Contents: (Volume 14, number 1 -- Spring 1998)
- Friends Vote to Fund New Conservation Facility by Jane Hedberg, Serials Librarian and Preservation Administrator
- Noted Therapists Discuss Women and Relationships April 15
- Making Memories: Creating an Artist's Book from Personal Experience by Jill Triplett Bent, Special Collections Assistant
- Yolen Delights Local Schoolchildren
- Calendar
by Jane Hedberg, Serials Librarian and Preservation Administrator
On November 19, 1997, the Friends of the Library Steering Committee voted to contribute $250,000 toward construction of a new Conservation Facility. This extraordinary gift, added to endowment fund income already committed by Micheline Jedrey, Librarian of the College, completed our fundraising efforts in one dramatic gesture. I cannot adequately convey how much this gift means to Preservation Department staff and students or how grateful we are to all of the Friends for their unprecedented support. We have long dreamed of a new Conservation Facility and to say we are thrilled would be an understatement.
Since 1975, the present Conservation Lab has been located in Technical Services on the main floor of Clapp Library. We perform a reasonably full range of conservation treatments: paper mending, book spine repair, book cover replacement, box making, pamphlet binding, and all the ancillary functions supporting those activities. Although we are glad to work in close proximity to our Library colleagues, this location has three major drawbacks. First, as we have expanded our conservation efforts, we have crowded more and more equipment into too small an area and increasingly encroached on others' space. Second, sharing "office" space limits our execution of treatments. The student workers who affix metal grommets to classroom maps must do the necessary hammering in a remote area of the Library because the noise is disturbing to other staff. Washing paper is impossible because the large washing trays are unwieldy and too messy. Third, built-in shelves, cupboards, and book stacks hamper our ability to reorganize Lab space.
Our new Conservation Facility will be designed to minimize limitations and expand possibilities. It will be located next to the Book Arts Lab on the fourth floor of Clapp Library in a large, high-ceilinged, naturally lit room. Present plans call for seven custom-made workbenches, with a press or paper cutter beside each, clustered around the large pieces of equipment which must be shared. Most benches will be outfitted with the appropriate tools and supplies for a particular type of treatment, with one bench dedicated solely to creating enclosures for Special Collections materials. There will be a large washing sink for cleaning or deacidifying paper, a fume hood for safe use of alcohol or other chemicals, and a walk-in storage closet so our supplies of board are always nearby. Sue Leong, our collections conservator, will have an office, and the Library's subject selectors will have an area where they can review preservation decisions. Whenever possible, the furniture and equipment will be moveable so the space can change as required. With access controlled by a digital one-card system and fire suppression supplied by a sophisticated sprinkler system, the area will be secure.
As a first draft of our dream, the Library's architect, Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott have completed some very exciting schematic drawings. Since Shepley is just finishing a similar facility at Harvard University, we anticipate learning a great deal from their recent experience. When we are finished, we plan to have the best facility of its kind in New England.
Since 1984, the Friends of the Library have generously supported our conservation efforts by giving us equipment, furniture, and funds for supplies. Our board shear (named Bob by the students for its strength and solidity), large bronze press (named Big Ben for its size), table-model creaser (not yet named), plus flat-file and board storage units were all gifts from you. Preservation Department staff have always appreciated these gifts for the way they have both improved our work and represented Friends' interest. This donation to the new Conservation Facility culminates more than a decade of generosity and dedication to preserving the book at Wellesley College. Thank you.
In a society that often demeans empathy as a "female" trait, psychological theorists Jean Baker Miller and Irene Pierce Stiver see women's ability to make and maintain relationships as a new model for the psychological development of all. On Wednesday, April 15, at 4:45 p.m. in the Clapp Library Lecture Room, Miller and Stiver will discuss The Healing Connection: How Women Form Relationships in Therapy and in Life, their new book applying Miller's groundbreaking theory of relational psychology to patients in their practices.
The dominant psychodynamic
model of the twentieth century states that healthy adulthood
requires separation and autonomy.
Relational psychology, on
the other hand, defines mental health in terms of
connection-in particular, of empathetic listening and
responding. Mutually empathetic interactions mutually
empower and foster growth. Disconnection-failure of
empathy in relationships-causes psychological problems. In
The Healing Connection, Miller and Stiver show how
three kinds of disconnection in childhood-an unexpressed but
haunting family secret, an emotionally inaccessible parent,
or a child forced by circumstances to function as a
parent-lead to a disinclination in adulthood to form
intimate relationships. Unlike Freudian psychotherapy, in
relational psychotherapy an active, sympathetic therapist
participates with her patient in dialogue that changes both.
An alumna of Sarah Lawrence
College, Jean Baker Miller received her M.D. from Columbia
University. Author of the landmark text Toward a New
Psychology of Women, she is a practicing psychiatrist
and psychoanalyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the
Boston University School of Medicine, and founding director
of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Stone
Center, Wellesley Centers for Women. 
Irene Pierce Stiver was
graduated from Brooklyn College and received an M.A. and
Ph.D. from Cornell University. Author of over twenty-five
articles and chapters, many as part of the Stone Center's
Work in Progress series, she is Director Emerita of
the Psychology Department at McLean Hospital, Lecturer in
Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and a Founding Scholar
of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute.
Irene Stiver. Photo by William Mercer.)
During the spring of 1997, Marilyn Hatch, my co-worker in Special Collections, attended a calligraphy workshop at New Mexico's Ghost Ranch. Her cross-country train trip and Ghost Ranch experiences prompted her to create a personal journal, the record of her trip in pictures and words. Drawing on her artistic abilities, Marilyn used hand-made paste paper, calligraphy, found objects, color photocopies, sketches, and watercolors to create a unique book capturing her own experience and the feel of the southwest.
