ILLUMINATION KNOWLEDGE for the 2Ist CENTURY at the UNIVERSITY of MARYLAND LIBRARIES
IN THIS ISSUE
Winter 2016
Digging deeper Hornbake Library exhibit showcases local archaeological discoveries
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Student Spotlight
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Mud Angels of Florence
100 Years of Women Students
A NINE-YEAR ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG
at the site of a plantation where abolitionist Frederick Douglass once lived has culminated in an exhibit now open at the University of Maryland’s Hornbake Library. The exhibit showcases artifacts that shed light on the life and culture of Wye House, a former plantation near Easton, Maryland, where Douglass spent two years as an enslaved child. His subsequent writings, combined with artifacts uncovered at the site, informed University of Maryland archaeologists and inspired the exhibit. “The exhibit seeks to answer questions about the African Americans who created a vital and distinct culture at Wye House,” says Professor Mark P. Leone, the archaeologist who led a team of university students in the excavation. “It explores the uses of the natural environment for food, new religious beliefs, and the formation of a unique Maryland culture that merged African and European traditions.” continues on page 6 Below: AERIAL VIEW of Wye House plantation as it looks today.
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Nagasaki Connections
PORTRAIT from the frontispiece of My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass, published in 1855. INVENTORY of Wye House slaves, 1835, lists each person by name, age, and appraised value. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
S P O T L I G H T
MIKE MORGAN
S T U D E N T
As you receive this issue of Illumination, the semester and the year are winding down. That means the University Libraries are ramping up. Students rely on us more than ever as projects conclude and finals approach. It’s why we extend our hours: McKeldin Library, for example, never closes during finals week. (Two o’clock in the morning is nearly as busy as two in the afternoon.) Databases and e-journals are, of course, available anytime, and you may be surprised to learn that about 90 percent of our collections budget now goes to these online resources. Despite this end-of-semester activity, we work year-round to provide the services, collections and environments that students and faculty value for their academic work. In this issue you’ll learn a bit about exhibitions and special collections that inspire Maryland pride. Perhaps you attended the opening of Professor Mark Leone’s compelling exhibit in Hornbake Library, or attended a screening of our Zeffirelli film at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. We value your joining us at such events. I am also pleased to let you know we have a new development officer, Mary Dulaney, whom you will surely meet in the coming months. Join me in welcoming her to the University Libraries. Happy Holidays,
Babak Hamidzadeh Interim Dean, University Libraries 2
AARON GINOZA
Dear Friends,
Mike Lanuzo with his pet turtle, James, named after Harry Potter’s father.
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S SOON AS HE LEARNED at age five that University of Maryland’s mascot was a turtle, Mike Lanuzo knew he wanted to be a Terp. Luckily for us, once he was accepted to the university, Mike didn’t waste any time securing a job working in McKeldin’s stacks. Now a senior majoring in accoun ting and graduating this spring, Mike has expanded his role within the libraries. He has become a critical member of the Libraries Student Outreach Team, a group of undergrad
uates that helps shape and execute library outreach efforts. “Mike’s energy is refreshing,” says Aaron Ginoza, the Outreach Team’s supervisor. “He has a great sense of humor and is always showing up to meetings with a smile and a box of Oreos. We are very fortunate to have Mike on the team.” According to Mike, the best thing about working in the libraries has been the people: “I’ve made many individual friendships and I feel like I’m part of a community that’s always willing to help.”
The Libraries’ top hits of the past 10 Top Books
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IKE RADIO STATIONS, academic libraries also have top hits. Our top hits include those items that students have borrowed over and over throughout the years. Here’s a look at the top videos and books that have been checked out since 2006.
1. The Feynman Lectures on Physics 2. The Image of the City 3. Beloved 4. Publication Manual of The American Psychological Association 5. Annual Book of Astm Standards 6. The Feminine Mystique 7. Mikrokosmos 8. The Death and Life of Great American Cities 9. An Introduction to Probability Theory And Its Applications 10. Transmetropolitan 11. Digital Principles and Design
IMAGE FROM FLORENCE: DAYS OF DESTRUCTION
Volunteers from throughout Europe and the United States helped recover books, paintings, and other works of art damaged by water and sediment from the Arno River. Some of these so-called “mud angels” would go on to become art and book conservators.
