Brown University Library Special Collections

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Time Capsule

Posted by Karen A. Eberhart on April 18, 2012

A recent blog post titled Baptist Churches announced the arrival of the records for 4 Baptist Churches in Rhode Island.  This week brings a glimpse into the life of one of them – the Roger Williams Baptist Church of Providence, RI.

How often have you walked past the cornerstone of a building and wished you could look inside the time capsule housed within?  What do people put in them?  Do the contents survive the journey through time?

The members of the Roger Williams Baptist Church built a chapel in 1889 to accommodate their growing community.  On September 14, 1889 they celebrated the new building with a service to lay the new cornerstone.  Underneath the stone they enclosed a time capsule in a copper box.  When the membership swelled to over 400 members they built an addition to the church in 1906. The time capsule was moved and placed underneath the new cornerstone.  The photo below shows the stone suspended on a pulley.  The man standing in the middle is Manton Metcalf holding the copper box in his left hand.

Laying the cornerstone for the new addition on the Roger Williams Baptist Church, Providence, RI, June 2, 1906.

David Dobson opening the copper time capsule box, October 1, 2011.

Starting in the 1950s, the membership of the church steadily declined until weekly attendance dwindling to less than twenty in 2010.  The remaining members voted to close the church with the last service on November 20, 2011.  But before they closed their doors they opened the cornerstone and retrieved the time capsule.

What they found inside were mementos from 1889 documenting the church, Rhode Island, and the world including: a list of all the members of the church, constitution and by-laws of the church, publications relating to the Baptist Church in RI, 2 newspapers, money, and 35 small flags from most of the countries in the world at the time.

Contents of the 1889 time capsule of the Roger Williams Baptist Church, Providence, RI.

The most curious object is a small American flag with 36 stars.  There were 38 states in September, 1889 when the time capsule was created (4 more states were admitted in November 1889) and the inscription reads “God Bless the Commonwealth of Rhode Island, Loyalty to Ceasar.”  The flag probably dates to 1865-1867, the only years during which there were 36 states.  Rhode Island is generally not called a Commonwealth. Only 4 states use that term in their official names: Massachusetts, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  And why is someone, who doesn’t know how to spell Caesar, pledging their loyalty to him?  The reason it was included may simply be because it was the smallest flag available and the inscription was written years prior by someone else.  It is nonetheless a curious item.

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Baptist Churches

Posted by Karen A. Eberhart on April 11, 2012

The records for 4 Baptist churches have been donated to the John Hay Library during the past year to augment the Baptist Collection.

1.  Shawomet Baptist Church, Warwick, RI, 1842-2011

2.  Meshanticut Baptist Church, Cranston, RI, 1899-2011

3.  Roger Williams Baptist Church, Providence, RI, 1867-2011

4.  Niantic Baptist Church, Westerly, RI, 1851-2012

The records of these churches provide documentation related to the debate over the vitality of religious organizations in the United States.  All four churches served as vital centers of worship for their communities for 100-160 years.  They all survived the tumult of the economic, social and political upheavals and changing neighborhood demographics of the past 160+ years.  The reason for their closure may be linked to a larger societal trend or may simply be the natural life cycle of an organization.  They are now available for use by researchers interested in that topic or many others involving the role of religion in the life of a community.

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The Itinerant Actor

Posted by Karen A. Eberhart on April 5, 2012

Edwin Scribner, c.1908

The papers of playwright Edwin Scribner (Ms.2012.005) arrived recently to complement a large collection of his published plays in the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays.

Edwin Scribner was born in Logansport, IN in 1879.  On 27 July 1898, he quit his job in the Master Mechanics office of the Pan Handle Railroad in Logansport and, as he states in the first volume of his diary, “From that date the theater has been my interest and occupation in life.” He was an itinerant actor and a playwright, writing at least 50 plays.  He died in Waterville, ME in 1964.

His papers contain 18 typescripts for his unpublished plays which complement the 33 published plays already owned by Brown.  Of particular interest is the diary he kept  from 1898-1921 which provides an intimate view into the life of a traveling theater troupe actor.  It was not meant as a place to bear his soul but rather as a record of his work.  And work he did.  Every page documents the unrelenting travel schedule of an itinerant actor.

