Seven Pillars of Wisdom

T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph is an autobiographical account of Lawrence's involvement in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks during World War I.  Lawrence began writing the text in 1919, and after several complete reworkings, one due to the loss of the first manuscript while changing trains, produced a final version of approximately 350,000 words.  This "1922 Edition" was later abridged in a privately printed subscriber's edition in 1926, each with a unique binding.

One of 170 complete copies of the 1926 "Cranwell" edition, this volume is bound in green and gold by Roger de Coverly and Sons and is inscribed by Lawrence on page xix: "complete copy. 1.XII.26 TES."  The TES stands for T.E. Shaw, Lawrence's pseudonym.

The numerous illustrations are by several artists, including Kennington, Roberts, Augustus John, William Nicholson, and Paul Nash.  Inserted in the volume by the donor are two sheets of paper with the signatures, in arabic, of King Faisal (pictured), Safoit El Awa, annd Jafar el Askeri.

Ask for Rauner Lawrence 65 to see the complete volume

Summer Road Trip

Taking a vacation this summer? Need the best maps available? Well, if it is England you are visiting, you could consult John Ogilby's Itinerarium Angliae: or, a Book of Roads, wherein are Contain'd the Principal; Road-Ways of His Majesty's Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales (London: John Ogilby, 1674), but you might get lost.

The maps are laid out in scroll form on the page ("ribbons of highway?") and take the reader through the countryside noting the locations of inns and other spots of interest to travelers. Because roads twist and turn, but the format of this book insists on straight courses, the perspective is rarely the same even on the same page.  Notice how the compass roses vary across the page, sometimes pointing to the side, other times angling over to the corner of the page.

The maps in this volume were revised over and over, and this book and its successors, Britannia Depicta: or, Ogilby Improved and The Traveller's Pocket-Book, or Ogilby and Morgan's Book of the Roads was the standard source for travelers for well over 100 years.

Come plan your trip with Rare Book G1808.O3 1675.

Webster's Birds of America

Without question one of the most stunning books in our collections is the elephant folio, first edition of John Audubon's Birds of America. A lot has been written about this book, and a simple web search can give you far more information than we can give you here, but what you won't find is the unique quality of our particular copy.

The three physical volumes on permanent display in Rauner originally belonged to Daniel Webster, Class of 1801. In 1836, while Audubon was in the United States seeking subscribers to the work, he received an order from Webster for the first 300 plates, all that had been issued up to that time.  Our bound volumes were delivered the following year.

Why Webster never acquired the fourth volume remains a mystery.  Chronically embarrassed for ready cash, Webster was often tardy in meeting his financial obligations; and, as late as 1842, Audubon was still pressing the then Secretary of State for the balance due him on the first three volumes. Perhaps, as Audubon was also in financial straits in the late 1830s, he felt that Webster's subscription for volume four would be a poor financial risk.

The three-volume set remained in Webster's library throughout his lifetime. When his library was sold in 1875, the Audubon was acquired by the Haverhill (Mass.) Public Library where it remained until 1965 when it came to Dartmouth College through a generous gift in memory of Andrew B. Foster, Class of 1965.

Take a break and cool off this summer in Rauner where you can see the stunning images in Birds of America (we turn the page every week or two, so there is always something fresh to enjoy).

Dogs at Dartmouth

Research for the "Dogs at Dartmouth" exhibit that was recently mounted in the 1965 Galleries in Rauner Library led to the discovery of some compelling stories about the role that dogs have played in the lives of students and other members of the Dartmouth community. Although one might think of our canine companions as merely friendly pets hanging around in Greek houses and catching frisbees on the Green, there are a number of dogs in Dartmouth's past who were hardworking members of the community. 

One dog in particular was a German shepherd named Pal. Pal was a seeing-eye dog whose human was Edward L. Glaser, a member of the class of 1951. At the 182nd Commencement exercises in 1951, Pal was recognized for her four years of faithful attendance at classes with her master and her loyalty and unfailing devotion to her duties as a seeing-eye dog. Pal was presented with a specially designed certificate that was placed in her harness by then Dean of the College Lloyd Neidlinger after she had guided her master to the platform to receive his degree from President Dickey. The certificate read, in part, "We do here by commend her as worthy of all the privileges, immunities, and honors that may be afforded her in recognition of her honorable association with this institution."