Florence: Days of Destruction THANKS TO PRESERVATIONISTS
at the University of Maryland Libraries, Franco Zeffirelli’s only documentary film—a heartfelt call to action showing the effects of the 1966 flood that devastated Florence, Italy, and rallied art lovers worldwide—toured the United States this fall as conser-
years 12. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates Of Human Societies 13. Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets 14. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 15. Silent Spring 16. Where the Wild Things Are 17. Norton Anthology of Western Music 18. Probability and Random Processes 19. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson 20. Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix
vators marked the 50th anniversary of the flood. The University of Maryland Libraries hold the only known copy of the Englishlanguage version of the film in the United States. A digital surrogate of the film used for public screenings reduces wear on the celluloid original.
Produced by the famed Italian director in the weeks following the flood, the documentary urged support to help rescue Italian works of art. Actor Richard Burton, who was working in Rome as the disaster unfolded, narrated and appeared in the film and appealed for aid.
Top Videos 1. The Battle of Algiers 2. Eyes on The Prize 3. Connect With English 4. Killing Us Softly 3 5. Race 6. Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus 7. 1492 8. Do the Right Thing 9. People Like Us 10. Three Approaches to Psychotherapy 11. Sankofa 12. The Wire: The Complete First Season 13. Oklahoma! 14. Life and Debt
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IN SIDE T H E VAU LT
Celebrating 100 years of women’s education at Maryland O
NE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, life at the University of Maryland changed dramatically with the arrival of the first full-time female students. Times were indeed different. Although the university professed that all areas of study were open to women, publicity materials encouraged female students to pursue careers in home economics, the field which “can do most for the future of womanhood in the state.” Learn more about this defining period by viewing an exhibit on the first floor of McKeldin Library. Additional images are displayed in the Portico Lounge near the Terrapin Learning Commons on the second floor. For further information about this exhibit or University of Maryland history, contact the University Archives at umdarchives@umd.edu or (301) 405-9060.
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Below left: An image of a rat, the nickname for freshmen at the time, appears with photographs of incoming students Elizabeth Hook and Charlotte Vaux published in the 1917 Reveille Yearbook. Hook was the first woman to take all of her classes on campus and receive a fouryear degree. Illustrations on these pages are drawn from the Reveille Yearbooks, 1920 to 1935.
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Frederick Douglass, continued from page 1
Daughter of Nagasaki hero donates t “It’s a perfect fit” A
African cosmogram depicts the circle of life, moving counterclockwise from right side: birth to death, above the horizontal axis, to the afterlife below it.
Leone points to a striking discovery—various occurrences of circles and a wheel—that shows how African and Christian religious beliefs perhaps merged to create nineteenthcentury imagery still evident today. One occurrence of the wheel imagery is evident in an African symbol known as a cosmogram, which is a circle with an X inside. Another is thought to be Ezekiel’s Wheel, a familiar biblical image. “We call this the ‘emergent wheel’ because it shows the growing power of Christian imagery alongside the African,” says Leone, who is also a cocurator of the exhibit. Themes of plants and gardens, food and cooking, and a multimedia interview with the descendant of a former slave also help to interpret life at Wye House in the 1800s. The exhibit is presented as if Douglass himself were the guide. Not only does the exhibit draw from Douglass’s own words and observations, it also faces a 7-1/2- foot tall bronze statue of Douglass near the library entrance. Hornbake Library, home to the university’s rare books and archives, neighbors Frederick Douglass Square, dedicated in November 2015 to honor Maryland’s native son. “Frederick Douglass & Wye House: Archaeology and African American Culture in Maryland” runs through July 2017. The exhibit is co-curated by Professor Mark P. Leone and his current and former graduate students Tracy Jenkins, Dr. Elizabeth Pruitt, Benjamin Skolnik, Dr. Amanda Tang, and Stefan Woehlke. Patrick Rogan of Assemble designed the exhibit. Hornbake Library is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Wednesday til 8 p.m.); closed Saturdays; Sundays 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. lib.umd.edu/special/exhibits/home 6
