Contents: (Volume 21, number 1 -- Spring 2005)
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Maren Mazzeo ’04, Wellesley’s Mellon Library Associate by Diane Speare Triant '68
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April 6: A Talk with Claire van Vliet of the Janus Press by Julia Hanna Brown '88
- From the Co-Chairs by Ruth R. Rogers, Special Collections Librarian, and Polly Gambrill Slavet '67
- A note from Reference Librarian Joan Campbell: A sampling of what our students are researching...
- Calendar
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Cooperation: A Natural Act for Libraries by Micheline Jedrey, Vice President for Information Services and College Librarian
- A New View of the Greeks
- ABC: The Artists’ Books Conference
- ARTstor Comes to Wellesley by Brooke Henderson, Art Librarian
- Save the date - May 15, 2005 - Norma Mandel ’55, author of Beyond the Garden Gate: The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter
- Honor with Books
- Time to renew ?
- Friends of the Library Steering Committee 2004-2005
Diane Speare Triant '68
Maren Mazzeo’s dark eyes sparkle as she contemplates the innards of a Vandercook press she helped to disassemble. As Wellesley’s first Mellon Library Associate, she is excited that one of her assignments is to learn to clean this vintage printing press—one of two Vandercooks in the Book Arts Lab at Clapp Library. “I love it,” she says. “I get to work with my hands, get dirty, and feel a sense of accomplishment as I watch the oil and grease scrape away.” The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation established the one-year Associate’s program to recruit undergraduates into library science, a field facing a serious shortfall of trained professionals. Wellesley is one of six colleges to participate in the initiative, with Mazzeo one of five Associates nationwide. “It is both a challenge and an opportunity,” she says. I’ve worked at the Science, Art, and Music Libraries, with the majority of my time spent at Clapp. I’ve helped teach Applied Arts workshops and have participated in the ‘Papyrus to Print to Pixel’ course. I’m learning about research methods, how to build Web pages, how to make paper, and how to bind books. I’m earning about diligence and responsibility, and the importance of supportive co-workers. Katherine McCanless Ruffin [Book Arts Program Director] and Joan Campbell [Research & Instructional Services Librarian] have put in many hours—even outside of work—giving me feedback and advice.” |
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While apart, Mazzeo and her family bond by reading. “We started a family book group where we all read the same books and share our thoughts over a family listserv,” Mazzeo says. “One recent selection was Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.” It was not books or libraries, however, that first attracted the future English major to Wellesley. “I came to visit my sister [Melora Slover Johnston ’00] for her spring break,” Mazzeo explains. “There was a huge blizzard and we trudged in knee-deep snow to a Shakespeare Society meeting. Then we went to the very top of Galen Stone Tower where we looked at the stars. It was all very romantic and wonderful and no other college tour could match the experience!” This summer, Mazzeo and her husband, an electrical engineer and Marshall Scholar, will leave for England. She has applied to an M.Phil. program at Cambridge University, and hopes to utilize her Book Arts Lab knowledge to work for a letterpress printer in the area. Her positive experience at Clapp also seems to have found its way into her future dreams: “My husband and I hope to have five kids and a big house where he can have a science lab—and I can have a big barn-turned-library!”. |
Book-loving comes naturally to Mazzeo, whose close-knit Mormon family (her parents, four siblings, and husband Brian, whom she married following her junior year at Wellesley) thrives on reading. Although home base is Colorado, family members are frequently away fulfilling their church’s mission obligations. Mazzeo joined her parents for several years in South Korea, where her father was president of the Pusan mission. “I left my Colorado high school of over 3,000 students to attend a Department of Defense high school at Pusan with fewer than 50 people,” she says. “It completely changed my perspective on the world.” |
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April 6: A Talk with Claire Van Vliet of the Janus Press Julia Hanna Brown '88
Tucked away in a far northeastern corner of Vermont, artist and bookmaker Claire Van Vliet has been quietly going about the work that has made her one of the world’s most respected practitioners in the field of book arts. Founded in San Diego in 1955, Van Vliet’s Janus Press moved to its current location in Newark, Vermont, in 1966. Over the past fifty years, Van Vliet has produced a remarkable body of Julia Hanna Brown ’88 work that has been honored with numerous exhibitions and awards, including the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (sometimes referred to as the “genius” grant), which she received in 1989. When Van Vliet addresses a Friends of the Library audience on Wednesday, April 6 (4:15 p.m. in the Clapp Library Lecture Room), participants will enjoy the rare opportunity of hearing her discuss her work in person. While fine printing and bookmaking have continued to grow in popularity over the last twenty or thirty years, the art was less well known when Van Vliet launched her career. In The Janus Press, 1981–90, a catalog published in 1992 by the University of Vermont