Beyond the Reading Room

An extraordinary project is currently taking shape at the Wolverine Press, the letterpress studio at the University of Michigan. Led by Rebecca Chung (UMSI) and Fritz Swanson (Wolverine Press), a team of U of M students is working on a handset edition based on the G gathering from the second quarto of Hamlet, published in 1604 and conventionally known as Q2. In this gathering you can read what is probably the most famous soliloquy Shakespeare ever wrote: “To be, or not to be". In brief, the students are recreating the old printing technique of setting the type as a compositor would have done it in the seventeenth century.

The exhibit Shakespeare on Page and Stage: A Celebration (Audubon Room, January 11-April 27, 2016) showcases both the textual and performance history of Shakespeare’s plays. This post will be the first of a series exploring specific productions in greater detail than the limited physical space of an exhibition allows. Today, we share additional material from Ellen Van Volkenburg's early 20th century marionette production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

We are pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit from the Special Collections Library: Shakespeare on Page and Stage: A Celebration (Audubon Room, January 11-April 27, 2016). The exhibit is a historical journey through different versions of Shakespeare’s plays as they were edited for publication or interpreted for the stage. Starting with the Second Folio (1632), our display includes a selection of landmark editions by authors and scholars like John Dryden, Nicholas Rowe, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and Edmond Malone. It explores the staging and costuming of productions such as Charles Kean’s archaeologically-informed, elaborately-costumed 1856 production of The Winter’s Tale, and Maurice Browne-Ellen Van Volkenburg 1930 production of Othello, casting Paul Robeson as the first black actor to play Othello on the London stage in a century. It also includes an extraordinary multi-media feature in the form of a selection of video clips of famous film adaptation of Shakespeare's plays.

As part of the upcoming exhibit "Shakespeare on Page and Stage: A Celebration" (Audubon Room, January 11- April 27) we decided to include a facsimile version of a quarto gathering based on a real seventeenth-century quarto edition of a play held at the Special Collections Library: The tempest, or, The enchanted island. A comedy. As it is now acted at Their Majesties theatre in Dorset-Garden (London: H. Herringman, 1690), edited by John Dryden & William Davenant. Read the rest of this blog post if you wish to learn more about what a quarto is and how the folks from the Wolverine Press printed this replica.

We have recently purchased an extremely rare illustrated history of Spain. It consists of just twenty-four oblong leaves (152 x 262 mm), each of them containing six illustrations with their respective descriptive narratives below. Each of these pairs highlights important events in Spanish history from Antiquity until the reign of Philip V (1700-1746). There is no letterpress involved in the making of this book. The rectos of the pages have been entirely designed and printed by using the process of copperplate engraving.

"Estévez’s handmade book arts are not only storied in out Special Collections and displayed in his newest exhibit, but have been passed down to eager students. Continuing in that tradition, which he helped begin, Estévez led a workshop for Michigan students on the art of bookmaking."
Read more of this guest blog post by students in Prof. Ruth Behar's course, "Cuba and Its Diaspora." Professor Behar is Victor Haim Parera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology.

"Reading about Ediciones Vigía and Rolando Estévez was amazing, but actually getting to touch and hold and interact with the books added a whole new element of emotion and experience." Read more of this guest blog post by students in Prof. Ruth Behar's course, "Cuba and Its Diaspora." Professor Behar is Victor Haim Parera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology.

On display at the AADL Downtown Library in the Lower Level Display cases from December 2, 2015-January 15, 2016, this exhibit invites visitors to explore a wealth of illustrated animal rhymes from the Special Collections Library. Join members of the Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild from 1-2pm on Saturday, December 5, 2015 in the AADL Multipurpose Room for animal stories for the Pre-K and early elementary crowd.

A commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the execution of Joe Hill, the famous Wobbly bard.

We have recently purchased this very rare Japanese book on surgery for our History of Medicine Collection, which is particularly comprehensive on the history of surgery from the Middle Ages throughout the Renaissance. Since our holdings on this subject mainly focus on Western medicine, this Japanese imprint is a long overdue addition, being an extraordinary witness of one of many cultural exchanges between Japan and Europe from the sixteenth century onward.