An art historian of the eighteenth century, I came to Farmington to research extra-illustration, a form of print-collecting which involved the cutting and pasting of diverse images as didactic and ornamental additions to published texts. Concentrating on the extra-illustration of London typography, I have developed a belief that these customized yet collectively enjoyed volumes provided a form of urban representation which could act as a substitute for, or souvenir of, the actual city. As this pastime was pursued by men and women in retirement from the city, I describe this level of engagement with representations as "Alcove Realism."
When I wrote the proposal for a Lewis Walpole Fellowship, I suspected that I was over-emphasizing the role Horace Walpole played in the culture surrounding extra-illustration. How wrong I was! Walpole, a leading society figure and man of taste, played a pivotal role within a diffuse network of gentlemen, artists, publishers, and collectors, many of whom are key figures in my work.
The Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington is the perfect location for an urbanite such as myself to grasp how the city could be perceived from domestic retreat. I can now write about the projection and remembrance of the city--from a rural idyll--with some authority.
Working at the Lewis Walpole Library was a unique experience for me. Not only is the collection small enough to navigate and the staff helpful, informed, and friendly, but also this collection was assembled by one man who, remarkably, read what he bought. Catalogs and bibliographical notes have helped me trace who owned what and what Walpole said or thought about them. What has been most useful for me here are not so much the books that Walpole owned but those once owned by some of his friends.
Richard Bull, M.P. for Ongar, in Essex, was one of these friends. From about 1770 to his death in 1804, this noted print conoisseur, with the help of his daughter Elizabeth, illustrated and ornamented over 250 volumes. The level of workmanship and accomplishment displayed in their productions outstrips anything else that I have seen in three years of research.
Moreover, Bull was obsessed with the output of the Strawberry Hill Press and extra-illustrated most of its publications. The Lewis Walpole Library has twenty-three of Bull's extra-illustrated Strawberry Hill editions. The most magnificent of these is his A Description of Strawberry Hill c.1801 which can be set beside Horace Walpole's own extra-illustrated copy of the same. The opportunity to compare these two distinct volumes has been significant to my work in tracing the relationship between an illustrator, who in some way re-authors a book to make it his own, and the original author of that book.
With this magnificent array of examples at my disposal, I was able to make valuable comparisons which gave me a greater insight into the widespread culture of eighteenth-century extra-illustration and specific information on some of its most outstanding proponents.
Lucy Peltz, Manchester University
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
The library is grateful for each gift designated for the renovation. Two of these are especially notable.
A $1 million gift in memory of William H. Cowles, 3rd `53, a former member of the Yale Corporation, made by his family, supports the creation of a new Reference Center for the library's Manuscripts and Archives Department. The Cowles gift enabled the library to provide appropriate environmental controls and improvements in lighting, furnishings, and electrical and telecommunications systems. These improvements will help staff in Manuscripts and Archives make the collections more readily accessible to the scores of scholars who use them each year. The Reference Center, named in honor of Mr. Cowles, provides improved facilities for reference consultation, public workstations for searching catalogs and finding aids, and ready access to heavily used reference works.
"The library is the heart of the University," reiterated another donor, Susan Jackson, "We must protect that heart." She and her husband, John Jackson `67, have designated the bequest of family members Frederick and Agnes Lueders for the renovation. "Our decision," Mrs. Jackson added, "was driven by our love of books and our concern for long-term vitality of the library's collections." Mr. Jackson remarked, "We wanted to direct this gift to the place on campus where it would have the greatest impact. . . Sterling Memorial Library."
Carolyn V. Claflin
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
The most remarkable transformation of Sterling Memorial Library is taking place. In the 1920s, when Sterling was designed, the causes of paper deterioration were poorly understood. In the 1990s, we know what chemical reactions destroy paper and have cost-effective means for slowing the damage. Renovating the Sterling book stacks will fundamentally change the performance of a 70-year-old building and at the same time preserve its enduring beauty.
