Manuscript Digest – October 2016 – This complimentary e-digest, launched in 2012, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more

IN THE NEWS

One for the Books: The New Librarian of Congress
Washington Post, September 14, 2016
Carla D. Hayden is making history as the first woman and first African American to head the LOC. See where she’s been and where she’s going.

Inside the Making of the NMAAHC
Smithsonian, September 2016
Get the official story: a first-person account by Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Putting Detroit on the Map
Detroit Free Press, September 27, 2016
A rare find has rolled into U-M’s Clements Library — a British map of Detroit from 1790. Discover where it’s been hiding.

Fake? Nope. Meet the Americas’ New Oldest Book
Daily Mail, September 8, 2016
For decades skeptics called this 13th-century Maya manuscript a fake. Find out why scholars doubted it and what the research reveals.

Back from the Ashes
USA Today, September 21, 2016
New technology has brought out the text in a charred Torah scroll written 1,500 years ago. Learn how researchers revived what was lost to ancient fires.

Warsaw Ghetto Archives to Open, Be Available Online
Times of Israel/JTA, September 17, 2016
World War II documents housed in Poland’s Jewish Historical Institute will be released in Polish and English, some in Hebrew

Codename Garbo’s Ultimate Deception
The Guardian, September 27, 2016
Just before D-Day, the homesick wife of double-agent Garbo threatened to blow his cover. Newly released files from MI5 describe his desperate ploy.

Bambino Scrapbooks Make a Hit
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 7, 2016
Babe Ruth’s agent filled 10 scrapbooks with the the slugger’s feats. Now the Baseball Hall of Fame is posting selections online. The crowd goes wild.

Has the Internet Killed Print?
New York Times, September 2, 2016
Hardly. That’s the word from a Pew Research Center study. Turns out 38 percent of book readers stick to print. Click for more.

Sniffing Out the Secret of Old Books
Atlas Obscura, September 20, 2016
What gives old books that enticing smell? A scholar at the University of London has nosed around for answers. Get a whiff of her findings.

EVENTS

Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair
October 28–30
Hynes Convention Center, Boston
Friday night preview $20, weekend free

Money, Money, Money!
Ends October 29, closed Mondays
Currency holdings from the Historic New Orleans Collection
Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St., New Orleans
Free
• Workshop: Currency Collecting in the 21st Century
October 15, 10 a.m.–noon

Freedom Train 1947–1949
Historic American documents from the tour
Ends November 1, closed Mondays
Rosenbach Museum & Library, 2008–2010 Delancey Place, Philadelphia
Adults $10, seniors $80, students $5, under 5 and members free

Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections
Houghton Library, Harvard University: ends December 10, free
McMullen Museum, Boston College: ends December 11, free
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: ends January 16, 2017; adults $15, seniors $12, college students $5
• More in Harvard Magazine