Smells like J.P. Morgan’s Cuban cigar? “Although the majority of the people around in 1906 would have been men with their manly scents, there was also Belle da Costa Greene who was a powerful presence as J. P. Morgan’s librarian.”
What do the wives of Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis have in common? For one, they were all clients of dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley, successful dressmaker, businesswoman, and author of Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. [E457.15 .K26 1868].
After buying her own freedom in St. Louis with the support of her network of satisfied dress customers, Keckley set up shop in Civil War-era Washington, D.C. and soon acquired a notable clientele. The wife of the new president, Mary Todd Lincoln, hired Keckley as her modiste. Keckley went on to create the first lady’s extensive wardrobe. She also became the first lady’s confidante and friend—at least until her book came out.
When the dressmaker’s memoir was published in the late 1860s, controversy ensued. The book revealed information about the private lives of Mary Todd Lincoln and other inhabitants of the White House. This was met with much criticism, from the press and Mrs. Lincoln herself. Keckley defended herself by claiming that her revelations were meant to help and not hinder the former first lady, who was embroiled in controversy herself after selling mementos from her time in the White House to pay off debts.
Aside from the insights into the White House, Keckley’s memoir contains her account of her years in slavery and the success she gained as a businesswoman once she gained her freedom. Beyond dressmaking, Keckley was also a philanthropist. Her creation of the Contraband Relief Association in 1862 helped newly freed slaves with food, shelter, clothing and support. (If you’re watching the PBS series Mercy Street, the second season has a focus on the experience of those in a contraband camp.)
The images above are from our copy of her memoir in the Dibner Library for the History of Science and Technology in the @amhistorymuseum. That museum also holds a couple dresses designed and made by Keckley. See them (and more) in the Smithsonian Collections Search. You can also learn more about Keckley from this blog post.
Our copy of Behind the Scenes is not digitized, but a copy from the University Library at UNC Chapel Hill was digitzed for @internetarchive, should you want to read it.
Source: Digital Methods for Web Research by Richard Rogers
Sometimes the media needs to remind us who the truly tough, mysterious characters are in this world, and they usually hang out with books. It’s so interesting to see the irony, the complexity and the romantic view of this sweet sweet employment.
Make sure y'all check out Amandla Stenberg’s ‘Niobe’ comic book series!
~ The Pleasures of Ignorance, by Robert Lynd, 1921
Use ALA’s Legislative Action Center today to ask your Senators to sign both the LSTA and IAL letters and show their support for federal library funding.
There are talking points and a call script on 5calls.org as well!
Pages from “What is Good and What is Bad?” by Vladimir Mayakovsky, illustrated by Nikolai Denisovsky, 1925 (via togdazine)
Today, the Trump administration plans to release their full budget proposal for FY 2018. As expected, the proposal effectively eliminates federal library funding, including cutting the IMLS budget by 90%. You can read ALA’s statement here.
Ready to take action? Find out if your senators have signed the LSTA and IAL “Dear Appropriator” letters in support of federal library funding, and if not, give them a call today. There are talking points and background information available on our website or you can use the call script on 5calls.org.
Help refugees. Make Neil Gaiman read the Cheesecake Factory menu.
This is completely full of win.
Madness. Pure madness.
Big fan of this, for obvious reasons ;)
Women’s Voices Now streams hundreds of films about women’s issues from women directors all over the world, for free!
You can really just click on any film and watch the entire thing online, for free! There’s documentaries and narrative films, short films and feature length! I STRONGLY encourage you to check it out.
Next time you think your workplace is weird, please remember that my workplace has an annual tattoo night out, where we rent out a tattoo parlor, order pizza, play cards against humanity, and watch some of our coworkers get tattooed
Where do you work?
A library
“I love books because they gave me shelter when no one else did.” - (cravings)
Karlsson-on-the-Roof book illustrations, Full set of 16 vintage postcards (1976)
Listed on Etsy: http://ift.tt/2gHDOfQ
Teachers asked me for a more easily poster-able version of my writer’s block flowchart. So here: http://ift.tt/2pQpiBs
More than 2.7 million books were lost during the Japanese occupation of China, nearly half of all the country’s books.
And this, boys and girls, is why protesting and being politically involved matters.
This is a true threat to democracy and totally out of controlled and unchecked. The war on truth and the systematic brainwashing of the American Electorate by foreign operators.
Health care policy is on the verge of a major overhaul. Here are a few books to help you understand the unwieldy system.
Wild Swans, Hans Christian Andersen book illustration by Konashevich
Listed on Etsy: http://ift.tt/2daJ6xm
American Libraries Magazine’s By the Numbers this month gives stats on Privacy to commemorate Choose Privacy Week.
Ok, I know it may seem like a weird resource to share, but bear with me.
Some people, such as myself, aren’t interested in calling people slurs, meaning we aren’t the most familiar with derrogatory terms. So what do you do if you’re reading or watching something and a term comes up that you know is supposed to be derrogatory but you don’t know to who or why the term might exist?
