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

Category Archives: Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays

Reconstructing the Berrigan Airplane

May 6, 2015 by | 2 Comments

Brown University Library’s Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, housed at the John Hay Library, contains a wealth of poetry-related ephemera. A promotional flyer from 1969 — designed to become a paper airplane glider — was recently acquired for the collection. The flyer advertised a February 5, 1969 reading at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church (New York City) by Ted Berrigan (1934–1983; born in Providence, RI). As the previous owner of this item noted, the flyer itself was likely designed by Joe Brainard, who had collaborated with Berrigan in the past. (The original artwork resides in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library.)

Since the flyer only becomes fully legible when folded, we decided to reconstruct the plane: our high-res. photos of the newly acquired printed copy, digitally processed to use as high-contrast line art, became a double-sided print ready for folding. Shown below is a view of one side of the flattened flyer, the reprinted flyer assembled as a paper airplane (underside view), and evidence of a successful test flight.

flat artwork

Flattened newly-acquired print

Preflight snapshot of reprint

Preflight snapshot of folded reprint

test flight

Test flight

February

February 20, 2015 by | Comments Off on February

With the heavy snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures we have been experiencing this month, there is something that doesn’t quite ring true about John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “February.” Suffice to say that the snow-plumed Angel of the North has Not dropped his icy spear. Until such time, we offer Whittier’s words as a gentle reminder that beneath the winter’s snow lie germs of summer flowers!

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Unusual Nature Poetry

April 2, 2013 by | Comments Off on Unusual Nature Poetry

In honor of the changing of the seasons, Curio is featuring two (quite odd) visual poems from 1950 by Daniel H. McCalib (author) and Dennis McCalib (author-illustrator): “Love and Fecundity” and “Octopus-Sky” (images below link to zoomable views of each work).

Love-and-Fecundity

“Love and Fecundity” (1950)

Octopus-Sky

“Octopus-Sky” (1950)

When Digitization and Ancestry Collide

February 7, 2013 by | 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 19th-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 19th-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 | 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

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