Diary of Edwin Scribner, Oct 4-Nov 3, 1900

In the fall of 1900, from September 19 to December 15 (88 days) he visited 77 cities and gave 79 performances.  The tour ended on December 15 this way: “Before meeting our leading man John Fry Palmer, drunk picked a fight with Griffith – which got him a good licking and landed him in jail.  Closed with John Griffith Co. – they beat me out of my last weeks salary.”  Two days later Edwin was working for another theater troupe in yet another city and so it went for the next 20 years.

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The Shakespearian Advertiser

Posted by Karen A. Eberhart on March 19, 2012

The charming Shakespearian Advertiser printing blocks collection (Ms.2011.044) has recently been cataloged.  The Shakespearian Advertiser was published by Harlen P. Boyce in Providence, RI in 1871.  The preface to the booklet states its purpose: “It combines information as to where our wants of all kinds may be supplied in the best manner, and at the fairest prices; with illustrations of a higher class of humor than is usually presented to the public by the so called comic papers.”  The “higher class of humor” was composed of comic illustrations based upon quotes from plays by William Shakespeare.  The illustrations were interspersed between advertisements for Rhode Island and Massachusetts businesses.  The publishers hoped the comic illustrations would entice people to look through the entire booklet and pass it along to friends.  A clever promotional tool of the 19th century still employed today.  To see the finding aid go to the RIAMCO website.

Wood block #18, The Shakespearian Advertiser printing blocks collection (Ms.2011.044), 1871.

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Brown University Library Receives Mellon Foundation’s 2011 Hidden Collections Award

Posted by Jennifer Betts on February 1, 2012

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) announced that Brown University Library is a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's 2011 Hidden Collections award for “The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Part II.” This three year project, headed by Jennifer Betts, University Archivist and Andrew Ashton, Director of Digital Technologies, will complete the processing of materials Gordon Hall began compiling when he returned from World War II and encountered U.S. domestic hate groups at both ends of the political spectrum.

Along with a group of volunteers, including Grace Hoag, Hall infiltrated and investigated radical and dissenting groups, collecting their printed propaganda as part of his efforts to preserve these irreplaceable materials for posterity. This project will organize and make available over 700,000 items that reflect a continuum of views on the Cold War, civil and women’s rights, and the relationship of religion and state.

Created in 2008 and supported by ongoing funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards program supports the identification and cataloging of special collections and archives of high scholarly value that are difficult or impossible to locate. Award recipients create web-accessible records according to standards that enable the federation of their local cataloging entries into larger groups of related records, enabling the broadest possible exposure to the scholarly community.

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.

Contact: Amy Atticks | [email protected] | (401) 863-6913

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University History: Founding of Brown University

Posted by Jennifer Betts on November 4, 2011

Brown University traces its origins to 1764 with the granting of the Charter by the Rhode Island General Assembly.  The founding was promoted by Reverend Morgan Edwards, moderator of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, in 1762.  Under Edward’s leadership, Rhode Island was selected as a likely site, since the colony had been settled by Baptists, was still largely governed by Baptists, and had no college.  A representative of the Association, James Manning, visited Newport in July 1763, where he met with “about 15 gentlemen of the same denomination” at the home of Deputy Governor John Gardner.  The plan for a college was immediately accepted and in August, 1763, a Charter was presented to the General Assembly in Newport.  After postponement, a different charter was presented at subsequent sessions and granted on March 2 and 3, 1764, for the “College or University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.”  James Manning went on to become the first president of Brown University, often referred to as “Rhode Island College” until 1804.

Primary sources:

Rhode Island College miscellaneous papers, MS-1C-1 (contains digitized materials)

James Manning papers, MS-1E-1 (contains digitized materials)

Secondary sources:

Guild, Reuben Aldridge. Early History of Brown University: Including the Life, Times, and Correspondence of President Manning. 1756-1791. Providence: [Printed by Snow & Farnham], 1897.

Bronson, Walter C. The History of Brown University, 1764-1914. Providence: Published by the University [Brown University], 1914.

Brown, Robert Perkins, et al. Memories of Brown: Traditions and Recollections Gathered From Many Sources. Providence, R.I.: Brown Alumni Magazine, 1909.

“Founding”, Encyclopedia Brunoniana

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Military Collection Digital Archive surpasses 20,000 images!

