Student Life exhibit at Maddock Alumni Center

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Jennifer Betts

In a continuing effort to showcase student life at Brown University, the University Archives has created an exhibit of photographs and museum objects in the lobby of the Maddock Alumni Center.

Since Brown University was founded in 1764, student life has undergone dramatic social, academic, cultural, and political changes. The exhibit provides a glimpse of student life through a variety of photographs, a fan and dance card from 1914, a mug from 1942, a freshman beanie from 1958, and a commemorative Faunce House mail box.

Collecting and preserving a diverse and fascinating student history is part of the mission of the University Archives. The University Archives welcomes donations from alumni who have historical materials on student life that can be preserved and made available to future students and researchers. Please contact the University Archives at archives@brown.edu or (401) 863-2148 for additional information.

Special Collections Senior Open House, May 22, 3 pm – 5 pm

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Jennifer Betts

The John Hay Library will host a Senior Open House on May 22, 3 pm – 5 pm. On display will be Orwell’s 1984, The Great Gatsby (first-edition), Vesalius (first-edition), Copernicus (first-edition), Shakespeare’s First Folio, Kelmscott Chaucer, Eliot’s Bible, Newton’s Principia (first-edition, first printing), Double Elephant folio volume of Audubon’s The Birds of America, Dance of Death bound in human skin, and artists books. University Archives will feature photographs of dorms, classes, buildings, and athletics, and humor publication the Brown Jug. The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection will display 6,000 miniature soldiers.

The Hay’s Senior Open House follows on the heels of Professor Jane Lancaster’s 2 pm lecture on the history of Brown students’ college experience. The lecture will be in the Petteruti Lounge, Faunce House.

World Wide Film Premiere: Two Who Dared

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Amy Atticks

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Brown University will host free public screenings of the documentary Two Who Dared: The Sharps’ War, on April 9 and April 16 at 7pm in the Watson Institute for International Studies at 111 Thayer Street. These screenings are part of a world-wide premiere occurring simultaneously at community churches, synagogues, theaters and schools.Two Who Dared: The Sharps’ War, tells the story of a Unitarian minister, Waitstill Sharp and his wife Martha, Pembroke class of 1926, who, just days prior to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, left their young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts to help save Jewish children being persecuted in Eastern Europe.The film was directed by Artemis Joukowsky III (P’14, P’16), the Sharps’ grandson. Artemis explains, “As a 9th grader, I was given a homework assignment to interview someone of moral courage. When I asked my mother if she had any suggestions for a subject, to my shock she said, ‘Talk to your grandmother’! What I discovered in doing that assignment, and in many years to come, is that my grandmother and grandfather had a dramatic history that I had never heard before. This included underground espionage, working to rescue refugees and opposing the Nazi regime, in the service work that they had performed during World War II in Europe in 1939 and 1940.”The documentary is told from the point of view of Martha and Waitstill, drawing on their recorded interviews, letters, and unpublished memoirs. A gift of the Sharp Archive to the Brown University Library is planned by the family. The film also includes interviews with noted scholars and survivors who were rescued as children.

The film will open in New England with a screening hosted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at the Boston Public Library on March 13. Over 50 public screenings will follow April 7-18, 2013 at venues around the world, including Israel, France, London, Toronto, LA, and NYC. Brown University will stream a 30-minute educational version of the film online for 48 hours from April 19 at 5pm through April 22 at 8am at http://www.watsoninstitute.org/twowhodared.

For more information on screening times and locations or to host a screening, visit http://twowhodared.com/ or contact twowhodared@gmail.com.

The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world. http://library.brown.edu/

The Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University is a leading center for research and teaching on the most important problems of our time. The Watson Institute focuses on two areas: global security, and political economy and development. Its research aims to improve policies and its use of innovative media engages the broader public in global dialogue. http://watsoninstitute.org/

Press Contact: Andrea Pass | 201-498-1600 | apass@scompr.com

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Screening of Lincoln (2012) and Q&A with Michael Vorenberg

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Amy Atticks

Providence, RI [Brown University] - The Brown University Library, the Office of Public Affairs and University Relations, and the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice will host a complimentary public screening of DreamWorks’ LINCOLN on March 1, 2013, in belated celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The screening, which will be followed by a Q&A with Michael Vorenberg, Associate Professor of History at Brown, and author of Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment, will begin at 5:30pm in The Martinos Auditorium at the Granoff Center, 154 Angell St. This event is open to the public. Seating is limited and tickets are required. Seats will be held for ticketed attendees until 5:20pm on March 1, at which point remaining seats will be released to patrons at the door on a first-come, first-serve basis. Reserve your tickets today.

