The Shelf List highlights items added to the catalog in the past month. Some of these are new acquisitions and some are items from our backlog. Follow the links to view the full catalog records.

Art Curiosa Collection

Book of Detective Stories. Boston: A. B. Courtney, 1894.

Buntline, Ned. The Indian Queen’s Revenge. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur Westbrook Company, 1909.

Buntline, Ned. Tiger-eye. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur Westbrook Company, 1909.

Fletcher, Samuel. Eagle-eyed Zeke, the Long-armed Trapper. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur Westbrook Company, 1909.

Hamilton, W. J. Tuscaloosa Sam, Or, Life in the Wilds. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur Westbrook Company, 1909.

The Handy Manual: A Veritable Mine of Useful and Interesting Statistics, Information, Etc. Boston, Mass.: A.B. Courtney, 1895.

Lang, Andrew, and H. J. Ford. The Green Fairy Book. Authorized crown ed. London ; New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929.

Meserve, Arthur L. Trapper Joe, Or, The Outlaw of Lake Huron: A Story of the Northern Lakes. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur Westbrook Company, 1909.

Pemmon, Frank. Book of Brief Narratives. Boston: A. B. Courtney, 1894.

Robinson, George W. The Red Star of the Seminoles: A Tale of Wild Life On the Border. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur Westbrook Company, 1909.

The Unique Story Book. Boston: A. B. Courtney, 1895.

 

Autographed Books Collection

Bryce, Colette. Selected Poems. London: Picador, 2017.

McCormack, Mike. Solar Bones. New York: Soho Press, 2018.

 

Maps, Images, and Graphics Collection

Gen’l. Franz Sigel: At the Battle of Pea-Ridge, Ark. March 8th, 1862. New York: Currier & Ives, 152 Nassau St., 1862.

Grand Banner of the Radical Democracy, for 1864: Genl. John C. Fremont. for President. Genl. John Cochrane, for Vice President. New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 152 Nassau St., 1864.

Grand, National, Democratic Banner: Press Onward. New York: N. Currier, 2 Spruce St. N., 1844.

Grand, National, Democratic Banner: Press Onward. : President and Vice-president. [New York]: Lith. & pub. by N. Currier, 2 Spruce St. N.Y., 1844.

Grand, National, Democratic Banner. Press Onward. [New York]: Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier, 152 Nassau St. cor. of Spruce, 1848.

Grand, National, Democratic Banner – Press Onward. [New York]: Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier, 152 Nassau St. cor. of Spruce, 1852.

Grand, National, Democratic Banner – Press Onward – Portraits From Daguerreotypes By T. Dunlap. [New York]: Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier, 152 Nassau St. cor. of Spruce, 1852.

Grand National Republican Banner: Liberty and Union. New York: Currier & Ives, 125 Nassau St., 1876.

Grand National Union Banner for 1860: The Candidates and Their Platform. New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 1860.

Grand National Whig Banner: “Onward.” : Henry Clay. T. Frelinghuysen. The Nation’s Choice for President & Vice President. [New York]: Lith. & pub. by N. Currier, 2 Spruce St., 1844.

Grand National Whig Banner: “Union for the Sake of Union” : Winfield Scott, William A. Graham. New York: Lith. & pub. by N. Currier, 1852.

Major Gen. Benj. F. Butler, of Massachusetts. Hartford: E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, 245 Main St., 1884.

National Democratic Banner. New York: Currier & Ives, 1860.

A Philosopher in Ecstasy. (By George! I’ve Got It!!). New York: Published by Currier & Ives, 125 Nassau St., 1872.

The Presidents of the United States. New York: Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier 2 Spruce, St. N.Y., 1844.

William Henry Harrison: Ninth President of the United States — Born Feb. 9, 1773 — Inaugurated March 4, 1841 — Died April 4, 1841. [Hartford, Conn.]: Lith. of E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, 1841.

Note: Our entire collection of 19th-century political lithographs has been digitized previously and is available in our Digital Library.

 

If you are interested in viewing any Special Collections materials, you can schedule an appointment with our staff.

One of our recent acquisitions is a scrapbook compiled by Edith Isabella Good (1849-1922), accompanied by a few loose leaves from a scrapbook begun by her brother Frederick. Their father, Clements Good, served as the Consul General for Denmark in Hull, England for fifty years from 1846 to 1896, and was also the principal partner of a shipping firm.

Edith was a talented artist whose work was included in juried group exhibitions in England and Ireland. Her scrapbook includes some beautiful watercolors, pen & ink drawings, and silhouettes. The art primarily consists of portraits of women and children from her family, but there are also a few landscapes and floral studies.

Among the portraits are three of young women dressed to play lawn tennis, which was just becoming popular at the time. The portraits are noteworthy for depicting the costumes worn for playing tennis, including early tennis shoes with India rubber soles and tennis rackets.

Also of interest is a watercolor image depicting the family’s two Bengali nannies with a group of six white children.

