We Stand in Solidarity with Our Asian and Asian-American Community Members
The Library wishes to express profound sadness and anger about recent acts of violence against Asian and Asian-American people.
Prints that Erase: Ideals of Femininity in Chinese Propaganda Posters
What comes to your mind when you think of Communist propaganda posters? Uplifting words colored in red? Inspiring stories trumpeting the party’s leadership? Or strategic rhetorics aimed at brainwashing people?
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs, 1763.
Some of the most visually decadent art comes from the Rococo period in Western Europe. I am fascinated by this unapologetically self-indulgent period of European art, made right before the birth of the French Revolution.
Ephemera in Special Collections & Archives: Wedding Shawl Relic
No one who is alive today knew Ruth Peck Fisk (1795-1885), the wife of Wesleyan’s founding president, Willbur Fisk (1792-1839). Her portrait resides in the Middlesex County Historical Society. Her grave is in Wesleyan’s campus cemetery on Foss Hill.
Beyond Repair: Suling
The suling is an end-blown flute from Indonesia, made from bamboo. Like the other instruments in the Javanese gamelan, sulings are tuned to one of two scales, sléndro or pélog.
Ephemera in Special Collections & Archives: The Newtonian system of philosophy by Tom Telescope
Enlightenment ideas about science and philosophy take center stage in this small book of lectures presented to children by a boy called Tom Telescope, the “little philosopher.” The pseudonymous Tom explains complex concepts through conversation and demonstration with “familiar objects, in an entertaining manner, for the use of young ladies and gentlemen,” as made clear in the publication’s subtitle.
Beyond Repair: Bachi
In Japanese taiko drumming, wooden sticks called bachi are used to hit the head of the drum. Taiko drums come in various sizes from the small, high-pitched shime-daiko, to the mid-sized chu-daiko, to the large, lower-pitched o-daiko, and each of these requires a different size of bachi.
Open Doors: A Reflection on SC&A and National Poetry Month 2021
It was two years ago, April of 2019, that I first came to the Special Collections and Archives. I was a pre-frosh at WesFest, awkwardly wandering across campus with a wrinkled assortment of info sheets and campus maps. The disorienting stream of events and people left me with a nagging sense of worry: maybe Wesleyan wasn’t the place for me, maybe it was all too much.
Ephemera in Special Collections & Archives: Burnt Church
Ashes refer us to the fire, indexing words we cannot read. They document what has been lost forever. As light as air, ashes flutter with a breath, they degrade, they will not last. Ashes tell us what has survived, what can be rebuilt, and what is irrevocably altered. Ashes bear witness.
Book talk by Prof. Ronald Schatz and celebration of Wesleyan Library Research Prize Winners
On Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 6 pm, the library will celebrate the winners of the 2020 Wesleyan Library Undergraduate Research Prize at a virtual event, which will begin with a talk by Wesleyan Professor of History Ronald Schatz