Special Collections & University Archives - U.Iowa

newberrylibrary:

Kady Brownell, pictured at left, was one of 250 women who fight in the Civil War.

Brownell was born Kady Southwell in Kaffraria, South Africa, to a French Mother and Scottish father. Shortly after her birth, Brownell moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where she would become a weaver in textile mills. When the Civil War began, Brownell’s soon-to-be husband, Robert Brownell, enlisted in the 1st Rhode Island Infantry; Brownell was determined to join him. Rhode Island Governor William Sprague accepted her into his unit.

Once in Washington, Colonel Ambrose Burnside made Brownell a Color Bearer and Daughter of the Regiment. She was charged with carrying the flag into battle (considered a great honor), and was an active participant in several battles—both as soldier and nurse. Brownell won the admiration of her contemporaries, lauded as a “skillful sharpshooter and expert swordsman.”

When her husband was wounded and discharged, she, too, returned home.

This portrait, taken after the war’s conclusion, was featured in Frank Moore’s Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self Sacrifice, published in 1866. Brownell posed for the photograph, which was subsequently transformed into a steal engraving.

We have Women of the War in Special Collections if you’d like to stop by and take a look.  http://infohawk.uiowa.edu/F/?func=find-b&find_code=SYS&local_base=UIOWA&request=001645287

(Source: mrmcfuckerson, via enigmaticrose)

kellymce:

In honor of this one-shot zine from the Hevelin Collection, the zine reading during the Iowa City Zine Librarian (un)Conference will be called Oh, I.C.! You should come! There’s a Facebook invite here, or you can sign up to read on the wiki here. (Otherwise it will just be me reading, and nobody wants that. Especially me.)

smithsonianlibraries:

smithsonianmag:

That “Old Book Smell” Is a Mix of Grass and Vanilla

By Colin Schultz

Photo: David Flores

Smell is chemistry, and the chemistry of old books gives your cherished tomes their scent. As a book ages, the chemical compounds used—the glue, the paper, the ink–begin to break down. And, as they do, they release volatile compounds—the source of the smell. A common smell of old books, says the International League for Antiquarian Booksellers, is a hint of vanilla: “Lignin, which is present in all wood-based paper, is closely related to vanillin. As it breaks down, the lignin grants old books that faint vanilla scent.”

A study in 2009 looked into the smell of old books, finding that the complex scent was a mix of “hundreds of so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the air from the paper,” says the Telegraph. Here’s how Matija Strlic, the lead scientist behind that study, described the smell of an old book:

A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness, this unmistakable smell is as much a part of the book as its contents.

Ed note: What makes rain smell so good?

The digital library just smells a little like flat diet soda and cheese puffs with a hint of overheating hard-drive.

(via bookpatrol)

We’ve had a flurry of donations and purchases arriving this semester.  Read about it over on our blog!

hevelincollection:

Here’s this post again. Just trying to work out the bugs with my gif. 

Working on the Hevelin Collection: two zines from the 1930’s, Unusual Stories and Unique Tales.

Putting together a report of recent-ish acquisitions I realized I never posted anything about the 2000+ Brian Harvey dog book collection!  Mea culpa!  Here’s a few!

hiddleswiggles:

darthfar:

elderjulietvictoireholmes:

laconicllama:

zarggg:

env0:

aisleylikeszebras:

To me, this post might be just as important as the bible.

One of my classes. My elderly teacher taught us this because he really cared about books.

Why does no one teach us these things anymore?

I get so uppity when someone breaks the binding on my books.

I’m just a terrible person and the first thing I do with big books is break the binding.

This needs to be reblogged. Just in case this manages to reach someone who might in the future borrow a book of mine, and who might otherwise bring my wrath down upon them by mistreating said book.

Also important not to pull on the top of the spine when taking a books off a shelf since it can crack off.

(Source: maloriebrooke, via readsandwrites)