The Library's Garden Level (Lower Level) is currently closed due to storm flooding. More about garden-level closure. (Posted on: 03/08/2024 03:24pm)
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 ...
William Hogarth was an 18th century English painter and printmaker, best known for his satirical and moral works. In his early career, Hogarth worked as an engraver, decorating coats of arms, bookplates, and creating illustrations for books. While he started producing his own works in the early 1720s, he did not gain significant recognition until 1731, with the publication of his first moral work A Harlot’s Progress. This work and many later moral works typically consisted of a series of paintings that told a story...
Kitty Bell, born in Paris, France, moved to Shanghai, China in the mid-1930s when she was adopted by a family who lived there. She was 8 years old when she arrived in Shanghai, and attended various schools as she grew up, including Sacred Heart in Shanghai. She also attended the Holy Ghost Convent in Tsingtao, a small seaport and industrial center on the Yellow Sea in northeast China....
Memories of childhood are often infused with fond recollections of favorite books, stories that transport us to faraway lands, imaginary worlds, and distant places in time. For many of us, the literature of childhood has worked to shape how we think and feel about the world, stretching the imagination and expanding our horizons to include the people, places, and things ...
This week’s blog is inspired by Valentine’s Day. In the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14th, and traditionally involves the giving and receiving of cards, gifts, or flowers, the reciting of poems, the singing of songs, or similar expressions of love and friendship. While we don't usually equate Special Collections and Archives with Valentine's Day, keep reading...you might be surpised!
Bess Lomax Hawes (1921-2009) was a folk musician, folklorist, and professor of anthropology at San Fernando State College (now California State University Northridge). During her time as a musician she wrote many songs, including the Kingston Trio hit “M.T.A.” She also performed and collaborated with such American folk luminaries as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Her father, John Avery Lomax, and brother, Alan Lomax, were famous folklorists and musicologists who traveled across the United States collecting thousands of folk songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Songs in the Library of Congress...
The China Marines were originally defined as those who served as part of the 4th Marine Regiment assigned guard duty at the International Settlement in Shanghai from 1927 to 1941. Another group of Marines from the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions who were members of the U.S. occupying army in north China would also become known as China Marines. These Marines were stationed in China from 1945 to 1948...
Special Collections and Archives holds many unique and interesting diaries which chronicle the adventures of travelers from all over the world. One of these, entitled, Journal of a Trip from Liverpool to San Francisco, was penned by a young Englishwoman visiting the United States for the very first time. The journal chronicles her trip from April to June of 1895, beginning with a trip across the sea on the "luxurious" S.S Teutonic...
The John Tanno Collection holds 1,563 Lp's, primarily consisting of recordings of classical and flamenco guitar works. The collection includes recordings of classical guitar icon Andres Segovia performing music by J.S. Bach, Manuel Maria Ponce, and Fernando Sor, including his EMI Recordings 1927-1939, An Evening with Segovia, and Castles of Spain. Julian Bream is both a classical guitar performer and lutenist, and this collection holds a number of albums on which Bream performs repertoire on both instruments. Some of the more exceptional Bream albums include...
The ways in which individuals and collective groups have prepared and consumed food reveals the many dimensions of human experience, both within and across cultures. Special Collections and Archives' Culinary Collection holds more than 660 books and periodicals dating from 1839-1982 that provide a unique glimpse into the role of food in human society...
