Invitation to view upcoming exhibits

[Amanda Patrick <amanda.patrick@YALE.EDU>]

Dear Yulib-ers,

You are warmly invited to visit the following upcoming exhibits that will
be on display from the beginning of May throughout Sterling Memorial
Library:

• "Muslims' Contributions to Medieval Medicine and Pharmacology"
• "Nathan Hale: Early American Idol", marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nathan Hale
• “From Intent to Serendipity: Origins of Special Collections at Yale” - an exhibit selected from 10 of Yale's special collections
• "Class of ‘55 Returns to Yale"

Details of dates, locations and what each exhibit will include are
incorporated in the paragraphs below and in the attached press releases
which also show various selected images. We hope you will enjoy these
wonderful insights into our Library's collections. 

Also, I am interested in hearing from you if there are any notable or
interesting events happening in your departments. Any projects,
accomplishments, awards, anything that you feel might be newsworthy? If
so, please email: amanda.patrick@yale.edu.

Thank you!





"Muslims' Contributions to Medieval
Medicine and Pharmacology" 
On May 1, 2005, the Sterling Memorial Library's exhibit
corridor will open a 4-month exhibit that will provide a positive insight
into the important contributions made to the medical field by medieval
Muslim scholars and doctors. “Muslims’ Contributions to Medieval Medicine
and Pharmacology” includes a collection of manuscripts from the
Historical Medical collection at the Yale Medical Library. The exhibit is
organized by Simon Samoeil, curator of the Near East Collection at
Sterling Memorial Library. 
 
The establishment of Arab domain over former empires such as those of the
Greeks, Persians and Romans led to the inheritance of many flourishing
scholarly disciplines, among which were the developing fields of medicine
and pharmacology. An organized effort was made by the governors of the
new Islamic empire to encourage and support these disciplines, with a
view to translating previous scholarship from other languages into Arabic
to enable continuing study and development.
 
In addition to this very vital contribution, Muslims introduced new
fields of medical research and clinical practice, focusing on the care of
mothers and children, gynecology, and embryology. They also contributed
to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of many new diseases such as
smallpox and measles. In contrast to the Greek tradition, which excluded
surgery, Muslim doctors were the first to incorporate it into the study
of medicine and developed its practice and techniques. 
 
The structure and organization of modern hospitals follow the pattern of
ninth-century Islamic hospitals, which had open admission policies for
patients of all economic backgrounds, regardless of sex, religion, and
ethnicity.  A large administrative staff ran them, and some
hospitals could accommodate as many as 8,000 patients. They were
separated into different wards by gender and nature of illness. Hospitals
had their own pharmacies and facilities in which medicines were prepared,
and each hospital had its own apprenticeship program where students
obtained practical experience under the guidance of a physician.
 
The exhibit will be featured in the display cases close to the Sterling
circulation desk until the end of August.

For more information about the Near East Collection at Yale,
contact:  Simon Samoeil at: simon.samoeil@yale.edu 



"Nathan Hale: Early American
Idol"
An exhibit marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of
Nathan Hale, Yale Class of 1773, will open in the Sterling Memorial
Library nave in early May. Of all the distinguished graduates of Yale,
Nathan Hale fills a special niche as an icon of patriotism, a brave hero
who risked and lost his life at the age of 21.
 
Born in 1755 in Coventry, Connecticut, Hale was educated by the Rev.
Joseph Huntington, Class of 1762, and entered Yale at the age of 14. One
of his classmates was James Hillhouse, later a U. S. Senator and an
advocate of abolition long before the Civil War. Timothy Dwight was one
of the college’s three teachers at the time and later president of Yale.
Following graduation in 1773 Hale taught in one-room schoolhouses in
Eastern Connecticut until fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord, at
which point he enlisted as an officer and joined the fight for
independence. When General Washington was desperate for someone to spy on
the British in New York in September 1776, Hale volunteered. He was
caught within two weeks and hanged on September 22.   
 
The exhibit includes letters between Hale and his friends, Hale’s college
records, Hillhouse’s sheepskin diploma, and artifacts evocative of the
colonial period. One curious item is a lock of hair from Major John
André, the British go-between in Benedict Arnold’s intended surrender of
West Point. André was hanged four years after Hale. 
 
