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An Introduction to Artists’ Books by Iris Wright ’23
I started working at the John Hay Library my first semester at Brown and didn’t leave until after graduation. At the end of my four years, I’m considering the materials I never would have seen if I didn’t have this job: books over five-hundred-years-old, whaling ship logs, handwritten letters from distant periods, world war propaganda…
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Material of the Week: Freedom Cases of Micaela Viné and Gerónimo Díaz
These documents from 19th century Cuba register the freedom pleads of the enslaved people Micaela Viné and Gerónimo Díaz. Full of officialese, these cases show how some enslaved Cubans had to deal with bureaucracy and structural racism to be granted their freedom. The Hay is processing these and more documents related to the institution of…
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Material of the Week: Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive
The Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive collects and makes visible the history of women at Pembroke College in Brown University, the post-graduate lives of Brown Alumnae, and women in Rhode Island, spanning from the 19th century to the present. This collection belongs to the Pembroke Center Archives which also features the Feminist Theory Project and the Oral…
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Material of the Week: ACT UP Rhode Island Papers
The ACT UP Rhode Island (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) records contain minutes of meetings, correspondence, financial records, reports, booklets, handbooks, pamphlets,clippings, mailings, newsletters, conference material, publications, lists of members and contacts, ACT UP/RI circulars and posters, photographs and clippings of ACT UP demonstrations, documentation of Rhode Island legislation, regulations, and policies concerning AIDS. Also…
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Material of the Week: George Orwell’s Papers
Take advantage of the unique opportunity to hold the drafts of 1984, arguably the most famous dystopian novel to-day, and presumably George Orwell‘s most widely heard-of book. This is a unique opportunity to experience first-hand the stages of production and revision of a masterpiece. You can request it here!
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Material of the Week: Jana Sim’s Konglish
Konglish is a reflection on Sim’s experience with English and Korean. This book features a hybrid structure that encourages engagement from the readers. Pictures don’t do it justice, so check it out! And also check out more of Jana Sim’s artwork.
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Material of the Week: Cato’s Moral Distichs
Published: 1735, Philadelphia. Cato’s Moral Distichs is a Puritanical text by James Logan. This edition is probably the first English translation published in the colonies, and it was printed by Ben Franklin at his Philadelphia press.
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Material of the Week: Ridgeway Color Standards
Published: 1912, Washington D.C. Robert Ridgeway was frustrated with the lack of standard nomenclature for different colors. He took it upon himself to hand dye, cut, and mount hundreds of color rectangles into his book “Color standards and color nomenclature.” Ridgeway hoped that this tome would standardize use and reference of colors. The style of…
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Material of the Week: John Krasinski’s Senior Thesis
Published: April 2001, Providence, RI Famed Brown alum John Krasinski ’01 wrote “Contents Under Pressure” for his senior honors thesis in the Theatre Arts and Performance Studies department. The two-act play is set in Ray’s Auto and follows the increasingly intense exchange between Jack Taylor, a young struggling son who has returned to town after…
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Material of the Week: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
Published: 1984, San Francisco. A Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of Poetry, John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, inspired by the portrait of the same name by Renaissance artist Parmigianino, is presented in a large metal case with, appropriately, a convex mirror in the center. Inside includes the poem and original prints.
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Evan Kindler ’20: The Papers of the John Birch Society
Member of the inaugural cohort of the John Hay’s Summer Undergraduate Fellowship, Evan Kindler worked to examine how the values, ideas, and tactics expressed and used by the John Birch Society were essential parts of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. The similarities had been expressed by pundits on both sides, prompting his investigation into their legitimacy.…
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Maya Omori ’19: Hidden Portraits of Brown
“Working at the Hay has been life-changing for me,” Maya Omori said. “It’s changed the direction of my studies.” Omori recently received one of the two annual Undergraduate Library Research prizes for her work with the John Hay Library’s archives, Pembroke Center archives, and various university archivists and curators for her senior capstone “Hidden Portraits…
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Charlie Steinman ’20: Nuremberg Chronicle and the Myth of Pope Joan
Charlie Steinman took a roundabout route to write his prize-winning paper, “Martin Luther’s whore more than a pope: Annotation, Disgust, and Materiality in the Reformation Reception of the Pope Joan Myth,” about a folio in the Nuremberg Chronicle. For his final project for Professor Tara Nummendal’s course “Age of Imposters: Fraud, Identity, and the Self…
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Chronicles of Brunonia
About A digital collection of historical narratives of the life of Brown – many of which were produced by student researchers for English Non-Fiction Senior Lecturer Elizabeth Taylor’s “Narrative History” course – Chronicles of Brunonia are archival-based non-fiction pieces about Brown’s buried history, quirky traditions, and unsavory moments. Notable Entries Include: Access Read more from Chronicles…