Hours in Print

Most people associate books of hours with illuminated medieval manuscripts, not printed books. Throughout the first fifty years of printing, manuscript copies of these prayer books continued to be made. The market demanded luxury items, richly illuminated with gold and hand painted miniatures on soft vellum. The new technology of movable type was not seen as appropriate for these monuments to personal piety.

That changed in 1500 when Paris printer Simon Vostre began creating elaborately illustrated printed books of hours on vellum. This one, printed between 1500 and 1505, contains 18 full-page woodcuts, 30 smaller ones, and historiated woodcut borders on each page. An elaborate dance of death runs though the office of the dead. To "finish" the book, and make it harmonious with his customers' expectations of a book of hours, Vostre had the capitals and line ornaments hand illuminated in gold, red, and blue.

You can see for yourself by asking for Rauner Incun 154.

Ovid in Emblems

This curious edition printed in Lyon in 1564 reduces Ovid's Metamorphoses to a series of exquisitely executed woodcuts. The images, accompanied by only short snippets of text, become emblems for the myths they represent. Ovid was so prevalent in the culture that the publisher could count on his audience knowing the stories, so he could use the Metamorphoses as a vehicle for Bernard Saloman illustrations.

Our copy is bound in limp vellum and lies open in the palm of your hand, feeling almost weightless. We often argue that working with rare books can lead a student to ask questions he or she may never have thought to ask. The tactile and visual experience of this book evokes an ill-defined sense of the past. It sends you back in time and begs you to imagine the original owner holding it in 16th-century France.

Come experience it yourself by asking for Rare PA6523.M2T6 1564.

Reader's Indigest

Shortly after Castro's rise to power, this satirical supplement to La Revista Mella was published in Havana.  Like a kind of anti-Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern or MAD magazine for revolutionaries, nothing capitalist or imperialist was spared from ridicule. The seemingly tame front cover, with its inspirational quotation from Winston Churchill and a depiction of a hard working European farmer, dissolves into a fierce social critique when opened fully.

The issue goes on to lampoon bastions of middle-class America: Coca-Cola, Reader's Digest, and the Saturday Evening Post.  Despite the anti-capitalistic theme, some of the humor is universal, like the condensed version of Romeo and Juliet, which would not have been out of place on any supermarket shelf.

Come see it by asking for Salaciones del Reader's Indigest, Rare PN 6790.C7 S35

The Hartford Bridge Disaster of 1887

In the frigid early morning hours of Saturday, February 5, 1887, a Vermont Central train, the “night express,” was heading north to Montreal. Having just left the station in White River Junction, it approached the 650-foot long wooden trestle bridge across the White River, four miles north of town. The train consisted of an engine, a baggage car, a mail car, two passenger coaches, a sleeping car from Springfield, Massachusetts, and a Pullman car from Boston. All told, about 80 people were on the train that morning.

There was a jolt as the train approached the bridge abutment. The rear sleeper jumped the tracks and fell from the bridge onto the frozen river 40 feet below, taking with it the three cars ahead of it. These cars uncoupled from the front of the train, which was able to get off the bridge to safety. The impact of the fall scattered the coaches, and they almost instantly caught fire, likely from the burning stoves and oil lamps on board. The burning cars then set fire to the bridge, and it, too, collapsed onto the ice.

The Paine house where the wounded were first taken,
and where Conductor Strutevant died February 6.

Reports indicate that the temperature was nearly 20 below zero, and the ice on the river nearly 2 feet thick, so water was not readily available. Unable to abate the fire, survivors and the volunteers who had rushed to the scene placed their efforts on getting as many people as possible out of the wreckage before the flames made it impossible be near the train. Accounts vary, but approximately 35 people died in the crash and fire, and another 40 were injured, making this the worst rail disaster in Vermont.

