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Dorm Life

June 6, 2013 by rness | 1 Comment

North Slater Hall, North West corner, room 20. February 1910

A quiet lull has settled upon campus following the Magnolia bloom, end of semester, and graduation. The dormitories are empty after a mad flurry of packing, shipping, and mountainous sidewalk disposals.

A glimpse inside what typical student housing looks like on campus today can be had by taking a 360 virtual tour of the “Green Dorm Room”, but what was student housing like on campus during the first half of the 20th century? Photographs from the Brown University Archives, part of the recently published Images of Brown collection, give an inkling to what dorm life looked like in days gone by.

Up until 1935, students were able to furnish their own rooms in a style of their choosing. The image above shows Edgar G. Buzzell and Dana G. Munro relaxing in their 4th floor Slater Hall room, on a February night in 1910.

Student housing first became available at Brown with the completion of the second floor of University Hall in 1772, but it wasn’t until October 1891 that the first female students arrived on Campus. The first dormitory for women students was a building known as the Slater Homestead, on Benefit Street. John Slater’s widow gifted the building to the Women’s College at Brown University in 1900. In 1910, Miller Hall was built to accommodate about fifty women students, replacing the Homestead (now a nursing home named Hallworth House). The Women’s College became Pembroke College in 1928, and over the years Pembroke and Brown merged student organizations and classes to become a truly co-educational university. 1969 brought the first co-ed dorm, when fifty-seven Pembroke Freshman moved into the top two floors of Diman House in the Wriston Quadrangle. Below is a Brown News Agency photograph showing a group of Pembrokers (as they were then known) at leisure, playing cards, reading, knitting, and eating chocolates.

Dormitory scene in Pembroke College, 1949

Like Fishes Swimming in the Air

May 9, 2013 by rness | 1 Comment

Digital Production Services recently began digitizing broadsides from the Sidney S. Rider Collection on Rhode Island History. Rider was a Providence bookseller, publisher, and antiquarian, who presented the library with his collection (the largest private collection of materials related to Rhode Island), in 1913. The broadsides are being chronologically digitized with our Aptus-II 12 camera back, after being registered in our internal tracking system by our student assistants. To introduce the registration process to a student, I pulled a broadside from a box of 18th century materials. The item was dated March 16, 1752 and was published in Newport. The single sheet is a public notice for a course of experiments and lectures on the “newly-discovered Electrical FIRE: containing, not only the most curious of those that have been made and published in Europe, but a number of new ones lately made in Philadelphia.”

The broadside states that the daily lectures, given by Ebenezer Kinnersley, would take place in the council chamber at the Newport courthouse, at 3pm over the the course of a week, or two, in March of 1752. Two columns list topics of the lectures, facts regarding the nature and properties of electricity (“that our Bodies at all Times contain enough of it to set a house on Fire”, and that it has “An Appearance like fishes swimming in the Air.”) An explanation of Mr. Muschenbrock’s wonderful bottle (the Leyden jar), is also promised.

Ebenezer Kinnersley was a scientist, inventor and lecturer, involved with Benjamin Franklin’s electrical experiments in Philadelphia. In 1751, encouraged by Franklin, he traveled to New York, Boston, and Newport delivering lectures on “the Newly Discovered Electrical Fire”. It was during this series of lectures that Kinnersley first announced the effectiveness of the lightning rod, and made practical suggestions on how houses and barns might be protected from the “destructive violence” of lightning. The broadside indicates that the explanation of the cause and effects of various representations of lightening will prove to be “a more probable hypothesis than has hitherto appeared.” Kinnersly’s Newport lecture took place in March of 1752, a full three months before Franklin’s kite experiment.

Anyone sufficiently interested in enlarging their minds by attending the lectures, which were hoped to be “worthy of Regard & Encouragement”, could procure tickets “at the House of the Widow Allen, in Thames Street, next Door to Mr. John Tweedy’s.” Newport residents could not satisfy their interest in electrical fire for free, however. Tickets for the event would cost the curious thirty shillings.

