• Panetta To Give Program On Jazz April 9
  
• Summer Symposium by Mary Ellen Ames '40
  
• The Preservation Department by Jane Hedberg, Serials Librarian
  and Preservation Administrator
  
• Hours of Illumination by Margaret E. Hadley `97
  
• The Founding of the Friends of the Wellesley College Library by Eleanor Gustafson, Librarian Emerita
  and Friend Emerita
  
• Calendar

Jazz burst on the American scene in the early 1920s, its popularity greatly spurred by the evolving technologies of radio and sound recording.  While this novel musical idiom gave voice and movement to the ecstatic, iconoclastic tendencies of the nation's younger generation, it also drew the ire of preachers and establishment conservatives. Throughout the twenties, numerous authorities denounced jazz as an agent of moral corrosion, an open invitation to give free rein to "primitive" instincts long held in check by civilizing forces.  The music became an "issue" about which many felt something should be done though just what was a subject of intense debate.

Drawing on a wide variety of primary source materials, many from Clapp Library collections, Professor Jay Panetta of the College Music Department will discuss the "jazz dilemma" of the twenties and its eventual resolution.  "Hep Cats and Philistines: Perceptions of Jazz in the 1920s" is sponsored by the Wellesley College Friends of the Library. The talk, on Wednesday, April 9, at 4:45 p.m., will be in the Collins Cinema at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center. A reception preceding it will begin at 4:15 p.m. in the Collins Cafe.  The program and reception are open to the public.

Jay Panetta earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University, and joined the Wellesley faculty in 1992.  His scholarly research has been concentrated in two fields: European instrumental music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and jazz.  Prof. Panetta has written a study of French musical life in the early Baroque era (published by Cambridge University Press) and numerous articles on the music of Giovanni Gabrieli and his Venetian contemporaries.  He is currently editing a collection of historical readings in jazz, to be published by W.W. Norton.  At Wellesley, Prof. Panetta has taught courses in counterpoint, music theory, the history of jazz, and European music history, as well as seminars on Joseph Haydn, Claudio Monteverdi, and the American popular song tradition.    

Photo credit: Eunice Johnson

How can one connect a 15th-century Book of Hours, hand-copied over weeks or months in a French monastery and illuminated with gold-leaf, to a 21st century multi-media text, printed and illustrated on a Macintosh Performa and transmitted electronically around the world in less than 24 hours?

Sounds pretty challenging, doesn't it?

This feat will be achieved at Wellesley June 1-6,  at the Annual Summer Symposium, "The Art and History of the Book".

No doubt about it--the physical form of the "book" as the dictionary now defines it, has undergone tremendous changes since its beginning.  But current technology suggests even more rapid and mind-stretching transformations to come within the near future.

Wellesley's faculty and library staff, its treasured Special Collections holdings, its Book Arts Lab with letterpress and bookbinding tools, and special guests from the local area and elsewhere will contribute to a memorable five days of activities on this topic.  Symposium participants will be treated to an historical review through talks by experts, slide illustrations, and viewing of rare volumes.  And in informal late afternoon sessions, they can take part in a letterpress printing demonstration, see bookbinding demonstrated and exhibited, and learn more about Wellesley's special Collections materials.  Or, if they need physical exercise, the Keohane Sports Center offers a varied schedule of sports activities.

Faculty Codirectors of this Symposium are Katherine Park, Professor of History, and Ruth Rogers, Special Collections Librarian.

Participants for the full week will be housed at Stone-Davis dormitories, where faculty will join them for meals and social hours.  Alternative registration plans involve the full week without lodging, and attendance on a single day only.  All Wellesley College alumnae should have received a detailed brochure in early March.  Registration is made through the Alumnae Office.  Questions can be answered by calling (617)283-2333.

by Jane Hedberg, Serials Librarian and Preservation Administrator

The Library's Preservation Department prolongs the useful life of our collections.  That is a very simple way to describe a fairly complex set of activities designed to maintain our valuable intellectual resources.  We are responsible for materials sent to the commercial binder, final processing of new materials added to the collections (labeling, applying barcodes and security system strips, etc.), preservation reformatting (photocopying and microfilming), mass deacidification, and in-house conservation of damaged materials.  We provide expertise in monitoring environmental conditions, collection security, disaster preparedness, care and handling of materials, and patron and staff preservation education.  In the past, we were concerned only with paper or microform collection formats, but in recent years have included audio and video tapes, CD and CD-ROM.  In 1996, we began to treat classroom maps.

Although all our activities are important in preserving the collections, those of the Conservation Laboratory are especially interesting for book lovers.  There Sue Leong, our Library Assistant for Conservation, and her cadre of student workers repair damaged books from the general collections.  They, literally, take the broken pieces of a book and put them back together, so the book can return to use--as shown in the photographs below. This is exacting hand-work, which requires many hours of training.  Our Wellesley students have proved adept at acquiring these skills, and they consistently produce high quality repairs.

The Friends of the Library have generously supported our conservation efforts through the purchase of the board shear (an 850 lb. paper/heavy board cutter), a large press and a brand-new creaser (for scoring heavy board).

by Margaret E. Hadley `97

Professor Lilian Armstrong's art history course, "The Beautiful Book" (Spring 1996), introduced me to five manuscript Books of Hours in the Special Collections of Clapp Library.  Becoming acquainted with some of the lesser-known treasures at Wellesley was a wonderful opportunity.  I was surprised that nothing had ever been published about these manuscripts.  The more I studied the manuscripts, the more I wanted to learn about them. This led me to a thesis topic exploring the content and meaning of the five manuscript Books of Hours in Special Collections.

