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Tag Archives: J. Willard Marriott Library

Curtis Census

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Publication

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American Indians, copper plates, Curtis Census, drawing, Edward Curtis, etchings, ethnography, field notes, French Impressionists, glass negative, glass positive, gravures, gum prints, handpress, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japanese handmade silk tissues, Mississippi, negatives, nineteenth century, painting, papers, photographer, photogravures, Pictorialism, platinotypes, printing process, rare books, rice paper, Scott Beadles, Seattle, sepia inks, Tim Greyhavens, Tissue, Van Gelder, vellum, watermark

Rare Books is pleased to announce the launch of the Curtis Census, a website produced by Tim Greyhavens for the global community. The J. Willard Marriott Library is one of the institutions that holds an entire set of Edward Curtis’ The North American Indian.

From Tim’s website: “Published by Edward Curtis from 1907 to 1930, The North American Indian was planned to be a limited edition of 500 sets. Due to the extremely high cost of the publication and the prolonged publication cycle, it’s thought that no more than 300 complete or partial sets were finally printed. This census will determine, as accurately as possible, the actual number of complete or partial sets that were printed and their present locations…Although The North American Indian is one of the great publications of all time, there is no definitive answer about how many sets were originally published. Curtis did not keep a master subscription list, and different documentation about the project provides conflicting information.”

Congratulations, Tim, on a great project.

Click here for the website’s biography of Edward Curtis. Curtis was born in 1868. 2018 is the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Click here for the website’s excellent article on Curtis’s The North American Indian.

Visit Rare Books to look at this remarkable set of photogravures.

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
Seattle, WA: E. S. Curtis, 1907-30
E77 C97

A collection of 2,232 photogravures of American Indians taken between 1890 and 1930 and published between 1907 and 1930. A massive project, professional photographer Edward Curtis’ intention was to document every major tribe west of the Mississippi, portraying what he perceived to be a vanishing culture. While he was neither the first nor the last person to photograph the American Indian, he was surely the most prolific. His monumental publication presented to the public an extensive ethnographic study of numerous peoples.

The North American Indian consists of twenty portfolios of photogravures and twenty volumes of field notes bound with smaller gravures. A photogravure is made from a printing process utilizing a copper plate that is made from a glass positive which itself is made from a glass negative. The plate is hand wiped with sepia inks. Excess ink is removed and the plate is forced onto paper with a handpress, capturing all the etched details on the plate. The photogravure produces a soft, atmospheric appearance similar to that achieved by French Impressionist painters. This photographic process, along with drawing and painting on negatives, platinotypes and gum prints, was popular at the end of the nineteenth century. The movement, known as “Pictorialism” was a way for photographers to add personal vision and expression to their works.

The portfolio gravures were printed on three different papers, Van Gelder, a watermarked paper, Vellum, a rice paper, and Tissue, Japanese handmade silk tissues. Forty of the original sets were printed on Tissue, the rest equally split between Van Gelder and Vellum.

Images selected and scanned by Scott Beadles.

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Rare Books goes to UMFA

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Rare Books Loans, Recommended Exhibition

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Arabic Papyrus, Aziz S. Atiya, Brigham Young University, J. Willard Marriott Library, Lincoln Blumell, Lola Atiya, rare books, University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Greek inscription

A piece from the rare book collections is on loan at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, in its ongoing exhibition,  Ancient Mediterranean Art: Res Mortis. The piece may be viewed at the museum through September, 2018.

The carved fragment of limestone celebrates the life of Helene, to whom is given the credit “In peace and blessing Ama Helene, a Jew, who loves the orphans, [died]. For about 60 years her path was one of mercy and blessing; on it she prospered.”

The piece has been at the J. Willard Marriott for nearly thirty years, a gift of Aziz S. and Lola Atiya. Aziz Atiya founded the University of Utah’s Middle East Center and the Marriott’s Middle East Library in 1969. Rare Books holds many gifts from Dr. and Mrs. Atiya, including this epitaph and one of the largest collections of Arabic papyrus fragments in the world.

When the epitaph was given to the library, it was provisionally identified as a “Coptic inscription, dating from the dawn of the use of the Greek alphabet, not earlier than the second century, but not later than the third.”

Years later, in 2016, Lincoln Blumell, associate professor of ancient scripture, at Brigham Young University translated it, publishing his translation in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period. News of the piece attracted world wide press attention.

For more information on Dr. Blumell’s translation see our previous post.

— photographs by Scott Beadles

 

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The Melody Lingers On

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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1968, book, J. Willard Marriott Library, library, Scott Beadles, Wallace Stegner

Happy 50th Anniversary, J. Willard Marriott Library!

“To erect a great library in the year 1968 is an act of stubborn and sassy faith.” — Wallace Stegner, from his dedication address for the opening of the J. Willard Marriott Library

The melody lingers on.

Long live the book! Long live libraries!

