Winter; or, The Causes, Appearances, and Effects of the Great Seasonal Repose of Nature

Robert Mudie, born in Scotland in 1777, was a teacher, author, editor and illustrator, who wrote or compiled nearly 90 volumes in his lifetime. Among them is Winter…one of his 4-volume series on the seasons.

Of particular interest in this book, as well as several other of Mudie’s works on the natural world, is the frontispiece by George Baxter. Baxter, born in England in 1804, is credited with developing the first commercially viable system for producing color prints. His method combined intaglio and relief printing methods, starting with a key engraved metal plate and employing as many as 20 subsequent color blocks or plates. Using oil ink to print, allowing each color to dry before adding the next, and demanding perfect registration, Baxter’s intention was to create fine color prints at a price that would make artwork more commonly available.

Baxter patented the Baxter Process in 1835, and later sold licenses to other artists of the time. After Baxter’s death in 1867 the process fell out of use, with the introduction of faster, and cheaper, chromolithography.

Ask for Illus B334muw.

Pop-up Opera

Nobody would accuse Bartok of being "pop," and his Bluebeard's Castle is a notoriously difficult opera.  Filled with abstract language and minimal movement, the one-act opera challenged performers and their audiences. But, in 1972, book artist Ronald King produced a dark pop-up version that takes Bartok's work to a new level of abstraction.

Through a series of silk-screened pop-up openings, the book presents seven rooms that Bluebeard unlocks for his new wife.  Each room is progressively more surreal and sinister, exposing the inter-workings of Bluebeard's mind.

Come in and take the tour by requesting Presses C495kibl.

Happy Birthday to the Dartmouth Charter

In 1754, Eleazar Wheelock established a school for tutoring and training Indians in Lebanon Connecticut.  Wheelock’s school began modestly, but he soon realized that if it were to grow he would need to incorporate it, both so he could maintain control of the school, but also so that the school itself could hold real property.  This was the beginning of what would prove to be a long process to acquire a charter.

One of Wheelock’s star students was Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian who became a well-known minister.  Occom’s success boosted Wheelock’s reputation and that of his school.  Soon several Colonies were courting Wheelock to locate his school in their province.  Despite his growing stature in the colonies, Wheelock tried three times to obtain a charter without success.  One stumbling block was that several of the Colonies (Connecticut and Massachusetts specifically) were incorporations in their own right, and under eighteenth-century English law, one incorporated body could not create another.  Another factor was the growing tension between the Colonies and the Crown, which made obtaining a royal charter in England almost impossible.

Undeterred, Wheelock continued his campaign and in 1767 he began to look for a way to obtain a charter within the colonies.  New Hampshire was an obvious place to seek such a solution, in part, because it was a Royal Colony and thus was not incorporated.  But also because the young Governor, John Wentworth, expressed a willingness to grant a charter, something not specifically in his power, but for which there was precedent.

Encouraged by Wentworth’s interest in the school, Wheelock drafted a charter based largely on that written by William Smith for New Jersey College (later Princeton University).  He, rather boldly, wrote in the title of the institution as college rather than academy.  He was also careful to place himself in a central position within the new institution, thus minimizing the oversight from his English trustees, some of whose religious leanings were unpalatable to him.  Wentworth appears to have been as anxious to bring the school to New Hampshire as Wheelock was to obtain a charter, because he made almost no changes, and the document was signed into law on December 13, 1769 very much as Wheelock had written it.

A transcription of the charter is available on our website. To learn more about the charter, ask for Jere Daniell's Eleazar Wheelock and the Dartmouth College Charter (Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1969), D.C. History LD1420.D3.

Giants Lately Discovered...

The fascination with finding natural wonders in the New World lingered long after the initial rush of first encounters, and exotic "discoveries" continued to catch the public's attention. The cover of this 1768 Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack (London, 1768), depicts the "Giants lately discovered in South America."  The figure of the European sailor is said to be 5 foot 11 and 1/2 inches, and is offering the South American giants a biscuit.

The way this almanac came to our collections was something of a natural wonder in and of itself.  We are on a quest to get everything in our collections cataloged so people know what we have and can find it. Last week, we found this piece in a batch of material that had been in the library for 13 years, but never cataloged.  With it was a 1997 letter from a Boston book dealer that stated "33 years ago" then head of Special Collections, Betty Sherrard, had requested the book.  The dealer had just located a copy and offered it to us because of our past interest. We snapped it up, and now, 46 years later, we are pleased to report that Sherrard's wish has been fulfilled: the almanac is fully cataloged and ready for use.  A giant lately discovered...

Ask for Rare F73.3 B53 1767.  It was worth the wait!

French Signatures

You may have a signed photo from your favorite celebrity, but can you match a collection of autographs from notable French rulers and other "illustrious personages?" Starting with a Francis I document from 1529 and ending with a nineteenth-century letter from Napoleon III, this collection includes signatures from Catherine de Medici, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, the "sun king" Louis XIV, Marie Antionette, and Napoleon Bonaparte among others.

Though most of the documents themselves are fairly commonplace and written by a secretary, this collection does provide small snapshots of the events of the times and a glimpse into everyday affairs.  A letter signed by Colbert from October 1658 discusses the king's edict to create a sovereign council to administer justice.  A document signed by Comtesse du Barry (official mistress of Louis XV) is an order for payment to a M. Pectern.

Preceding each signed document  is an engraved portrait of the notable signatory, including a somewhat macabre illustration of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Dauphin juxtaposed against a view of a guillotine.

Ask for Codex 003094 to see this item.

Around the World in Search of the Antarctic Continent

When Charles Wilkes' U.S. Exploring Expedition returned from its search for the Antarctic continent in 1842, it inspired the creation of an 11,000 square foot panoramic mural that toured the country. This manuscript was the script for seaman Charles Erskine's lecture given while the panorama was scrolled in front of an audience at the Roxbury Mechanic's Institute in Roxbury, Massachusetts. It attests to the public appetite for exploration stories and the 19th-century love of panoramas as popular entertainment.

After its useful life on the touring circuit was over, the panorama was sold in 1892 to the Revere Beach Scenic Railway and installed in one of their tunnels.  It has since disappeared. The only surviving remnant is this manuscript description. Among the geographic subjects discussed are: Estroza Pass, Isle of Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Andes, St. Lorenzo Island, Tongataboo, Antarctic Continent, Henry's Island, and Cooks Bay.  The manuscript also contains extracts from press notices of Erskine's appearance.

To see it, ask for Stef Manuscript 257.

The Glutton's Spoon

Dartmouth has its share of quirky traditions. One of the oddest involved a giant wooden spoon. Each fall, usually in October or November, the Junior Class would assemble and a series of "honors" would be bestowed on class members. Among the awards was a giant wooden spoon given annually to the "heaviest eater of the Junior Class." The tradition appears to have started sometime before 1871 and continued up to 1906.

We have two of the spoons in our collections. One has been painted and shows a student departing from the college with suitcases in hand, above reads, "Thru Dartmouth's Classic Hall I Strayed." The other was presented to Randolph McNutt, Class of 1871. McNutt appeared to have stayed fit despite his hearty appetite, but he did become a fat cat in the business world, amassing a fortune as a distributor of school furnishings and through real estate dealings. He bequeathed $500,000 to Dartmouth in 1927, and two years later, Tuck Hall was renovated and renamed McNutt Hall in his honor.

Ask for Realia 79 to make yourself feel a little lighter after your holiday feast.