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Beyond the Reading Room

Anecdotes and other notes from the U-M Special Collections Research Center.
Detailed illustration from Audubon's Birds of North America of a nest in a tree with birds sitting around it.

Posts in Beyond the Reading Room

Showing 101 - 110 of 371 items
page of text in Arabic script
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  • Evyn Kropf
Special Collections After Hours: Celebrating Arabic Written Heritage
Join us next Tuesday (13 April) at 4 pm EDT for our last After Hours virtual open house of the term. This month we'll explore a selection of iconic Arabic texts from the holdings of the Islamic Manuscripts Collection as part of the campus celebration of Arab Heritage Month
Image of a Native American man printed in black ink on a page from Simon Pokagon's birch bark booklet, The Red Man's Rebuke.
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  • Marieka Kaye
Special Collections After Hours: Birch Bark and the Writings of Simon Pokagon
Join the Special Collections Research Center on March 9, at 4:00pm, for the third of our Winter 2021 After Hours events: "Birch Bark and the Writings of Simon Pokagon." Please register at the link provided in this blog post!
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  • Pablo Alvarez
Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library: Cataloging, Teaching, and Research
We are very pleased to invite you all to the fourth session of the Virtual Encounters on Book History, a series organized by Pablo Alvarez (University of Michigan) and Benito Rial Costas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Our fourth webinar is a celebration of two landmark publications based on the extensive collection of Greek manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library: Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Vol. 1. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2021; and Julia Miller, Tradition and Individuality: Bindings from the University of Michigan Greek Manuscript Collection. Ann Arbor, MI: The Legacy Press, 2021. Our speakers will focus on various aspects of this important collection of manuscripts, presenting case studies that illustrate their historical, textual, and artistic relevance.
Detail of graphic describing a parade formation of a battalion consisting of four companies, from Articles of War for Francesco I (1708-1765) Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Duke of Tuscany (Florence, 1739)
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  • Pablo Alvarez
Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Chappell!
On behalf of the University of Michigan Library, we would like to express our gratitude to Samuel L. Chappell (B.S. 1969) and Roberta J. Chappell (B.S. 1967) for their generous gift that allowed us to acquire a manuscript and an early printed book for our military history collection. Since their graduation from the U-M, Sam and Bobbie have kept in touch with the Library in various ways, including generous donations to advance our academic mission.
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  • Anne Cong-Huyen
Douglass Day 2021 Recap: Celebrating and Preserving Black History
On Friday, February 12th, the U-M Library hosted its third annual Douglass Day celebration in honor of Frederick Douglass, 19th century American abolitionist, author, and orator. This year the event highlighted the life, legacy and work of Mary Church Terrell with a lecture from Dr. Shelley Haley followed by transcription, digital art-making, and socializing over baked goods!
Left: a broadside with the text of Harold G. Lawrece's poem, "Black Madonna" below a sepia-toned depiction of a Black woman as the Virgin Mary gazing lovingly at a Black infant. Right: A broadside with the text of Naomi Long Madgett's "A Mandate for Remembrance" laid over a watermark illustration of a stylized human figure sitting cross-legged and lifting their arms. A fire or sunburst appears in their left hand.
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  • Juli McLoone
Special Collections After Hours | Broadside and Lotus: Black-Owned Presses in Detroit
Join the Special Collections Research Center on February 9, at 4:00pm, for the second of our Winter 2021 After Hours events: "Broadside and Lotus: Black-Owned Presses in Detroit." Please register at the link provided in the blog post below.
Folio 16r from Mich. Ms. 160. Horace (65-8 BC). Ars Poetica & Epistulae. Parchment. Italy. 15th c. Examples of additions and corrections, very probably added by the scribe who copied this manuscript
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  • Pablo Alvarez
Textual Editing and Criticism: Principles and New Perspectives. Third Session of a Series of Virtual Encounters on Book History
We are very pleased to invite you all to the third session of a series of virtual encounters on various aspects of book history. On this occasion,
our webinar is devoted to textual editing and criticism. Our speakers will discuss innovative approaches to digital technology and scholarship in the edition of literary texts, ranging from Chaucer to James Joyce.
Segment showing a large colored initial, tau, in the shape of an imaginary winged creature with blessing hands and numerous eyes. Fol. 111v from Mich. Ms. 28. Gospel Lectionary. <Epiros>, s. xiii–xiv, with underlying text of the Old Testament: fragments from Genesis, Proverbs, and Isaiah. s. xi
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  • Pablo Alvarez
New Publication by the U-M Press: A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
I am very excited to announce the publication of the first volume of a two-volume catalog describing the extensive collection of Greek manuscripts at the University of Michigan Library. Authored by Dr. Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, this fully illustrated catalog describes the largest collection of Greek manuscripts in America, which consists of 110 codices (bound manuscripts) and fragments ranging from the fourth to the nineteenth century.
Poster listing the After Hours events for the winter semester of 2021
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  • Pablo Alvarez
Special Collections After Hours: Winter 2021 Events
We are very excited to re-launch online our open houses in the Special Collections Research Center! As part of the After Hours series, we have arranged an extraordinary line-up of events for the Winter Semester. Before the pandemic, on the second Tuesday of each month during the academic year, we organized physical displays of themed selections from our collections. Now we are committed to continue this tradition of open houses in the virtual world. All are welcome to join us from the comfort of your home or office to chat with a curator and learn about our collections.
Mich. Ms. 22, detail of fol. 83v. The Evangelist Mark, from a Book of Gospels Greece, end of tenth-beginning of eleventh century; miniatures: beginning of twelfth century
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  • Pablo Alvarez
A New Online Exhibit from Special Collections: Sacred Hands
We are pleased to announce the launching of a new online exhibit: "Sacred Hands." This virtual display highlights an extraordinary selection of manuscripts containing the sacred texts of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It includes manuscripts that are highly treasured for their textual and artistic value, such as a tenth-century Torah, the earliest known papyrus of St. Paul's Epistles, early illuminated Byzantine manuscripts of the Four Gospels, and a wide selection of manuscripts containing the Qur'an.