pretty safe bet that you'll be the only one dressed as a sixteenth-century botanist or French fishwife at your Halloween party this year.  Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Arthur Rackham!

Last week marked the 146th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Rackham, illustrator extraordinaire. Best known for his work on children's books, fairytales, and classics, Arthur Rackham's distinctive style continues to be recognized and admired by modern illustrators, art lovers, and readers alike.

Arthur Rackham was born on September 19, 1867 to Anne and Alfred Rackham.  One of twelve children, Arthur grew up to follow in his father's footsteps and began work as a clerk with an insurance company when he was eighteen.  He soon grew bored with that and began taking night classes at a nearby art school.  In 1892, he began work as a full time illustrator with the Westminster Budget where his drawings of everyday life in London and famous personalities were a hit.  They were so popular that he often was assigned to draw royal events, such as the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1893, who would later be known as King George V and Queen Mary.

As photography began to become more popular in the newspapers, Rackham turned to book illustrations, contributing for several travel books and developing his style by contributing to other works before his first major success in the form of the illustrated Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales in 1900.  The book that really put him on the map, as it were, was his 1905 illustrated Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving.  In this book, Rackham's iconic style is fully developed and becomes enormously popular with each successive year seeing at least one new work published with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

Rackham is known for various elements that combine in his work such as:

  • flowing lines
  • muted watercolors
  • backgrounds with hidden images or "surprising information"
  • a balance between sensuousness and chastity in his fairies and nymphs
  • just the right amount of ugliness to not be frightening in his trolls
  • forests filled with twisted trees
  • the juxtaposition of the frightening with the beautiful in a single image

In addition to his stunning watercolor prints, Rackham would more frequently do black and white line drawings.  Occasionally he would experiment with silhouette, and this is showcased beautifully in his illustrated The Sleeping Beauty (shown below).

The Sleeping Beauty

Rackham continued his illustrative work until his death from cancer on September 6, 1939.  His last work, completed just before his death, was an illustrated Wind in the Willows that was published posthumously in 1940.

We have a wide range of books and folios showcasing Arthur Rackham's work, including those from the Limited Editions Club and some first editions.  So if you get the chance, come celebrate the life of one of the most beloved children's/fairytale illustrators with us here at Special Collections.

Sources used:

"About Arthur Rackham." The Arthur Rackham Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2013. <http://arthur-rackham-society.org/about_the_artist.html>. 
"Arthur Rackham." Arthur Rackham. N.p., 1998. Web. 16 Sept. 2013. <http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/rackham.htm>.
"Rackham 101." Aleph-Bet Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2013. <http://www.alephbet.com/arthur-rackham-101.php>.
Scott, LaRue. "Arthur Rackham Illustrations." British Heritage 24.4 (2003): 52. EBSCOhost. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=9321715c-f7d8-456c-a626-c6de6fb3fc32%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=5&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=9676268>.

Author Self-Portrait:

http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/kunst/arthur_rackham/self_portrait.jpg

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Unsolved Mystery #3: Extrait des Registres du Parlement

Unsolved Mystery #3: Extrait des Registres du Parlement

You might think I'm cheating a bit with this week's Unsolved Mystery.  After all, this manuscript is catalogued; it's even fully digitized!  We know where it came from, how we got it, and we have a general outline of its contents.  Not much of a mystery, right? 

Well, like most of our Unsolved Mysteries, there are more pieces of the story to uncover.

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This manuscript on the laws of Paris and the French Parliament is attributed to Monsieur Drouyn de Vandeuil, the first President of the Parliament of Toulouse, and contains a history of France and a register of French royalty. There is also an extract of the minutes of the French Parliament.  The manuscript seems to have been written by two separate scribes.  We assume it's a fair copy of minutes and other working documents.

This manuscript belonged to the French lawyer and bibliophile Jacques Flach. His collection was purchased by the University of Missouri in 1920, and the manuscript has been here ever since.  It is available through the University of Missouri Digital Library.