The objective is simple: lower the temperature and increase the humidity in the book stacks, and then hold them constant. To do that, the library is installing new heating and air-conditioning systems and renovating the walls and windows of the book stack tower.
For readers, the most visible part of the new heating and air-conditioning system is the duct work now spreading ubiquitously through the book stacks. The rest of the new equipment is in machine rooms in the sub-basement and on the roof. It is arriving in pieces of various sizes, including one four-ton piece lowered into the building with all the art and practiced skill of a gymnast.
Work on the walls and windows of Sterling is much more evident. Significant parts of the outer wall are being removed so that flashings can be built or replaced to keep water out of the building, especially at the windows. The scope of the project is impressive, as are the care taken for its design, the quality of individual workmanship, and the unwavering respect for this magnificent building shown by everyone working on it.
Book preservation is the heart of the Sterling renovation project, but wonderful transformations are happening elsewhere in the building. The cleaned stones in the Main Reading Room give some indication of that room's former and future splendor. The completely renovated Memorabilia Room--with its wonderful new display--is the model for what the Reading Room and other public areas will be when finished.
The noise and dislocations of construction often make Sterling Memorial Library a challenging place to work. However library staff and users will manage those difficulties buoyed by the transformations now evident to all.
Scott Bennett
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
In October 1995, the University Library, in conjunction with the Department of Information Technology Services (ITS, formerly Computing and Information Systems), launched a Faculty Support Program. From Yale professional schools and departments and programs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the library and ITS solicited proposals for using information technologies and electronic resources in ways that would measurably improve teaching and research and/or enhance the productivity of these activities. The Faculty Support Program offered both professional staff assistance and financial support for graduate student assistance, training, equipment, and other resources.
From fifteen proposals, a panel of faculty and library and ITS staff selected five for support. Faculty in the Sociology, History of Art, and English Departments, and in the Economic Growth Center, and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies received awards totaling nearly $20,000. These projects are completed or are nearing completion, and the impressive results owe much to contributions of ITS and library staff.
With his award, Professor Joseph Soares in Sociology had four hundred photographic slides digitized and mounted as a World Wide Web site for use in his large undergraduate lecture course on culture and society in America (Sociology 115b). The collection, entitled The Social Life of Cities, can be found at http://www.yale.edu/socdept/slc.
The History of Art Department received support to create a web site containing 1250 digital images of photographic slides, including those that Professor Vincent Scully customarily displays during his popular Introduction to the History of Art from Prehistory to the Renaissance. As a result of the Scully project, which members of the Yale community can find at http://www.yale.edu/hya112/hya112.html, students can now study without going to Street Hall to view printed images.
Professor William Jewitt from the English Department and the Bass Writing Program received a grant to improve student access to basic resources for the development of writing skills. The result is the Bass Writing Resources Web. It is located at http://www.yale.edu/bass and contains descriptions of writing courses in various disciplines; lists of writing tutors and campus publications; Writing Prose Plus, an enhanced version of Yale's writing manual; and links to a wide array of writing tools available on the Internet.
Under the auspices of the Faculty Support program, the Economic Growth Center prepared a selection of the Center's Discussion Papers for distribution through the World Wide Web. Abstracts of 36 papers are now available at the library's Economic Growth Center web site (http://www.library.yale.edu/socsci/egcdisp.html), and the full digital versions of these papers will soon be available on the web server of the Economics Department.
Assistant Dean Jane Coppock of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies received support from the Faculty Support program to improve the school's publications. The school's web site (http://www.yale.edu/forestry) now includes the latest issue of the Forest School News, an Alumni Association publication; Branches, a student-initiated newsletter; and lists of two of the school's working paper series.
The Library and Information Technology Services are preparing a call for the next round of proposals in the Faculty Support Program. The challenge is to sustain the excellent work of the first round and to stimulate proposals of equal or superior quality in the next.