Richard E. Mooney, graduate of Yale (B.A.1947) and onetime reporter on
the Yale Daily News, is the curator of the exhibit, supported by staff in
Manuscripts and Archives at Sterling Memorial Library and the Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where many of Hale’s papers and items
are kept.  He spent more than 30 years at the New York Times where
he was a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and, lastly, on the
Editorial Board for more than a decade until his retirement in
1997.  The years at the Times were broken by five years as Executive
Editor of the Hartford Courant in the 1970’s. 
 
An article in the Courant sparked Mooney’s interest in Nathan Hale. It
said that the young spy was hanged at Third Ave. and East 65th St. in
Manhattan, around the corner from the Mooney apartment.  He arranged
for a plaque to mark the spot, with the help of Robert A.M. Stern, dean
of the Yale School of Architecture.  When he realized that there had
been no recent biography, he started on a book that aims to unravel the
facts and mystique about Hale’s short life.  Much of Mooney’s
research incorporates the material that will be on display in the
exhibit.  Some of the surrounding events include a lecture to mark
the opening of the exhibit in the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall
on May 11th.   On Hale’s birthday on June 6th, the Sons of the
American Revolution will place a wreath on the Hale statue in front of
Connecticut Hall on the Old Campus and fire off muskets. 
 
The exhibit will remain on display until the end of July.

For more information about the Nathan Hale exhibit, please contact:
mssa.assist@yale.edu or
(203) 432 1735 



“From Intent to Serendipity: Origins of
Special Collections at Yale”
A unique array of items selected from Yale’s special
collections will be on view from May 10th through July 21st 2005 in the
Sterling Memorial Library exhibit corridor.  Yale’s special
collections, which are housed in various locations around the campus,
contain millions of manuscripts, diaries, books, maps, photographs,
illustrations, sound and video recordings, music scores, art works,
coins, clay tablets, and artifacts.  These materials came to Yale in
a variety of ways.  Every object and collection has a story behind
it, and this exhibit is intended to share a few of those stories.
 
Among the items on display are Volvelles from the Arts of the Book
Collection, which is housed in Sterling Memorial Library. 
Volvelles, a format that uses a moving dial to present information, are
often found inside books, but this collection was amassed to explore
other ways that the format has been used.  Jessica Helfand, a
graduate of the Yale School of Art Graphic Design Program (MFA ‘89) and a
well-respected critic of visual culture, collected over 400 examples of
the Volvelle format.  In December of 2004, Helfand donated the
collection to the Arts Library.  Volvelles are efficient tools for
collating a large amount of information into a compact delivery device,
yet have also been used purely for novelty.  The collection has a
range of materials including pop culture and fashion, educational tools
such as a pig that aids in learning to spell, and more technical and
scientific application, such as a star chart.  

The Drama Library is displaying selections from its Yale Rockefeller
Theatrical Prints Collection. The collection, consisting of
approximately 80 thousand items, mostly prints and photographs, was
partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, hence its name. In 1934,
Allardyce Nicoll, Drama professor and second chair of the Department of
Drama within the Yale University School of Fine Arts, began collecting
various items to document the history of early theatrical design. 
He was interested in establishing this collection in order to support the
study of the history of the stage and to provide visual resources for
students and others designing new productions.  Nicoll, and
subsequently other faculty and graduate students, traveled throughout the
U.S. and abroad to libraries, archives, and private collections to
photograph rare publications, prints and drawings containing pertinent
material.  Initially, the focus of the collection was 17th and
18th century European performance, but through the years
additional original prints and photographs from later periods and
geographic locations were added.  

