Scheherazade and the Arabian Nights have enchanted readers for centuries. The history of the book is as fascinating as the stories themselves. Scholars have concluded that the Arabian Nights are a composite of stories written by numerous individuals over several hundred years, likely dating to...
Mexico has had a tremendously rich cultural history. Pre-Columbian Mexico had a fascinating blend of native cultures. There were many different native groups that inhabited the land throughout those early years. Post-Columbian Mexico was an interesting and exciting time full of discovery for the...
The universe is filled with beauty and mystery. We don’t know for sure what is out there, but as curious humans, we have made attempts to know all we can about the parts of our universe. We’ve developed theories about the universe and how it works, we’ve mapped out the stars, we’ve ventured into outer space, we’ve creatively written fiction about the wonders of the universe, and...
Lee William Mayo was born on August 15, 1915 in Clover Township, Jefferson County Pennsylvania, the third child of Pennsylvania farmers, Dick and Lina Witherow Mayo. He enlisted in the United States Army on October 15, 1941 at Fort Meade in Maryland and was initially stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia. Following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor...
The Vahdah Olcott-Bickford Collection contains many gifts of information about classical music, the guitar, and the city of Los Angeles, including several hundred concert programs from across the world that Olcott-Bickford (1885-1980) collected over...
The term “Victorian” describes a set of values epitomized by the period of Queen Victoria’s reign in the United Kingdom, from roughly 1830 to 1900. It has been suggested that primarily a growing middle class possessed what we now consider "Victorian" ....
Edwin Thomas Booth may be best known as the brother of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, but Edwin was one of the most famous American Shakespearean actors of the nineteenth century. The Booths were a family of actors beginning with...
In general, archival collections are primarily made up of manuscript collections and published materials which are used for scholarly research. However, many collections also yield unusual and unique items in the form of rare ephemera, one of a kind or single issue publications, and curious objects that cannot be categorized. These items, captured through human ingenuity and inventiveness, reflect...
There exists a place where travel is so treacherous that survival is not guaranteed. The cold is so brutal here that mere seconds of exposure can cause irreparable damage. Optical illusions abound and strange animals brave the fierce temperatures. The early explorers declared it to be an "awful place," and still...
Earlier this year, Special Collections and Archives acquired a folio-sized antiphonary. An antiphonary is a collection of liturgical plainsong, or single-line melodies with no accompaniment usually sung by a small group of singers. These pieces of music, which are commonly known as Gregorian chant, were written to be performed during ...
