Posts by Juli McLoone

Earlier this month, Special Collections was pleased to host WEMU news reporter Jorge Avellan as he researched a story for their "Hidden in Plain Sight" program, featuring Malinda Russell's A Domestic Cook Book. This unpreposessing little 39-page booklet in faded paper wrappers is one of the greatest treasures of the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. Published in Paw Paw, Michigan in 1866, A Domestic Cook Book is the only known copy of the oldest known cookbook published by an African American.

In honor of Pi Day, we offer no less than five lemon pies from the Day Nursery Association's 1924 Cook Book, published in Richmond, Indiana. Read on and judge for yourself whether Mrs. Fred Pollitz, Mrs. Thomas Nicholson, Mrs. A.H. Wilson, Mrs. George Eggemeyer, or Mrs. George Fox would win the blue ribbon for lemon pie.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new exhibit: What Are Little Books Made Of? Visit the Special Collections Exhibit Gallery in our 6th floor space (660J Hatcher South) to see children's books printed on cotton, linen, and linenette from February 5 - March 22, 2019.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new exhibit celebrating the work of Michigan poet David Cope. Drawing on drafts, proofs, and other documents from Cope's archive, this exhibit offers a glimpse into his poetic and editorial process. The exhibit will remain on view through November 30, 2018 in our gallery space on the 6th floor of Hatcher Graduate Library (South), adjacent to the Reading Room.

This weekend, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre presents Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Melissa Freilich, April 19-22, 2018, at the University of Michigan’s Arthur Miller Theatre, 1226 Murfin Ave, 48109. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Come early to the performance (or catch us during intermission) on Saturday, April 21 for a Rare Book Meet & Greet with the Special Collections Research Center, displaying early 19th century books on landscape architecture, mathematics, dancing, and poetry.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce the opening of Seven Fantasy Classics for Children, a new exhibit in the Audubon Room, curated by Lisa Makman's English 313 course, Children's Literature and the Invention of Modern Childhood. Join us for an informal opening today on Tuesday, April 10th, 1:00-2:30pm in the Hatcher Gallery. Light refreshments will be served.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new online exhibit: The Life and Times of Lizzy Bennet. This exhibit features a selection of materials from the physical exhibit commemorating the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, which was on display in the Audubon Room of Hatcher Graduate Library, November 20, 2017 - March 30, 2018.

As the fashionable elite came to eat dinner later and later in the day, supper became almost obsolete. As Maria Rundell notes in the 1813 edition of A New System of Domestic Cookery, “hot suppers are not much in use where people dine very late.” One exception to this rule was a ball, when late hours and active exercise called for substantial evening fare. In Emma, several of the main characters visit a local inn to assess its ability to host a ball, and much is made of the question of where to serve the supper. In the absence of a suitable room, Mrs. Weston proposes simply having sandwiches, but is adamantly shot down. In the words of the narrator, “A private dance, without sitting down to supper, was pronounced an infamous fraud upon the rights of men and women.”

Have you ever wondered what the Bennet sisters' adventures in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice might look like in the 21st century? On Wednesday, March 28th from 6:00-7:30pm, join Anne Charlotte Mecklenburg, PhD student in the University of Michigan's English Department, for a screening of selected mini-episodes from the web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, followed by discussion. This event will take place in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, Screening Room 2160.

As noted in Dining with Jane Austen II: No Such Thing as Lunch?, dinner shifted from noon-time to evening over the course of the 18th century, but this change occurred slowly and unevenly, with the result that certain households - especially those with claims to urbanity and fashion - might eat their main meal of the day much later than others. In Sense and Sensibility, The Dashwoods dine at 4pm at home in Barton Cottage, but in London, Mrs. Jenning’s begins dinner at 5 o’clock. In Pride and Prejudice, dinner is served at Longbourne at 4:30, but the fashionable Bingleys bring their London hours to Netherfield and dine at 6:30pm.