Special Collections at the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries

Today’s International Kelmscott Press day officially marks the 125th anniversary of the Kelmscott Chaucer, widely viewed as the the crowning glory of Morris’s book printing career. In 1891, designer William Morris founded his Kelmscott Press. For the next 7 years, Morris and his collaborators used artistry and pre-Industrial methods to hand produce some 22,000 copies of 53 titles. #RBSCP holds this 1892 "The Golden Legend", shown here open to the title page. This 13th centu...ry collection of saints’ lives as translated by the first English printer, William Caxton, displays the Morris-designed floriated initials and border often associated with Kelmscott books. Morris also designed the font, called Golden Type. See more

To commemorate PRIDE Month, the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry Office of Equity and Inclusion is hosting a screening of the documentary Shoulders to Stand On on Saturday, June 26, 2021, at 3 pm at The Little Theatre. River Campus Libraries is proud to provide free and open access to the digital archive of audio and video source materials, with written transcriptions for the Shoulders to Stand On documentary film. This digital archive preserves a...nd makes public the rich histories included in the documentary "Shoulders to Stand On" and the "Green Thursday" radio program. Created through a partnership between River Campus Libraries and Rochester's Out Alliance and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for Humanities, this project provides access to over 200 audio and video recordings that have been enhanced through transcriptions and/or closed captioning. University of Rochester graduate students cataloged, edited, and captioned the recordings. This project offers a model of how libraries and community organizations can partner to archive, preserve, and make accessible our shared cultural heritage. To access the collection http://ow.ly/KbbU50FiKmx.

Don't forget to register for tomorrow's event, "Not Dead Yet: Lively Ladies and Elaines after Tennyson," which celebrates the Rossell Hope Robbins Library, University of Rochester's digital exhibit "Reclaiming the Death of a Beautiful Woman: Female Voices Adapting the Lady of Shalott." Dr. Ann Howey (Associate Professor of English Language and Literature at Brock University) will speak on the popularity of the figure of the dead woman in history, how popularity is contested/resisted by adaptions (often letting the Lady of Shalott live), and how these adaptions situate their resistance in terms of storytelling, as in drawing attention to the narratives we consume.

Share the joy in this exuberant photo of Congresswoman Louise Slaughter giving a hug. Happy Summer Solstice! For more Your Weekly Louise http://ow.ly/nCz950FfjSw.

Historic preservation takes many forms, including creating a custom-made plastic cover to protect the iconic headstone of suffragist Susan B. Anthony, while continuing to allow the tradition of visitors placing their I Voted stickers on her grave. https://to.pbs.org/3kCYm5C

Thanks to archivists & programmers (and lots of others) working together to make our virtual Scare Fair possible! #americanarchivesmonth

Appreciating chocolate goes WAY back! Shown here is a page from our 1682 copy of The natural history of coffee, thee, chocolate, tobacco : in four several sections : with a tract of elder and juniper-berries, shewing how useful they may be in our coffee-houses : and also the way of making mum, with some remarks upon that liquor : collected from the writings of the best physicians and modern travelers by John Chamberlayne. #nationalchocolateday

So what can you actually DO with archives?? Plenty! RBSCP archival resources are used for creative endeavors, such Mat Smart’s play, "The Agitators", which premiered at GEVA Theater in Rochester in October of 2017. Preparation included spending several weeks reviewing archival materials such as correspondence, to inspire and to infer about the longtime friendship between Rochester’s two most esteemed citizens, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. The play has since been produced all over the United States, and Smart has kindly donated the research materials to RBSCP, so that future researchers can learn how one artist used archives to draw inspiration for their own creative work. #americanarchivesmonth

Professor Brianna Theobald won two prizes for her first book, " Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century" which traces Native women’s reproductive histories and their activism. http://ow.ly/ghT650C1eAB

Who's excited for the Seneca Falls Dialogue today & tomorrow?? We're especially looking forward to tomorrow's 9am session, "Activism in the Archives: New Approaches to Stewardship, Access, and Representation" presented by Miranda Mims and Autumn Haag from #RBSCP and Evelyn Bailey who's Chair of the Shoulders to Stand on Program. #americanarchivesmonth

Join Union College alum Dr. Gustave Davis '59 and Seward House Museum Director of Education Jeff Ludwig at 12pm on Fri. 10/23 for a conversation about Seward's life, impact, and legacy. Registration required. Hosted by the Seward House Museum.

Who's spent eons at the copier? It would be significantly longer without the ingenuity of inventor Chester Carlson! #OTD we're celebrating the 1938 anniversary of the first xerographic print made in New York City. Shown here is Chester Carlson’s wife, Dorris, in 1988 at the Astoria building where the first xerographic print was made. #RBSCP holds a collection of Carlson's papers https://bit.ly/3ma5MO3.

Happy #NationalAppleDay! With election campaign season, we’ve picked an original watercolor illustration of a Stump apple, which originated in nearby Chili, NY before 1875. Find more spectacular images of fruit and flowers in the Ellwanger & Barry Horticultural Prints collection http://ow.ly/1Dj450BRAY2. ... #nationalappleday #NYapples #autumn #appleseason

In recognition of #domesticviolenceawarenessmonth we share this important collection and the history of grass roots advocacy that has saved families’ lives for over forty years in our community. Inspired by an article on domestic abuse in Ms. Magazine, a group of Rochester activists led by Helen H. French and members of the nursing, mental health, and education communities, organized the Coalition for Battered Women in 1976. Two years later, the group incorporated as Alterna...tives for Battered Women (ABW), Inc. and established a volunteer-operated hotline. After securing funding from private, state, and county sources, ABW extended its services and opened a 22-bed shelter for women and their children in 1979. One of three shelters providing services for women and their children in the State of New York, ABW (now known as Willow) offered simple, practical emergency housing, counseling, and medical services. In the 40 years of its operation, the organization has grown considerably, each year helping over 7,000 Monroe County women and their children with safety, security, legal aid, and care. See more

Join RCL office hours during Open Access Week (Oct 19-23) and talk to a librarian who will investigate your options to Free Your Paper!

Join RBSCP Processing Archivist Lev Earle, in leafing through this suffragist scrapbook created by lawyer and women's rights advocate, Florence Harmon. #AmericanArchivesMonth

#OTD in 1859 John Brown and 21 other men attempted to take over the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia hoping this would incite a slave revolt. Frederick Douglass was asked to join, but refused, believing the mission would fail. Years after the raid, Douglass received letters from members of the public asking him to share his memories of John Brown. #RBSCP holds an undated reply from Douglass to one of these letters. In it, he states I have said a good deal about de...ar old John Brown in my book just published in Boston by DeWolk Fisk & co. Do get it - you can easily see that twenty different persons should ask me to write to them separately of John Brown or of any body else, my time would be entirely occupied. Letter from Frederick Douglass to unknown recipient, no date, Frederick Douglass papers, A.D74, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester. #americanarchivesmonth

October 15 marks the anniversary of the passing of virtuoso violinist and rising international star, David Hochstein, who was killed in combat in 1918 during the MeuseArgonne campaign, the last major offensive of World War I. Hochstein enlisted in the United States Army to serve his country, against the advice of his maternal aunt, the future anarchist and one-time Rochester resident, Emma Goldman. Born in Rochester to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Hochstein lived jus...t a quarter of a century. During that short time, he accomplished much, and his legacy is still felt today in Rochester through his passion for music and music education. The photograph shown here in a WWI memorial frame, belonged to his chief benefactor, Emily Sibley Watson, who helped found The Hochstein School, as well as Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. #OTD #RochesterNY #musician See more