Photographs of Napoleon’s Veterans in Uniform

April 12, 2013 by rness | Comments Off on Photographs of Napoleon’s Veterans in Uniform

Grenadier Burg of the 24th Regiment of the Guard of 1815

Digital Production Services has been digitizing Prints, Drawings & Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection for over a decade. 25,000 Digital objects from this collection are currently available, with additional artwork being added all the time. Over the years, there have been some memorable moments of discovery during the digitization process. I am always extra intrigued when a box of photographs from this collection arrives in the department. Old tintypes, daguerreotypes, and carte d’visites offer a clear and detailed window into the past, and I open these boxes with more relish and anticipation than most. When reviewing the materials in a box of French photographs, I was fascinated to have in my hands twelve original sepia views of aging members of Napoleon’s army, wearing their original uniforms and insignia. I now know that the twelve Frenchmen are quite possibly the earliest uniformed soldiers ever caught on film. The dignity, swagger, and intensity of the poses and the expressions of the aged men, combined with the extravagant Napoleonic military costumes, including bearskins, plumed shakos, shapkas, and mameluke swords, make these images truly exceptional.

Monsieur Moret of the Second Regiment, 1814/15.

It is not known at which studio the photographs were taken, or who the photographer was, but penciled on the back of each mounted print is the name of each veteran and his regiment. They all wear the Saint Helene medal, which was issued on August 12, 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, and it is possible that the men were in Paris the following year, for the annual May 5th anniversary of the death of Napoleon.

Peter Harrington, the curator of the Military Collection has written a detailed blog entry on the twelve men represented in the photographs, and made available a 2001 article entitled “Napoleon’s Veterans” he wrote for Military Heritage in which the photographs are featured.

BrownTown and Traces of the Past

March 1, 2013 by rness | Comments Off on BrownTown and Traces of the Past

BrownTown with Marvel Gymnasium in background, c.1947

Historic photographs of a particular place often depict a community no longer present, while exhibiting architectural and geographic traces that we can recognize. It is these traces that connect us to the past, and which also distance us from it. The work that I did preparing digital images for Images of Brown, allowed me an often nostalgic, and sometimes surprising view, into a place that I have called home for nearly 30 years, the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island. The area is an historic one, much of the architecture and terrain today is similar to as it was a over a century ago, and very familiar to me. Which is why, I stopped and took notice when I was reviewing several images which were captioned BrownTown. What was this BrownTown? I recognized surrounding buildings, but never knew that a BrownTown existed. I crossed the street to the Brown University Archives and began consulting the folders of material on the construction, maintenance, and eventual destruction of BrownTown, Providence, Rhode Island.

The corner of Elmgrove Ave. and Sessions St., 1946

Cement posts being installed on the corner of
Elmgrove Ave. and Sessions St., c.1946

After the end of World War II, The G.I. Bill encouraged many World War II veterans to seek a college education. Brown reacted by opening The Veterans Extension Program in the fall of 1946, bringing the University into the national spotlight as a leader in assuring veterans education. From 1,400 applicants, 486 WWII veterans were accepted to the University through a streamlined application process. Over 100 of these students were married and either had children or were expecting. There was a critical housing shortage nationwide, including Providence. Where would they live?

The problem was uniquely solved when the U.S. Government War Surplus Division donated a dozen former Navy barracks to the University, and the city offered to lease to Brown, the Sessions Street Playground at the Corner of Elmgrove Avenue and Sessions Street. (Currently, the site of the Jewish Community Center of Rhode Island). Eight barracks would fit on the lot. They were brought in sections from the Coddington Point site in Newport, and set up on cement posts. This temporary emergency housing was given the name, BrownTown, and on December 9^th, 1946, 100 families moved in to the furnished apartments.

Brown Town, Joe Schaefer’s room

Each of the units had an icebox, hotplate, and a tiny iron sink. Flower pots and flower beds distinguished the different residences, as did the informal naming of the “streets”, or rows, between the barracks after wartime locales, Guadalcanal, Normandy, Pearl Harbor, etc. In local newspapers, Brown is described as being a good landlord, pets were allowed, and rent was low at $26-$42 a month. BrownTown’s population exploded. At one time, the hundred families in Brown Town had a total of 120 children. Fifty babies were born during the summer of 1947. Student residents juggled academics with family life, attending baby caring clinics, forming babysitting pools, and building play pens, to keep children out of Elmgrove Avenue, described at the time as a speedway for motorists.