Steven Spielberg directs two-time Academy Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln,” a revealing drama that focuses on the 16th President’s tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook and Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln” is produced by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, based in part on the book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin. As Spielberg explains, “I wanted to tell a story about Lincoln that would avoid the mistakes of both cynicism and hero worship and be true to the vastness of who he was and the intimacy of his life and the softer angles of his nature.” For Goodwin Lincoln’s humanity was key, “It was really important to me that Lincoln’s sense of humor come across in the movie and that was built into the script and Daniel’s performance.” Kushner, who described writing the screenplay as “an act of interpretation,” worked to appropriately portray the emergency powers which Lincoln claimed during the war noting that “Unquestionably, Lincoln stretched the balance of powers in unprecedented ways–but out of necessity as he saw it to prosecute the war effectively and hold the Union together. Occasionally, I think he went beyond where he was sure the courts would follow. These are further questions of means and ends that are very much at the heart of the film we’ve made.” LINCOLN has received 12 Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Daniel Day Lewis), Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field) and Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones).

Michael Vorenberg, who will host the Q&A following the screening, is an Associate Professor of History at Brown, with specific interests in the intersections of American history: Civil War and Reconstruction, Legal and Constitutional History, and Slavery, Emancipation, and Race. His first book, Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001. He is also the author of The Emancipation Proclamation: A Brief History with Documents, forthcoming, and is at work on a book about the impact of the Civil War on American citizenship. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. From 2004 to 2007, he was a member of Brown University’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. He currently is a member of the Advisory Committee of the United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial and is on the Board of Editors of Law and History Review.

For those interested in researching Lincoln, Brown University’s John Hay Library is home to the largest Lincoln collection in an academic library. The Charles Woodberry McLellan Collection of Lincolniana is comprised of 30,000+ items by and about Abraham Lincoln, and about the historical and political context of his life and career, chiefly the U.S. Civil War and its causes and aftermath. The collection was acquired for Brown by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Class of 1897, and others, in memory of John Hay, Class of 1858, one of Lincoln’s White House secretaries (featured in LINCOLN). The collection, which has since increased to more than five times its original size, includes almost 1,000 letters, notes, and documents in Lincoln’s hand; thousands of volumes of contemporary and later publications relating to the Civil War and the slavery controversy; titles of books that Lincoln read; material relating to Lincoln’s family and associates; song sheets, broadsides, ballots, prints, and posters; newspapers from 1860-1865; most of the known photographs of Lincoln; oil portraits by artists of Lincoln’s day; original drawings; statues; over 550 medals, mourning and campaign badges; coins; and postage stamps. High quality digital surrogates of collections materials are also available online, along with contextual information including essays, timelines, biographies, and historical vignettes.

Contact: Amy Atticks | Amy_Atticks@brown.edu | 401-863-6913

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Student Models from “City and Cinema” on View at the Rock!

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Amy Atticks

Brown Undergraduate Ian Slater's the Bates House from Psycho, 1960. Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] —If you are on the Brown University campus in January, stop by the new exhibit in the Finn Reading Room on the first floor of the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library!

In fall 2012, Professor Dietrich Neumann taught a course at Brown in the Department of Art and Architecture entitled “City and Cinema.”

The course explored chapters in the history of cinematic set design and film’s interaction with and depiction of urban space, examining film as a reflection, commentary, and experimental laboratory for contemporary architecture.

The exhibit on view in the Rock features researched models submitted by Brown undergraduate students as final projects for the course.

RISD Museum Exhibit Features Brown University Library’s Special Collections

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Amy Atticks

Fig. 7, Blondel from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection of the Brown University Library

Providence, RI [Brown University] - The Festive City is now on view at RISD Museum, featuring materials from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at the Brown University Library, the RISD Museum, and the collection of Vincent J. Buonanno (Brown, ’66). The exhibit is open through July 14, 2013 in the Buonanno Works on Paper and Tsiaris Photography Galleries.

The Festive City features prints and books that record how cities were transformed by the urban festivals of early modern Europe. The exhibition originated in an undergraduate seminar taught in Brown’s Department of the History of Art & Architecture in Spring, 2012. It was co-curated by RISD curator Emily Peters and Brown University professor Evelyn Lincoln. In addition, students working with Professor Andries van Dam collaborated with the RISD Museum graphics and computing staff and used Microsoft Surface technology to make more pages of the festival books available to viewers.

The books and prints on view in this exhibition ensured that the grandeur and significance of ephemeral festivals extended beyond their immediate moment and locality. Expensive to produce, festival books were given by the sponsor to advantageous connections at foreign European courts and city governments or purchased for private libraries by wealthy collectors. The experience of paging through such weighty volumes and opening their large, fold-out plates was interactive and immersive, an event enjoyed in groups while reading aloud. Single-leaf festival prints, also on view, were made more quickly to document important political events. Both provided sought-after information, with their visual and textual inventories of every firework and piece of velvet clothing, and enumeration of every structure, its size, and materials. The products of unified, collective effort, the splendid works in this exhibition represent European cities at the pinnacle of collaborative artistic production.

