Middleton Quarto

It doesn't look like much, but then, it wasn't supposed to.  This unassuming book is a quarto edition of Thomas Middleton's The Spanish Gipsie (London: Printed by I.G. for Richard Marriot, 1653).  In the 16th and 17th centuries, most plays were seen by printers as ephemeral materials, and they issued them as inexpensive quartos, loosely stitched together with flimsy paper covers. If a reader of a play decided to keep the cheap publication, he or she would usually bind it together in an assemblage of plays collected over a period of time.  In the 19th century, collectors broke up these assemblages and had them individually bound--often in very expensive bindings expressing the new importance society placed on these publications.

This first printing of one of Middleton's plays somehow managed to escape being stripped of its original paper wrapper and survived to the present day with cover intact.  It is now a perfect example of the way plays by Rowley, Middleton, and Shakespeare appeared to their first readers.

You can see this extraordinary survival by asking for Rare PR2714.S7 1653.

Washington Didn't Sleep Here

To the best of our knowledge, George Washington never graced the plains of Hanover, but we do have a relic associated with him: a lock of his hair bound into John Marshall's The Life of George Washington (London: Printed for Richard Phillips, 1804-1807).  This particular copy was "extra illustrated" by a collector, meaning that the original book was disbound, interleaved with additional material such as illustrations from other sources or manuscript materials associated with events described in the book, then rebound.  The collector's prize, a documented lock of Washington's hair, was framed into the binding of the first volume.

This is not the only lock of hair in the collection.  Others can be found within manuscript collections and an extra-illustrated edition of Samuel Picard's Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1894) has a lock from the graying poet.

While the hair is an interesting fetish object, our collections also hold original Washington material of high scholarly value.  MS-1033 contains original correspondence, a mathematical exercise attributed to a 13-year-old Washington, as well as a copy of Washington's Valley Forge announcement to the people of Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

To see Washington's hair ask for Rare E312.M34 1804 v.1; to see the manuscripts, request MS-1033.

We're All Mad Here

"'In that direction,' the Cat said, waving it's right paw round, 'lives a Hatter: and in that direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March Hare.  Visit either you like: they're both mad.'"  Confronted with this statement, Alice decides to visit the March Hare as "perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March."  Unfortunately for her, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter are having tea together and proceed to add to the confusion of the adventure by informing Alice that her hair "wants cutting" and by posing questions such as "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland have been illustrated by many artists, starting with John Tenniel and including Peter Newell, Arthur Rackham, and Barry Moser.  Pictured here is Moser's interpretation of the Hatter - the final published print and the original wood block.  His Hatter is a somewhat more sinister character than that depicted in Disney's 1951 film adaptation and one can believe that this gentleman has absorbed enough mercury to become "mad as a hatter."

Ask for Presses P372c to see the Pennyroyal Press edition illustrated by Barry Moser.  The original blocks for Alice and other Moser books can be found in one of our manuscript collections, ML-39.   A finding aid is available.

And of course, we can't forget Alice herself.

Male Gaze, Male Money

Ambroise Vollard. Pablo Picasso. Honoré de Balzac. Three men. Three artists. Together they created an intriguing artifact. Balzac wrote Le Chef-d'Oeuvre Inconnu. Vollard commissioned Picasso to illustrate the text.

About art and artists, the story, the men, and their collaboration reveal interesting aspects of their personhood and their craft. Examine for yourself the de luxe Vollard production. The smooth morocco binding, the textured, thick paper, and the choices made by Picasso in his visual depictions done by woodcuts and engravings all suggest an engagement with the text that reveal men in their time and their class.

There are 13 leaves of plates with original engravings by Picasso. In addition, there are many woodcut illustrations by Picasso.

Ask for Rauner Rare Book PQ 2163.C4 1931

Vertebrae

Media: Beet juice, drawing, graphite, hand cutting, inks, mono-printing, painting, pastel, pencils, tumeric, xylene ink transfer, and other media. "Inset on the inside back cover are a row of Datura stramonium seeds... poisonous and psychotropic."  Goodness, what are we adding to the collections?