After seeing Marilyn's book, I felt inspired to make one myself. I knew just the subject. Over the summer to come, my husband and I planned a honeymoon in Turkey. Would Marilyn consider giving a workshop the following winter on creating a personal journal? She was enthusiastic about the project. Ruth Rogers, Special Collections Librarian, wholeheartedly supported the idea. Although initially limited to twelve, the course attracted almost twenty. Our final count was fourteen.
For the first class, Marilyn selected examples of artists' books from Special Collections. Book artist Alisa Golden's Nina, Rose and Me, a tribute to her sister, included xeroxes of old family pictures on colored paper and printed reflections about childhood. We looked at Marilyn Hatch's book Carolyn, a response to Golden's book and tribute to Marilyn's own sister. Illustrated with hand-colored photocopies, it formed a tunnel when opened. We were inspired by the work of other sisters: Dorothy and Susan Yule's Souvenirs of Great Cities contained four tiny books folded into an accordion format displaying the Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, and Tower of London in color pop-up sketches. Alicia McKim's Home on the Range opened to reveal six panoramas of western ranching scenes, with multiple folding layers of scenery forming the shape of a star. Marilyn then gave in-depth presentations of techniques embodied in these books: a simple pamphlet stitch, an accordion fold, an etching press, a photocopy transfer. In addition, she encouraged us to develop our own techniques.
During the second class, we created paste papers with a mixture of acrylics and flour and water paste on damp paper. These would eventually form the pages of our journals. My goal was to evoke the landscape and culture of Turkey. I chose strong colors: bold blues to represent the sea and sky, rich yellows to capture the stucco facades of buildings and heat of the sun, a deep coral tinged with red and gold to suggest the ambiance of the Egyptian Spice Market and color of walls beneath climbing roses and rosemary plants on the breakfast terrace of our hotel. I used blue-black sprinkled with gold to represent Istanbul's sparkling lights reflected in the waters of the Bosphorus Sea. Around the room, my classmates created colorful patterns-some subtle and soft, some bold, others downright funky. Throughout, Marilyn made herself available to all fourteen of us whenever we needed her help or advice.
By class three, most of us were well underway. I knew I wanted to include photos and descriptions of the major sites we had visited: the Topkapi Palace, the Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, and the ruins of Ephesus. I also wanted to include details: the wonderful Turkish food, the rooftop garden at our hotel, the bike ride we took on the island of Buyukada, the markets and rug merchants, and our interactions with the Turkish people. I made drawings painted over with watercolor of our daily breakfast at the Empress Zoe Hotel, the Turkish pastries and other delights from the Spice Market, pottery and rug patterns that captured my imagination, a sarcophagus from the museum in Ephesus, an old house in Selcuk, the benches and umbrellas on the beaches of the Aegean coast, and women in traditional dress.
At our fourth class, I began tearing my paste papers down to the size I wanted and affixing color photocopies, along with my watercolors and sketches, to each page. At this point, I realized that completing my book by the sixth class was going to require overtime. Before going home at night, I spent half an hour in the Book Arts Lab. I was not alone: everyone else in my class was as engrossed in her project as I, so the Lab was a center of after-hours activity.
During the fifth class, I wrote my text in by hand. Marilyn then demonstrated binding techniques so that during the sixth and final class we could make our own hardcover bindings. Binding requires dexterity, not my strong suit, but as I put my newly bound book into the book press, I felt proud of my final product. I was amazed to see what we had accomplished: the range of creativity and level of craftsmanship were remarkable. After working with books for five years, I had finally made one of my own.
For a private viewing of the books made in this class, please visit us on the World Wide Web.
After discussing her new book, Child of Faerie, Child of Earth, as part of last November's Authors on Stage, Jane Yolen met with Irene Gruenfeld's fourth-grade class from Wellesley's Bates School. The class later wrote to Gina Wickwire CE '81, who had arranged the gathering.
Dear Mrs Wickwire,
Thank you for arranging our visit with Jane Yolen. We know you were very busy that day and we appreciate that you took the time to let us meet her. We had a great time talking with Jane Yolen. There are so many things we learned, we can't fit them all on one page. One of the funniest things she said was that she wanted to be a ballerina until she discovered chocolate chip cookies. One interesting thing we found out is that Jane Yolen can't do any more Piggins books because the illustrator, Jane Dyer, won't illustrate any more Piggins books unless it is Piggins on the Titanic. If you were a kid and you were studying about Jane Yolen, you would understand how lucky we felt. It was very generous of you to let us come in and meet Jane Yolen. Thank you again.
1997-1998
Diana Chapman Walsh '66
Mary E. Jackson '24
Ruth R. Rogers
June Stobaugh ‘66
Wanda Lankenner MacDonald ‘72
Claire M. Broder '61
Elizabeth K. Cabot '60
Ann Hayden Hamilton '67
Janice G. Hunt '52
Charlotte Isaacs ‘68
Micheline Jedrey
Cynthia Johnson '72
Jean Kendall CE '88
Mary Ann Lash '52
Lia Gelin Poorvu ‘56
Kathryn Preyer
Elinor Bunn Thompson '37
Kathleen Thompson CE '80
Sigrid R. Watson '47
World Wide Web version prepared by Joan Stockard and Betty Febo
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- Date Created April 10, 1998
- Last modified May 1, 1998
- Expires: Permanent