Contents: (Volume 15, number 1 -- Spring 1999) Goldsmith to Probe Post-Civil War Scandals, Suffrage, and Spirits on April 21 Making a Book by Nicole Scholtz Not Available in Paperback by Ruth R. Rogers, Special Collections Librarian CS100: An Online Adventure Friends Commission Commemorative Book by Lia Gelin Poorvu '56 Why be a Friend? (Interview) 125 - And Going Strong! by June Milton Stobaugh '66 and Ruth R. Rogers, Co-Chairpersons, Friends of the Library Calendar Goldsmith to Probe Post-Civil War Scandals, Suffrage, and Spirits on April 21      A stunning combination of history and biography, Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) by Barbara Lubin Goldsmith '53 looks at a fascinating and little-known age. Victoria Woodhull embodies the complexities of the post-Reconstruction era in which she lived. First a clairvoyant in her father's traveling medicine show, then a spiritual and financial advisor to Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, Woodhull evolved into a charismatic suffrage leader in New York in the late 1860's and became, in 1872, the first woman to run for President. Her heretical belief that women should enjoy sexual equality with men, and the vigor with which she attacked Henry Ward Beecher, a liberal Calvinist and Barbara Goldsmith '53. Photo copyright by Joyce Ravid renowned preacher, for his sexual infidelities, caused intense scrutiny of her own unconventional personal life, viewed as more "scandalous" than the moral laxness she exposed. Woodhull eventually left America in disgrace, marrying a wealthy English banker and gaining acceptance in British society.      Other Powers is more than a biography, however. On Wednesday, April 21, at 4:45 p.m. in the Clapp Lecture Room, Barbara Goldsmith will discuss the post-Civil War era in which Woodhull played a significant role, an era when America sought other ways of doing things and explored "other powers." The government redefined the rights of its new black citizens; women began to speak out about their disenfranchisement; and as many as ten million people turned away from the rigidity of Calvinist religion to seek contact with the supernatural through spiritualism. The cast of characters is brilliant: Henry Ward Beecher, Lib Tilton, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Anna Dickinson, and Horace Greeley. Goldsmith, who spent a decade researching and writing this book, utilized letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, and court transcripts to give her work its depth and texture.      After graduating from Wellesley, at age twenty Goldsmith began her career by landing an assignment to interview the legendary Clark Gable. A founding editor of New York Magazine, she now writes for the New York Times, Architectural Digest, and The New Yorker. Goldsmith has received three honorary doctorates and two Emmys: one for Bacall and the Boys, the other for Little Gloria. . .Happy at Last. In addition, she has received the Publishers Literary Award and National Archives Award for her contributions to literature and preservation. Because of Goldsmith's leadership, all trade hardcover books and important United States government documents are printed on acid-free paper. She is the donor of the Goldsmith Preservation Laboratories at the New York Public Library, where she is a long-time Trustee and serves on the Executive and Nominating Committees. In 1987 she founded the PEN Freedom to Write Award, which goes annually to an imprisoned writer or writers. A generous alumna, Goldsmith is the mother of three adult children. Making a Book by Nicole Scholtz `01      Last fall I registered for ARTS 107, Book Arts Studio, to learn about the history of the book and to make one. During the first few weeks of class, twelve of us spent our studio time exploring each of three hand presses on which we learned to print our names. This orientation prepared us for a collaborative class project: a star book, so called because the book folds out to look like a star. Each page, or "opening," consists of three layers: two top layers have cutouts of differing sizes through which the bottom layer and parts of the middle one can be seen. When you open the book, space between the layers gives each opening an unexpected third dimension. We now paired up, each pair to create one of six three-layer openings by photocopying a body part, enlarging it, reducing it, and otherwise manipulating it to create three full-page images, recognizable or otherwise. We would add text to these layers, make cutouts, then as individuals sew and bind our own opening and five others. Voila! The birth of twelve unique books!     