Claremont students: Come by Special Collections today for a treat.
This is Pomona College student Ada Coy in costume standing outside Baldwin House. circa 1903. From the digital collection Boynton Collection of Early Claremont.
Special Event: Sanctuary Movement talk
Solidarity in the 1980’s Sanctuary Movement: Maria Guardado and Darlene Nicgorski reunite to tell their stories 30 years later
Oct 23 4:30-6:00 PM
Founders Room, Honnold/Mudd Library
About the speakers:
Maria Guardado is probably the foremost Salvadoran activist in the United States. She began her political activism in 1966 when she worked on her first presidential campaign in opposition to the government in El Salvador; for the next 15 years she worked on behalf of several causes in El Salvador including the teacher’s union and a campesina organization. In January 1980 she was targeted for her activism and captured by paramilitary forces and tortured. She fled El Salvador and received political asylum in the United States in 1983, assisted by members of the Sanctuary Movement. Now living in Los Angeles, Maria continues her life as a political activist and poet, working with countless organizations fighting for immigrant rights and other progressive causes. A documentary about Maria, Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story (2002), has won numerous awards. She also is a renowned poet; her first CD, “Poemas”, was released in 2013.
Darlene Nicgorski was a leader in the Sanctuary movement for Central American refugees in the United States in the early 1980s. She was a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis for nearly 20 years during which she worked on behalf of Latin American refugees in Guatemala and Mexico then in Arizona where she became involved with the Valley Religious Task Force on Central America, which assisted refugees fleeing political unrest and persecution in Central America to find sanctuary in the United States. She was arrested for her activities and was a defendant in the Arizona Sanctuary Trial of 1985-1986. She has been much in demand as a spokesperson for the Sanctuary movement since her arrest, and has received numerous awards and recognitions. She donated her papers about the Sanctuary Movement to Special Collections in 2011. Darlene Nicgorski and her partner currently reside in Claremont.
Darlene gave her Sanctuary Movement papers to Special Collections, and they are available for study and research. The finding aid is online at the Online Archive of California.
Crispin MS 31
Crispin MS 31 is a 14th C English manuscript copy of Sermones Quadragesimiles; Distinctiones Theologicae by Jacopo de Voragine. It is interesting to us because it comprises 261 leaves of handmade paper plus 69 leaves of vellum, which is fairly atypical for this period.
de Voragine was a Genoese Dominican monk who was an prominent writer most known for chronicling the lives of the saints in the Golden Legend, one of the most popular Medieval works. Special Collections has an early printed copy of Golden Legend in the Michael Wilson Collection–the 1527 edition printed by Wynken de Worde.
Crispin 31 is decorated with several fanciful drawings and flourishes within and around the text. Below are just a few. Leaf 190 verso:
Leaf 127 recto:
Leaf 183 verso:
Summer research on the Civilian Conservation Corps
Food for Thought: A Taste of Special Collections in Farming, Dining, and War
I recently had the pleasure of working with Jennifer Bidwell on my very first Special Collections exhibit. In deciding on a “Summery” theme, we came up with food and found an abundance of relevant provisions throughout our collections to put on display. An initial survey of materials pointed to a number of subtopics we could present, such as agriculture, dining, cooking, the politics of food, food and population control, cultural dietary customs, and food relevant to California. Realizing we would have to limit our selection to what would fit in the cases, we chose to focus on farming, dining, and war.
The materials on display span three centuries, highlight multiple cultures, and range from books and pamphlets to posters, cutlery, and even a teapot. Along with drawing from our general collection of books, the exhibit showcases materials from a number of collections, including some that can be accessed through the Online Archive of California. These include the American Missionaries and Educators in China Collection, the World War Poster Collection, and the William McPherson Papers. Other represented collections include The Claremont Colleges Archives, the Nordic Collections, and the William Smith Mason Collection of Western Americana.
If you’re looking for a recipe, perhaps something prepared at the Pitzer Grove House, or something new to you, like sparrows brains (from Venus in the Kitchen), you will find it in the exhibit. You can also take a stroll down memory lane in Los Angeles or San Francisco as you read about local favorite restaurants, where you could have had a meal for under $6.00 and who was serving the best sushi.