Edith’s brother Frederick de Coninck Good (1852-1887) was a graphic artist in addition to joining his father in the family businesses. He enjoyed creating print illustrations for family and local occasions. Sadly, Frederick died by suicide at the age of 34. The loose leaves of his scrapbook include Frederick’s own works as well as contributions from his sister, Edith, and their father, Clements.

You can browse through these scrapbooks in the Digital Library. Also included is a PDF containing further biographical notes compiled by the seller and included when they sent us the scrapbooks.

On Tuesday, March 26, we celebrated the 248-year history of the Philadelphia Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland with music, talks, and an exhibit. Founded in Philadelphia in 1771, the Society is the second-oldest, continuously meeting Irish organization in the United States. The Society has made a number of contributions to Villanova University and recently partnered with the Library’s Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement department to digitize their historical materials, which can be viewed in the Digital Library.

The evening began with a social hour at 5pm, featuring refreshments and live Irish music from the band Irish Mist, featuring featuring Tom McLaughlin on banjo and spoons; Mary Tracy on fiddle, and Paul Harris on bass and guitar.

Talks began shortly after 6pm. As the exhibit curator and event organizer, I opened with a brief overview of some of the Irish connections in Falvey’s Distinctive Collections.

Dr. Joseph Lennon, Associate Dean of International and Interdisciplinary Initiatives and Emily C. Riley Director of Irish Studies, then spoke about the value to scholars of digitizing collections and making them freely available online.

Finally, our main speaker was Joseph P. Heenan, Past President of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and current Chair of the Scholarship Committee and Chair of the Society’s Historical Records. Heenan gave an overview of the Society’s history and accomplishments.

After the talks, people had the opportunity to mingle some more and examine the materials in the exhibit cases. Everyone enjoyed a fun evening in honor of the Friendly Sons!

The exhibit will be on display through the end of May. If you can’t make it to the library to see the exhibit, Society materials that have been digitized so far are viewable online in the Digital Library with more to come.

All photos courtesy of Regina Duffy, unless otherwise noted.

The Shelf List highlights a few of the most noteworthy (or just my favorite) items added to the catalog in the past month. Some of these are new acquisitions and some are items from our backlog.

Johnson, Esther Borough. European Views and Portraits. [s.l.: s.n., 1920?]. [Catalog link]

Esther Borough Johnson (1866-1958) was an English artist and a few of her paintings are in the collections of British museums. This album displays her illustrations, mainly in graphite but with a few watercolors as well, of various European cities in the 1920s. Her husband, Ernest Borough Johnson, was an artist as well, and you can view a portrait he painted of his wife on the ArtUK website.

Evans, C. S. and Arthur Rackham. Cinderella. London; Philadelphia: William Heinemann ; J.B. Lippincott Co., 1919. [Catalog link]

There are many, many illustrated versions of Cinderella, but this 1919 edition features striking silhouette illustrations by noted English illustrator Arthur Rackham (read a bio on Wikipedia).

Good, Edith Isabella, Frederick de Coninck Good, and Clements Good. A Family History in Watercolors and Prints: Life in Victorian Era Hull, England. [s.l.: s.n., 1880?].[Catalog link]

Edith Good’s scrapbook showcases her watercolor illustrations, including portraits of family members, landscape scenes, and floral depictions. The illustrations likely date to the 1880s, when lawn tennis was just becoming popular in England, and several of the portraits in this album depict Good’s family members in tennis costumes with racquets. This acquisition also included some loose scrapbook pages with further illustrative work by her brother, Frederick, and their father, Clements.

Russian Red Cross Documentation for Sir John Pollock, Petrograd [St. Petersburg]. [s.l.: s.n., 1916-1918]. [Catalog link]

This collection consists of 7 documents and 1 calling card, all printed in Russian, as well as a Red Cross armband, belonging to Sir John Pollock while he served with the Russian Red Cross on a humanitarian mission at the end of the First World War and through the Russian Revolutions.

Unknown author. A Tour of Spain, 1896. [s.l.: s.n., 1896.] [Catalog link]

This travel diary describes the author’s visit to Spain in 1896, a time of political unrest related to the Cuban War of Independence and subsequent intervention of the United States. The author provides firsthand observations of this interesting time period as well as describing sites visited in France and Spain. Also included are some hand-drawn maps showing the author’s route and a few small drawings of architectural details.

This is only a selection of recently described materials. Search the library’s catalog for more materials (you can limit your search to Special Collections using the toolbar on the right-hand side of the search results). If you are interested in viewing any Special Collections materials, you can schedule an appointment with our staff.

 

The Arthur Evanson Glanville, papers, 1916-1918, a recent addition to the Villanova Digital Library, comprise of wartime letters, written to family members before and during Glanville’s captivity, photo postcards of him as a R. D. F. Officer along sketches like Glanville’s drawing his trench dug out rendered shortly before his capture.