The Yale University Art Gallery will be displaying selections from its
Dura-Europos Collection and Archives.  Between 1928 and
1937 Yale University partnered with the French Academy of Inscriptions
and Letters in excavating the ancient city of Dura-Europos in
Syria.  The excavations were directed jointly by Franz Cumont, a
Belgian scholar representing the French, and Michael I. Rostovtzeff,
Sterling Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology at Yale.  In
the process of unearthing the long-abandoned site, the Yale-French
excavators discovered a wealth of architectural and material remains,
mostly dating to the second and third centuries A.D.  As a result of
Yale’s participation in the excavations and with the permission of the
Syrian Antiquities Service, roughly half of the artifacts recovered at
Dura-Europos - more than 10,000 objects - came to New Haven and
ultimately found a home in the Yale University Art Gallery.  This
collection encompasses an extraordinary range of materials, including
painting, sculpture, coins, ceramic and glass vessels, textiles, jewelry,
tools and implements, arms and armor, inscriptions and graffiti.  In
addition, the Yale University Art Gallery also houses the excavation
archives consisting of field records, correspondence, original drawings,
and photographs (upon which this installation will draw primarily),
available in the original and in a searchable digital database.

The Gilmore Music Library will be displaying selections from the
Opochinsky Collection, MSS 77, which contains about 300 letters, musical
fragments, and other documents written by prominent musicians. 
These materials were assembled by David Opochinsky, a Polish-born
engineer whose company, Titra Film, was a pioneer in subtitles and
dubbing for the movie industry.  Opochinsky was also a violinist and
pianist who had studied at the Moscow Conservatory; he owned violins by
Stradivari and Guarneri.  Opochinsky moved to the United States in
1942, and he began collecting musical autographs in 1950.  He
decorated his apartment with his holdings, which were framed along with
portraits of each musician.  Opochinsky died in 1974, and in 1986
his heirs donated his collection to Yale University.
 
Among the other items featured in the exhibit will be Charles Ives
materials from the Oral History, American Music collection, majolica
plates and ceramic items from the Lewis Walpole Library, and selections
from the Medical Historical Library and the Map Collection.  The
Manuscripts and Archives collection housed in Sterling Library will be
exhibiting selected materials from their World War II Collection,
including examples of war propaganda.  Selections from the archives
of the World Student Christian Federation in the Divinity Library section
of the exhibit will illustrate how unlikely and unexpected materials are
sometimes found in a larger collection.  The Babylonian
Collection will exhibit objects from the Nies Babylonian
Collection.  James Buchanan Nies, who died in 1922, gave his
collection of Babylonian tablets and antiquities (well over 12,000
objects) as well as his library of Oriental books to Yale.

For further information about Yale’s Special Collections or this
exhibit, please contact Martha Smalley at:
martha.smalley@yale.edu or
(203) 432 6374. 



Class of ‘55 Returns to Yale 
On June 2, the Yale Class of 1955 returns to campus to
celebrate its 50th reunion.  In line with what is fast becoming a
50th reunion tradition, the class is sponsoring an exhibit of works
created by its members in the Sterling Memorial Library's Memorabilia
Room. 
The exhibit will include books, photographs, and musical scores, which
will be augmented by class memorabilia such as playbills, programs, and
other printed ephemera from the holdings in Manuscripts and
Archives.
 
Among the nearly eighty classmates represented in this year's exhibit
are:  Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author David
McCullough; the self-described "archeologist with a camera,"
photographer David Plowden; and the resident composer and musical
director of Sesame Street Sam Pottle. Work by the prominent author
and historian Alan Dundes, who recently passed away, will also be
exhibited.
This is the fourth such exhibit by a 50th reunion class, the trend
beginning with the class of 1952 with an exhibit of artwork and books.
University Librarian Alice Prochaska remarks:  “It is a wonderful
privilege for the Library to host this display, selected by and
representing so many Yale graduates from what was clearly a most
distinguished year.  The Library holds special memories for many
Yale alumni, and I am delighted that we can reciprocate by celebrating in
turn the record of some of their achievements over the years.” The Class
of 1955 exhibit will be open until the end of July.

For more information about the Class of ’55 exhibit, please contact Diane
Kaplan at diane.kaplan@yale.edu or at (203) 432 1069.

Amanda Patrick
Library Development & Communications Coordinator
Yale University
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT  06520-8240
(203) 432 8061 (phone)
(203) 432 1294 (fax)
amanda.patrick@yale.edu

Attachment: Muslim Medicine Final Press Release.doc
Description: MS-Word document

Attachment: Nathan Hale Final press release.doc
Description: MS-Word document

Attachment: Special Collections Final press release.doc
Description: MS-Word document

Attachment: Class of 55 Final Press release.doc
Description: MS-Word document