The Book of Hours was the most popular devotional book of the late Middle Ages.  Laity used the books to follow, on a reduced scale, the daily devotional practices of the clergy, who recited different readings and prayers at eight times--or "hours"--during the day.  The central text of the book is the Hours of the Virgin; a calendar, Gospel excerpts, Psalms, prayers to saints, and the Vigil of the Dead are usually included as well.  Due to the immense popularity of the books, many examples survive.  Books of Hours were available to purchasers ranging from the nobility to the upper middle class.  In the latter cases, it may have been the only book a family could afford and would have been used to teach the children to read.

The five Wellesley manuscripts were made during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in France and the Low Countries.  The text was copied by scribes onto vellum and decorated by illuminators.  All of the manuscripts have a decorative program, which characteristically includes a border, miniature, and an embellished initial at the beginning of each text section.  I am attempting to date and localize the manuscripts more precisely as well as to compare the images of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, the Last Judgment, and funeral scenes within the five manuscripts.  These images relate to the themes of salvation and death--key issues in the text's role in daily devotion. I am very much interested in the issues raised by these images, and eager to continue to learn more as I complete my thesis this semester.  It is a pleasure to work with them.  Using resources available only at Wellesley and discovering more about these Unique Books of Hours has been a wonderful experience.

by Eleanor Gustafson, Librarian Emerita and Friend Emerita

The Friends of the Library was officially inaugurated in October 1984 at Houghton Chapel during the alumnae Leadership Council.  David Ives, then Trustee of the College and Vice-Chair of the  WGBH Foundation, presented his thoughts on the Library to this first gathering of Friends and potential Friends.  Refreshments were served on the Library Terrace on that sparkling afternoon.

What preceded that October day?  Two years preparation time--and a previous organization.  This is a brief account of the preliminary steps.

Librarian Helen M. Brown had recommended a Library Friends to the President of the College in 1982, having witnessed the demise of an earlier Friends group in the mid-50s.  That group had contributed many items to the Rare Books Collection during the 30s and 40s, but ceased operations after the College request in 1954 that all gifts be channeled towards general purposes. Discussions in the 70s about reviving the Friends were unproductive.

But in the spring of 1982, when interviewing candidates for Special Collections Librarian, I asked each if he or she would be interested in helping re-establish a Friends of the Library, and all responded enthusiastically.  It is not unusual for the Special Collections Librarian to play a key role in a Friends program. Many Friends events focus on treasures in a library's special or rare books collections and coincide with exhibitions of these collections.

The timing seemed right.  Shortly after Anne Anninger became Special Collections Librarian that August, President Nan Keohane invited her and me to luncheon to plan the renaissance of the Friends.  It was agreed that the Friends should support THE LIBRARY, which included Clapp (the general collection, Archives, and Special Collections) and the Art, Music, Science, and Astronomy libraries.  President Keohane would select an alumna to head the group. Suzanne Mueller `46, Trustee of the College, accepted, and recommended that an alumna and the Librarian be Co-Chairmen.  A Steering committee was formed.  In the spring of 1983, the Board of Trustees voted approval of the Friends of the Wellesley College Library.

The first membership drive netted 200 members by the 1984 inaugural meeting.
The first big gift, in 1983, was $10,000 from Mary Jackson `24, a former public librarian in Cleveland Heights.  The Steering Committee used this seed money for an all-alumnae membership appeal in 1987-88, which netted over 700 members from throughout the U.S. and abroad.  The following year, at the suggestion of the Resources office, the Library Friends joined the other Friends Groups on campus in a unified appeal.  This practice continues today.

The first  Friends Newsletter appeared in 1985.

The members of the early Steering Committees deserve commendation. They provided refreshments and brought flowers from their gardens for Friends events.  They personalized thank you notes and membership cards. Janice Hunt and Caroline W. Axten `36 spent many hours at the third floor desk.  The Friends soon decided to use the college catering facilities but responded to the membership for seven years, until funds were allocated for these services.

The Friends of the Library continues to fulfill its purpose--to support the Library through contributions, parograms, and a newsletter.  The dream of Nan Keohane and the founding members in 1983 has been realized!

April 1
Mailing session for Friends to Friends. Book Arts Lab.  9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. at latest.

April 9
Jay Panetta, Assistant Professor of Music, will give a multi-media program, "Hep Cats and Philistines." Sponsored by Friends of the College Library.  Collins Cinema. 4:45 p.m.

April 24
Authors on Stage, sponsored by Wellesley College Alumnae Association.  Alexandra Johnson, Lecturer in the College Writing Program, will read from her forthcoming book The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life." The College Club.  10:30 a.m.  Coffee at 9:45 a.m. For program information and reservations, call Nancy Agnew at (617)237-3696.

May 13
Steering Committee meeting, Friends of the Library.  Sanger room.  3 - 4:30 p.m.

June 1 - 8
"The Art and History of the Book," College Summer Symposium. .

Thanks to Betty Febo, designer of the Newsletter, with help from Leslie Lapham, Shelly Warren, and Carl Jones, who did the HTML version.

Friends of the Library-1996

• Honorary Chairperson Diana Chapman Walsh '66
• Founding Member Mary E. Jackson '24
• Co-Chairpersons Ruth R. Rogers, Lia Gelin Poorvu '56
• Newsletter Editor Elizabeth K. Cabot '60

Claire M. Broder '61
Eleanor A. Gustafson
Ann Hayden Hamilton '67
Janice G. Hunt '52
Cynthia Johnson '72
Jean Kendall CE '88
Mary Ann Lash '52
Bettina Antonia Norton '58
Ruth Rogers
Jane Sibley '54, CE '89
June Stobaugh '66
Elinor Bunn Thompson '37
Kathleen Thompson CE '80
Sigrid R. Watson '47