The Sleepy Lagoon Case

One of the critical events that led up to the infamous Zoot Suit Riots in L.A. was the Sleepy Lagoon murder case. In 1942, a group of young Latino men were charged with the murder of Jose Diaz. 17 were convicted of first degree murder. The case brought to light the deep racial tensions that flared up two years later with rioting in Los Angeles and other cities across the country.

In 1942, the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee was formed. It consisted of civic leaders, intellectuals and Hollywood luminaries such as Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth and Joseph Cotten. They first issued this pamphlet in 1943 before the riots. This third printing from 1944 recounts the Sleepy Lagoon Case and reflects on the riots in a new introduction. The pamphlet tied the tactics of the prosecutors to those of Germany, Japan, and Italy, making the case a microcosm for the war effort. What was at stake was American liberty:

We are at war. We are at war not only with the armies of the Axis powers, but with the poison-gas of their doctrine, with the "biological basis" of Hitler and with his theories of race supremacy....
     We are at war with the premise on which seventeen boys were tried and convicted in Los Angeles, sentenced to long prison terms on January 13th of this year. We are at war with the Nazi logic so clearly and unmistakably set fourth by Mr. Ed. Duran Ayres, the logic which guided the judge and jury and dictated the verdict and the sentence.
     And because this global war is everywhere a people's war, all of us are in it together, all of us together take up the challenge of Sleepy Lagoon.

Ask for Rare KF224.S495S54 to see this remarkable pamphlet.

A Jug of Wine and Thou

This time it's not about the content, it's all about the presentation.  Bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, this bookbinding masterpiece is one of a number the pair produced in the early-twentieth century.  Like many similar examples, Rauner's copy was designed for the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. However, as the cliché states, you can't judge a book by its cover, and the sumptuous exterior stands in contrast to the fairly standard text block, which is from the 3rd edition (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1872). 

The most famous of these Rubáiyát bindings was lost on the Titanic and has been dubbed the "Great Omar."  Though not nearly as complex a binding as the "Great Omar" which featured several thousand individual jewels and leather onlays, our copy does include precious and semi-precious materials and a similar peacock motif on the front cover.  The serpent twined around the gold-leaf chalice on the back cover is made from real snake skin, naturally.

Ask for Bindings 210 to see this favorite.

As Nature Shows Them

At first glance, Sherman Denton's As Nature Shows Them: Moths and Butterflies of the United States (Boston, J. B. Millett, 1908) appears to be just another field guide for butterfly enthusiasts. But a closer look shows something extraordinary: the illustrations seem to shimmer like the flash of a butterfly wing in the sun. That is because the color plates are, in the words of the maniacally obsessed author:

Direct transfers from the insects themselves; that is to say, the scales of the wings of the insects are transferred to the paper while the bodies are printed from engravings and afterward colored by hand. The making of such transfers is not original with me, but it took a good deal of experimenting to so perfect the process as to make the transfers, on account of their fidelity to detail and their durability, fit for use as illustrations in such a work. And what magnificent illustrations they are, embodying all the beauty and perfection of the specimens themselves!

The edition of 500 copies, each with three volumes containing hundred of plates, required tremendous effort by Denton. He continues:

As I have had to make over fifty thousand of these transfers for the entire edition, not being able to get any one to help me who would do the work as I desired it done, and as more than half the specimens from which they were made were collected by myself, I having made many trips to different parts of the country for their capture, some idea of the labor in connection with preparing the material for the publication may be obtained.

To see the wonders of his "labor of love" ask for Rare Book QL549 .D42.

"Houston, We've Had a Problem"

So goes the often misquoted announcement by Jack Swigert after one of the spacecraft's oxygen tanks ruptured during the Apollo 13 mission.  The ultimate cause of the rupture was determined to be a fairly lengthy chain of unlikely events.  This is detailed in the NASA report from July 1970, titled Apollo 13 Cryogenic Oxygen Tank 2 Anomaly: Anomaly Report No. 1. Shown here is an onboard camera image of the tank area after the rupture. This report as well as the mission plan and final report for Apollo 13 can be found in the papers of Richard Allenby, Dartmouth class of 1944.