Libraries, Van Vliet recalls that in the beginning, “[I] actually would meet sometimes with active hostility for doing these kinds of handmade books, a kind of ‘don’t you know there are people starving in the world and this is very indulgent and elitist; besides, books are dead.’” Fortunately, Van Vliet paid no attention to these naysayers, going on to create dozens of exquisite limited edition works that are startling in their variety and scope. Widely regarded for her talents as a printmaker, painter, and woodcut artist in addition to her skills as a bookmaker, Van Vliet’s treatments of text stretch the bounds of what is commonly defined as a book. In the case of “Aunt Sallie’s Lament,” a poem by Margaret Kaufman (’63) about quilting, the brightly colored, interlocking strips of paper resemble a quilt itself. “The text becomes additive,” writes Ruth E. Fine in a catalog describing the work. “As one turns the pages, selected lines remain in view, layering their uses and meanings. Echoes of words and colors reverberate.” The output of the Janus Press ranges from a lecture given by John LeCarré called “The Clandestine Muse” to Henry Purcell’s 17th-century opera Dido and Aeneas to Franz Kafka’s story “A Country Doctor,” with a number of works by contemporary poets such as James Wright, Galway Kinnell, and Tess Gallagher. Whatever the text, her wish for the reader, and the work, is as modest as Van Vliet herself. “What I hope is simply that a book works for the reader,” he told Robert Pincus, art critic of the San Diego Union-Tribune, in a June 2002 interview. “I want it to be an extraordinary place. If someone wants to continue opening themselves to a particular book, then I suppose it’s a success.” |
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From the Co-Chairs
Ruth R. Rogers, Special Collections Librarian, and Polly Gambrill Slavet '67
Mary Lefkowitz ’57, Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Wellesley, inaugurated our fall programming with a fascinating talk on her latest book, Greek Gods, Human Lives. This was followed in November by a joint venture with Archives featuring insights into the lives of Mayling Soong Kai-shek ’17 and Emma DeLong Mills ’17. Authors Samuel C. Chu, Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University, and Thomas A. DeLong, nephew of Emma DeLong Mills, shared information from the correspondence of Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Emma DeLong Mills with an audience of students, alumnae, staff and Friends. Photos, letters, and other materials pertaining to the lives of the two classmates were on display in the Reference Room for the event.
If you haven’t already done so, please revisit our website at http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/friends.html Thanks to the productive collaboration of Steering Committee members, Janet Si-Ming Lee ’98, Susan Fromson Saul ’65, and Mac Stewart, Digital Library Specialist, the website is continually being upgraded with interactive features. The Friends Endowment Fund matching campaign has reached 50 percent of its $150,000 goal in just one year—with two years still remaining to raise the additional $75,000. Thank you to all who have contributed and to those planning to contribute to this valuable effort. Keep up the good work of providing much needed support for the collections of the Wellesley College Libraries. Thank you!
In May, Polly Gambrill Slavet ’67 will step down as alumna co-chair of the Wellesley College Friends of the Library, to be replaced by Dorothea (Dot) Widmayer ’52, retired professor of biology at Wellesley, collector of books, and former board member of the Wellesley Students’ Aid Society. Dot has served on the Steering Committee for three years and brings enthusiasm, experience, excellence and leadership to this wonderful organization. Thank you all for your continued loyalty to the Friends of the Library. And welcome, Dot!
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A note from Reference Librarian Joan
Campbell:
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Calendar
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April 6, 2005 May 4, 2005 May 15, 2005 June 15-18 May-June, 2005 June 11, 2005 |
Cooperation: A Natural Act for Libraries
Micheline Jedrey, Vice President for Information Services and College Librarian
Some years ago, after a long and contentious meeting, one of my colleagues from a neighboring university said to me with exasperation, “Cooperation is an unnatural act.” Finding our way to cooperation—“working together towards the same end, purpose, or effect” [OED]—can require both resolve and stamina. However, since the founding days of the library profession, librarians have willingly taken on these challenges of cooperation because of the belief that by working together, rather than singly, we can offer more services and resources to our communities. In 1853, at the first-ever convention of librarians, Charles Coffin Jewett, librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, presented a grand scheme, one that was declared to be the most exciting subject on the agenda. Jewett’s idea was to produce a universal catalog of all holdings in libraries in America. The technology he selected to accomplish this was an elaborate printing mechanism, which he called stereotyping, using moveable clay printing blocks for each title so that either a full catalog or an individual library’s holdings could be produced. While his choice of technology was a dismal failure, his vision for a universal catalog was compelling: provide a single entry way for students and scholars to all library resources.
