Vintage Points

The surrender by General Robert E. Lee of his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 – one hundred fifty years ago this month – is often celebrated as the end of the American Civil War. In fact, other Confederate forces continued to fight for months thereafter, and tens of thousands of Union soldiers proceeded to occupy the South. President Andrew Johnson did not declare a formal end to the War between the States until August 20, 1866.

The Chapin Library has significant resources concerning the Civil War. These include printed books and broadsides, prints and maps, newspapers, and manuscript letters written from both the North and the South. Also available in the Chapin are numerous stereographs from 1861 to 1865, photographs which when viewed with a special device create a three-dimensional image. Six of these stereo views are currently on display in the window of the Archives–Chapin reading room, Sawyer Library Room 441. One of the most interesting is the view shown here, of a Union army sutler, or storekeeper. The description printed on the reverse of the card reads:

Stereo views were a popular form of entertainment during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and remain very collectible. Many firms produced or published them: here the publisher was the War Photograph & Exhibition Company of Hartford, Connecticut (typically, the photographer is not identified). This particular card was made, as explained on its reverse, more than a quarter century after the end of the Civil War, when the Hartford firm felt able to justify higher prices due to the increasing difficulty of printing from deteriorating negatives made in the field some three decades earlier.

Our thanks go to Williamstown photographer Nicholas Whitman for suggesting this display, drawn from the extensive collection of stereo views given to the Chapin Library by Robert P. Fordyce, Class of 1956. – WGH

Scholarship and Statesmanship: James Abram Garfield

James Abram Garfield

The Williams College Archives and Special Collections is hosting an exhibit April-August 2015 that details the life and legacy of Williams Alum, James Abram Garfield (Class of 1856). The exhibit will feature highlights from his time as a student at Williams, service in the military during the Civil War, his campaign and service as U.S. President, political life, and his tragic assassination and death.

The title of the exhibit was inspired by a letter that former Williams College President and trusted friend, Mark Hopkins, wrote to James Garfield shortly after he had been elected U.S. President. In his congratulatory letter, Hopkins stated “this honor is the result of no accident, but of achievement by steady work in scholarship and statesmanship so that when the occasion called, the man was there.”

The exhibit is made possible by the numerous donations the College Archives has received over the years (mostly from Williams Alumni) of Garfield memorabilia and documents.

The exhibit is located in the Schow Gallery on the fourth floor of Sawyer Library. We hope you can stop by and see some of the interesting stories and artifacts we’ve chosen for the exhibit. Please send any questions to [email protected].

To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of the great humanist printer Aldus Manutius, the Chapin Library, in conjunction with Williams Classics professor Edan Dekel, has mounted the exhibition Aldus Manutius: Scholar, Printer, Publisher: A Quincentenary Celebration. This will be on view in the Chapin Gallery (Sawyer Room 406) and the adjacent Archives/Chapin Instruction Gallery through April 24th.

Aldus (as he is familiarly called) was the leading publisher in Renaissance Venice, and his Aldine Press was responsible for issuing the first printed editions of nearly every major classical Greek author. Among his innovations were the development of italic type, the introduction of inexpensive, small-format editions of Greek and Latin authors that could be carried in one’s pocket, and the application of scholarly standards to the editing of the texts Aldus published.

Above all, Aldus strove to make the great works of classical literature, as well as important Italian ones, widely available to readers in the Renaissance. In that respect, he is perhaps the person most responsible for the spread of Greek learning in the sixteenth century and beyond, and he stands at the head of a tradition that established classical texts as one of the foundations of the liberal arts education as we know it to this day. – WGH

Shown is the opening of Vergil’s Aeneid in the “pocket” edition published by Aldus in 1501. A complementary article by Julia Menemo may be read here.

