Mourning a Prince

Four hundred years ago this week, Henry, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, died at the age of 18. The death of the popular prince, which cleared the way for the later ascension of his younger brother Charles I, was met with a great show of public grief. One slender volume in our collection, Three Elegies on the Most Lamented Death of Prince Henrie (London: William Welbie, 1613) by Cyril Tourneur, John Webster, and Thomas Heywood, shows the depth of mourning through its very printing.

The book's title page expresses loss by inverting the usual woodcut printing process to print white text on black. But the printers carried the grief throughout the book by alternating pages printed in black opposite each page of text. The dark ink on each verso bleeds through the paper so the text rests on a somber, dark background.

Between the elegies, a period of sorrow is enforced by two-page spreads of black.

For a moment of reflection and grief, ask for Rare PR1195.E5T68 1613.

Zombie President

What happens when a candidate passes away during an election? When Horace Greeley lost the 1872 election, he lost a lot more than his pride. In fact, Greeley died before the Electoral College even cast their votes – but after the popular election was over. How does an election continue with one of the major contenders dead?

The 1872 election was framed by the Liberal Republicans and Democrats as "anyone but Grant." Liberal Republicans split from the incumbent president, Ulysses S. Grant, and the Radical Republicans in 1870. In 1872, they nominated Horace Greeley to represent the party. The Democrats, who Greeley had clashed with in the past, decided to back Greeley as well, in hope of getting Grant out of office. However, Grant had too much support and momentum. While both parties backed Greeley, neither had a strong sense of loyalty to the poor campaigner. Grant won 286 electoral votes and Greeley 66.

Only 25 days after the general population voted, Greeley died. The election and the death of his wife had driven him to overwhelming psychological and physical breakdowns. In light of a situation that had never been encountered before (or since), the Electoral College was unsure on how to proceed. Some voted for Greeley, despite his death. These votes were invalid. Most cast their votes for other Democrats, though, unsurprisingly, none were able to make a sizeable dent in Grant’s lead. Grant went on to four more years as President, and the issue of a President dying in election has not been dealt with since.

For a dead man to lose the election is tragic, but politically resolvable. While Grant had clearly won the 1872 election, polls are much closer this year so dealing with the death of a candidate would likely be more complicated. There is no federal mandate on how the Electoral College votes; logically the parties would instruct electors on their chosen plans of action, whether it be to elect the Vice President or to select a new candidate.

For the Election poster ask for Broadside 872900.2, the letter on the election is MS 872554.1.

Posted for Kate Taylor '13

Hitting the Right Note in Presidential Elections

One aspect that dominated earlier presidential elections in the United States missing from modern day elections is campaign songs. Candidates today often use already popular songs as "theme songs," a tradition started by FDR in 1932. In previous centuries lyrics specific to the candidate would be set to well known tunes. This allowed for more direct arguments in songs to be sung in rallies and spread in support of certain candidates. Looking at the bold and sometimes absurd lyrics, the images the candidates wanted to portray of themselves (and their opponents) becomes strikingly clear.

For example, "For Jefferson and Liberty" made the pretty obvious link between the election of Thomas Jefferson and escape from religious bigotry and tyranny. George Washington was similarly straightforward in "Follow Washington" (featuring lyrics such as "My lads march on/And follow, follow Washington"). The peppy, upbeat melodies were easy to follow, allowing for wide distribution and singing at events.

However, candidates were not opposed to an occasional smear campaign. Depictions of the grim future other candidates would bring to America are common in modern elections and were just as prominent in the nineteenth century. "Little Know Ye Who’s Coming" was a frankly terrifying description of the future should John Quincy Adams not be elected--an America filled with swords, pistols, guns, famine, slavery and knavery. On a similar note, "If the Johnies Get Into Power Again" warned against allowing the Southern Democrats to win the 1880 election, as "The nation’s flag will lose its stars/The stripes they’ll change to rebel bars."

Rauner has a number of works from one election famous for its campaign songs. The 1840 presidential election had one of the more extensive and influential repertoires, forming a key part of William Henry Harrison's enthusiastic campaign. "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" is perhaps the best-known campaign song of all time. The song that became Harrison's slogan refers to Harrison's battle between his Indiana militia and Native Americans while gesturing to his vice president, John Tyler, "too." While "Tip and Ty" was most popular, Harrison had other songs, such as the "National Whig Song," which called for citizens to vote for this "fine, true-hearted gentleman." Harrison's aggressively upbeat campaigning allowed him to side-step national issues, such as slavery. Instead, he was able to portray himself as the candidate of the people in a time of economic depression. Unfortunately, his intense campaigning and extended inauguration speech led to Harrison's death of pneumonia only a month after being sworn into office.

Looking at these examples makes one wonder - should Obama and Romney be writing their own campaign songs? While will.i.am created a memorable music video "Yes, We Can" supporting Obama in 2008, no such tunes have emerged this year. Would YouTube and the Internet offer a new way to make these campaign songs go viral?

To sing along, ask for: The National Whig song - SC 414, Tip and Ty - SC 288, The Whigs of Colombia shall prevail - SC 478

Posted for Kate Taylor '13.

Shakespeare's Superstorm

The Shakespeare play that best lends itself to a spectacular performance is The Tempest.  Magic, fairies and huge storms gave 19th-century producers an opportunity to put on a Big Show and entertain audiences with the latest special effects. These playbills from our extensive Williams/Watson Theater collection present Shakespeare as a rousing good time--not exactly the high culture we have come to expect.