After briefly discussing body parts, we made sure that no pair was photocopying the same ones. The pair photocopying their tongues had little argument from the rest of us. My partner and I had our hands full at the photocopiers, insisting to impatient Wellesley students waiting to copy reserve reading that we were photocopying our ears for a class! Thirty photocopies later, we decided we didn't like the smushed-ear look. Fortunately, my partner was enrolled in a photography class. She took pictures of my ears, developed them, and we scanned the prints into a computer, manipulating the images further. Photo by O'Neill Photography & Digital Imaging     It took four weeks to arrive at final copies of our image. Creativity exhausted, we sat down to compose text for our ears. The class decided that each of the six openings should have a haiku-like poem. I was concerned that the book wouldn't flow if each of the six haiku had different authors, but Marilyn Hatch, our Book Arts Instructor, reassured me that although collaborative projects are rarely planned image by image and word by word, the final product somehow comes together. My partner and I decided to email one another a haiku every day for the next week, then collect all of our haiku the following week to select one. We chose a haiku that reminded us of the gentle curves of ears. Photo by O'Neill Photography & Digital Imaging      After determining the size of our typeface, capitalization, and punctuation, we typeset our haiku. We then rolled up our sleeves and spent two hours printing twenty copies of tiny lines of text. It was humbling to discover how much work really goes into producing a book--and we were only producing a small section of one! The two of us then decided on cutout shapes for the top two layers of our opening, and where to place text on each of the three layers.      The last few weeks we spent assembling our book. Each pair spent one afternoon simply making cutouts in the top two layers of each opening. Those of us who had picked complicated, curvy shapes for our openings vowed to be less ambitious next time, but we survived and appreciated the results. We distributed packets of assembled openings to one another, admiring the work of two months while each decided which order of pages she might like best for her six-page finished product. Subject matter, text, or tone could rule the sequence, and every book would be different. At last I found myself gluing, folding, and sewing pages together, covering the nearly finished book with a paper cover Marilyn Hatch had especially created. Within two class periods, twelve people had transformed a stack of printed pages into "The Body: a Book of Parts"--every pun intended. Not Available in Paperback by Ruth R. Rogers, Special Collections Librarian      How do you shelve a book so large it requires two people to open it and turn the pages? What if there are three such books? This is the dilemma Special Collections staff recently faced in planning for this summer's renovation of the department. The sheer size of Description de 1'Egypte, the definitive record of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, has always prevented us from using traditional shelving to store the books, so they have lain for many years on a table in our Seminar Room. One can see right away that these are no ordinary travel books. Commissioned by the French Government during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, these massive volumes gave nineteenth-century readers the first encompassing overview of the ancient monuments and art of Egypt. With 20 volumes in all, the smallest measuring 15 inches and the largest 42, everything about this series is monumental--from the research and documentation of the text to the production of the specially sized paper and engravings. The entire set took nearly 20 years to publish, and when it was completed, the total number of illustrations was more than 3,000. Wealthy collectors could even purchase a custom-made mahogany cabinet for it, which the Louvre displayed in 1827.      The Description de I'Egypte was the work mainly of engineers and architects who accompanied Napoleon's entourage of 151 civilians to Egypt in 1798. The ministers of the new French republic supported the Egyptian campaign as a means of bringing the glory of classical antiquity to France, while rescuing this civilization from the decay in which the Romans had left it. Napoleon's intention was to have his corps of engineers build roads, bridges, and other public works, which they did. Jill T. Bent, Special Collections Assistant (l) and Ruth R Rogers, Special Collections Librarian (r) with Description de l'Egypte But from the published record they left, it is clear that the French were far more captivated by the antiquity of the place than by the task at hand. Upon opening one of the largest volumes, one is struck by monumental palace views in Karnak and Thebes, crumbling temples and statues of ancient dynastic families, and panoramic desert landscapes with Bedouin tribes resting under palms in the foreground. It is not only the grand scale of the antiquities that is so remarkable, but the level of artistic detail recorded in the pages accompanying each subject. Alongside the full-scale view of a temple, for instance, are many pages of architectural elevations, enlarged sections of columns with hieroglyphs, and carefully copied friezes taken from ceilings and interior walls. Images of the Sphinx and the Pyramids, although familiar to us in this age of photographic reproduction, seem far more mysterious and remote in the hand-drawn rendering of the young French engineer who first encountered them in the desert. Perhaps the most remarkable of all the images in the volumes is the Rosetta Stone, which was discovered by a French lieutenant on this expedition, though it later fell into British hands when the French were defeated in 1801. In order to print this exact replica in the text, the French used the stone itself as a printing surface. They carefully cleaned it, inked the surface, pressed a large sheet of paper into it, and achieved a perfect print to use for the later engraving.      