Thanks to a generous donation from Anthony Graybosch, The Archives and Rare Books Library now has in its holdings a collection of philosophy books from Van Meter Ames’ private library.  Van Meter Ames was a faculty member in the UC philosophy department, beginning in 1925, and served as its head from 1959 until 1966 when he retired.  Many of the books in this collection have Ames’ annotations, notes, and article clippings in them, as well as correspondence between Ames and fellow philosophers or friends.

Having no personal connection to Ames, Anthony Graybosch came to possess this collection of books in 2002 upon the passing of Kent Tiedeman, his philosophy department colleague at California State University-Chico.  Tiedeman, born in San Fransisco, studied philosophy with Ames at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960s, receiving both an MA and a PhD.  As evidenced by many of the bookplates found in this new collection, Ames gave Tiedeman a substantial collection of his personal holdings in July of 1968 (2 years after Ames’ retirement from UC).  As Graybosch is now nearing his own retirement at Chico, he sought a proper home for these valuable items and found one in ARB.  With ARB already holding the Van Meter Ames Papers, this new collection is a perfect complement.

Most of the books in this collection were written by or about American philosophers.  Santayana, Hook, Dewey, Mead, and James are all included in this collection and all seem to be of particular importance to and influence on Ames.  To the right is Hook’s, American Philosophers at Work.  The end paper of this book (far right) was inscribed from Hook to Ames in 1958 and speaks about their friendship and the memories they shared in Japan.  A postcard from Hook to Ames that was inserted in this book is pictured below.  It is addressed to Ames in Tokyo.

If a book was not a gift from a friend, such as the one above, Ames often wrote his name, the date, and the city in which he received and/or finished the book.  An example of this is illustrated in Ames’ copy of Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society, pictured below.  Here you can see Ames’ notes on Mead’s writings, in addition to pages Ames seemed to think were of special importance.  Hence, this collection would be of interest to anyone who is curious about the development of Ames’ philosophy.

By studying what ideas Ames made note of on the end papers or in the book margins, what he underlined in the text, or what authors or subject themes continually recur throughout his book collection, one can ascertain a sense of Ames’ philosophical interests.  Additionally, information about his personal life can be garnered via the locations and dates associated with each book, as well as any correspondence contained within it.  For example, also included in Mead’s Mind, Self, and Society, was this envelope addressed to Van Meter Ames in Cincinnati and stamped Nov. 9, 1970.  (Note that the original date associated with the book was Jan. 16, 1935; Texas).  Does this mean that Ames had revisited the book in his later years?  Or had he pulled this book back out because the letter writer mentions Mead?  While we may never know definitive answers to such questions, all materials contained within any given book have been left in that book for the sake of provenance.  Rather than removing materials from a book and organizing them into separate folders, we have kept all materials in the books as they were delivered to us.  This organizational scheme will hopefully be of more use to researchers.

If interested in this collection, one can browse the finding aid available on the OhioLink Finding Aid Repository, which is an alphabetized bibliography of Ames’ books.  If a name, date, or personal message, was inscribed on the endpaper of any book, it has been noted in the bibliography.  Additionally, a note was made if any article clipping, correspondence, etc. was inserted into the book.  To view the contents of this collection, please call or e-mail the Archives and Rare Books Library to schedule an appointment.   To view information about our previously processed Van Meter Ames papers, see the blog entry on that collection.

Further, while the majority of this new collection centers on American philosophy and Van Meter Ames, it is curious to find other connections to the University of Cincinnati.  For instance, in William James’ Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, the book plate and signature of Raymond Walters is present.  Anyone interested in Walters’ past, will be pleased to know that ARB holds a collection of his diaries and his records as president of UC.

UC Libraries will host a special reception to celebrate the installation of one of the most extraordinary urban maps in the Western world in the Archives & Rare Books Library. The reception will take place from 3-5 p.m., Monday, April 22, in the Reading Room of the Archives & Rare Books Library, located on the 8th floor of Blegen Library.

At first glance, you’d know this is not a map that could be folded and stored in your car’s glove compartment. Taking a closer look, it’s not only the size of the map that is stunning, but also the artwork, its history and its journey to its new, permanent home in the Reading Room of the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Library. “It is a valuable research tool as well as an outstanding work of the printing arts,” says Kevin Grace, head of the Archives & Rare Books (ARB) Library.

The 6-foot-10-inch by 13-foot linen map of 18th century London – all 84-and-a-half square feet of it – is a gift from Keith Stewart, professor emeritus of English, and his wife, Elizabeth. The couple first discovered the map while browsing in an Oxford, England, bookshop in the late 1950s, when Keith was on sabbatical for a year in England.

The surveyor of the map, John Rocque, began publishing in the 1730s. “From 1751, he styled himself topographer to the Prince of Wales, and from 1760 to the King,” says Stewart.

“A geographer colleague has told me that it suggests a good deal about urban land use – the locations and number of churches, for instance, the identification of spaces with other contemporary activities such as rope making, ship building, bowling, gardening and so on. For someone interested in 18th century literature, it is a Garden of Delights,” Stewart wrote, in an essay about the map.

