Painting by James Taylor depicting his father, Dr. Isaac Taylor during his appointment as Chief Medical Officer at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, circa 1956. From the Isaac Taylor Papers.
“Initially my interest in Dr. Isaac Taylor’s papers was piqued due to the extensive amount of family correspondence, especially the paintings by his children. In digging a little deeper into the collection, an exciting discovery was unearthed. James, Taylor’s second eldest son, is in fact famed singer-songwriter James Taylor. Think, classics like, “Fire and Rain” and “Carolina on My Mind.” Up until this point, the familial connection between Isaac and James Taylor was unbeknownst to Rauner Library staff members. Even if you aren’t a fan of James Taylor, it goes to show that opportunity for discovery is ever present here at Rauner Library and is a big part of why I love working in the Archives.”
- Julia L.
Jurate Kazickas and Lynn Sherr. Liberated Woman’s Appointment Calendar. New York, N.Y.: Universe Books, 1972.
“A sort of feminist version of a book of saints, with notable dates in women’s history instead of feast days. What I really love about this book are the “survival forms” at the back, including a “Barefoot & Pregnant Award of the Week for Advertising Degrading to Women” which can be clipped out and mailed to the offending company, and stickers for labeling things that insult women: ads, random men, construction workers, enzyme detergents, midi-skirts, etc. They are both very funny and, unfortunately, still very relevant.”
- Charlie L.
Mindy Belloff, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and publisher Intima Press. A Golden Thread. Intima Press, 2018.
“My favorite artist book in our collections is Mindy Belloff’s gorgeous presentation of the myth of Theseus, as told by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sumptuously bound, with inventive, beautiful, multi-layered typography and imagery. A completely immersive aesthetic experience. Just wow.”
- Charlie L.
[Megillat Esther]. Circa 1500-1550.
“This Megillat Esther, or scroll of the Book of Esther, likely originated in Italy ca. 1500-1550 CE. It tells the story of Purim, when Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai saved the Jews of ancient Persia from annihilation by the villain Haman. What I find so moving about this megillah is the special salience it likely had for the Italian Jewish community that produced and used it. It dates from the same era as the first Jewish ghettoes in Italy - a significant chapter in the long history of Jewish persecution and survival.”
- Charlie L.
George F. Sparhawk. [Account Book]. From the George F. Sparhawk Papers.
“George Sparhawk began this account book on January 1, 1877, when he was thirteen years old. He accounted for every penny he spent or earned. A young entrepreneur, he often earned money for jobs like "sharpening skates" or "driving cows," and one summer day he was paid five cents for "going after an umbrella." It's endearing how familiar the spending habits of a thirteen-year-old were, even over a century ago: despite his careful accounting, he was constantly indulging his sweet tooth with fruits and candy. Getting glimpses of everyday life from all time periods is one of my favorite things about working at Rauner.”
- Val W.
Andrew Wyeth to Edward Hyde Cox. From the Edward Hyde Cox Papers.
“So much of Wyeth’s work is melancholy and at times it induces outright dread in the viewer. It’s interesting to see the sense of play that some of the sketches in these letters have instead. And it’s moving to see that blueberry bucket, which is a perfect, beautiful painting he took time to make on an August letter to a friend.”
- Scout N.
Alexander Laing. The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934.
“Rauner holds the papers (ML-53) of Alexander Laing (1903-1976), a former Dartmouth English professor. Incredibly, he co-authored and edited a Depression-era book of gothic horror titled The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck. He and his then-anonymous co-author, later revealed to be Dr. George Young McClure '25, wrote a book that reimagined both the President and Head of the Medical School at a small rural New England college as corrupt practitioners of the occult who perform secret experiments on unsuspecting townspeople, a fictionalized Hanover.”
- Kent R.
Daniel E. Kelm, Michael Maier, Erin Clay Nelson, et al. Neo Emblemata Nova. Easthampton, MA: [Wide Awake Garage], 2005.
“This is the kind of object that makes you question where art ends and book begins.”
- Vi W.
