HIDDEN COLLECTIONS

Odds & ends from the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections & Archives program staff – a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). @CLIRHC The avatar used for this Tumblr is the photograph "Man with book sitting in chair," from the archives of Hidden Collections recipient the George Eastman House.

[nyworldsfaircollections]

It’s snowing outside and a decent sized show at the Queens Museum just came down last week involving the World’s Fair and the legacy of Eastman Kodak. Collections material is awaiting to be put back but here are some scans of vintage photography books before they go back into their boxes. 

[usnatarchivesexhibits-deactivat]

Letter from Fidel Castro to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 11/06/1940 

Item from Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State. (03/05/1923 - 01/1961)

This letter from tweleve year-old Fidel Castro congratulates President Roosevelt on his re-election and asks the president to send him a ten dollar bill. Presidents receive hundreds of thousands of letters every year from children and adults sharing their concerns and well-wishes with him. 

Source: http://go.usa.gov/j82k

[clirhiddencollections]

Transcription (Courtesy of the US National Archives Facebook page):

Santiago de Cuba, November 6th 1940 Mr. Franklin Roosevelt President of the United States: My good friend Roosevelt: I don’t know very English, but I know as much as write to you. I like to hear the radio, and I am very happy, because I heard in it, that you will be President for a new (periodo). I am twelve years old. I am a boy but I think very much, but I do not think that I am writing to the President of the United States. If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american in the letter, because never, I have not seen a ten dollars bill green american and I would like to have one of them. My address is: Sr. Fidel Castro Colegio de Dolores Santiago de Cuba Oriente Cuba I don’t know very English but I know very much Spanish and I suppose you don’t know very Spanish but you know very English because you are American but I am not American. Thank you very much Good by. Your friend, F. Castro (signed) Fidel Castro

[magictransistor]

Vincent Lunardi’s Grand Air Balloon in it’s aerial ascent from the artillery ground Moorfields (John James Brewer), Lancaster Races, England, c. 1785.

[clirhiddencollections]

Today is the 231st anniversary of the first manned, free ascent hot air balloon flight, which occurred on November 21st, 1783 in the western outskirts of Paris. The balloon was engineered by the Montgolfier Brothers, and piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes.

While the Montgolfier Brothers would not be victimized by their own creation--unlike many inventors before and after them--de Rozier and his flight partner, Pierre Romain, became the first known aviation fatalities in human history when they crashed a modified version of the Montgolfier balloon in an attempt to cross the English Channel in 1785.  

(h/t @ESA_history on Twitter)

[pittrarebooks]

Nessie!

Tomorrow, November 12, marks the anniversary of the first photograph apparently taken of the Loch Ness Monster, when, in 1933, Hugh Gray spotted the sea serpent while walking along Scotland’s River Foyers. In celebration, we combed through some old editions if Fate magazine for images of Nessie. So, are you a believer?

[clirhiddencollections]

Born in 1920 in Montgomery, Alabama, [Dorothy] Guilford lived through most of the Jim Crow years, when laws discouraged African Americans like her, as well as poor white people, from voting.

When she first became eligible to vote, she had to take a literacy test and pay a poll tax of $1.50, a sum worth about $25 today. Anyone who couldn’t read or couldn’t pay the tax, which accumulated, couldn’t vote. Most white voters, however – those whose ancestors were on the voting rolls prior to the Civil War – were exempt from the test.

The poll tax was not abolished until 1964 with the passage of the 24th amendment to the Constitution. If you're reluctant to vote this year, you can think of your vote as a "thank you" to all those who have fought hard to extend that right to everyone, regardless of race, class, or gender. 

(Source: Alabama woman, at 94, reflects on poll taxes, literacy tests and new efforts to limit voting -- Southern Poverty Law Center)

[clirhiddencollections]

Standing room only in Snapshots Group A! #dlfforum pic.twitter.com/JHH7TE4XU4

— The DLF (@CLIRDLF)

October 27, 2014

The Hidden Collections staff is at the Digital Library Federation Forum in Atlanta this week, generously hosted by Georgia Tech. Congratulations to DLF and to conference organizers Louisa Kwasigroch and Emily Gallivan on a wonderful conference--it's the largest Forum ever! 

[digitalpubliclibraryofamerica]

Panoramic images from the 1906 World Series, October 9-14. The series pit the two Chicago teams—the Cubs vs. the White Sox—against one another. It was each team’s first appearance at the World Series, with the White Sox taking the big win. 

Courtesy of Digital Commonwealth and the Boston Public Library. 

1. A panoramic image, with the Chicago Cubs in white.

2. A panoramic image of the fifth game in the series. 

[clirhiddencollections]

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. Her career started at age 17 when she won the Apollo Theater's Amateur Night contest on November 21, 1934, after which she began performing with the Chick Webb Band and recording under the Decca label. It was with Decca that Fitzgerald's 1938 song “A-tisket, A-tasket” reached number one on the Billboard charts. With Webb's passing in 1939, Fitzgerald began recording under the name Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra. She went on to become the “First Lady of Song,” one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time.

Looking for more information on legendary women of jazz? The Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, the world's largest jazz archive, has posted the finding aids  it produced through a CLIR Hidden Collections grant  to arrange and describe the collections of five women in jazz: Wilma Dobie, Ella Fitzgerald, Abbey Lincoln, Annie Ross, and Victoria Spivey.

Women in Jazz Project--Institute of Jazz Studies

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Mammal Monday, Camel. 

