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Ecrivez-vous français?: Selections from the Mel B. Yoken Archive
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — To welcome the American Association of Teachers of French who will be holding their annual conference in Providence this July, a new exhibit, Ecrivez-vous français?, is now on view in the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library lobby featuring selections from the Mel B. Yoken Archive. Highlights include letters from Matisse, Monet, and Marcel Marceau.
Mel B. Yoken MAT ’61 assembled the collection of invaluable letters and photographs over a period of forty years. The materials consist primarily of 20th-century pieces of correspondence by American, British, French and Québécois authors and artists, as well as letters written by significant political and literary figures of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Items featured in the exhibit provide insight into critical literary and artistic aspects of French and Francophone culture, and invite scholarly researchers to pursue a reflection on the significance of the relationship between literature and other art forms. Highlights include a letter from Victor Hugo written in Paris in 1851, a few months before he elected to live in exile in Guernsey, following Napoléon III’s ascent to power. In it Hugo refers to the political involvement of this son, Charles, who was in the Conciergerie prison at the time. And, another letter written by Claude Monet in Argenteuil (where he produced some of his most famous boat and poppy fields scenes), discusses the sale of paintings.
The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world. http://library.brown.edu/
See the following diagram for the location of the exhibit.
Contact: Jennifer Braga | 401-863-6913
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The Library Welcomes the New Digital Asset Specialist
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Kevin Powell has been hired as the Digital Asset Specialist for Brown University. Mr. Powell comes to Brown from Austin, Texas, where he received his MSIS degree at the University of Texas’ School of Information. Prior to getting his Master’s degree, Mr. Powell completed his BA in History at Texas Tech University.While at UT Austin, Mr. Powell worked for University Marketing and Creative services as a Digital Asset Management Intern.Mr. Powell’s duties at Brown will be to work with Widen, a digital asset management software that helps marketing and creative teams create, manage, and distribute digital media and brand assets.
The departments of PAUR, Continuing Education, and the Watson center among others will be working very closely with Mr. Powell. -
Brown University Library Retrieves A Long Lost Sword
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia entered a judgment Tuesday, June 4, 2013, confirming that Brown University is the lawful owner of a Civil War-era silver Tiffany presentation sword — the Rush Hawkins sword — reported stolen from the University’s collections in 1977.
Col. Rush Hawkins led the 9th New York Volunteers — “Hawkins’ Zouaves” — during the first two years of the Civil War. Fifty prominent New Yorkers, including the governor and the mayor, recognized his service with a Tiffany silver presentation sword. The sword includes a figure of a Zouave carved into the grip and a list of the 9th New York Volunteers’ battles inscribed along the blade. It was presented to Hawkins in May 1863.
Hawkins went on to great financial success as a lawyer in New York City and became one of the world’s leading collectors of incunabula, early printed books. He had long-planned to build a library to house his impressive collections. After the death of his wife, Annmary Brown, the grand-daughter of Nicholas Brown, after whom the University is named, Hawkins wrote, “No words at my command are equal to the expression of my desolation and loneliness. Existence now is tolerable only because linked with sweet memories of the past.” He then re-conceived of this library as “The Annmary Brown Memorial,” a repository and crypt noting, “It is first of all a memorial to a woman of noble character. It is secondarily a collection of art treasures.” Hawkins endowed the Memorial with his collection of incunabula, paintings, and artifacts of his Civil War service, including the Tiffany sword.
Today, the Annmary Brown Memorial‘s collections are an invaluable resource for scholars of Renaissance learning and for art dating from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The sword will return to Rhode Island this summer after 36 years away, during which time it resided in at least four private collections. Its journey home to Brown follows legal proceedings that lasted nearly two years and recovery efforts of more than two decades.
The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world. http://library.brown.edu/
Contact: Mark Nickel | 401-863-1638###
