Companion Cube

I am the 53% --------------------------------------------------------------------- I follow and reblog what I love-- I collect only those things which interest me and bring me joy.

[what-breaks-my-heart]

Help I have to complete a quest (doing laundry) before I can enter the battlefield (go to work) tomorrow

[jstor]

Frankenstein defeats Dracula

So, ITHAKA (JSTOR's parent nonprofit org) now has a new service called Constellate, and in it you can do data analysis, among other things. Not wanting to do what we're really supposed to be doing right now, we thought we'd check out how Dracula performed against Frankenstein, and to our surprise, the monster gets A LOT more mentions in scholarly literature than our Transylvanian Count. Y'all are a smart bunch, so feel free to do something less frivolous (or at least more interesting) at Constellate.org. All you need to get started is your free JSTOR login (or you can create one if you haven't yet).

[teal-deer]

As a reminder: libraries, museums, zoos, etc are NOT brand accounts! As an example, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Tumblr is very cool & they support ocean conservation and education! I believe the National Archives and Smithsonian Libraries are also around here somewhere. Support public institutions!

[lakecountylibrary]

@usnatarchives and @smithsonianlibraries are indeed here!

You may also enjoy:

@todaysdocument, which features historic documents from the National Archives and @u-mspcoll, which features items from the special collections of University of Michigan libraries and archives (that one isn’t a national organization, obvi, I just like their blog a bunch.)

[u-mspcoll]

It’s true, we’re way less brand and way more scrappy-social-media-team-of-three-librarians! Special Collections tumblr is a very cool place to be.

To add to this list, I’d also recommend: @jstor - an online library of academic journals, books, and primary resources. Their tumblr is very cool and promotes accessible digital research. @uwmarchives and @uwmspeccoll feature items in the collections at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

@detroitlib​ - the (un)official blog for the Detroit Library Music, Arts & Literature department of the main branch of the Detroit Public Library

[uwmspeccoll]

We too are a tiny shop, but we post about our collections every day and actively follow all of the special collections/archives mentioned above, plus many others, including among our faves:

@othmeralia blog of the Othmer Library of Chemical History in Philadelphia.

@riesenfeldcenter of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center of the UMinn Law Library.

@lindahall of the Linda Hall Library independent science research library in Kansas City.

@upennmanuscripts​ of the University of Pennsylvania Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies.

All very yummy!

[riesenfeldcenter]

Yes, so much good stuff listed above! 

It’s a one-woman show here, plus input and helpful leads from our curator.

Recently our most favorite faves have been @othmeralia, @uwmspeccoll, @upennmanuscripts, and @detroitlib.

And we adore the Minnesota treasures featured by @hclib, which shares items from the James K. Hosmer Special Collections at Minneapolis Central Library!

[othmeralia]

We’re a small group of 2 over here!

Our faves lately (and historically, who am I kidding?):

@uwmspeccoll, @riesenfeldcenter, @philamuseum, @uwmarchivesr, @hdslibrary, and @u-mspcoll

I could go on and on and on and on….

Libraries and librarians are funky, check out every library Tumblr you come across. You won’t be disappointed.

[cheshirelibrary]

This child is clearly advanced, (although it did take her a month to answer the question).

[jstor]

Following on our previous post…

[picklepie888]

There are so many Dracula/Frankenstein crossover movies that have Dracula and the Monster as either best friends or worst enemies. But am I the only one who thinks if we had kept the characters' book-accurate personalities they would just be...indifferent to each other?

Dracula: Mwahaha! Foolish man! I have ensnared you in my trap! Now your blood is mine!

The Monster: Yeah sure whatever. This might as well happen.

Dracula: Wait... you're undead? But you're not a vampire?! How is that possible?!

The Monster: It's a long story, I don't want to talk about it.

Dracula: Are you made up of the body parts of different dead men?! What the hell?!

The Monster: Look man, if you're going to kill me just get it over with already!

Dracula: I only feast on the living. I don't want your nasty rotted corpse blood.

The Monster: Yeah ok I get it. No one else wants me either.

Dracula: ...Are you like...ok-

The Monster: No.

Dracula:...Ok well, I'm just gonna...go hunt down the humans. Good luck with...whatever you got going on. *turns into a bat and flies away*

[jstor]

Okay, last one on the Dracula vs Frankenstein theme, we promise.

[the-greater-grief]

My prof left a comment on a paper I submitted saying “you don’t need to put a comma before the word ‘and’ when listing things.”

Well, Linda, I decide on comma placement with my heart, and I’ll not be ceasing my usage of the Oxford comma. Thanks (but no thanks) for your feedback.

P.S. APA 7th edition says I should use a comma before ‘and’ at the end of a list, so how do you like them apples?

[cheshirelibrary]

No need to salute, tho. ;-)

[jstor]

Our kind of army

[riesenfeldcenter]

Another entry for our “dragons and unicorns” week: Two unicorns hold up a crest decorated with two more little unicorns, again from Constitutiones provinciales ecclesiae Anglicanae.

The caption reads: Fortuna opes aufferre non animu potest - Fortune cannot bring wealth to the mind.

[othmeralia]

This comic was published in April 1944 issue of Baker's Digest (reprinted from Merck Review?). Of course it's hilarious that the diver's idea of the most "valuable medicine" is the scotch but it's telling of the war-time period what the other cases of medicines were. Penicillin was of grave importance, there are also cases of vitamins since malnutrition was a worldwide issue, there are malarial drugs like Atabrine, there is also a case of DDT used at the time to prevent malaria causing mosquitos and other pests that harm the human body.

Baker's digest. April 1944.

[othmeralia]

This bookplate never gets old. It's probably our favorite in the collection.

Found in: Traité des embaumemens selon les anciens et les modernes. Avec une description de quelques compositions balsamiques & odorantes ...

[jstor]

We <3 bookplates (we even have a bunch of open collections of bookplates you can browse and download from: https://www.jstor.org/site/collection-list/?query=bookplates)

[mindblowingfactz]

According to Science, Laziness can be a sign of high intelligence.

[jstor]

SCIENCE

[othmeralia]

Me, just patiently waiting for Halloween.

This is an anatomical diagram of an adult human skeleton with notations identifying major bones of the head, chest, spine, arms, and legs. This diagram appears opposite page 800 in a chapter on bones fractures and surgical diseases in The Book of Health (1898).

[hdslibrary]

Spook Softly and Carry a Big Scythe

This early 17th century edition of the Manual de Confesores y Penitentes by Martin de Azpilcueta features a vignette of Death on its title page.

Azpilcueta, Martin de. Compendio Del Manvale Del Navarro Composto Dal Rever. P.F. Paolo di Calanna de'Capuccini. In Venetia: Apresso Fabio Marzari, MDCVI [1606].

[jstor]

Manual of Confessors and Penitents, but you probably translated that yourself without any help.

[othmeralia]

Halloween is upon us! Can I get an OH YEAAAA!?

In this image, Halloween is spelled out using floriated initials found in our rare book collection. Even spookier... these letters are all from herbal or magick books. *cue ghost wailing in the background*

Letters are from: Theatrum botanicum and A true and faithful relation of what passed for many yeers between Dr. John Dee (...) and some spirits.

[jstor]

Halloween Stories - JSTOR Daily

Why are Victorians the default haunted house, what do ghosts have to do with the imagination, and why do we like to be scared?

Draw the blinds, dim the lights, light a candle, and check out these stories about vampires, zombies, ghosts, black cats, and haunted houses. Since they're all backed by scholarly research, it counts as studying!

[artist-mcescher]

Fish, M.C. Escher

[artist-mcescher]

Bird Fish, 1938, M.C. Escher