Organik's artist's book, Vertebrae (Brooklyn: Artichoke Yink Press and Organik, 2009) came to Dartmouth as a result of a class visit from book artist Marshall Weber last Spring.  After presenting books offered by the Booklyn Artists Alliance to a book arts workshop class, we asked the class what book they would buy if they were responsible for building the collections.  The overwhelming choice was Vertebrae, a book that presents "the intersection of human and plant form" through a collage of organic materials.

The book provides a perfect juxtaposition with our tremendous collection of historical anatomies.  Ask for Rauner Presses A778orve to experience this unique book.

Dartmouth Typeface

Did you know Dartmouth has its own letters? We pass signs everywhere on Dartmouth's campus. Imagine if you were asked to design the letters. Both Will Carter and Paul Hayden Duensing are mentioned in a recent acquisition at Rauner Library: The Private Typecasters : Preserving the Craft of Hot-Metal Type into the Twenty-First Century, Newtown, PA : Bird & Bull Press, 2008.

"The Private Press and Typefoundry of Paul Hayden Duensing takes pleasure in presenting the first showing of Dartmouth title designed by Will Carter." "Mr. Carter designed Dartmouth as a titling letter for the college... for signage and other display uses." "For this cutting new figures based on Octavian have been redrawn by Will Rueter, Toronto, to work with the letter. Dartmouth has been cut in the 22 point size in May and June of 1991 at The Private Press and Type-foundry of Paul Hayden Duensing and was the last complete font cast at Vicksburg, Michigan before the PP&T relocated."

To see an example of Dartmouth letters, see:

Author: Carter, Will, 1912-2001.
Title: [Alphabet of capital letters for Dartmouth typeface] [realia]
Imprint: [S.n. : s.l., 1965?]
Description: 28 hand carved wood blocks representing the capitals letters designed by Will Carter for the Dartmouth typeface.

Ask for: Rauner Realia 510

To see a different example of Dartmouth letters, see:

Author: Carter, Will, 1912-2001.
Title: R : This letter R demonstrates the main principles behind the shaping of the design called Dartmouth: emphatically waisted strokes, with strong, square-ended serifs and clearly defined counters; perfect for incising on stone or wood. Originally conceived for some carved teak panels in the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, it was later adapted as a type-face.
Imprint: [Hanover, N.H. : Will Carter, 1969]
Description: 1 broadside ; 40 x 26 cm.; "Prepared by Will Carter as a keepsake for his friends at Dartmouth College to record his stay as Artist-in-Residence during the Spring Term 1969."
Special Collections/Broadside copy: Author's autograph presentation copy, inscribed to Bernard Cohen. 

Ask for Rauner Broadside 969940.2

Ernest Hopkins Oral History

The College's ongoing custom of conducting oral history interviews with Dartmouth's retired presidents was begun back in the winter of 1958 when then Librarian of the College and Dean of Libraries Edward Connery Lathem '51 sat down with Dartmouth's eleventh president, Ernest Martin Hopkins.  Dean Lathem, with assistance from several alumni and former Hopkins staffers, interviewed the former president over a period of approximately six years, both here in Hanover and at his summer home in Maine.

Rauner Library has recently begun the process of bringing these Hopkins interviews into the digital age so that his voice may join the voices of those presidents who succeeded him in the twentieth century: John Sloan Dickey, John G. Kemeny, David T. McLaughlin and James O. Freedman.  (President Emeritus James E. Wright will soon follow.)  Transcripts of the first ten hours of the more than 35 hours of recordings are now available online and more will soon become available.  These transcripts are straight from the original 10" reels, without editing or indexing.   They reveal a man whom many credit with moving Dartmouth into the twentieth century.  He also was a good storyteller.  Listen and see for yourself.