A release from the College News Service announced that this was "the first time in the history of Dartmouth that such an honor has been bestowed on a dog.  In the past, blind students have usually remained in their seats and have been given their diplomas following the exercises.  Glaser asked to be allowed to come on the platform with Pal.  'After all,' he said, ‘Pal is as much entitled to this degree as I am.' This gave Dean Neidlinger the idea for the special certificate which he designed personally and will present to Pal at the ceremonies."

This was not the first "first" that Ted Glaser achieved as a student at Dartmouth. In 1949, Glaser won the Thayer Mathematics Prize for excellence in analytic geometry and calculus. In his senior year, he was selected to be a Senior Fellow and was the first blind student given permission by the American Society of Actuaries to take the annual actuary examination, an all-day exam required for those wishing to become an actuarial. All the while, Pal was at his side. They remained a team until 1954, when Pal passed away, as noted in a letter to the editor of the Alumni Magazine in March, 1954.

Inoculation, 1722

Before the Small Pox vaccine, an option for protecting oneself from infection was the rather gruesome process of inoculation. Simply put, the fluid from a infected person's pustule would be applied to a small cut in the skin.  The result was usually a mild case of Small Pox that would leave the inoculated person safe from further infection.

But sometimes it did not work so well. Jonathan Edwards died from a failed inoculation attempt and there were legitimate fears that a group of people undergoing inoculation could foster an epidemic. The debate over the moral and medical implications of inoculation turned into a pamphlet war in the 1720s. Here we have two such pamphlets: Legard Sparham's Reasons against the Practice of Inoculating the Small-Pox (London: Benj. and Sam. Tooke, 1722), and Benjamin Coleman's A Narrative of the Method and Success of Inoculating the Small Pox in New England (London: Emanuel Matthews, 1722).

Sparham's Reasons, in it's third edition, answers his critics from the earlier editions, while Coleman's Narrative contains a point-by-point refutation of a series of objections to inoculation on moral grounds.

You can see them both by asking for Rare RA644.S6S63 1722 and Rare RM786.C68

Hike the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian trail is the brainchild of Benton MacKaye who came up with the idea while working on projects related to regional planning for the United States governement. In 1921 he published an article titled "An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning" in which he outlined the four chief features of the project: the trail, shelter camps, community groups, and food and farm camps.  MacKaye saw the project as a way to "establish a base for a more extensive and systematic development of outdoors community life."

This map is an early sketch of the proposed route from Mt. Washington in New Hampshire to Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina. MacKaye suggested a "'long trail' over the full length of the Appalachian skyline, from the highest peak in the north to the highest peak in the south."

A guide to the MacKaye family papers is available online.

Jonathan Wolken, 1949-2010

Jonathan Wolken '71, one of the founding members of the Pilobolus Dance Theater, passed away on June 13th at the age of 60. Here at Rauner, we were lucky enough to work with Jonathan and get to know him over the past few years as we took in the Pilobolus archives. In memory of Jonathan, we have mounted a small exhibit in our reading room drawn from the papers of the dance company.

"Pilobolus (crystallinus) is a phototropic zygomycete - a sun-loving fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures. It grows on a stalk as a small bladder, pressurized by cell sap and topped with a tiny black cap filled with spores. When time and Pilobolus are ripe, this entire sporangium is blasted off with incredible force and the little spore bags can shoot over a cow like clowns out of a cannon. It's reported that the acceleration - from 0-45 mph in the first mm of flight - is the second fastest in nature."

Like the fungal spores, the Pilobolus Dance Theater burst forth on the dance scene in the mid-1970s.  During their first full year, they toured the college circuit with stops in New York and some smaller arts venues. By 1978 they had appeared on Broadway, been featured in Time magazine and performed on PBS’s Dance in America series.

Pilobolus developed out of a class project in Alison Becker Chase's Drama 54 class, "Dance," in Spring 1971. Among the original group were Jonathan Wolken '71 and Robert (Moses) Pendleton '71. Robby Barnett '72 and Michael Tracy '73 joined shortly afterward, and in 1973 Alison Becker Chase and Martha Clarke joined the company as its first female members.

Pilobolus was founded with a quasi-utopian spirit bent on an egalitarian and community-based notion of creative expression. The group sought to blur gender lines and create cooperatively in an atmosphere of shared vision. On one level, the company appears to be a counterculture response to conservative social mores, but Pilobolus's daring use of weight and physicality goes beyond suggesting sexual freedom to create oppositions and dynamic movements that fundamentally challenge gender roles in dance and in society.

Learn more about the Pilobolus Dance Theater Archive or read about Pilobolus performances at the Hop this week.