A portion of transcribed text below is from the digitized copy  of Arthur Evanson Glanville’s recollections, a WWI Irish POW, an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, captured by the Germans in France, May, 1918, and held as a prisoner of war for 7 months.

Glanville described the attempt of a POW’s escape from the camp in Rastatt.

******

[p. 50]

day as at night the <insertion: noise> would have attracted too much attention. There was great excitement the night of the escape. There were many willing helpers in the scheme. Their duties were many [158]<insertion: allotted.> Some watched the sentries & reported when they were at the far end of their beats. Others kept a sharp look out for the approach of anyone in the building, while yet others prepared the ropes (from bed-clothes) which were to lower the elopers from the windows to the ground – a distance of 18 feet. The escape took place simultaneously from <insertion: the> two windows. Within one minute from the executive word “go!” from those watching the sentries, both officers were on the road and out of sight – all under the eyes of the sentries in the full glare of the electric-arc lamps of the camp! Further arrangements in the camp were the means by which the escape of these officers was not noticed for 10 days. Every night dummies were placed in the beds.

[p. 51]

But [159] This was simple enough, but was nothing compared to the lucky scheme by th [160] which the missing officers were not remarked [161] on the two daily parades. The day previous to the escape the Roll <insertion: of prisoners> in the German office had been take and “lost” by an accomplice. The result was that a new one was made from the officers on parade next day & the escape was not noticed.  It was <insertion so> a simple a scheme which [162] <insertion: that> we thought <insertion: it> would not have worked. After 10 days the Germans evidently checked the roll with some other record and found their mistake. There was great consternation. It added to their dismay to know it was their own fault. Doubtless they managed to hide their mistake from their superiors, but that did not prevent them from having their revenge on us. All sorts of restrictions were put upon us and life became more unbearable than ever. This was the worst thing they could have done, for it only made others keen to escape. In fact inspite [163] of all the extra precautions,

____________

[158] Author’s strike out.
[159] Author’s strike out.
[160] Author’s strike out.
[161] Best guess.
[162] Author’s strike out.
[163] in spite

 

 

Special Collections and University Archives, at Falvey Memorial Library, join in the celebration of Villanova University’s 175 anniversary, (1842-2017), with a collaboration of materials to present the exhibit, “Wildcats Past & Present: Moments from the History of Sports at Villanova,” featuring assorted and unique items representative of the varied sports played at Villanova College, and later Villanova University. The exhibit, located on the 1st floor of the Library, launched at the beginning of September, 2017, and will run through to the end of the fall semester.

The items that form the “Wildcats Past & Present” exhibit, such as sport programs, basketballs, baseball, photographs, newspaper clippings as well as championship memorabilia are from University Archives’ collection along with books and scrapbooks from Special Collections.

Curated by Susan Ottignon (Collections Librarian) with assistance from Laura Bang and Michael Foight. Graphics by Joanne Quinn.  Based on a legacy exhibit curated by Teri Ann Pirone.

The digital exhibit is now live and can be viewed here.

Here is a round-up of colored images from last week’s #ColorOurCollections extravaganza!

Even though #ColorOurCollections 2017 is over, you can keep coloring all year! Find all of our coloring pages here in the Digital Library.

This week marks the return of #ColorOurCollections, a social media campaign that presents coloring pages adapted from the collections of cultural heritage institutions. For today, you can find remastered copies of last year’s coloring books in the Digital Library. These coloring books feature the work of Jack B. Yeats, a selection of fantastic beasts, and a selection of covers from the magazine Comfort.

If you color any of our images, be sure to share your masterpieces on social media using the hashtag #ColorOurCollections and tag us so we don’t miss it! You can find our social media profiles in the “About the Collections” section at the bottom left of the Digital Library home page.

Follow the hashtag across social media or check out the website hub at colorourcollections.org to find more coloring pages from cultural heritage institutions around the world! Thank you to the New York Academy of Medicine for organizing another year of #ColorOurCollections!

Happy coloring! 🙂

Back in October, the Library co-sponsored a week-long Harry Potter scavenger hunt and Special Collections was a featured stop (for a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson). Marianne Donley was one of the seekers who stopped by Special Collections on the scavenger hunt and her visit inspired her to come back to learn more about the collections. As part of an assignment for Jody Ross’s Journalism class, Marianne produced this video that highlights a few of the treasures you can find in Special Collections:

Marianne is a member of the class of 2018 and she is double-majoring in Chemistry and English. Thank you for this wonderful video, Marianne!

If you are intrigued by the treasures featured in the video, please feel free to stop by Special Collections. We love to share our collections with visitors. If you can’t make it in person, though, you can browse our Digital Library to see thousands of digitized books, photographs, manuscripts, and more.

During the first week of February, we participated in the #ColorOurCollections social media campaign, providing black-and-white images from our collections for coloring. I finally had a moment to put together this gallery of our finished coloring pages. Thanks to our artists: Laura H., Sue O., and yours truly! If you’d like to to do some coloring yourself, we have three coloring books available here as downloadable PDFs.