Collecting Conversations: An interview with Alfred Lemmon, Director of the Williams Research Center of The Historic New Orleans Collection by Beverly Hill BH: What does your position as director of the Williams Research Center entail? AL: One of the aspects of my job that that I thoroughly enjoy as Director of the Williams Research Center […]
A unique and richly illustrated text by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin comes to the United Kingdom. Part-memoir and part-manifesto, the 213-page manuscript, titled Avant et après (Before and after) reveals important insights into Gauguin’s life. This includes his relationships and thoughts plus numerous drawings and prints by the artist. The manuscript will be […]
January 2017 – at a Depot in Feltham, near London. Repelling down and back up ropes, the thieves stole 200 centuries-old books. First editions of Galileo and Newton, a text by Italian scholar Petrarch, rare versions of Dante, plus, 80 sketches by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya were among the stolen items. This month, Romanian […]
As Bill Butts says, “It is all about education.” The educated collector is the savvy collector. Each year reference works, how-tos, exhibition catalogs, bibliographies, and memoirs useful to collectors are published. Unfortunately, they receive little attention in the media. Bill takes the time to review 3 to 6 books in every issue of Manuscripts to […]
AN INTERVIEW WITH HAROLD HOLZER In 1996 Harold Holzer received the Manuscript Society Book Award for his Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President. Our award is only one among many bestowed on Mr. Holzer, which include the 2015 Gilder-Lehman Lincoln Prize and in 2008, the National Humanities Medal. No doubt Manuscript Society members will […]
Library of Congress – Lincoln Letters Project Last month, the Library of Congress completed a two-year, crowdsourced project to transcribe 10,000 documents in its vast collection of Abraham Lincoln’s papers and make them legible. Now anyone can read the scribbling of correspondents. Each wrote with a variety of spelling, grammar and punctuation skills. The Lincoln […]
75 Years in the Making September 1945. A call goes out. It was from Kansas City radio broadcaster Ted Malone. Malone hosted a nationally-syndicated ABC show “Between the Bookends.” He asked listeners to send in wartime correspondence. The letters would be considered for a book of war letters. The book would be edited by University […]
Dr. Walter Evans, a leading collector of African-American art, acquired the bulk of his Douglass collection in the 1980s from a dealer. The collection became a seedbed for Dr. Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 biography “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.” And now, it has been acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. It will […]
At the end of the 19th century, family members and associates of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison donated a number of his letters and other documents to the Boston Public Library. They are now in the Anti-Slavery Collection. Today, the archive has grown to include roughly 40,000 items—letters, pamphlets, books, memorabilia, and even a copy of […]
From Rowan Public Library: Rowan Public Library’s Edith M. Clark History Room collections are directly benefiting from a dedicated teleworking Library Staff. They are updating and transcribing collections. This provides valuable information for all researchers. The History Room concentrates primarily on Western North Carolina genealogy and history. This includes all areas of Rowan County. Holdings […]