Complete sets of the Description de l'Egypte are extremely rare, especially sets in good condition. Booksellers disbound many sets to sell for their illustrations. Wellesley College's perfect set was the gift of Eben Norton Horsford, friend of founder Charles Durant and one of the Library's most generous benefactors. Now over one hundred years later, Horsford's magnificent gift will finally have a safe home in our newly renovated Special Collections stacks, on shelves large enough to protect them and the treasures they contain for many years to come. CS100: An Online Adventure      In a unique collaboration between the Computer Science and Information Services Departments, the College offered an experimental, half-credit course called "Computer Science 100: Introduction to Internet Research and Resources" for the first time in Fall 1998. Fifty students not only learned how to access and critically evaluate information on the Internet, but also explored issues raised by increasing computerization: privacy, copyright, censorship through use of filters, digital diplomas and the effect of distance learning, and security of electronic communications.      Taught jointly by Research and Instructional Services Librarian Joan Campbell and Manager of User Services Pattie Orr, the course mixed lecture, discussion, and demonstration. A Science Center classroom equipped with multimedia equipment and projection screens for a Mac or PC allowed guest lecturers such as Claire Loranz, College Webmaster, to demonstrate methods for combining visual and audio for maximum impact. Additional staff participating in the course were Dianne McCorry, Co-Director of the Knapp Media and Technology Center; Becky Atwood, Project Manager, User Services; Jane Hedberg, Serials Librarian; and Sally Linden, Research Librarian. Graphic by Leila Toplic and Tracie Lee, Keck Interns, Summer 1998     A new groupware program called FirstClass, piloted by Information Services, allowed students to post questions, drop off electronic assignments, and participate in vigorous online discussions. The instructors and a team of eight student tutors drawn from the Computer Science Department and Information Services offered online as well as face-to-face tutoring.      First-year students, Davis Scholars, and transfer and exchange students received priority for enrollment. Some of these students had never before used computers; others were familiar only with word processing. By the end of the semester, however, everyone had written two research papers: one on a social issue, the other on the merits of "cookies," the ever-present digital markers used by online retailers. Everyone had also published a research portfolio on the World Wide Web that included papers, digital art, detailed bibliographies, and research resources generated during the course. Those within the College community could access these portfolios on the campus-wide Information System; those outside could use a password and their web browser.      CS100 was so successful that Library Services will fund it in Spring 1999 and offer it as part of the computer science curriculum in future years. For further information about the course, check out its website: http://www.wellesley.edu/ITS/Porr/cs100 Friends Commission Commemorative Book by Lia Gelin Poorvu '56      At the suggestion of Laura Ginsburg Strauss '56, who spearheaded a similar project at the New York Public Library to recognize significant volunteer service, the Friends of the Library, founded in 1985, has commissioned a book to commemorate its Life Members. The book artist Marilyn Hatch, Assistant in Special Collections and Book Arts Instructor, has designed a specially bound book in which a calligrapher will inscribe the names of Life Members together with their class year. A stenciled leaf resembling ivy will highlight Founding Members. Wilma Riemenschneider Kassakian '68, a member of the Friends Steering Committee and Library Assistant, compiled this list with the help of Founding Member Koko Nishino '45.      The binding of this commemorative volume, developed by book conservator Gary Frost, is a modern version of the very earliest bindings which emerged in North Africa in the third century AD. A distinguishing feature of the binding is that the cover boards are sewn to the book for strength and flexibility. The boards of this volume will be covered with handmade paste paper, light blue swirls of color with rose and silver accents--a traditional book-decorating technique using modern materials. The volume will be on display in a special case near the redesigned entrance of Clapp Library.      After the title page, readers will find two quotations representing a hundred-year span in the life of the Wellesley College Library. Wilma Slaight, College Archivist, discovered the first in an address given in June 1886 by the Reverend Lyman Abbott, D.D., on the occasion of the Library Festival taking place at the College. "A library is a gift of life. You, the students of Wellesley, are to take it and multiply it." Micheline Jedrey, College Librarian and Vice President for Information Services, spoke the words quoted second at the inauguration of the Knapp Technology Center in 1997. "Within the Library the past sits comfortably with the future, providing a place where the historical record of scholarship is valued and where technological change is embraced."      