In addition to the Apollo 13 mission, Allenby's papers contain photographs, illustrations, technical reports, professional correspondence, mission reports, and official programs from the NASA manned Space Programs Gemini III, IV, V, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, Mercury, and Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

Among the many images in the collection is one of President Richard Nixon exchanging "OK" signs with the members of the Apollo 11 mission.  Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins were the first astronauts to land on the moon and were placed in quarantine aboard the USS Hornet after they returned to earth to minimize the possibility of contamination by unknown pathogens from the moon.

Ask for MS-1024 to see these items and many more.  A finding aid for the collection is available.

Most Popular Item

People always ask us what is the most requested item in our collections. When we answer, they are almost always surprised. That is because the most requested item in our collections is something that is hardly ever requested by Dartmouth students, faculty, or staff--90% of its use is from visitors. What is it? The first edition of Joseph Smith's The Book of Mormon; An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi (Palmyra, NY: Printed by E.B. Grandin for the author, 1830).

The book gets so much use that our Preservation team, Deborah Howe and Stephanie Wolff, constructed a special box for it. With the pull of two simple cords, the box transforms into a secure custom-fit cradle to facilitate use of the book.

Joseph Smith was born in nearby South Royalton, Vermont. Thousands of people visit his birthplace each year from all over the world. Many then pay a visit to Rauner Library to view the Book of Mormon. Smith has an important tie to Dartmouth: Nathan Smith, founder of the Darmouth Medical school (and no relation to Joseph), treated his leg when he was a child and, so the story goes, saved his leg from amputation.

To see the book yourself, ask for Val RBJM B644sg.

A is Not for Aubrey

Though Aubrey Beardsley is perhaps best known for his more grotesque and erotic works, many of which were featured in illustrated editions of Oscar Wilde's writings, he was also involved in numerous other influential projects.  One of these was the lavishly produced edition of Morte d'Arthur (London: J.M. Dent, 1893-1894) which was issued in 12 parts and included more than a thousand illustrations by Beardsley.  The text was a reprint of the original William Caxton printing from 1485 with text by Sir Thomas Malory, but the spelling in this edition was updated to a more modern style - presumably to allow for easier reading.

Shown here are both an original drawing and the final printed version of the illustrated chapter initial from book 13, chapter 1, which begins the story of the Grail and starts "At the vigil of Pentecost..."  Though the original is unsigned, there is a note on the reverse which reads: "In my opinion this is a genuine drawing by Beardsley.--R.A. Walker (authority on Beardsley)"

To see the original drawing, ask for Iconography 212.  To compare it to the printed version from the "superior issue", ask for Illus B38maja, vol 3. and turn to page 689.

Before the Lorax

Soon after Ted Geisel (Class of 1925), aka Dr. Seuss, graduated from Dartmouth, he worked in the advertising business. Among the more prominent clients he worked for was Standard Oil. He created ad campaigns for several of Standard Oil's products including an insecticide, "Flit," made primarily of mineral oil used to kill mosquitoes, flies, and other insects. Liberal spraying around the yard was encouraged. Dr. Seuss also created advertisements for Ex-Tane, a petroleum based cleaner, and and engine oil, "Essolube."  Our collection contains advertisement work for all three products including this jigsaw puzzle, just recently acquired. It is part of "The Five Star Theater Foiled by Essolube: A Jig-Saw-Melodrama." It features a family driving away from a hoard of automotive monsters: the Zero-Doccus, the Karbo-Nockus, the Moto-Munchus, the Oilio-Gobelus, and the Moto-Raspus.

The advertisements show the evolution of Seuss's style, but they also force you to think about the evolution of his environmentalist ethic. In the late 1920s and 1930s, when these ads were created, petroleum products were hardly a concern to most Americans: they offered cheap fuel for progress. Only later, when the impact of pesticides, harsh chemical cleaners, and automobile exhaust became apparent, would these ads seem out of character. Seuss, of course, went on to create, The Lorax, a cautionary tale about the dangers of pollution brought on by mass consumerism and industry.