(Thanks to Scott Beadles for great photographs)

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Beer libator

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Arad, beer libator, cult, cuneiform, Dr. Renee Kovacs, funerary banquet, grain, J. Willard Marriott Library, Kenneth Lieurance Ott, King Amar-Suen of Ur, libations, mill, Okanagan County Museum, priestesses, rare books, receipt, Special Collections, Sumerian, tablet, The University of Utah, Third Dynasty of Ur, Ur-mes, Washington

https://openbook.lib.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2018/03/Tablet1080p11s.mp4

Photograph and stop motion by Scott Beadles.

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet of Third Dynasty of Ur
PJ3824 B33
From the Kenneth Lieurance Ott Collection donated to the Okanangan County Museum, Washington, now in the Rare Books collection, J. Willard Marriott Library, the University of Utah.

Our thanks to Dr. Renee Kovacs for this translation.

This tablet will appear in the master database of cuneiform tablets, CDLI Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative  and the specialised database of administrative tablets of this period, the Third Dynasty of Ur: BDTNS Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts.

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet of Third Dynasty of Ur

Administrative, receipt of grain

dated to King Amar-Suen of Ur, year 2 (ca. 2045 BC)

3.0 x 3.0 cm. The tablet is complete, 8 lines of Sumerian cuneiform, (6 obverse, 2 reverse).

The tablet records an amount of a grain (lillan”-grain) for provisions for the funerary cult of the former “lords”, that is the rulers, the en-priests and priestesses. The grain was issued from the mill by an official named Arad and received by an official Ur-mes with the title ‘beer libator”  This title was used specifically for an official who performed libations during the funerary banquet for the deceased rulers.

The English units of measure  in the translation do not reflect actual Sumerian volumes but merely the sequence of units, large to small, of the Sumerian.  The regnal years of kings were identified by assigning a  name for a significant event of that year.

1 0.2.2  4 silà (še <gur> lugal 2 “barrels”, 2 “gallons” 4 “quarts”  of lillan-grain
2 níg-dab5-en-en-ne provisions for the Lords
3 é-HAR-ta from the mill
4 ki Arad2-ta from Arad
5 Ur-mes kaš-dé-dé Ur-mes, libator for ritual meals,
6 šu ba-ti received.
rev 7 iti dLi9-si4 Month IX
8 mu Ur-bí-/lumki ba-hul Year (named) ” The year Urbilum was destroyed.”

 

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Books of the Week — Sara Langworthy

26 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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blotters, Book Arts Program, Bulmer, Cave Paper, clamshell, College Book Arts Association Conference and Annual Meeting, cotton, Dante, drum leaf binding, Emilie Bach, flax, handmade paper, hemp, Iowa, J. Willard Marriott Library, Kitakata, Kozo Kiga, linoleum, Oxford, photopolymer plates, Salt Lake City, Sara Langworthy, sewing manual, sumi ink, tatting manuals, The University of Utah, UICB Papercase Natural, University of Iowa Center for the Book, Utah, Vandercook #4


Everything Speaks In Its Own Way
Sara Langworthy
2003
N7433.4 L355 E8 2003

Printed from photopolymer plates and linoleum on blotters using a Vandercook press. Drum leaf binding. Edition of twenty copies. Rare Books copy is no. 14, signed by the author/bookmaker.


New Patterns in Old Style
Sara Langworthy
Oxford, IA: Sara Langworthy, 2013
N7433.4 L355 N48 2013

From Sara Langworthy’s website: “[This] began as an investigation of two opposing definitions of the word ‘CLEAVE’…The book combines images and text printed from photopolymer plates with hand-brushed sumi ink painting…The text…was constructed from a series of random/chance exercises using [the words from the definitions]. The first signature sets the scene of the word ‘cleave’ fighting itself; a passionate joining with a violent separation. The second signature examines the results of the repeated joining and separating. The first signature is printed primarily in pale greys and greens; the second signature is equally monochromatic, but uses a pink/orange/yellow palette…The papers used are Kitakata, Kozo Kiga, University of Iowa Center for the Book handmade text sheets in a variety of fibers including hemp, flax and cotton, and overbeaten flax/cotton combination, and offcut left over from paper specially commissioned from Cave Paper…The book is sewn into a modified limp paper binding, cover paper is UICB Papercase Natural. The book is housed in a clamshell.”

From the colophon: “Text is digitally set in Dante and Bulmer, and printed…on Vandercook number 4.” The images originat[ed] from scanned leaves and tracing of plants. The text is assembled from two sources: the definition of the word ‘CLEAVE’ and instructional language found in tatting manuals. The title of this book is borrowed from a sewing manual of the same name by Emilie Bach.

Edition of twenty-four copies. Rare Books copy is no. 5, signed by the author/bookmaker.

This book was exhibited as part of the fifth annual College Book Arts Association Conference and Annual Meeting, January 2-4, 2014, Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted by the Book Arts Program, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

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Merci, Paris!

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Uncategorized

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Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, David Taillades, Editions Dervy, Freemasonry, Freemasons, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jon Bingham, Kent Walgren, Margate, Masonic, Paris, Quatuor Coronati, rare books

David TAILLADES, Hiram, Le Mystere de la Maitrise et les origines de la franc-maconnerie (Paris: Editions Dervy, 2017)

Presented as a gift from the author to Rare Books for assistance with Masonic sources, such as articles from the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum: Being the Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati, Lodge No. 2076, London. Volume I.