Today, over 150 years since Jewett’s initial presentation, the “universal catalog” is a reality and serves as the foundation for cooperation among libraries. As a member of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the world’s largest consortium, Wellesley is one of the 50,000 libraries that share in the production and maintenance of WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog. Our faculty and students can search this database, identify needed items and, if not available at Wellesley, request that the materials be borrowed from another library. During this past academic year, over 11,350 items were obtained from her libraries to support research of our students and faculty. Wellesley ful.lled its commitment to cooperation by lending over 8,800 items to patrons in other libraries. The vision of the “universal catalog” continues to expand. Wellesley is a participant in the OCLC-sponsored Open WorldCat program, an initiative that provides access via Google and Yahoo! Search to the over 57 million records contained in the Online Union Catalog. Entering a search phrase that matches the title of a library-owned item yields a “Find in a Library” link. Searchers can then enter geographic information to help them locate the item at a library in their city, region or country. By working together, libraries have created a doorway to the world’s information resources. The value of cooperation has never been clearer.
A New View of the Greeks
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Dr. Mary Lefkowitz ’57 (right) addressed a capacity crowd
October 20th in the Clapp Library Lecture Room on the topic of
her recently published book, Greek Gods, Human Lives. Lefkowitz,
the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Classical Studies at Wellesley,
addressed misconceptions about Greek mythology. “The polytheists
or ‘pagans’ had some serious religious ideas, even
though we monotheists condescend to them,” she noted. “The
book encourages a multi-cultural approach to religion.” The
allure of the classical world’s philosophy, culture, and
art is timeless, instructing and entertaining at the same time. "Greek
myths have a continuing appeal because they are first of all
really great stories,” said Lefkowitz. “It is a religion
for adults, offering responsibilities rather than rewards. These
same stories can still provide a guide to life in our own times.” |
ABC: The Artists’ Books Conference
On June 15–18, Wellesley College will host ABC: The Artists’ Books
Conference. Sponsored in part by the Friends of the Library, the conference
is expected to attract some two hundred book artists, curators, collectors,
educators, book sellers, and students for a full schedule of speakers,
panels, events, and tours.
The format of this important national conference will be
mainly panel discussions, facilitating an open dialog between the artists
who create the works and the collectors who purchase them. Panel topics
will cover a variety of perspectives, including:
* Collecting in Private and Public Institutions
* Private Collecting
* The Business of Artists’ Books
* The Book Artist’s Career
* Education in the Book Arts
Participants have the option of registering for pre-conference tours of the Boston Public Library’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Department and the Houghton Library’s Printing and Graphic Arts Collection at Harvard University. An additional excursion to Boston’s Fort Point Channel will offer the opportunity to visit three book artists in their studios and view their work. Especially for out-of-town attendees, these tours offer the opportunity to have a rare glimpse “behind the scenes” in important collections and studios.
Betty Bright, an independent scholar, curator, and teacher, will deliver the opening keynote address. Author of the forthcoming book No Longer Innocent: The Book Arts in America, 1960 to 1980, Bright will speak on the recent history of book arts, the intersection of private and institutional collecting, and the role of librarians and curators as gatekeepers for the future needs of the field.
Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, will deliver a closing keynote address on the challenges of collecting, preserving, and utilizing the largest collection of rare books in North America.
Although one must register to attend the conference program, two conference events are open to the public, free of charge. The Margaret Clapp Library will feature an exhibition, “Resonance and Response,” an extensive array of unique and limited edition artists’ books from Special Collections. An illustrated catalog will be available for purchase, thanks to the Friends of the Library, who are underwriting the printing costs. Also open to the public is the ABC Book Fair, hosted by the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, where book artists and book dealers will be selling their work. This event will take place on the afternoons of June 16 and 17, in the Museum’s Contemporary Gallery.
It is not surprising that as soon as the conference web site was launched, calls and registrations started coming in. The Clapp Library’s own extensive artists’ books collection, the inviting gallery space in the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, and the beautiful Wellesley College campus in June offer the perfect site for a gathering of collectors, educators, and artists to share and learn from each other.
