E-Newsletter
Recent Posts
Latest News
-
2011 Undergraduate Research Award Recipients
|
BROWN UNIVERSITY AWARDS 2011 PRIZES
FOR EXCELLENCE IN LIBRARY RESEARCH
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Brown University Library is pleased to announce that Evelyn Ansel ’11.5 and Elise Nuding ’11 are the recipients of the fifth annual Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Library Research, generously funded by Douglas W. Squires, ’73. This award, established in partnership with the Office of the Dean of the College, recognizes undergraduate projects that make extensive and creative use of the Brown University Library’s collections, including print and primary resources, databases, and special collections. A six member review committee composed of Brown University faculty members, librarians, and a representative from the Office of the Dean of the College, selected this year’s winners and presented each with an award of $750 at a reception held in the John Hay Library on April 29, 2011.Elise Nuding’s paper “Observations on ‘the volcanick work’: A cultural biography of Sir William Hamilton’s Campi Phlegreai” is a comparative and biographical study of the Brown University Library’s copy of Campi Phlegreai (1776), conducted for Professor Karen Holmberg’s course, Archaeology Under the Volcano. The Campi Phlegraei, part of the Albert E. Lownes Collection, is a rare book of observations and fifty-four hand colored plates. It documents the eighteenth century eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. Using Photoshop to view digital versions of this title held in other collections, Nuding identified idiosyncrasies of each copy and developed a sense of the Brown copy’s particular “colour identity.” As reviewers stated, Nuding’s “excavation of a book…[is] a compelling research model”; she created a “seamless integration of the primary source with inter-disciplinary secondary sources.”
Evelyn Ansel’s project, “Qur’anic Manuscripts of the Early Islamic World,” was conducted as an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) with Professor Ian Straughn. With Straughn’s guidance, Ansel explored the provenance, care, paleography, and illumination in Qur’anic folios from the Library’s special collections. She participated in the creation of a searchable digital database of prints, featuring contextual essays Ansel co-authored and documentary videos she produced. She also co-curated the exhibition Sacred Script: Qur’anic Manuscripts from the 8th to 16th Centuries in the Minassian Collection, on view through July 2011 in the John Hay Library’s second floor Bopp Seminar Room gallery. Sacred Script charts the development of calligraphic styles, considers the folios’ contemporary reception as art, and explores their materiality as manufactured objects. As a reviewer stated: “from making her own notebooks, to encoding her experience of learning Arabic and studying its significance as an art form, Evie demonstrates the connection between artistic experience and learning.”
2012 UGRA award information will be announced this December.
The Brown University Library (http://library.brown.edu) supports the University’s educational and research mission and is Brown’s principal gateway to current information and the scholarly record.
Contact: Jennifer Braga | 401-863-6913
-
Hildene-Brown 2011 Award Winners
|
Brown University Library Reaches out to Providence 8th Grade Students
Peter Baumgras. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Oil on canvas. Washington: Spring, 1865. On view in the McLellan Collection at the John Hay Library, Brown University. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University Library is pleased to announce the winners of the Hildene-Brown Lincoln Essay Competition:
FIRST PLACE:
Kaia Heimer-BumsteadSECOND PLACE:
Isabella CremaTHIRD PLACE:
Giorgina GiampaoloHONORABLE MENTIONS:
Skylar G. Dunn
Sarah Mahoney
Elyssa Perez
James Placco
Matthew Pontikes
Bailey Schmidt
Lucas SolonThe competition, open to all eighth graders living or attending school in Providence County, is part of an ongoing joint effort by the Brown University Library and Hildene—the historic summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln in Manchester, VT—to promote public knowledge of the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. It is also a partnership between the Library and Brown University’s Office of Educational Outreach to connect with Providence Public Schools.
This year, the Library asked students to write a 500 word essay addressing the question “If Lincoln was willing to tolerate slavery in the southern states, why was he so vehemently opposed to its extension into the territories?” Winning students of the essay contest, along with their parents and teachers, were honored at a luncheon in the John Hay Library on Saturday, June 11, 2011. First, second, and third place winners read their essays aloud, and attendees toured the renowned McLellan Lincoln Collection housed in the John Hay Library.
According to Kaia Heimer-Bumstead, the First Place winner, “Lincoln insisted that the best way to ‘preserve the Union’ was to continue making compromises.“ She referred to his statement, “Much as I hate slavery, I would consent to the extension of it rather than seeing the Union dissolved.” Isabella Crema, the Second Place winner, touched on Lincoln’s concern for the poor and their ability to “go and better their condition,” something which the westward expansion of slavery might have prevented. And, third place winner, Giorgina Giampaolo argued that while Lincoln was not a supporter of slavery, as “a lawyer and a moderate” he was also “not willing to declare himself an abolitionist.” The winning essays concurred that Lincoln was primarily dedicated to the preservation of the Union, and against the expansion of slavery.
The Hildene-Brown Lincoln Essay Competition is modeled on the successful Vermont state essay program sponsored by Hildene since 2006. Prizes for the winning essays include a first place award of $1,000, second and third place awards of $750 and $500, respectively, as well as honorable mentions of $200 each. For the 2011 competition, the Library received 67 submissions from students attending public, charter, private, and Catholic schools in Providence, Cranston and Lincoln. A review panel comprised of former Supreme Court Justice Frank J. Williams; Michael Vorenberg, Professor of History at Brown University; James Tackach, Professor of English at Roger Williams University; Dr. Fred Zilian of the History Department at Portsmouth Abbey School; William Hanna of the Lincoln Group of Boston; and Seth Bongartz, Executive Director of Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home, selected the winners who came from Nathanael Greene Middle School, LaSalle Academy, and St. Paul’s School.
Hildene (http://www.hildene.org), located in Manchester, Vermont, was built by Robert Todd Lincoln in 1905 and was the home of Lincoln descendants until 1975. Today, it is a non-profit museum and education center with a mission to “advance the Lincoln legacy through education, commitment to community and active stewardship of the family’s home and land.”
The Brown University Library (http://library.brown.edu) supports the University’s educational and research mission and is Brown’s principal gateway to current information and the scholarly record. Brown University’s John Hay Library, named for the 1858 Brown alumnus who served as Lincoln’s private secretary, holds an extensive collection of manuscripts and printed materials documenting Lincoln’s life and legacy, a portion of which are now available to the public online: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/lincoln/
Contact: Jennifer Braga | 401-863-6913
-
Brown University Library Hires New Materials Conservator
|
We are very pleased to announce that Rachel Lapkin has joined the Brown University Library as Materials Conservator. Rachel was the Conservator at The New York Botanical Garden Library, a position she held since 2007. She also had previous experience as a conservator at the Newberry Library in Chicago, at the University of Iowa, and at Indiana University. Rachel earned her Masters in Library Science with a Specialization in Special Collections from Indiana University, 2001.