The Stewarts described the highly detailed map of contemporary 18th century London as handsomely engraved, with a classically designed border around the edges, when they fell in love with it in that Oxford bookshop.

“It was a bit like falling in love in love with an elephant, which with the reassertion of practical realities became rather quickly transformed into an albatross which was to hang about our closets for nearly 40 years,” Stewart shared in the essay about their find.

How were they going to haul it back to London, let alone the United States? They decided to carefully cut it in half in the bookstore. It survived, in good shape, the trip to London, the trip to Cincinnati, a move to two houses in Clifton, where there wasn’t a wall large enough to show their beautiful treasure, and a move in the mid 1990s to a condominium, where they could finally showcase it on a wall.

J. Keith Stewart

But first, the map needed some restoration. Stewart first fueled his interest in preservation when he took a course on book conservation that was offered by the Library Guild (now called the Friends of the University of Cincinnati Libraries) under UC Libraries’ book conservator Virginia Wisniewski (now deceased). The workshop resulted in Stewart working more than 10 years of volunteer service at UC’s Conservation, Binding and Processing Department.

As they planned the restoration of the map, armed with encouragement and advice from that department as well as the paper conservator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, the couple built a team that could mend, restore and repair the map to its former glory, first mounting it on two stretchers that painters would use to mount their canvasses.

After the couple moved out of East Walnut Hills more recently, they decided their beloved “elephant” needed a permanent home and a permanent display area. That’s when the map made one more journey to its permanent home in the reading room of the ARB Library.

Once again, the “elephant” was divided in half to get to the ARB Library and to undergo more repairs that were supervised by the Preservation Lab. Located in Langsam Library, the Preservation Lab is a collaboration between UC Libraries and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The formation of the lab was supported by a one-year, Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant awarded to the Public Library and the State Library of Ohio. The grant supported the purchase of equipment and supplies that have been used in the map’s restoration.

Preservation of the map was overseen by Holly Prochaska, head of the lab and preservation services and head of the UC Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, and Kathy Lechuga, conservator for the Preservation Lab. Prochaska says that advice and guidance on framing the massive map was also provided by experts at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

The canvas was once again removed from the stretchers, and then surface-cleaned and repaired. To further preserve its condition, a massive piece of Plexiglass now covers the linen. The map is now enclosed in a massive, oak frame. The framed piece is estimated to weigh around 250 pounds. Climate control and lighting in the library will further protect the map so that it can be researched and admired by library visitors.

UC’s 18th century British literature collection is described as one of the finest in the country, and Grace says that Stewart, who passed away on April 4, was instrumental in building the collection before his retirement. “The collection includes everything from poetry and plays to biographies, fiction and homiletics – sermons in 18th century British literature – and he built a great deal of our rare book collection in that area,” says Grace. “We had this wonderful literature collection and now with this map, we can see exactly where it came from.” Stewart made an additional donation of 18th century books about London when he donated the map to the library.

“This is also an incredible urban artifact, which is why it is such a complement to our urban campus,” says Grace. “Now, it can be on display forever.”

UC Archives & Rare Books Library

UC Preservation lab

Proudly Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Libraries

This article was copied from the UC News website.  The original article is available at:  http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=17617

After a hiatus for the past few months, the lunchtime talks in the Archives & Rare Books Library return with a new presentation this month.   Held in 814 Blegen in the Schott Seminar Room, these casual talks are held from 12 noon to 12:50, so bring your lunch and bring a friend.   On March 28, the presentation will focus on the 19^th century blind Dublin street poet, Zozimus.  And, the presentation will herald a new hallway exhibit in the Archives & Rare Books Library that features photographs of urban buskers from cities far and wide.

The Archives and Rare Books Library has added some new links on our website for Cincinnati German-American places and events.  Have you seen the Sausage Queen at Bockfest?  Have you danced the Chicken Dance at Oktoberfest?  If not, learn more about these German-influenced events in the Cincinnati area.  We’ve also updated other links on ARB’s website for research resources, exhibits, and websites related to our collections.  Take a look and see if there is anything that interests you.  For more information, contact the Archives and Rare Books Library staff directly at 513.556.1959 or archives@ucmail.uc.edu

On Tuesday, November 20, the Archives & Rare Books Library will present the second in its series of lunchtime talks for this academic year.  The book to be presented is George Moerlein’s A Trip Around the World.  Moerlein, the son of Cincinnati beer baron Christian Moerlein, undertook a global journey in 1885 and chronicled his adventures the next year with the publication of this volume.

Printed and designed locally, and heavily illustrated, Moerlein’s travel account was published in both German and English, the better to use as a marketing tool for Cincinnati’s beer-drinking population.  In fact, the end paper of the volume was a color lithograph of the Moerlein Brewery on Elm Street in Over-the-Rhine, a copy of which now decorates the entrance in the Moerlein Lager House brewery and restaurant on Cincinnati’s river bank.

A Trip Around the World is a local example of the grand tours undertaken by young men and women of wealth during America’s Gilded Age.  At a time when the Moerlein brewing enterprise was one of the largest in the United States, the book spoke not only of the importance of the Moerlein business, but also of an attempt by  German-American brewers to increase their social stature.

Please join us on November 20 for a casual noon gathering to learn about this interesting book and the man who penned it.