There will be a day-long symposium about these works at the RISD Museum on March 1, 2013 (registration required).

World-Famous Thriller Writers Coming to Brown!

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Amy Atticks

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] —At 6:30pm on November 15, 2012, Brown University Library will host a panel discussion featuring several of America’s most successful and renowned thriller writers. Author Jon Land ’79, will moderate the discussion between David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Neslon DeMille, Lisa Gardner, and R.L. Stine in Salomon Hall. A book signing and reception will follow in Sayles Hall. The Thriller Panel is supported by Friends of the Library, Brown University Library, Brown University Bookstore, and Brown’s Office of University Event and Conference Services.

The program, book signing, and reception are free and open to the public. No registration required. Doors open at 5:45pm. Brown University Bookstore will sell books by all authors at the reception in Sayles Hall.

Thanks to the work of Jon Land, author, Friends of the Library board member, Providence resident, and Vice-President of Marketing for the International Thriller Writers, Brown University is currently establishing a Thriller Archive. Land wrote his first thriller as a senior thesis in English at Brown. Today he is a critically acclaimed and bestselling author of 32 books. Land has already donated his manuscripts to the Hay, and more donations will follow.

Land spearheaded the planning for the Thriller Panel as a kick-off for the archive. As he explained, “These incredibly successful authors represent an amazing range of thrillers from action, to political, to psychological suspense to young adult and even children’s. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the thriller genre in general, and the collection to be housed at our own John Hay Library in particular.”

David Baldacci
David Baldacci made a splash on the literary scene in 1996 with the publication of his first novel, Absolute Power. A major motion picture adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as director and star. Baldacci has published 24 novels, all of which have been national and international bestsellers. His novels have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries; over 110 million copies are in print worldwide. Baldacci has also published two children’s books. Most recently, he was inducted into the 2011 International Crime Writing Hall of Fame and received the 2012 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. Baldacci is involved with several philanthropic organizations. His greatest efforts are dedicated to his family’s Wish You Well Foundation®. Established with his wife, the Foundation supports family and adult literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs. In 2008 the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty, and hunger. Baldacci and his wife are the very proud parents of two terrific teenagers, and the generally proud owners of two not-so-well-behaved Labradoodles. They live in Northern Virginia.

Steve Berry
Steve Berry’s books have been translated into 40 languages with more than 14 million printed copies in 51 countries. His work consistently appears in the top echelon of The New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller lists. History lies at the heart of every Steve Berry novel, a passion he shares with his wife, which led them to create History Matters, a foundation dedicated to historic preservation. Since 2009, the couple has crossed the country to save endangered historic treasures, raising money via lectures, receptions, galas, luncheons, dinners, and their popular writers’ workshops. In 2012, the American Library Association recognized Berry’s devotion to historic preservation naming him the first spokesman for National Preservation Week. Berry is also a recipient of the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award, and a founding member of International Thriller Writers—serving three years as its co-president. Berry’s best-selling novels include: The Columbus Affair, The Jefferson Key, The Emperor’s Tomb, The Paris Vendetta, The Charlemagne Pursuit, The Venetian Betrayal, The Alexandria Link, The Templar Legacy, The Third Secret, The Romanov Prophecy, and The Amber Room.

Nelson DeMille
Nelson DeMille is a former U.S. Army lieutenant who served in Vietnam and is the author of sixteen acclaimed novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Night Fall, Plum Island, and The Gate House. His other New York Times bestsellers include The Charm School, Word of Honor, The Gold Coast, Spencerville, The Lion’s Game, The Lion, Up Country, Wild Fire, and The General’s Daughter, which was a major motion picture starring John Travolta. He co-authored Mayday with Thomas Block and has also contributed short stories, book reviews, and articles to magazines and newspapers. DeMille is a member of The Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, and American Mensa. He has three children and lives on Long Island.

Lisa Gardner
The New York Times #1 best-selling suspense novelist Lisa Gardner began her career in food service. After catching her hair on fire, she focused on writing instead. Over 16 million copies of Gardner’s books are now in circulation, along with four movies. In 2010, Gardner’s The Neighbor received the award for Best Hardcover Novel from the International Thriller Writers and was named to the American Library Association’s “Best Adrenaline Novel Reading List.” Her latest novel, Catch Me, is the most recent addition to her Detective D.D. Warren series, set in Boston, MA. Gardner’s other works include the FBI Profiler Series, The Other Daughter, The Survivors Club, and I’d Kill For That. A one-time Rhode Island resident, Gardner now lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with her race-car driving husband, speed-skiing daughter, two extremely barky dogs, and one incredibly hostile cat.