The 1823 production at Theatre-Royal in York hyped the "BURSTING of a MOUNTAIN into a VOLCANO" and "the ascension of Ariel." The play was based on Dryden and D'Avenant's popular 1670 rewrite of The Tempest and contained nearly 20 songs. More impressive was the 1856 production that featured 23,000 feet of painted scenery scrolling behind the actors in an "enchanted panorama" and used "extensive machinery" for other effects.

Curiously, a playbill from 1897 has Isadora Duncan in a bit role as one of the "spirits attending on Prospera." The next year she moved to London where she would soon become one of the giants of dance.

Come in and ask for Playbills PR ENK-You-TR 8230512, PR MA-Boe-BoT2 8560329, PR MA-Bos-Hol 8970510.

Friends Conceived

With birth control a hot button issue with the upcoming election, Dartmouth students can look inside Rauner library to gain some insight on topics that are still inciting national controversy. The papers of Juliet Barrett Rublee offer a peek into the beginnings of the birth control movement in America, with private letters and publications from which Planned Parenthood stemmed.

Rublee became involved in the birth control movement after meeting Margaret Sanger at a literary salon in 1912 and was immediately drawn to the activist. Sanger, at that time just beginning her work in sex ed and the fight for birth control, would go on to become the infamous founder of Planned Parenthood. She and Rublee became fast friends in the 1910’s, just as the birth control movement was beginning to blossom and Sanger was forced into exile in Europe. The pair was in near constant communication over the following decades. While Rauner has an extensive collection of letters Rublee received from a number of people, including her husband and other birth control activists, her letters from Sanger are perhaps the most intriguing.

Sanger is a figure that has been portrayed in modern times as impossibly forward-thinking and inconceivably cruel, an opinion usually divided across political lines. However, her letters to Juliet Rublee instead show an emotional and passionate woman deeply invested in the issue of birth control. Her letters are intended to keep Rublee, one of Sanger’s major funders as well as a leader in the movement, in the loop on different fronts on the birth control movement. Sanger’s casual name-dropping of authors, radical political figures and celebrities paint a rich picture of the interconnected world of early-nineteenth-century radical politics.

The letters also offer a window into Sanger’s private life. While Sanger and Rublee were brought together by political activism, they also shared less lofty interests: the opera, worrying about illness, strange crash diets. Sanger and Rublee, despite their warnings to the other to burn the letters in fear of discovery, rarely censored themselves in their writing, leading to both sordid details and a few tersely worded fights. Some particularly juicy letters touch on Sanger and Rublee’s interest in psychic mediums, Sanger’s involvement in the free love movement and associated affairs, and hints at a relationship between Sanger and Rublee that borders on romantic.

Check out MS-731 to see how Juliet Barrett Rublee mixed her personal and political life in helping found the birth control movement in America.

Posted for Kate Taylor '13.

Operation Crossroads

David Bradley, Dartmouth Class of 1938, was a member of the Radiological Safety Section for the Able and Baker tests conducted during Operation Crossroads, one of several peacetime nuclear bomb blasts carried out at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. He was a member of the team that measured radioactivity at various altitudes immediately after each explosion. Bradley's book No Place to Hide (Boston: Little Brown, 1948) was a memoir about the Bikini Atoll experiments and attempted to expose the dangers associated with nuclear fallout and atomic warfare to the public at large.

In a May 5, 1947, letter to David Lilienthal, chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, Bradley explains his purpose in publishing information about the tests. He writes, "in light of current world affairs we Americans cannot afford the luxury of ignorance," and adds that "informed public opinion is the only hope in playing our cards right in the great international game going on today."

In addition to his correspondence and manuscripts of No Place to Hide, Bradley's papers contain numerous photographs associated with the tests as well as his personal log for that period. The entry for July 1, 1946, reads

For us miles away from the Target, the bomb went off unannounced. We saw no flash through our goggles, and felt no impact. But soon after we could see the fateful cloud, boiling up thru the strato cumulus, thick, dense, white. At first it looked like many another thunderhead, but its rapid climb and mushrooming, white, evil looking head soon stamped it as the McCoy.

Ask for MS-1002. A guide to the collection is available.  The published version of No Place to Hide is also available in Rauner.

A Beautiful Fake

People frequently ask us how we know everything in our collections is real. We are quite certain about the authenticity of most of the things in our collection, but occasionally we are sure the other way--we know something is a fake, and we are proud to proclaim it.

One such example is our great collection of Thomas Wise forgeries donated by George Singer '50. Wise was a bibliographer, book collector and sometimes forger. He would insert very rare items (some of which never existed) into his bibliographies of English Romantics, then print some up, "discover" them and sell them as extraordinary rarities. Wise's forgeries tend to be fairly plain, in the style of a nineteenth-century English book.

More spectacularly, we have one piece by "The Spanish Forger." No one knows exactly who he was, but his body of work has been traced and well documented by curators at the Morgan Library and Museum. The Spanish Forger, who was active in the late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century, would take old manuscript leaves lacking illuminations, which could be purchased quite cheaply, then illuminate them in a convincing style. Back on the market, they turned a tidy profit.

Ask for MS 002088 to see our loveliest fake (donated by Mark Lansburgh '49).