"Please, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

© The Field Museum,  Z79948

Head of camel sticking out of a curtain near the door of a brick building. Hand of a man in the lower left corner. Lincoln Park Zoo. 1900.

 4x5 inch glass negative

1900

[clirhiddencollections]

Up until the 1970s, color photography was rare. Thus, our vision of history is so often in black and white only. Rare colorized historical photos are our only chance at seeing what the world really looked like...and, boy, was it spectacular.

52 Colorized Historical Photos That Give Us A New Look At the Past--Distractify

[theprofessional-amateur-deactiv]

This came from a publication celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Denver Public Library back in 1989. I asked via Twitter (sadly already knowing the answer) if they still got to roller skate in the closed stacks. 

Then I started thinking about how awesome a Literary/Librarian Roller Derby team would be. Some suggested names:

Pain Austin

Hurt Vonnegut 

Fyodor Destroyevsky

Vladimir Knock-your-block-off (not my best)

J. D. Slaughtinger

Assault Whitman

Horror Luis Borges

[bookpatrol]

A Roller Skating Librarian 

from a publication celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Denver Public Library back in 1989

[clirhiddencollections]

Given the number of roller derbying librarians I've met, I get the feeling that roller derby needs to be folded into the standard stereotype of librarians. 

[clirhiddencollections]

Also pictured are some pages from a booklet about the Welland Ship Canal in Canada, published in 1932 by the Minister of Railways and Canals, and printed by F. A. Acland (“Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty”).This item from the Madden Collection is something that Robert Sears, an expert on Canadian canals, had never seen before, so we are pleased to be able to share it now.

An update from the Erie Canal Museum, a 2013 CLIR Hidden Collections Recipient. 

[wnycradiolab]

More from Flowers of the Sky—depictions of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars at the Public Domain Review.

[clirhiddencollections]

McCauley (“Mac”) Conner (born 1913) grew up admiring Norman Rockwell magazine covers in his father’s general store. He arrived in New York as a young man to work on wartime Navy publications and stayed on to make a career in the city’s vibrant publishing industry. The exhibition presents Conner’s hand-painted illustrations for advertising campaigns and women’s magazines like Redbook and McCall’s, made during the years after World War II when commercial artists helped to redefine American style and culture.

The New York saga of one of the original "Mad Men." --Exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York

[clirhiddencollections]

Victorians often looked grim and staid - people from another era. But curator Chris Wild offers a fascinating snapshot of family life that reveals the Victorians and Edwardians were often more modern than we think

***

Nothing is known for certain about this set of beguiling portraits (above) - they have no supporting text or provenance or description of any kind. In my view, none is required. What we can say for certain is that here are our ancestors clowning around, more than 100 years ago. This is very rare for Victorian and Edwardian photographs. Why? Because even though exposure times had rapidly decreased across the 19th Century, photography was still an activity primarily practised by photographers rather than everyone. This was to change, and the introduction of Kodak's Box Brownie camera in 1900 facilitated that change and made the snapshot possible. Still, for many people, having one's photograph taken was a rare event before 1914.

Perhaps these images were test shots for a professional photographer. Whatever the case, as outliers to photographic history, they tear a hole in our map of the past, a hole in which we see our predecessors as charmingly human. For an added bonus, one of the pictures is of a hound..

Day out at the gallows and other bygone photographic oddities--BBC News

[preservearchives]

PEP (Person of Exceptional Prominence) Spot Light:  John Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) 

               Legendary jazz performer and inductee to the Jazz Hall of Fame, John Coltrane is one of the most dominant figures that has influenced generations of jazz musicians.  Prior to his association with musical greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, and Earl Bostic, John Coltrane entered military service in 1945 and played in the Navy jazz band while stationed in Hawaii.

               When Coltrane entered military service, all personnel were required to have a chest x-ray as part of their induction requirements.  Within John Coltrane’s record, one such x-ray exists.  As the reformatting staff of the Preservation Programs at St. Louis scanned his military record for public use, his x-ray was scanned also.  There are several preservation reasons why x-rays are scanned.  First, the x-ray is part of Coltrane’s file, and thus an integral part of his historical record which is available to the public.  Secondly, providing a scanned image eliminates the need for a user to wear clean gloves so no oils from their hands would transfer onto the silver emulsion of the x-ray.  Secondly, the base that the x-ray film is on is acetate film (a.k.a Safety Film) which decomposes over time letting off gases that smell like vinegar hence, the commonly used term “vinegar syndrome”.  Vinegar Syndrome occurs when acetic acid is released from the acetate based film leading to the vinegar smell.  This deterioration makes the plastic film base brittle, buckle, shrink, and liquefy.  Keeping the film in a controlled environment helps reduce the continuation of the base’s degradation.  Lastly, the x-ray can be scratched easily if not handled appropriately.  

                 On occasion, the x-rays are digitally enhanced so the image is clearer, and in doing so, helping the researcher and improving public access.  These documents and x-rays are placed on DVDs so researchers can access exact replicas and prevent damage to the original document.

[clirhiddencollections]

Christopher Columbus probably used the map above as he planned his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. It represents much of what Europeans knew about geography on the verge discovering the New World, and it’s packed with text historians would love to read—if only the faded paint and five centuries of wear and tear hadn’t rendered most of it illegible.

But that’s about to change. 

Uncovering Hidden Text on a 500-Year-Old Map That Guided Columbus