Brown Town was a thriving community for four years, but it was erected as a temporary community, and in 1950, after the inaugural class graduated, half of the buildings were removed. BrownTown was fully razed on June 1951. The fleeting phenomena of BrownTown is summed up in a student essay titled The Suburban History of BrownTown 1946-51, as a “quick life and death of a suburban suburbia.”

When Digitization and Ancestry Collide

February 7, 2013 by rness | 1 Comment

There are generally few personal revelations in the review and exportation of digital files. Once a group of materials has been scanned, I export the folder of digitized images into Adobe Lightroom, click through each image, checking that it is properly cropped, aligned, and does not contain any artifacts. It is fairly fast paced work, and does not allow for much reflection on subject matter. However, I did take notice during the review process of a box of Harris Broadsides. I was reviewing digitized images from “The Order of Exercises for Class Day, Monday, July 30, 1860, Bowdoin College.” As the third page appeared on the monitor, the name AMERICUS FULLER jumped out at me.

Americus Fuller is one of those solid and patriotic 19^th-century names that one remembers if it figures in your family ancestry. My first association with Americus Fuller, is in connection to his exotic Turkish leather ottoman, passed down to me in the 1970s. Was the poet named on the broadside I was reviewing, my grandmother’s great uncle Reverend Americus T. Fuller, missionary to Turkey?

Reverend Americus T. Fuller

The fact that the publication was from Bowdoin boded well…my family is from Maine. A quick check on Ancestry.com confirmed that Americus Fuller graduated from Bowdoin in 1859, prior to attending Bangor Theological Seminary. It was clear now that I was reading a poem written by my ancestor, a melancholic farewell for the graduating class of ’59 reflecting on the past toil of study, and looking forward to an unknown future.

Having the new knowledge that Americus was a “published poet”, I did a quick search for Americus Fuller in the Brown Digital Repository and our library catalog to see if perhaps he had penned anything else in our collections. Viola! He had also written a poem for the Freshman Supper at Bowdoin College, July 31, 1856.

In this Ode, Fuller reflects upon freshman year spent in “happy strife”, and looks ahead to becoming a dignified sophomore. Fuller’s life story, albeit interesting, is now known and passed. He was a member of the Christian Commission during the Civil War, and served as a pastor in Maine and Minnesota, until his appointment as a missionary, first at Antitab, Turkey, then Constantinople. In 1880, Fuller became President of the Central Turkey College.

Displayed in my home are 19^th-century Turkish textiles, handiwork, and objets d’art collected by Americus and passed down to me. I have now added copies of two odes from Brown University Library’s Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays to my collection of Fuller family related items. Yes, archives are full of secrets, and hidden gems are lying dormant in dark stacks waiting to have light shed on them. What a privilege it is to have the type of employment that such genealogical gems can be stumbled upon in the course of daily work.

Bowdoin College Campus, ca. 1860

Edgar Allan Poe & Sarah Helen Whitman

January 17, 2013 by rness | 10 Comments

1848 daguerreotype by William Hartshorn

1856(?) daguerreotype attributed to J. White

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, two hundred and four years ago. This anniversary has coincided with my work this week which has involved preparing digitized images of daguerreotypes of Poe and Providence poet Sarah Helen Whitman for publication to the Brown Digital Repository. The daguerreotypes had been found to be suffering some deterioration and were sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Center for treatment. Poe sat for this daguerreotype, known as the Whitman or Hartshorn Daguerreotype, on November 13, 1848 at the Westminster Street studio of Masury and Hartshorn in Providence, Rhode Island, after a tumultuous week which included an overdose of laudanum and a bout of heavy drinking. The daguerreotype was a gift from Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman, given to her after she finally consented to marry him. The engagement did not last long, but Whitman kept the daguerreotype until 1874. In a letter she noted Poe’s “sweet and serene expression” in the image. The daguerreotype was gifted to the Brown University Library in 1905.

Before treatment

Some of the condition problems with the daguerreotype and its case are apparent in before and after treatment images. The leather spine on the case was broken and cracked along the bottom. The case was scuffed and scratched, and the cover glass was beginning to deteriorate. After disassembling the daguerreotype package, preservationists at NEDCC replaced the cover glass with a more stable borosilicate glass, and used a variety of techniques to repair the case, broken edge, and spine. Of the many materials relating to Poe in the Harris Collection holdings, the daguerreotype is perhaps the best known and most frequently requested. The recent preservation treatment along with its housing in a clamshell presentation box will ensure its longevity for future library patrons.

