Collaborating with Special Collections
An 18th-century English political poem pokes fun of the government and earns its author a jail term. A 19th-century adventurer’s account of his travels in the Middle East illustrates cultural underpinnings the Western world still struggles to understand. The details of a Cincinnati death record reveal the neighborhood in which an immigrant servant was living and the prevalent disease among the working classes that killed her. These examples show how an ever-increasing number of professors and students are discovering the rich primary research sources in the Archives and Rare Books Library as they develop diverse and creative approaches for learning. Three classes in particular this past academic year took an innovative path to student research with some very interesting class projects. In a typography course taught by DAAP visiting professor KT Meaney, her students explored a variety of typefaces and methods of book production from the 1400s to the 20th century in order to understand the technological innovations in printing over time and the economics and politics that go into such endeavors. As Meaney states in an account of the students’ work, “So much is learned through authentic experience! The assortment of books for our viewing and touching pleasure spanned six centuries…connecting design ideas across time…Reading systems evolved right before our eyes, and as they did, curiosities arose.” Following a discussion with Kevin Grace, head of the Archives and Rare Books Library, Meaney’s students delved first hand into the books and then created their own digital images to study away from the library. In addressing what her students were learning, Meaney emphasized that “comprehension stems from understanding the comprehensive.” Their research put knowledge into a larger context, and “the tangible replaces the textbook, the archivist reinterprets…” Over decades and centuries, reading patterns change. New systems and products emerge, and this was evident in another UC course. Lora Arduser, assistant professor in the English Department’s Professional Writing Program, taught a course on publishing and new media. Three of her students, Benjamin Pedigo, Chelsea Gabatero and Derrick Bagley, worked closely with archivist Suzanne Reller in a “collaborative effort” to create an electronic book called The Beginning of a Tradition: Remembering the 1974 Production of ‘Frisch’s Presents the Nutcracker’. This annual holiday performance by Cincinnati Ballet is a community tradition and as Reller had processed the very large holdings of the company, she was especially skilled in assisting the students. The resulting e-volume is a fresh approach to using original source material in an accessible resource beyond the analog model. Lastly, in a seminar entitled “Rare Books and Manuscripts” taught by Kevin Grace through the University Honors Program, students were provided with assignments that focused on the cross-cultural importance of the printed word. As the students explored the Rare Books Collection, where they learned about book structures, print and paper production, authorship and the impact of sociocultural forces on books, they also toured the innovative Preservation Lab in Langsam Library to see how rare books are repaired and sustained. Each student then developed two different rare book catalogues on specific topics of their choosing – mathematics, for example, or music, fantasy, science fiction, landscaping, Renaissance art, children’s books and the like. Their task was to use $200,000 to build collections and then to create illustrated “dealer” e-catalogues that provided bibliographic descriptions and historical backgrounds of their choices. In a final group assignment, these collaborative scholars designed and created a Web exhibit on ARB’s fore-edge painted books. In each of these courses, the necessary questions arose of why and how we read books, why we document our lives and deaths in intimate detail through archival records, and in what manner we will do so in the future. As Meaney states, “Leaps in thought (innovation) are based on what’s already there, biologically and historically.” In their education here in UC’s Libraries, the best we can do in teaching and research is to foster critical thinking.