Artist Herman Rosse (1887–1965) studied in his native Netherlands, at the Royal College of Art in London, and at Stanford. In 1913 he and his wife moved to the United States, where Rosse was a prolific architect, designer, and teacher. He first made set and costume designs for theatre while living in California. Later, in […]
As we conclude the month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Chapin Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of an Ottoman manuscript Qur’an from the mid-19th century, written and decorated in a style which some consider to be the brightest flowering of Arabic calligraphy, and comprising 302 leaves of supreme reverence of the […]
In recent months we have added to the Chapin Library a variety of ephemera from the collection of Henry M. Halsted III, Williams Class of 1948. Most of these items were printed in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, during the Cold War between the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union and the Western powers led […]
Chesterwood, an Historic Site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has transferred its archival collections to the Chapin Library for preservation, digitization, and access. Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), America’s foremost twentieth-century public sculptor, lived at Chesterwood, his Stockbridge, Massachusetts country home, studio, and gardens, for more than thirty years, during which time he documented […]
The Chapin Library’s recent acquisition of Physiologie du goût, ou Méditations de gastronomie transcendante by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1825, dated 1826) is celebrated in the March 2010 Williams Alumni Review, available here. This first edition of one of the foundation works of culinary history and gastronomy, one of only two known copies inscribed by the […]
Wayne Hammond, Assistant Chapin Librarian, and Sylvia Kennick Brown, Williams College Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, are featured in a podcast newly added to the Williams online multimedia collection.In an interview with Sean Pegado, Class of 2011, they spoke about the activities of the two special collections departments at Williams, highlighting for the Chapin its […]
During the holidays just past, we were pleased to receive for the Chapin Library notable gifts from Neal Baer, M.D. and Ms. Gerrie Smith of Los Angeles, California, and from Dr. Michael D. Rosse of Yeadon, Pennsylvania. From Dr. Baer and Ms. Smith came a book considered one of the most important in the history […]
In the course of a long and successful career, John DePol (1913–2004) produced thousands of wood-engravings, etchings, and lithographs to illustrate books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera, and advertisements. He worked with commercial firms and with many distinguished American private printers such as the Allen Press, the Stone House Press, and the Yellow Barn Press. In 1963 […]
The importance of the bee to life on earth has long been recognized. Nearly 19,500 bee species have been counted worldwide, most of which do not produce honey but are crucial nonetheless as pollinators of flowering plants, including many food crops. Much attention is now being focused on bees, as entire colonies have disappeared and […]
Among recent additions to the Chapin Library are these three books: An Oak Spring Herbaria: Herbs and Herbals from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries: A Selection of the Rare Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Tony Willis, edited with a description of […]