After treatment

Sarah Helen Whitman

The daguerreotype of Sarah Helen Whitman is attributed to Joseph White, another Providence daguerreotypist, and dates from 1856. The daguerreotype plate and brass mat were enclosed in a paper-covered wooden case. The cloth spine on the case had been broken and previously “repaired” usuing black electrical tape. The tape and residual adhesive were mechanically removed, and the spine was repaired using cloth toned with acrylic color. The glass was replaced with borosilicate, and the package reassembled and sealed with Filmoplast P90 and a sheet of Melinex.

After treatment

Before treatment

Sarah Helen Whitman was a poet and essayist and interested in transcendentalism, mesmerism, and spiritualism. She hosted well-known writers at her salon in Providence, and served as vice president of the Rhode Island suffrage association. Poe first set eyes on Whitman as she stood in the rose garden behind her Benefit Street home. The house and garden are much the same as they were nearly two centuries ago.

Rose garden behind Whitman’s house at 88 Benefit Street.
Photo courtesy Will Hart

Digital Production Services in-house photographers recently digitized two photographs of Sarah Helen Whitman, which the author herself inserted into an autographed presentation copy of Whitman’s Hours of Life, and Other Poems. Consult the finding aid for more information on the significant holdings of Sarah Helen Whitman within the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays. Brown University also owns a portrait of Whitman painted by John Nelson Arnold in 1869.

Albumen photograph of Sarah Helen Whitman c.1853-78

Albumen photograph of Sarah Helen Whitman as a medium c.1853-78

Harlem’s Black and Jewish Music Culture 1890-1930

December 14, 2012 by rness | 2 Comments

“You can take your trunk and go to Harlem”

Currently on view at the Harlem restaurant, Settepani, is “Harlem’s Black and Jewish Music Culture 1890-1930,” an exhibit of framed sheet music that tells a story of collaborations between the neighboorhood’s black and Jewish composers, performers, and music publishers during the late-19th century into the 1930s. The exhibit illustrates “the rich musical life that was prevalent in Harlem in the late 1800s and early 1900s” and includes music performed by the Jewish singers Sophie Tucker and Belle Baker and written by black composers including Bert Williams, Eubie Blake, W. C. Handy and C. Luckeyth Roberts. The New York Times article “Harlem Music Culture, Black and Jewish” explains that as John T. Reddick, Harlem historian, was amassing his collection of ragtime, jazz, blues and patriotic marches, he was also was conducting research and discovering that many of the performers lived side by side on the streets of Harlem.

“The Darktown Strutters Ball”

Two of Brown University Library’s sheet music collections are incredibly complementary to Reddick’s collection and exhibition. The African-American Sheet Music collection chronicles the rise of African-American musical theater. The works of African-American popular composers, including James Bland, Ernest Hogan, Bob Cole, James Reese Europe, and Will Marion Cook are a prominent feature of the music of this period. The Yiddish Sheet Music collection is focused on the Yiddish-language musical stage from the 1880s through the 1940s. Notable performers and theatrical personalities represented are Molly Picon, Bores Thomashefsky, David Kessler, Jacob Adler, Aaron Lebedeff, Abraham Goldfaden, Mrs. Regina Praeger, and Cantor Gershon Sirota, among many others. The sheet music covers are image-rich in cover art, often including strident racial images which have lost none of their power to shock. The covers often include scarce and otherwise unavailable portraits of African American and Jewish performers who were well-known in their day. The collections include references, on-line resources, and contextual materials, such as a slideshow illustrating “A Century of African American Music.”

“Harlem’s Black and Jewish Music Culture 1890-1930: Selections from the Sheet Music Collection of Harlem Historian John T. Reddick” is on view at Settepani until Febuary 28th. Reddick is guiding a cultural walking tour of historic Harlem which explores connections and highlights sites associated with Harlem’s Black and Jewish music culture until December 30th.

“I’m just wild about Harry”

“Yiddle on your fiddle, play some ragtime”

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Imaging rare, unusual, and intriguing objects at the Brown University Library

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