Posted by Peter Harrington on September 2, 2011

The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection digital archive has just reached an important milestone – the 20,000th image! The project to scan all the prints, drawings, paintings and water-colors in the collection began in September 2004 and through the efforts of many staff members and students, is now the largest repository of special collections’ materials at Brown. While the original focus of the collection was the history and especially the iconography of military uniforms, Mrs. Brown collected widely around the subject acquiring thousands of images depicting the military history of the world circa 1500-1945.

As to the significant image, it comes from an album of chromolithographs depicting World War One scenes published in Japan by Shobido & Co. between August and November 1914. These rather garish and outlandish prints titled The Illustration of the Graet [sic] European War depict fanciful images of the fighting on the Western Front and elsewhere. The Japanese had a tradition of creating wood-block prints and many fine examples depicting their wars against China in 1894-95, and Russia in 1904-05 exist in the collection (yet to be digitized). The current series, while not of the same standard or quality of the earlier ones, is nonetheless telling in its portrayal of a war that was being fought thousands of miles away. The fact that these highly imaginative prints also include English titles suggests that the publishers also hoped to tap the foreign market.

This particular scene is straight out of an H.G. Wells epic and shows a fantastic confluence of airships and airplanes dueling in the skies above, what appears to be Paris. Aptly titled Severe battle in the sky French and German, it was printed on October 31, 1914 and published three days later. While the artist is unidentified, he may have been Ryozo Tanaka who worked for Shobido and is known to have authored at least one similar scene.

It is only through the combined efforts of many members of the Brown University Library staff that this incredible achievement could be made. In addition to the work of Peter Harrington, curator of the collection, and the staff of the Digital Production Services unit of the Center for Digital Scholarship, we have seen significant contributions in the form of high-quality metadata record creation from Betsy Fishman and Henry Gould in technical services and scanning of the graphics by a number of student employees. Further images will be uploaded in the months and years ahead.

Special thanks to Toshiyuki Minami, Sr. Library Specialist, East Asian Collection, for translating this album of prints.

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Emanuel Leutze's Portrait of General Ambrose Burnside at Antietam

Posted by Peter Harrington on February 21, 2011

In 1863, the German history painter, Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868), celebrated for his 1850 painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, completed a large portrait of General Ambrose Burnside at the Battle of Antietam. This was one of a series of Union commanders that the artist planned to paint but it appears that only this painting and one depicting General Grant in his tent were actually completed.

The painting depicts the general standing in uniform just before the capture of the Stone Bridge during the Battle of Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862. His left hand rests on the hilt of a sword presented to him by the people of the state. Completed early the following year from life and exhibited with some fanfare at the annual exhibition of the Boston Athenaeum in May, the huge canvas measuring 11 feet by 8 feet, was presented to Brown University on August 26th, 1863 through John R. Bartlett acting on behalf of various friends of the university who subscribed a total of $1,675 for its purchase. These included such distinguished luminaries as John Carter Brown, Robert and Thomas Ives, Governor William Sprague and his brother Amasa, former Governor Elisha Dyer, future Governor Henry Lippitt, and Republican Senator, Thomas A. Jenckes. Each gave between $50 and $100.

Unfortunately the large dimensions of the framed canvas meant that it was too large for many of the buildings on the campus. Some places were considered such as Rogers Hall, Manning Hall, the John Hay Library, Faunce House and the John Carter Brown Library, and eventually it was hung in the balcony of Sayles Hall as can be seen in the photograph taken prior to the installation of the organ in 1903. Thereafter it was moved to the Engineering Building but in 1938, it was decided to present it to the Rhode Island Statehouse on permanent loan. Today, it hangs at the end of a side corridor on the first floor outside the Office of the Senate President (Room 117). A study for the painting is in the Redwood Library, Newport.

Today, it hangs at the end of a side corridor on the first floor outside the Office of the Senate President (Room 117). A study for the painting is in the Redwood Library, Newport.

References:
Reuben Aldridge Guild. History of Brown University, with Illustrative Documents. Providence, 1867, pp. 291-292.
Barbara S. Groseclose. Emanuel Leutze, 1816-1868. Washington, D.C., National Collection of Fine Arts, 1975, page 234.

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Audubon’s Lesser Red-Poll on display

Posted by Ann Morgan Dodge on December 7, 2010

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 “Lesser Redpoll”.

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 [email protected].

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Audubon’s Cock of the Plains on Display at John Hay Library

Posted by Ann Morgan Dodge on November 5, 2010

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 “Cock of the Plains”.

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 [email protected].

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