Or what do you do if you’re a writer and you have a racist character but don’t know what term they might use?
Or what if you wanna check if something is a slur or ok to say?
Or maybe you just want to educate yourself to better be able to pick out the racists in the crowd or are wondering where a racist term might come from.
Now you have somewhere you can look.
How it works:
It breaks down slurs by nationality, regional area, and ethnicity (e.g. “Icelanders“, “Central Americans”, “Black Russians”) in alphabetical order.
They also have some religions as well, such as “Jewish”, “Amish”, “Mormons”, and “Hindus”.
They also have a special section listing words related to immigrants as a whole regardless of race.
The entries have the slur, who it represents, and its reasoning/origin, and often include slurs used in other languages as well.
Illustration, reading, and ladies—three of my favorite things!
#illustration #reading #alltheillustratedladies
Writer and editor Hal Niedzviecki has resigned as editor of Write, the Writers’ Union of Canada magazine, after outrage sparked by an opinion piece titled “Winning the Appropriation Prize” he wrote in an issue devoted to Indigenous writing.
In it, he states that “I don’t believe in cultural appropriation. In my opinion, anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities.”
He notes that most Canadian literature is written by people who are “white and middle-class” and exhorts them to look outside of their own community and write about “what you don’t know” in an effort to “explore the lives of people who aren’t like you.”
“Set your sights on the big goal: Win the Appropriation Prize,” he notes in the piece which appears under the label “Writer’s Prompt.”
Niedzviecki, who is also the founder and editor of Broken Pencil magazine, went on to reference the Indigenous writers whose work fills this issue of the magazine: “Indigenous writers, buffeted by history and circumstance, so often must write from what they don’t know … They are on the vanguard, taking risks, bravely forging ahead into the unknown.”
As writers began receiving the issue on Tuesday, outrage on social media was fast and furious.
“I am seriously disgusted that someone would use the Indigenous issue of Write as a jump point for a case for cultural appropriation on the backs, words, and reputations of the Indigenous writers featured in it. It’s not enough that we are finding our voices, reclaiming our ability to tell stories, and having to heal to tell these stories. But people want to tell them for us,” Helen Knott, a contributor to the issue, wrote on Facebook.
Board member Nikki Reimer posted on Twitter a link to a statement in which she resigns from the board of the Writers’ Union. She calls the column “clueless and thoughtless” and saying it “marks Write magazine as a space that is not safe for indigenous and racialized writers.”
She goes on to say that, “Canada is ‘exhaustingly white and middle class’ not because white writers are afraid to write stories they don’t ‘know,’ but because white writers don’t get out of the way and make space for the multitude of stories to be told by those who aren’t white and middle class.”
Writer Jennifer Love Grove pointed out on Facebook what she saw as the inherent contradiction in Niedzviecki’s statement piece. “Hal N. writes in Write magazine that canlit is too white and middle-class, and the solution is that white, middle class writers should appropriate marginalized cultures more?”
Poet and editor Stuart Ross posted on Facebook an email he sent to the Writers’ Union which contains nods to recent controversies over voice appropriation and efforts to create a publishing and media environment that better reflect the cultural makeup of our society. “At this moment in the cultural, social, artistic and political evolution of Canada, and the first, reluctant opening up of spaces for voices previously oppressed or silenced, Hal is doing the writers of Canada a great disservice,” he wrote.
The Writers’ Union quickly stepped in, apologizing “unequivocally” and noting Wednesday that “the editor of Write magazine has resigned from his position.”
The statement added that the Writers’ Union was contacting each of the contributors to that issue of the magazine individually and promised to “offer the magazine itself as a space to examine the pain this article has caused, and to take this conversation forward with honesty and respect.”
Niedzviecki did not immediately return requests for comment.
“I had a patron come in and try to fill out an application for Home Depot. He worked as a person who laid floors all his life and he was out of work. He owned his own home. He never had to use a computer in his life. I helped him to fill out the online application. He was in tears saying he was going to lose his house and just wanted a job and why can’t he just talk to someone. Our Pacifica Libraries are a lifeline to people who do not know how to use computers or fill out online applications. We help people every day with the digital divide.”
— Paula Teixeira, California
American Libraries recently talked to Desirée Fairooz. They discuss her case, free speech, and the importance of libraries.
old books seen at the antiques fair, Gloucester Green, Oxford (every Thursday)
© proseandpassion.tumblr.comI just realised that with all the excitement of the post-truth apocalypse we’re witnessing right now, I haven’t posted any of my own bookish photos in a month. so here’s five of them to catch up.
“I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being.” — LeVar Burton (born February 16, 1957) http://stuf.ly/2lOVTdB
Happy Birthday George Frideric Handel! (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759)
From our stacks: Illustrations from Handel By Henry Davey. London: Murdoch, 1922?
J.K. Rowling’s full name is Joanne Rowling.
So where does the K come from?
Well, her publisher told her she should use initials to hide the fact she was a woman, because “boys don’t want to read books written by a woman”.