For more information on the conference, visit http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/ABC, call (781) 283-2129, or send an e-mail to ABC@wellesley.edu
ARTstor Comes to Wellesley
Brooke Henderson, Art Librarian
To enter the ARTstor digital library, users must click on the Search and Browse for Images link at the left side of the ARTstor home page. You can immediately start browsing once you’re in the database, but one-time registration is required for full access to the database’s many features. For a Quick Start Guide and FAQs, click on Help at the top of the ARTstor page. |
At the November 2004 Friends of the Library meeting, I was pleased to announce that Wellesley College library patrons now have access to ARTstor, a digital web resource that contains more than 300,000 images of world art, architecture, design, photographs, and other forms of visual culture. ARTstor, a non-profit entity initiated by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, provides curated collections of art images and associated data for scholarly, nonprofit use in teaching and research across a variety of disciplines. Images are drawn from sources such as museums (including the Davis Museum and Cultural Center), archaeological teams, photo archives, slide collections, and art reference publishers. Specialized collections in this database include the Carnegie Arts of the United States, the Hartill Archive of Architecture and Allied Arts, the Huntington Archive of Asian Art, the Illustrated Bartsch Collection, the Mellon International Dunhuang Archive, MoMA’s Architecture and Design Collection, the Smithsonian Institution’s Native American Art and Culture Collection, and an Art History Survey Collection comprised of images from ten standard art history texts. ARTstor allows users to zoom in on images, view two images side-by-side for comparison purposes, save groups of images online, add personal notes, and create presentations. The database continues to be updated, with 200,000 more images scheduled to be added before 2006.
Wellesley College users can access ARTstor on campus using most web browsers at http://www.artstor.org or via the Wellesley College Library Databases A-Z list at http://luna.wellesley.edu/screens/a-zlist.html
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Save the Date - May 15, 2005
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The Wellesley College Friends of the Library and Friends of Horticulture will jointly sponsor a Sunday afternoon program on May 15th at the College’s Collins Cinema featuring Norma Mandel ’55, author of Beyond the Garden Gate: The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter. An outdoor reception (weather permitting) will begin at 2:30 p.m. with a slide lecture to follow by Mandel at 3:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Thaxter is widely regarded as New Hampshire’s best-known poet of the 19th century. She was born in Portsmouth in 1835 and moved with her family at the age of four to White Island, where her father was a lighthouse keeper. “One of the first things a settler on the Isles of Shoals has to learn is to live as independently as possible,” she once wrote. Married at the age of sixteen, Thaxter relocated with her new husband to Newtonville, Massachusetts, but disliked the city and her new role as a homemaker. (She once described in a letter the “hideous ironing…the trinity of the soapkettle, the ashcan and the cookstove.”) It wasn’t until her husband took one of her poems to James Russell Lowell, editor of the Atlantic magazine, that her literary career took off. Thaxter went on to write numerous poems and essays and hosted a popular summer salon at her family’s resort on Appledore Island. One guest, William Morris Hunt, once said to Thaxter, “You are not afraid, therefore you will be able to do anything.” Norma Mandel is a lecturer in the Education Program at Barnard College and was a contributor to One Woman’s Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter. She received a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Beyond the Garden Gate is the first biography on Thaxter to be published in twenty years. |
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or make a donation to the Endowment Fund. |
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Friends of the Library
Steering Committee 2004-2005
Honorary Chairperson
Diana Chapman Walsh ’66
Founding Member
Mary E. Jackson ’24
Co-Chairs
Ruth R. Rogers
Polly G. Slavet ’67
Newsletter Editor
Julia H. Brown ’88
Production Editor
Debra Carbarnes
Photo Editor
Dorothea Widmayer ’52
Steering Committee
Georgia Brady Barnhill ’66
Molly S. Campbell ’60
Barbara F. Coburn ’52
Carol Cross DS ’02
Beverly M. Dillaway ’78
Kerin D. Fenster ’ 64
Kathryn K. Flynn, ex-officio
Julia H. Brown ’88
Margaret D. Hadzima ’73
Deborah Holman ’89
Micheline E. Jedrey
Janet Si-Ming Lee ’98
Wanda L. MacDonald ’72
Katherine H. Page ’69
Elizabeth Pierre ’97
Deborah T. Rempis ’68
Alice B. Robinson ’46
Susan F. Saul ’65
June M. Stobaugh ’66
Diane S. Triant ’68
Pamela W. Turner ’65
Mary Jane Waite DS ’01
Dorothea Widmayer ’52
Virginia B. Wickwire DS ’81
Pamela Worden ’66
Emeritae
Claire M. Broder ’61
Janice L. Hunt ’52
Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56
Elinor Bunn Thompson ’37
Sigrid R. Terman ’47
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