As I enter my third week as the new College Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, I’d like to take a moment and introduce myself as well as reflect on my journey at Williams College thus far. Prior to arriving at Williams, I was the Special Collections Librarian and Archivist at Elon University where I had worked since 2005. In my position at Elon, I was responsible for building the collections, services, and outreach from the ground up. I was a “lone-arranger” for several years, but when I left Elon I was supervising three full-time staff and the Archives and Special Collections was on the map for the entire Elon community.

My first day at Williams was October 6 and I am 100% sure that I have landed in a good place. Everyone I’ve met so far has been welcoming, friendly, supportive, and most importantly loves working at Williams College. I have experienced the nurturing and intellectual spirit of the College in almost every situation–something many newbies at other institutions probably don’t experience so early on.

I had the opportunity to be part of a Williams Alumni event on October 10 in which the Mike Reily Room was dedicated in the new Weston Field House. This event brought together members of the Williams Class of 1964, friends and family of Mike Reily, as well as others from the Williams community.  The College Archives has a scrapbook (created by Reily’s mother) all about Mike Reily’s high school days at Woodberry Forest and his college days at Williams. I was responsible for bringing the scrapbook to the event so attendees could view the amazing item first-hand. The reaction was simply stunning–everyone was impressed not only with how carefully the scrapbook was originally put together, but also how well it has been preserved by the College Archives. During the events that evening, it became clear to me very quickly what a special place Williams College is. The dedication to faculty, students, staff, research, alumni, and the community is remarkable.

In the coming weeks, months, and years I have no doubt I will continue to meet amazing people, experience and actively participate in the nurturing and intellectual climate, and grow in leaps and bounds both professionally and personally. I can’t think of a better place to do this than Williams College!

Visit the College Archives online, and feel free to make an appointment and we can discuss your research needs, support for library instruction, and any project you may be working on.

–KN

The Laws of Williams College, published 1795, is on display for a limited time in conjunction with exhibit The Libraries of Williams. Located in the level three entrance directly across from the circulation desk, the exhibit showcases the original printing of the Laws, images from old Sawyer Library, images from Stetson Library, and an image of the College’s first dedicated library space in Lawrence Hall.

One of the largest sections of the College’s first printing of its’ laws pertains to the Library and use of library materials. Books were not allowed to be removed from the Library without permission from the College Librarian. No more than three books could be charged out at one time, and it was illegal to take a book out of town.

The exhibit is on view during regular Sawyer Library hours. To protect the fragile condition of The Laws of Williams College, the book will be on display for Convocation weekend until September 22.

-JGDF

In support of the Book Unbound initiative, Professor Edan Dekel and College Archives co-curated an exhibit highlighting the first library collection of Williams, now known as the 1794 Collection. Purchased by the first Williams President, Ebenezer Fitch, the catalogue lists a diverse assortment of over 360 volumes, divided into such categories as: arts and sciences, voyages and travels, divinity and ecclesiastical history, history, languages, and poetry. The exhibit is now on view in the Archives/ Chapin instruction gallery on the 4th floor of Sawyer Library. Archives/ Chapin galleries are open Monday- Friday, 10am-5pm. On September 20th, the galleries are open from 1pm-6pm.

-JGDF

In conjunction with First Days and its theme of Adventure, the Chapin Library is displaying for the first week of September, in the new Archives/Chapin Instruction Gallery, a selection of original art by Pauline Baynes for the 1991 deluxe edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

These gouache drawings are part of the Library’s Pauline Baynes Archive, acquired in 2009. One, reproduced on the invitation to this year’s September 3rd open house, depicts spring coming to the land of Narnia after the return of Aslan.

The Archives/Chapin Instruction Gallery is located on the 4th floor of Sawyer Library, one of three galleries administered by the Chapin Library and College Archives. Other works from the Baynes collection, which includes the artist’s reference library and some three thousand individual pieces of art, may be seen by appointment in the Archives/Chapin Reading Room (Sawyer Room 441). – WGH

Art by Pauline Baynes, courtesy of the Williams College Oxford Programme, copyright © by C.S. Lewis Pte.