What do prints made from trees, orientalizing lithographs, miniature books, and melodramatic gesture have in common? We saw them all in the Rare Looks series of presentations, presented in conjunction with the Visualizing the Liberal Arts (Viz) Initiative.
Rare Looks (Virtual) Artist Talk: Fred Hagstrom
On November 9th, 2021 retiring Rae Schupack Nathan Professor of Art, Fred Hagstrom gave a virtual artist’s talk. Professor Hagstrom discussed four of his artist’s books, three of which were on view in the library exhibit, ‘People, Place, and Promise,’ which was inspired by the ‘Why Treaties Matter,’ exhibit on campus Fall 2021.
How We See the Moon: Changing Techniques in Lunar Imaging
November 8, 2011
Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Cindy Blaha, and Traci Johnson ’12, gave a lecture on lunar imaging, and provided audience members with the opportunity to see examples of lunar images from Carleton’s own Special Collections.
Ever since telescopes revealed its heavily cratered and mountain rimmed surface, humans have been fascinated by the lunar landscape. We will explore Carleton’s rich history of lunar observations, ranging from the Atlas photographique de la lune from 1896-1910 to recent digital imagery taken at Goodsell Observatory.
Hobbes’s Thucydides: The Humanist Origins of Political Science
March 2, 2011
Faculty members Tim Raylor (English) and Barbara Allen (Political Science) discussed the importance of the volume for students of the history of political thought; explained the interpretive debate about the iconography of the engraved title page; and suggested why students of political theory need to look at the original edition, rather than relying on modern reprints of Hobbes’s Thucydides.
Rare Looks at the Middle East
Thursday, November 11, 2010
How does Gould Library Special Collections support the Middle Eastern Studies Initiative? What provocative, engaging, challenging materials can we unearth from the collection to enhance our teaching of Middle Eastern topics? Novels, travel guides, artists’ books, facsimiles, maps, missionary accounts . . .The list is longer than you might suppose!
Special Collections and Viz hosted an hour of discovery and conversation focused on putting these treasures to use. Yaron Klein started off the conversation with some brief remarks on his own use of Special Collections materials in his classes.
Changing Thought in the 18th Century
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Denis Diderot, writer, philosopher, and chief editor of the famous eighteenth-century French Encyclopedie, wrote that its aim was “to change the way people think.”
The 35 volume Encyclopedie is remarkable for many reasons: it became the model for later encyclopedias; it was the largest publishing venture undertaken in Europe up to that time; the volumes themselves are magnificent examples of 18th-century book-making; and above all, the publication represents the thought and spirit of the Enlightenment.
Carleton faculty members Susannah Ottaway (History) and Roger Paas (German) provided historical and cultural context for the publication.
America’s Favorite Book, 1860-1930: Owen Meredith’s Lucile
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A talk by Sidney Huttner, Head, Special Collections and University Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries. Learn more about The Lucile Project.
Inventing America: Understanding De Bry’s Grands Voyages
Thursday, February 11, 2010
This panel highlighted the potential for using objects from Gould Library’s Special Collections. We displayed the College’s copies of the first two volumes of Theodor De Bry’s Grands Voyages, a multi-volume work that provided the European public with its first visual images of inhabitants of the New World. Our volumes (1590 and 1591) deal with the founding of Virginia (Vol. 1) and Florida (Vol. 2).
Colleagues from three departments Serena Zabin (History), Laurel Bradley (Art History), and Jackson Bryce (Classical Languages) examined these magnificent books from the perspective of their discipline and teaching, and together we discussed these rare books and how such materials from Carleton’s Special Collections might enhance our courses.
Artists’ Books as Expression, Documentation, and Pedagogy
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Max Yela, head of Special Collections at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a book arts educator, discussed the use of artists’ books not only as an art form, but also as documentary evidence and as tools for interdisciplinary instruction.
Into the Woods: Transforming Trees into Artists’ Books
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Book artist and wood engraver Gaylord Schanilec talked about his journey into the woods to produce “Sylvae,” a work of art and science that is both about and made from the woods around his studio and press in Western Wisconsin. Dan Bruggeman (Studio Arts) and Mark McKone (Biology) began the discussion with a multidisciplinary Carleton perspective on this extraordinary book.
Capturing The Alhambra in the 19th Century
October 15, 2008
Baird Jarman and Melanie Michailidis (Art History) gave an introduction in the Athenaeum, followed by a trip downstairs to Special Collections to examine and discuss this beautiful work.