Topsell, Edward, and Conrad Gessner. The Historie of Fovre-Footed Beastes ... : Collected out of All the Volumes of Conradvs Gesner, and All Other Writers to This Present Day. London: W. Iaggard, 1607.
“This wonderful bestiary describes both real and fantastic creatures, all illustrated in detailed woodcuts.”
- Vi W.
Petrarca, Francesco, and Rauner Special Collections Library. Rime. [Producer not identified], 1475. Eusebius, Antonio Cornazzano, Nicholas V, Nicolas Jenson, and Sinclair Hamilton. De evangelica praeparatione. Translated by George. Nicolaus Jenson, 1470.
“Both of these texts were created in Italy, one around 1475, and the other printed in 1470. One was written in "humanistic" script,and the other printed in Nicholas Jensen’s ‘Roman’ typeface. One was secular and one was sacred but both reflect, through a looking backwards in history, innovations in the aesthetic of simplicity in forms combined with utility for readers.”
- Peter N.
The Dying Speeches and Behaviour of the Several State Prisoners That Have Been Executed the Last 300 Years. London: J. Brotherton and W. Meadows, 1720.
“This book gathers the last words, dying behavior, and character sketches of those condemned by the English state (and a few by the Scottish state). From Sir William Sawtrey, burned for heresy in 1401, to Haagen Swendsen, a Norwegian convicted of abducting an Englishwoman for marriage in 1702, the book reflects on the more human aspects of history. As the title page notes, it serves as the ‘proper Supplement to the State-Tryals,’ the presumably drier official record of the legal proceedings of the condemned.”
- Ann E.
Phineas Gage skull photographs, 1791. From the Iconography collection.
“The story of Phineas Gage is legendary. When these photographs recently surfaced at Dartmouth Medical School, they stirred Special Collections staff with their unsettling fascination: a metal rod blasted completely through Gage’s left frontal lobe. Despite the severity of the injury, Gage—who had Upper Valley ties as a stagecoach driver for the Hanover Inn—lived for another twelve years after the accident.”
- Josh L.
Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States. Philadelphia: [The Association], 1876.
“As the nation celebrated its centennial in 1876, suffragists drew up this ‘Declaration of the Rights of the Women’ to arraign the government for denying women equal rights. When they asked to present the document at a reading of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, they were denied. Undeterred, they took the stage anyway, read it, and distributed copies through the crowd. I love the passion of the document itself, and the way the authors used a symbolic moment to make a point. And I appreciate the reminder that it was not just radical ideas, but radical actions, that defined the suffrage movement.”
- Sarah B.
Ezra Pound to Robert Frost. [Map of Euston neighborhood in Central London]. From the Robert Frost collection.
“Amazing! This postcard giving directions to W. B. Yeat's house in London was handed to Robert Frost by Ezra Pound. It's the poet's version of ‘I gotta a guy…’.”
- Jay S.
Rymer, James Malcolm, and Thomas Peckett Prest. Varney the Vampyre, or, the Feast of Blood : A Romance. London: E. Lloyd, 1845.
“Varney the Vampyre was probably the most popular work of serial pulp fiction published in the early 1800s, maybe second only to Sweeney Todd. The story ran on and on and on for over two hundred and thirty chapters until Varney finally threw himself into a volcano to end his (and perhaps the audience’s) suffering. This story established many of the tropes of vampirism that we know today: fangs and bite marks on the neck; hypnotic powers and superhuman strength; and an insatiable, growing hunger to feed on human blood.”
- Morgan S.
Revolver. Andrew Jackson Huntoon, Dartmouth Medical School, Class of 1854. From the Realia Collection.
“Holding something used by a Union soldier in the Civil War prompted me to learn more about him, and Fort Hays State University's Digital Collections filled in the gaps. Andrew Jackson Huntoon graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1854, immediately moving with his wife to Kansas to bolster abolitionist numbers in the state. Huntoon enlisted as soon as war broke out, putting his life on the line to end slavery.”
- Kellyann W.