BOX OF HER deceased father’s speeches, photos and letters for years held little meaning for Patricia Magee. She couldn’t read Japanese, and though some of the materials were translated into English, they provided limited insight to her father’s tremendous influence in post-war Japan. She knew that her father, a career military officer, served in Nagasaki— she was born there—and she knew he had been a military governor of a prefecture the size of Massachusetts. But, she says, she was sadly ignorant of much more. “It was just Dad’s job,” she says, referring to her father’s long-ago Japan deployment. “Having been born in Japan was for me a very nice conversation piece at a dinner party,” says, “and that was about it.” Then she received an invitation, and an extraordinary gift. In 2011, Japan’s public broadcasting company, NHK, approached her to be part of a documentary about her father, Victor Delnore, the man still remembered in Nagasaki for his exceptional role in helping the city heal after its historic devastation. Delnore commanded the Allied Occupation Forces in Nagasaki from 1946
to 1949 and supervised efforts to rebuild the city after its 1945 atomic bombing. As guests of the documentary’s producers, she and her husband Jim traveled from their home in Delaware to Nagasaki. She saw the house where she lived more than 50 years earlier, the cathedral where she was baptized, the streets her father walked. “Everywhere we went, people would come up to us, and they would speak of my father with great appreciation, great respect, and great love,” Magee says. “I was just overwhelmed.” A Japanese man recounted to Magee the certainty he felt when first meeting her father many years ago during the painful post-war transition. “I knew then,” he told her, “that peace had come at last to Nagasaki,” Magee recalls, her voice choking with emotion. “What a beautiful thing to say about my dad.” This deeper understanding of her father—enriched by a subsequent trip to Japan and research born of newfound curiosity—led to greater appreciation of his papers. Knowing that others might also be interested in them, she felt a desire and obliga-
rove of papers tion to make them available to scholars. Because Delnore (MA ’68) was a University of Maryland alumnus, she decided in 2012 to donate the papers to his alma mater. Among the materials are a photo album, scrapbook, policy statements, speeches, newspaper articles and documentary films. Most notably, the scrapbook includes Delnore’s 1948 address at the historic first ceremony commemorating victims of the atomic bombing, as well as a photograph of the mushroom cloud taken 10 minutes after the bomb was dropped. The collection complements the university’s well-known Gordon W. Prange Collection, which is the most comprehensive archive in the world of Japanese print publications issued during the early years of the Occupation of Japan, 1945-1949. “It’s a perfect fit in many respects,” Magee says of her donation to the University of Maryland. “I’m gratified to know that the materials are being beautifully cared for, that scholars have come here to do research. It’s been wonderful.” To learn more, please visit go.umd.edu/delnoreblog. See more images at go.umd.edu/delnore.
Above: Victor E. Delnore (right) still remembered in Nagasaki for his exceptional role in helping the city heal after its 1945 bombing, with his family: wife Catherine (left), son Victor Jr., and daughter Patricia (in her father’s lap). Left: Patricia [Delnore] Magee today. Below: Victor Delnore collected newspaper clippings and photos, including a picture of Nagasaki taken 10 minutes after the atomic bomb was dropped and a diagram of where it fell. His daughter donated his papers to the University of Maryland Libraries. Images from Victor E. Delnore Photograph Album, 1949; Victor E. Delnore Papers; Gordon W. Prange Collection, University of Maryland Libraries.
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PA ID
PE RMIT N O. 1 0 COL L E G E PARK , MD
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Fats Domino WALKING TO NEW ORLEANS, an online exhibit curated by Special Collections in Performing Arts, a unit within the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, highlights the life, music and legacy of Fats Domino and 1950s R&B. The exhibit draws from the Wouter Keesing Collection of Fats Domino and New Orleans R&B and was generously funded by Hugo Keesing, Wouter’s brother.
View the exhibit: lib.umd.edu/fatsdomino
W O U T E R
K E E S I N G —