Author: Freemasons

Edited by: G. W. Speth, P.M., Secretary

Publisher: Margate: Printed at “Kemble’s Gazette” Office, MDCCCXCV (1895)

Quatuor Coronati is the world’s premier Freemason research lodge. Established in 1884 (and consecrated in 1886), the lodge’s founders wished to advance an evidence-based approach to study Masonic history and research the origins of Freemasonry. Their approach was intended to replace the more imaginative writings of earlier authors and is referred to as the ‘authentic school’ of Masonic research. The Lodge publishes lectures, research papers, and ‘notes & queries’ annually in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (‘AQC’), which also consists of the transactions of the Lodge. The AQC is distributed internationally. The J. Willard Marriott Library holds the first one hundred and seventeen volumes of the publication (up through 2004). The volumes in Rare Books came to the collections from the library of Kent Walgren.

David Taillades approached Rare Books in November 2016, requesting digital reproductions of articles from the the AQC because the documents “can’t be found in France.” Over the next six months Rare Books worked to support David’s research into the origins of Freemasonry in France by providing access to select articles found throughout its set of AQC. According to David, the support the Rare Books staff provided aided him greatly in his ability to publish his research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sassy Faith

05 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

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5oth Anniversary, books, faith, Friends of the Library, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jon Bingham, Jonathan Sandberg, libraries, Luise Poulton, Lyuba Basin, rare books, Scott Beadles, Wallace Stegner

“To erect a great library in the year 1968 is an act of stubborn and sassy faith.” — Wallace Stegner, from his dedication address for the opening of the J. Willard Marriott Library

Rare Books joins in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the J. Willard Marriott Library, recognizing the work of the Friends of the Library, past, present, and future, in its charge to keep our collections safe and growing at a time when digital matter consumes students and administrators alike.

Long live the Book! Long live libraries!

J. Willard Marriott Library
Level 1 lobby
Friday, January 5 through Sunday, March 18

Curated by Lyuba Basin and Luise Poulton with help from Scott Beadles, Jonathan Sandburg, and Jon Bingham.

For more information, contact Luise Poulton 

 

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Pioneers of Science — Now Online

05 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, College of Science, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Luise Poulton, Marie Curie, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, rare books, Scott Beadles, Special Collections, The University of Utah

photograph by Scott Beadles

“A library is as much a scientific instrument as a telescope.” — Luise Poulton

Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World now online.

Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the early masters of movable type figured out how to do it. Not only does the Marriott Library have this first edition, but also first editions of books by other pioneers of science: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

Presented for the 2017/2018 Frontiers of Science lecture series, College of Science and College of Mines and Earth Sciences, The University of Utah

Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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Join Us Tonight! — Pioneers of Science

28 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by scott beadles in Events

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Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, College of Science, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, rare books, Special Collections, The University of Utah

Thursday, September 28, 2017

ASB 220

Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World

Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the early masters of movable type figured out how to do it. Not only does the Marriott Library have this first edition, but also first editions of books by other pioneers of science: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

reception and rare book showing to follow lecture

 

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Rare Books Goes to Leiden!

13 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Publication, Recommended Reading

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amulet, Arabic, Auburn University, Brill, condolence, Fayoum, ḥadīth, history, Islam, J. Willard Marriott Library, Khaled Younes, Leiden, Leiden University, letters, Matt Malczycki, papyrology, papyrus, prayer, Quranic, rare books, Sobhi Bouderbala, Special Collections, Sylvie Denoix, The University of Utah, University of Sadat City

ArabicPapyrologyCover
New Frontiers of Arabic Papyrology: Arabic and Multilingual Texts from Early Islam, edited by Sobhi Bouderbala, Sylvie Denoix, and Matt Malczycki, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017

Papers presented at the fifth conference of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology (ISAP), held in Tunisia in 2012.

The cover of this volume features P.Utah.Ar.inv.342 from the Arabic Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper Collection, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah. The piece is a Quranic amulet on papyrus.

Two of the ten papers discuss pieces from our collection:

“Arabic Letters of Condolence on Papryrus” by Khaled Younes

Papyrus338r
second/eighth century
prob. Fayoum

‘Indeed we belong to God and indeed to Him we will return.’

In this letter, the sender writes to console the addressee on the death of two men.

Khaled Younes received his PhD from Leiden University in 2013. He is a lecturer of Islamic history and civilization at the University of Sadat City.


“A Comparison of P. Utah. Ar. inv. 205 to the Canonical Hadith Collections: The Written Raw Material of Early Hadith Study” by Matt Malczycki

 

Papyrus205rPapyrus205v

second/eighth century

‘When you sit after the two prostrations you say the profession of faith, being very careful not to add anything to it or leave anything out until you finish your profession of faith. When you finish, say what you wish. Verily, the good words are great!’

Instructions for prayer.

Matt Malczycki received his PhD from The University of Utah in 2006. He is associate professor in the Department of History at Auburn University.

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