As we enter the new Millennium, these two quotations spanning a century in the life of the Library reflect its centrality to the College's educational mission. It is with deep gratitude that the Friends of the Wellesley College Library honor its special supporters, the Life Members. Why Be a Friend      ? Approximately 600 people have joined the Friends of the Library this year. In each Newsletter, we'll interview one person to discover why.  Leslie Lapham, who graduated from Wellesley in 1997 with a double major in Sociology and Women's Studies, was the first young alum to join the Friends in September. Why? we asked. "Libraries have always been very special places to me. As part of my student job in Clapp, I worked on Friends mailings and Web pages, so I knew what a wonderful group I would be joining when I graduated. I really enjoy supporting the Library, and I am thankful I can attend the events sponsored by the Friends."  Leslie now works for User Services at Wellesley, where she supervises the student computer consultants in the Public Computing Clusters and Knapp Media and Technology Center. She is also a part-time student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. 125 -- and Going Strong! by June Milton Stobaugh '66 and Ruth R. Rogers, Co-Chairpersons, Friends of the Library "The library extends the college life in every direction. It unites the ages." - Rev. Dr. Alexander McKenzie, on behalf of the Trustees of the College, June 4, 1886, at the Library Festival at Wellesley College.      The Wellesley College Library, a key element in academic life at Wellesley since the College's founding, is entering an exciting two-year period: fourth-floor renovations will reach completion at the same time the College will celebrate its 125th anniversary. The Steering Committee is exploring points of connection between the Library and the rest of the College so that we can design programs and exhibitions of particular interest to alumnae, students, faculty, and the broader community. Among ideas under discussion are: 1. Exhibiting books that were part of the Library's collection on opening day in 1875; exhibiting books, articles, and musical scores written by Wellesley faculty over the last 125 years; exhibiting books by alumnae authors over the last 125 years; and/or exhibiting gifts from alumnae donors over the last 125 years. 2. Conducting a series of conversations with faculty authors, discussing their own works and the works of colleagues over the last 125 years. 3. Holding a contest for a student-designed logo commemorating both the anniversary and the Millennium, to be used by the Friends on an anniversary bookplate and other printed materials. 4. Dedicating the new Preservation and Conservation Facility, whose renovations will be funded in large part by a grant of $250,000 from the Friends of the Library. 5. Showcasing rare books from Special Collections, perhaps in conjunction with an Appraisal Day when the public could bring books for appraisal and tips on conservation. We'd love to hear from you, our readers, if you have suggestions for activities during this period from Fall 1999 - 2000. Please contact Friends of the Library, Margaret Clapp Library, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02481. CALENDAR  April 21 Barbara Goldsmith '53 discusses Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. Sponsored by Friends of the Library. Library Lecture Room, 4:45 - 5:45 p.m. Refreshments, 4:15 p.m. Free and open to the public. May 4 Spring Authors on Stage program: Jay Parini, Robert Frost: A Life; Pulitzer-Prize Winner Tracy Kidder, Home Town; and Carrie Brown, Lamb in Love. Sponsored by Wellesley College Alumnae of Boston. Wellesley College Club. Coffee, 9:45 a.m. Program, 10:30 a.m. $15 per person, reservations required. Call Barbara Levings, 781-235-7644. June 5 Tours of new Knapp Media and Technology Center and of Research Resources Department with special update on renovation underway in Special Collections, Archives, and Preservation Lab. 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sponsored by Friends of the Library. Meet at Knapp Center entrance, Clapp Library. Friends of the Library 1998-1999 Honorary Chairperson Diana Chapman Walsh '66 Founding Member Mary E. Jackson '24 Co-Chairpersons Ruth R. Rogers June Milton Stobaugh '66 Newsletter Editor Wanda Lankenner MacDonald '72 Steering Committee Frances H. Booth DS'85 Claire M. Broder '61 Elizabeth K. Cabot '60 Janice G. Hunt '52 Charlotte L. Isaacs '68 Micheline E. Jedrey Cynthia Johnson '72 Wilma M. Kassakian '68, ex officio Mary Ann Lash '52 Lia Gelin Poorvu '56 Kathryn Preyer Melissa Shaw '94, ex officio Elinor Bunn Thompson '37 Kathleen Thompson DS'80 Sigrid R. Watson '47 Virginia B. Wickwire DS'81 Thanks to Paula M. Wagner, Desktop Publishing Specialist, Printing Services, designer of the printed version of the Newsletter. World Wide Web version prepared by Joan Stockard, Sr. Research Librarian, Clapp Library Read more about The Friends of the Wellesley College Library Comments to: Wilma Kassakian, Administrative Assistant Wellesley College Library Date created: May 25, 1999 Last modified: May 25, 1999 Expires: permanent