Working on this exhibit, I was reminded of the wealth of information the library has to offer. It was also a nice change from my usual reading for school and I had fun flipping through books on the proper diet for a criminal and how dates came to be grown in California.
The exhibit will run until August 30, 2013. Please consider yourself our guest, come by and enjoy this feast of food for thought.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Special Collections recently added the early issues of the Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 1817-1899. It is a British magazine of literary publications and miscellany which was originally founded by publisher William Blackwood. The magazine is also referred to as Maga.
Hallå!
I have been updating the records in Blais for Special Collections’ Nordic Collection, making the information more accurate and also ensuring that the links from Blais to our online requesting system, Aeon, are working. While I have been working on this project, I have learned a little about this unique collection and its history.
Special Collections has more than thirty thousand volumes on Nordic history, literature, religion, education, politics, and economics. Most of the materials are in Danish, Swedish, or German. The collection began with a donation from Waldemar Westergaard, who was a professor at Pomona and UCLA, and Special Collections has added significantly to this collection with the acquisition of the personal libraries of David Bjork and other scholars, You can read more about the highlights of the Nordic Collection here.
And for some information on the background of the Westergaard donation, there is an interesting article by Franklin Scott in Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Nov. 1969). If you have access to JSTOR, you can check it out here.
7th Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar
Students, teachers, historians, and local history enthusiasts will find a treasure trove of L.A. history at the 7th Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar.
Presented by L.A. as Subject, a research collective hosted by the USC Libraries, the Bazaar offers numerous resources for exploring the rich histories of L.A.’s diverse neighborhoods and communities and virtually any subject related to the Los Angeles region.
Held at the Doheny Memorial Library on the USC campus, the Bazaar will feature exhibits over 70 local historical collections, museums, libraries and archives. Attendees can browse collections, schedule research visits, and consult with experts. Throughout the day, educational programming will cover a range of topics.
Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library and the Ella Strong Denison Library will share an exhibitor table – be sure to stop by and see us!
Admission is FREE!
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2012
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Doheny Memorial Library
USC University Park Campus
For more information visit https://laassubject.org/archives-bazaar
“Touring Yosemite” Exhibit
Now through December 22, come “tour” Yosemite through books, photographs, drawings, ephemera and other, mostly 19th century, primary source materials. See how visitors traveled to Yosemite. See where they stayed and what they did and saw. See how they reflected upon their experiences after leaving this wondrous place!
You can visit the exhibit anytime during Honnold/Mudd Library hours. Exhibit space is located 2nd floor, Honnold side, just inside the North entrance and just outside Special Collections. Exhibit was co-curated by Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona College and Lisa Crane, Western Americana Librarian, Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library.
Many items are on loan for this exhibit. However, some items from Special Collections, Honnold/Muud Library are also included; such as a 1904 diary and photo album from Pomona College, Class of 1900 alum Robert P. and Alice B. Jennings documenting their trip from Los Angeles to Yosemite via wagon and stereoview photographs from the Martin Mason Hazeltine collection.
There will be two related programs:
On Saturday, October 13th there will be a reception, talk and gallery tour by Denny Kruska, Los Angeles author and bibliographer, who loaned many of the materials on display. More details to follow.
On Wednesday, October 31st, Char Miller will give a Claremont Discourse Lecture on “Public Lands, Public Debates: A Century of Controversy”, his latest publication.
So save the dates! More information coming!
Welcome back, students!
Special Collections library staff are happy to see all of the students back on campus this week and particularly welcome those new to Claremont! Stop by and see us sometime– we are located on the 2nd floor of the Honnold/Mudd Library, near the North Entrance.
One of our current projects in Special Collections is going through all of the photographs we have from the Claremont Colleges, ensuring that they are properly labeled and preserved. It is fascinating to see how the buildings, faculty, and students have changed over the years. We hope you are more excited for the Fall semester than this Pomona College Dormitory Group from 1889!