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To our knowledge, the manuscript has never been published or studied – so we have an outline of the text, but we don't know its contents in detail. 

How did Flach come across the manuscript? Is the attribution correct? Has the text ever been published?  What information does it contain?

If you have information about this or any other of our unsolved mysteries, email us at SpecialCollections@missouri.edu – and stay tuned for another Special Collections mystery next week.

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Unsolved Mystery #2: The Book of Ruth

Unsolved Mystery #2: The Book of Ruth

IMG_6313_smThanks for the interest in our first Unsolved Mystery post!  We're presenting these items as great opportunities for students or faculty to do some original research – so if you'd like to work on any of these materials, let us know.

The next item in the series is a small Hebrew scroll with a wooden handle.  We refer to it as the Book of Ruth, since that's the identification of the text on its label.  But since none of us reads Hebrew, we haven't verified whether Ruth is actually the text.  Mr. David Birnbaum, a Hebrew Biblical text scholar from the University of Chicago Law School, confirms that our scroll manuscript is indeed the Book of Ruth. [added 10/31/2013]

IMG_6305_smThis Hebrew text is manuscript on parchment and is clearly the work of two scribes.  The entire piece measures about 7 inches tall, including the handle.  We assume that its small size and humble materials indicate that it was used for personal study, but that's just our conjecture. 

Where was the scroll produced?  How old is it?  And how did it get here?

As always, feel free to email us at SpecialCollections@missouri.edu with any information – and stay tuned next week for another Unsolved Mystery from the Special Collections vault.

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Unsolved Mysteries of Special Collections

Unsolved Mysteries of Special Collections

 They’ve come to us across four thousand years of history, from at least three different continents, representing many cultural traditions.  We know just enough about them to tantalize us – and we’d like to know more.  Each week we'll be sharing a new mystery from our collections.  Can you solve the Unsolved Mysteries of Special Collections?

 

 

Sorry, not those Unsolved Mysteries.  We’re talking about Special Collections materials we’d like to know more about.

Unsolved Mystery #1: Cuneiform Tablets

Special Collections holds eight cuneiform tablets whose exact provenance is unknown. Seven of the tablets were donated to MU Libraries by the now-defunct Ernest McClary Todd Museum, formerly a part of the School of Journalism. They may have come to the University in the early twentieth century.

Tablet MULC 8 (Z113 .P3 1#1 item 1a) was acquired as part of the Pages from the Past collection, which was a portfolio of leaves and artifacts sold by Foliophiles in the 1960s.

Six of the tablets were recently published by a researcher at the University of Heidelberg. The remaining two tablets are thought to be from the Old Babylonian period (1900-1600 BCE) and are currently unedited.

Where did the tablets come from? What information do the two unpublished tablets contain?  What, if anything, is known about the Ernest McClary Todd Museum?

If you have information about this or any other of our unsolved mysteries, email us at SpecialCollections@missouri.eduStay tuned next week for another Unsolved Mystery from the Special Collections vault.

 

 

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The X-Men Turn 50!

On September 1, 1963, fifty years ago this week, youngsters were greeted by a new comic book series on the shelves. Marvel Comics, after finding success in creating individual characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, decided to take a chance on telling the story of a group of heroes. These heroes were teenagers who, through no action of their own, developed powers through genetic mutations. After being ostracized from society for merely being different, they banded together under the leadership of Professor Charles Xavier and became…
…The Uncanny X-Men! To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the mutant menagerie, Special Collections has put together a list of fun facts and trivia about the superhero squad, both in print and on film.
Did you know that…
…the original five X-Men were Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman and Marvel Girl? Only Beast was in X-Men: First Class, the film adaptation about the formation of the X-Men.

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…Professor Xavier named his students “X-Men” because of the “extra power” their mutation gave them?
…because of the way the X-Men are shunned for being different, mutants have been used as an ongoing allegory of minorities in society, such as African Americans and homosexuals?
…the character Wolverine first appeared in a 1974 issue of The Incredible Hulk?
…the entertainment website IGN lists X-Men arch nemesis Magneto as the greatest comic book villain of all time? He ranks above (or below, depending on your perspective) the Joker, Lex Luthor and Loki.