South abutment from the ice,
showing broken trucks, etc., in foreground

This photograph of the disaster, along with several others, were taken by Hanover photographer H.H.H. Langell. During the subsequent investigation, he also photographed the section of flawed rail blamed for the accident.

Ask for the "Hartford, Vermont Bridge Disaster" photo file and the "Hartford (Vermont) Bridge Wreck" vertical file to find out more about this incident.

Audubon: Birds, and Mammals Too

As today is the 226th birthday of John James Audubon, it seemed fitting to write an entry about him. Since we've posted previously about the double elephant folio edition of Birds of America and why our set has special meaning here at Dartmouth, we turn to a lesser known, but equally impressive work, Quadrupeds of North America.

After the success of Birds of America, Audubon set out to produce a companion book focusing on American mammals. Drawing the mammals from life was more challenging than it had been with the birds, as many of the animals were nocturnal. In addition, Audubon was becoming increasingly frail and was unable to travel to the extent that the work necessitated. His health failing, Audubon could not complete all of the drawings; his son, John Woodhouse Audubon, did many of them. His son Victor Gilford created the backgrounds and most of the text was written by Rev. John Bachman, a naturalist and clergyman. The last of the three volumes appeared in 1848; Audubon died three years later.

Canada Lynx

Ask for Rauner Rare QL715 .A92 (3 vols.) to see our edition of the Quadrupeds.

Happy 300th Birthday, Eleazar!

It may not be a national holiday, but today is the 300th birthday of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth’s founder and demiurge. Born on April 22, 1711 in Windham Connecticut, Wheelock showed great promise from a young age. While attending Yale as a member of the class of 1733, he was awarded the Berkley Scholarship for academic excellence. Upon his graduation and acceptance into the Congregationalist ministry, Wheelock crisscrossed New England igniting spiritual fervor in the hearts and minds of men as one of the more successful preachers of the Great Awakening.

In an effort to supplement his meager ministerial salary, Wheelock began boarding and preparing young men for their college matriculation. One such pupil was a young Mohegan, Samson Occom, who showed such promise and agility of mind that Wheelock was inspired to found a school with the express purpose of educating Native Americans, so that they might return to their own communities as missionaries and schoolmasters. However, Wheelock envisioned a far larger undertaking than could be accommodated in his Connecticut farm house. Following a fundraising trip to Europe, led by Occom and Nathanial Whitaker, Wheelock finally had sufficient backing to found his college in the woods. Dartmouth College received its royal charter on December 13,1769, and in August 1770, Wheelock’s students marched over 100 miles to the school’s new location in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Eleazar Wheelock died in Hanover in 1779. One can’t help but wonder what Rev. Wheelock would think of his small college in the wilderness if he were able to see Dartmouth today.

Posted for Jo Meyer '11.

Leavitt's Maps of the White Mountains

Franklin Leavitt was a farmer from Lancaster, New Hampshire who supplemented his income by acting as a guide for visitors to the White Mountains.  Around 1851, apparently having concluded that there was enough interest in the region, he decided to create a map of the area and sell it to tourists.  Though his map included some rudimentary information about distances between major cities and area attractions, it was not to be used as a travel aid, but rather act as a souvenir of the trip.

Published in 1852, the first edition had north at the bottom of the map and included small vignettes of area hotels and local attractions. Later editions of Leavitt's maps, including the 1854 edition shown here, re-oriented the drawing so that north faced the more conventional top of the sheet and added additional illustrations.

The Willey Family Tragedy.

One of these pictorial views tells the tale of the destruction of the Willey family.  In 1826, the Willey family became concerned that a landslide might destroy their house and so built a shelter in what was supposed to be a safer location.  In a twist of tragic irony, when the feared slide did occur, a large boulder near the house diverted the slide around the house while flattening the "safer" shelter that the Willey's and their hired hands hand just taken refuge in.

Rauner holds all eight editions of Leavitt's maps, including the rare 1876 version.  Ask for Iconography 1294 to see the maps.