150 Years of The Origin of Species: The Historical Journey from Specimens to Species to Genes is a digital exhibit based on a physical exhibit mounted in the University of Missouri’s Ellis Library from March 5th to March 31st, 2009 to honor the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his On the Origin of Species. The exhibition was part of the 2009 MU Life Sciences & Society Symposium sponsored by the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center.

Charles Darwin’s 57-month voyage on the HMS Beagle provided the biological and geological specimens and the intellectual insight for a critical step forward in explaining one of the most challenging questions of natural history: how and why species change over time. Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle and the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 was not the final solution to the puzzling phenomenon of species change, but it was a vital step in the ongoing revolution in evolutionary thought.

This exhibition traces the concept of biological variation from the Renaissance through the 20th Century using rare and historical books, illustrations, and biological specimens from the University of Missouri’s Rare Books and Special Collections Department, the Health Sciences Library Rare Book Room, the Enns Entomology Museum, the Glen Smart Collection of Waterfowl and Upland Game, and other university collections. Video of the opening presentation by Philosophy Professor Andre Ariew entitled “Darwinism Old and New” is also included. The exhibit was curated by Michael Holland, Director of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books (SCARaB), with immeasurable help from the staff of the SCARaB Division, Anselm Huelsbergen, Alla Barabtarlo, Karen Witt, and Katie Carr.

The exhibit is available at http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/darwin/about.htm.

MU Libraries present an online exhibit that documents the journey of the library of Geofroi Jacques Flach, a renowned bibliophile and professor of law, from France to Ellis Library in Columbia, Missouri. For forty years, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Professor Flach collected books on the political history of Europe, Mesopotamia, Russia, Japan and Ireland on the subjects of religion, feminism and other social causes. Especially notable are the St. Raymond de Peñafort manuscript Summa de poenitentiate et matrimonio, dating ca. 1200 AD, and Disputatio Inter Clericum et Militem, a rare incunabulum published in Paris in 1498.

Henry Ormal Severance, director of Ellis Library from 1907 until 1937, acquired the library of Professor Flach in Paris in March of 1920. This collection of approximately 6,000 volumes, many of which have Professor Flach’s original bookplates, is housed in Ellis Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.

The online exhibit is available at http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/flach/index.htm.

As of Wednesday October 1^st, 2008 the Special Collections, Archives and Rare Books Division (SCARaB) will have a new organizational structure. Prior to October 1st all academic and classified employees of the division reported directly to and were supervised by Division Head Mike Holland; however, as the two departments of the division are located separately on campus it seemed only logical to decentralize the administration of the unit. Full supervisory and management responsibilities for the Special Collections and Rare Books Department located in 401 Ellis Library will be placed in the capable hands of Alla Barabtarlo. Alla will directly supervise all professionals in the Special Collections & Rare Books Department and will report directly to Holland. Alla’s new title, reflecting her new responsibilities, will be Head of the Special Collections and Rare Books Department. Current organization in the University Archives Department, where all staff currently report directly to Holland, will remain unchanged. The new structure, it is hoped, will increase efficiency and effectiveness throughout the division. A new organizational chart will be distributed and posted to the MU Libraries Web site in the near future.

Caveman: VT Hamlin and Alley Oop Screening and Q&A

11 September, 2008 at 7.30pm

Ragtag Cinema

For a complete calandar of Alley Oop events, visit http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/alleyoopcalendar.htm.

Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the syndication of the comic strip Alley Oop with an exhibition drawing from The V.T. Hamlin Collection and The Comic Art Collection. The exhibit will explore the evolution of the strip, as well as its place in the history of the comic art medium and American culture. Personal photographs, correspondence, original artwork, daily and Sunday strips from as far back as 1933, books and various other ephemera will be on display.

For more information, visit http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/alleyoop75th.htm.