R.L. Stine
R.L. Stine is one of America’s best-selling authors and is cited in The Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling series author in history. Over the past 20 years, Stine’s Goosebumps series has sold over 300 million copies in the United States alone and has become a publishing phenomenon in 32 languages around the world. Stine’s other popular children’s book series include Fear Street, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room, and Rotten School. In 2012, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, an anthology TV series of horror stories for the whole family, began its third season on The Hub TV Network, while the original Goosebumps TV episodes continue to air daily. In October 2012, Stine will publish Red Rain through Touchstone Books, a horror novel aimed at adult readers. Stine’s previous adult novels include: Superstitious, published by Warner Books, and The Sitter and Eye Candy, published by Ballantine Books. Stine lives in New York City with his wife Jane, an editor and publisher.

Contact: Amy Atticks | Amy_Atticks@brown.edu | (401) 863-6913

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John Hay Library: Focus on Special Collections-Audubon

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Ann Morgan Dodge

Between noon and 1pm on November 14th, staff from the John Hay Library will be turning pages in one volume of John James Audubon’s masterwork The Birds of America. Please join us in the Lownes Room on the second floor of the John Hay Library.

Stoddard Fest of Early American Poetry – October 24 and 25!

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Amy Atticks

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Roger E. Stoddard, Brown class of 1957, and former curator of the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays at Brown University Library, will be featured at a series of events on October 24 and 25 at the John Carter Brown Library and John Hay Library.

Lunch talk at John Carter Brown Library: At 12:30pm, on Wednesday, October 24, Stoddard will discuss his time at the John Carter Brown Library with the talk “The education of a bibliographer by Lawrence Wroth” as part of the JCB’s Wednesday Fellows’ Lunch Talk series.

Bibliography workshop at John Hay Library: On Thursday, October 25, from 2-4pm in the Bopp Seminar Room at the John Hay Library, Stoddard will lead a bibliography workshop, focusing on early American imprints of poetry from the Library’s Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays. Workshop participation is limited to 20; please sign up in advance by emailing Rosemary_Cullen@brown.edu

Evening lecture at John Hay Library: At 7pm on Thursday, October 25, in the Lownes Room of the John Hay Library Stoddard will present “How I discovered that Brown is the University of books.” This talk will examine his research that contributed to his recently published descriptive bibliography of early American poetry, A Bibliographical Description of Books and Pamphlets of American verse Printed from 1610 Through 1820, which he began compiling forty years ago at the John Hay Library.

Exhibition: An exhibit of early American poetry, The Work of a Lifetime: Roger Stoddard, Early American Poetry, and the Collections of the Libraries at Brown University, curated by Stoddard will be on view October 12 through December 14 in the John Hay Library’s Gammell Gallery and North Gallery exhibition rooms.

These events are free and open to the public.

Contact: Rosemary L. Cullen | 401-863-1514 | Rosemary_Cullen@brown.edu

Brown University Library Opens The Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab!

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Amy Atticks

Rendering of New Lab

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — This October, the Brown University Library celebrates the opening of The Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab in the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library. The Lab is made possible thanks to the generosity of Mr. Patrick Ma, P’14, who is based in Hong Kong, China, Brown Trustee Cathy Halstead, and an anonymous donor.

Installing a panel of the video wall

The Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab features a large scale visualization video wall comprised of twelve 55 inch high resolution LED screens, creating a 7 x 16 foot display with a combined resolution of over 24 megapixels, offering high quality viewing and analytical space not publicly available elsewhere on campus. The Lab is also outfitted with a wide range of software for scholars across the disciplines, a surround sound audio system, video-conferencing capabilities, specialized lighting, and several individual touch screen monitors that can be used independently or linked to the video wall for collaborative display and interaction.

Finishing touches to video wall

Patrick Rashleigh, the Library’s newly appointed Data Visualization Coordinator, will oversee the operation of the Lab, provide instruction and outreach to faculty, students, and interdisciplinary campus groups and support individual and course-based visualization projects. Rashleigh previously served as the Faculty Technology Liaison for the Humanities in the Research and Instruction group at Wheaton College; and Senior New Media Coordinator for the Attorney General of Ontario.

View of Digital Scholarship Lab under construction

As Joukowsky Family University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi explained, “The Brown University Library is a physical and virtual space for experimentation, production, and processing of new knowledge. The new Lab will provide necessary tools for faculty and staff to explore and define scholarly forms beyond their current capabilities.”

More information about the Lab’s opening and programming will be available later this month.