Donald J. Waters
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
Electronic circulation services are available for renewing books from any of the circulating Yale libraries, placing Eli Express and recall/hold requests, and appealing fines or overdue notices. In January, additional forms will be available to request a stall or carrel in SML and to request that books be paged from the SML stacks. The Circulation Services homepage is found at http://www.library.yale.edu/circ/.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requests may be submitted electronically two ways. Web forms and ILL policies are available for specific interlibrary loan units on the Yale campus at http://www.library.yale.edu/ill/. The Eureka Research Libraries Information Network database, available on the Library Research Workstation, also allows researchers to submit ILL requests for materials not held at Yale. The command "req" or "request" will invoke a form which guides the user through the process. Both types of electronic requests arrive in the interlibrary loan office as e-mail messages which are processed along with requests submitted in person.
The Circulation Department welcomes feedback to make library use easier and more efficient. Each of the forms provides the option to send mail to Marlayna Gates at marlayna.gates@yale.edu. Please try out the forms and suggest improvements or additional services that would help support your research.
Tom E. Schneiter
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
Anyone who wonders what the Ivy League is or what causes earthquakes can now find answers to these and countless other questions easily using the World Wide Web version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The questioner receives a list of articles ranked in order of relevance where those most likely to contain the answer appear at the head of the list. He or she then clicks on the article of choice and moves directly to it. Additionally, Britannica Online leads users to related topics both in Britannica and throughout the Internet via hypertext links to other web sites. The constantly-growing Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (EBO) currently contains 66,000 articles, 44 million words, 3,000 images, and 4,500 links to Britannica-approved Internet sites.
EBO is an electronic reference source licensed for the Yale community by the University Library. The online Britannica is accessible from all Yale computers connected to the Internet. In addition, any member of the Yale community who individually subscribes to Yale's Internet services can reach EBO from off campus. Finally, non-Yale users who come to any part of the Yale library system in person can use the library's networked workstations to reach the encyclopaedia.
Yale joins over 450 other subscribing academic institutions including its sister universities in the Ivy League. Yale's EBO has been licensed under a consortial arrangement for higher education institutions in Connecticut, coordinated by Richard Akeroyd, Connecticut's State Librarian. Yale enjoys significant price savings by joining in this arrangement. The collective or consortial approach to licensing heavily used electronic information resources is quickly becoming popular with information producers who find it efficient to negotiate one license for multiple institutions. The Yale Library is now a leader in organizing a consortium for this purpose in the Northeast.
EBO is available at http://www.eb.com or in the Databases section of the Library Research Workstation (http://www.library.yale.edu/pubstation/alphalist.html).
Ann S. Okerson
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
Salubrious Destinations:Spas, Sanatoria and Other Places of Medical Retreat, a recent exhibit at the Medical Library, presented in word and image those places to which people have resorted over the centuries for better health. Drawing on the large and varied collections of the Historical Library, the display included period prints, photographs, publications, and ephemera.
Journeying from home to a remote place in quest of a cure has a long tradition within Western culture. Pilgrimages to sacred sites, whether the sanctuaries of the ancient healer-god Asklepios or the modern equivalent found at Lourdes, have attracted supplicants anticipating a miraculous cure mediated by a divine presence. The exhibit, curated by art historian Wanda Bubriski, focused on the secularized pilgrimages that increasingly took place during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The health pilgrim knew to expect a gradual cure, one tempered by a medical rationale and guided by touristic interests.
Looking at the types of health resorts emerging in nineteenth-century Europe and America, the exhibit moved from spas and seaside resorts to sanatoria and mountain retreats, including Karlsbad and Saratoga Springs, Brighton and Block Island, Davos and Lake Saranac. The show presented the material culture (medical journals, guidebooks, maps, picture postcards) that shaped the curative experience while leading a clientele to these Salubrious Destinations.
Wanda Bubriski
Nota Bene Vol X, No. 3 (Fall 1996)
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