In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, the Brown University Library, the Brown Department of Physics, and the Ladd Observatory have collaborated to present “Beyond the Moon: 400 Years of Astronomical Observation.” This exhibit displays texts and images dating from the early 17th century drawn from the Library’s incomparable history of science collections, historical records of the Ladd Observatory, and a range of astronomical instruments of the 18th century to the present day used for observation by Brown astronomers. Main Gallery and Lobby, John Hay Library; through October 2009.
All are welcome to attend a reception for the exhibit from 6-7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 9th in the main lobby of the John Hay Library at 20 Prospect Street in Providence. For more information please call the John Hay Library at (401) 863-3723.

The Brown University Library, as part of its ongoing programming for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial, is pleased to announce that it is co-sponsoring a Lincoln Essay competition open to all eighth-graders in Providence County. The Hildene-Brown Lincoln Essay Competition brings to Providence the successful Vermont state essay program sponsored by Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home annually since 2006.
The contest, open to all eighth grade students living in or attending public, private, or home schools in Providence County, asks students to read two letters, an open letter from Horace Greeley to President Abraham Lincoln printed in August 1862 and Lincoln’s response to it. Then students are asked to write a 500-word essay assessing why Lincoln responded to Greeley’s letter. The contest exposes students to Lincoln’s writing and encourages the development of writing and research skills. Prizes include a first place award of $1,000, second and third place awards of $750 and $500, respectively, as well as up to ten honorable mentions of $200 each. The top three winners will attend a luncheon in Providence on Sunday, January 31, 2010.
Application packets are available from the John Hay Library at 20 Prospect Street on the campus of Brown University, and the submission deadline is 5 p.m. on November 28, 2009. For more information contact Holly Snyder at Holly_Snyder@brown.edu or (401) 863-1515.

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The Art Slide Library announces a new exhibition in honor of this year’s First Year Reading Assignment: “Evolving Images.” Art Slide Library student assistant Rebecca Staley has put together an exhibition of images from the Brown Instruction Image Collection depicting some of the ways in which artists and scientists have dealt with the issues of evolution, natural history, and human and animal physiology.
Located on the 4th floor of the List Art Center, outside the Art Slide Library.

The University Library’s annual sale of books, records, and other materials is open to the entire campus. New students should look in their welcome packets for a coupon for a free item. Weather permitting, the sale will be on the steps of the Rockefeller Library, otherwise it will be in the Rock Periodical Reading Room.
Friday, September 11, 10 am -3 pm

Brunonians whose travels take them to southern Vermont in the next two years will have the chance to view artifacts from the John Hay Library’s McLellan Lincoln Collection at Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home in Manchester, VT. The artifacts will be part of an exhibit opening on Saturday, September 5, 2009 entitled “The American Ideal: Abraham Lincoln and the Second Inaugural.” The Second Inaugural is considered one of Lincoln’s greatest speeches, and the exhibit aims to demonstrate how Lincoln helped bring life and meaning to the promise of the American ideal of equality, justice, and opportunity for all.
The exhibit is the first effort in a partnership formed by the Brown University Library and Hildene to promote the legacy of Abraham Lincoln by collaborating on public programming for their respective Lincoln holdings.
This fall, Hildene and Brown are partnering to bring a Lincoln Essay Competition, with prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 and up to ten honorable mention awards of $200 each, to Providence-area eighth graders. The contest will launch in mid-September.

Five Brown University Library exhibits, including a virtual exhibit of hurricane damage to Gulf Coast libraries, will commemorate the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina through photographs, poetry, music, historical documents, and video footage. Part of the University-wide “Katrina, Katrina” project’s extensive slate of programming, all Library exhibits are free, public, and open through the end of September.
The Orwig Music Library hosts a Katrina Music and Musicians Exhibit as well as a single-channel projection installation by Robbie Byron entitled “No Tap Shoes Allowed,” which reworks collaged footage from the Katrina aftermath so that the footage itself appears to have been damaged, aiming to “interrogate the relationship of cultural and political justification to the rise and fall of a community, lifestyle and state.” On display in the lobby of the Rockefeller Library are the Katrina Authors Exhibit and a series of photographs by Ian Sims ’10.5 called “6 Months After.” The images, Sims says, document New Orleans’ efforts to rebuild its structures and its spirit in the face of indifference, profiteering, racism, and classism. Next door in the John Hay Library Lobby, Katrina-inspired poetry and historic New Orleans sheet music from the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays will be on display. Visitors to the Brown libraries can view images of the state of Gulf Coast libraries post-hurricane by visiting an online exhibit at http://dl.lib.brown.edu/gateway/lrg.php?id=615
A guide to the Library’s Katrina exhibits can be found here: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/gateway/lrg.php?id=615&task=home
A complete schedule of “Katrina, Katrina” events taking place across campus can be found at: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/gateway/lrg.php?id=615&task=home

A volume of John James Audubon’s master work, The Birds of America, is on display on the main floor of the John Hay Library. Each plate will be on display for only one month. This month’s bird is the “Cayenne Tern”.

This elephant folio edition of The Birds of America, bound in six volumes, was presented by Albert E. Lownes to the Library on the occasion of his 50th class reunion in 1970.

For more information please contact hay@brown.edu