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…Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has appeared in six movies (X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine), and he will make his seventh appearance in next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past? He holds the record for most film appearances as the same comic book character, followed by Robert Downey, Jr.’s five appearances as Tony Stark (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3).

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…X-Men Origins: Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds has appeared on film as three different comic book characters? He’s portrayed Wade Wilson (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) and Hannibal King (Blade: Trinity).
…the X-Men film franchise has grossed $2.2 billion worldwide, beating out the Indiana Jones, Superman and Star Trek franchises?
…Hugh Jackman has expressed interest in Wolverine joining The Avengers in an upcoming movie? Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen, as Fox owns the film rights to Wolverine and the X-Men, while Disney owns the film rights to The Avengers.  However, Fox also owns the rights to the Fantastic Four, and comic book author and screenwriter Mark Millar has hinted at a Fantastic Four/X-Men crossover film.

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…the cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past contains three Academy Award-winning actresses? Jennifer Lawrence, Anna Paquin and Halley Berry have all taken home an Oscar.
…when Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier) was married in 2013, he asked his friend Ian McKellen (Magneto) to officiate the ceremony? McKellen obliged.
…all of the pictures on this page were taken from comics and graphic novels contained in Special Collections? We encourage everyone, mutant and human alike, to come in and take a peek at what we have to offer!

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Dreaming for Equality – 50 Years Later

Dreaming for Equality – 50 Years Later

Fifty years ago last week, on a pleasant Wednesday afternoon, Washington, D.C. was buzzing. Throngs of people, numbering well into the hundreds of thousands, were gathered around the Lincoln Memorial, hugging the sides of the famed reflecting pool. The activists were demonstrating for racial equality – not only in the classroom, not only in the workplace, but throughout the entire nation. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was not merely a rally, it was a cultural event that forever changed our history.

Many speakers addressed the crowd that day, but one speech stood out above the rest. One speech has lived on for fifty years and is now considered by Time magazine to be one of the top ten speeches ever given, listed alongside Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and John Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has become the civil rights activist’s most memorable moment, highlighting a lifetime of dedication to racial equality. Dr. King’s legacy of protests through nonviolence and civil disobedience continued after his assassination in 1968, and still lives on to this day.

Newspaper headlines from around the nation report the event.

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All of these articles are available at any time to any patron during Ellis Library’s hours of operation. March into Special Collections and reflect on the way the country has changed, and the ways it hasn’t, in fifty short years.

Adopt a Book Update

Thanks to our generous donors, the Friends of the Libraries, and conservator Jim Downey, we have been able to do much-needed repair work on many of the fragile, valuable, and irreplaceable books in our collections.  Below are just a few of the most recent examples of the amazing work the Adopt a Book Program accomplishes.  As always, there are new books available for adoption as well.  Click over to our Adopt a Book page and take a look!

Bible. Latin. - before

Bible. Latin. - after

History of St. Charles, Montgomery and Warren Counties, Missouri- before

History of St. Charles, Montgomery and Warren Counties, Missouri - after

Northanger Abbey; and Persuasion - before

 

Northanger Abbey; and Persuasion - after

A few of the books now available for adoption:

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I Scream, You Scream…

Ice Cream and Sherbets cover
Cover from an ice cream freezer manual
We all scream for ice cream!  With 90% of Americans enjoying the cold dessert, it's no wonder that Ronald Reagan declared July National Ice Cream Month back in 1984.  In addition, the third Sunday of July was proclaimed National Ice Cream Day to be celebrated "with appropriate ceremonies and activities."  So today, get out and cool off with some of America's favorite dessert and learn more about the history of ice cream with us here at Special Collections.

Roman Snow Runner
Depiction of a Roman snow runner
The history of ice cream can be traced as far back as the 4th century B.C., where legend has it that Alexander the Great, the famous conqueror and ruler of one of the largest empires in history, enjoyed iced beverages made of snow, honey, and nectar that were the predecessor to the ice cream we enjoy today.  These earlier forms of ice cream were mostly enjoyed by the noble class, with recipes being closely guarded secrets.  Iced desserts developed independently of each other in the Roman Empire and the Orient. Nero, the emperor of Rome from 54-68 A.D., had snow for these treats carried by runners from the Alps to Rome with severe punishments for those who failed to make it back before the snow melted.

Marco Polo is often credited with bringing sherbet and ice recipes to Europe after having learned them on his famous voyages.  These were again kept mostly by the royals and others in the higher tiers of nobility.  Some of these recipes may have been known to the English royalty earlier, as there are reports of Richard the Lionhearted eating sherbets in 1191 while on a Holy Crusade.

When people realized that adding salt to snow and ice helped to increase the coldness and help keep it, clever chefs now had more freedom than ever to experiment with different flavors and mixtures.  The French chef Jacques, from the court of Charles of England and Vatel, the chef of King Louis XVI have both been cited among the inventors of cream ice which, with the help of the Germans, Spanish, Italians, and possibly the Scandinavians, contributed to what became known as ice cream when these recipes came to America, where it was further influenced mostly by English and French methods.

The first written evidence of ice cream in America comes from a letter written May 17, 1744 by a guest of Governor Bladen of Maryland that describes this curious ice cream treat.  In the latter half of the 18th century, ice cream's popularity really picked up with those that could afford it, including such well-known figures as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

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The ‘Wonder’ Freezer, with improved covered gear
Ice cream continued to gain popularity in the early 1800s with the invention of better ice cream freezers and improved ice harvesting and storing techniques.  Commercial ice cream really took off after Jacob Fussell established the first wholesale ice cream factory in Baltimore in 1851, also making the U.S. the leading country in the manufacture and consumption of ice cream, which it still is today.  Inventions such as the ice cream cone at the 1904 World's Fair continued to help ice cream become the immensely popular treat it is today.

Chocolate Ice Cream Research
The effect of varying the sugar and chocolate liquor content on the stability of chocolate ice cream
Here at Mizzou, the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources has long been a big name in ice cream research.  With noted researchers Professor William Henry Eddie Reid, Wendell Arbuckle, and Robert T. Marshall all contributing at some point to the research done here on campus on things such as the freezing properties, stability, and physical qualities of chocolate ice cream and modern trends in retail ice cream stores.  Reid went on to consult with Baskin Robbins while Arbuckle and Marshall literally wrote the book on ice cream (Ice Cream by Arbuckle and Marshall and The Little Ice Cream Book by Arbuckle can both be found in our stacks).  With all this research going on it was eventually decided that it was high time Mizzou had its own flavor of ice cream, which it now does. Tiger Stripe Ice Cream, which looks exactly as the name suggests, remains popular today among students, faculty, and alumni alike and is served at a number of school and alumni events. (To find out more about the history and development of ice cream research at Mizzou visit the website of Mizzou's ice cream shop, Buck's Ice Cream Place, here.)

Old Ice Cream Recipe
A recipe from the Ladie’s Own Home Cook-Book
To learn more about any of the topics mentioned here, or if you want to check out some recipes for ice cream from our selection of old cookbooks, come by and pay us a visit here in Special Collections (just leave your ice cream at home).

Have a happy National Ice Cream Day!

Arbuckle, W. S. The Little Ice Cream Book. [S.l.]: W.S. Arbuckle, 1981. Print.

"International Dairy Foods Association." July Is National Ice Cream Month. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 July 2013. http://www.idfa.org/news–views/media-kits/ice-cream/july-is-national-ice-cream-mon/.

Mertens, Randy. "About Us." Buck's Ice Cream Place:. N.p., 12 Mar. 2010. Web. 17 July 2013. http://bucks.missouri.edu/about/history.php.