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SHARP News Volume 22 | Number 2 Article 1 Spring 2013 Volume 22, Number 2 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/sharp_news Recommended Citation (2013) "Volume 22, Number 2," SHARP News: Vol. 22: No. 2. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/sharp_news/vol22/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in SHARP News by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. et al.: Volume 22, Number 2 SHARP NEWS Volume 22, Number 2 Spring 2013 of the objects displayed). “Realizing” was ex- on a table, for fuller explanation. Cases EXHIBITION REVIEWS plicitly organized according to the four major enclosing various artifacts were grouped ac- areas of the Newberry’s “mission statement cording to five themes: Family; Politics and for the early twenty-first century” that the Commerce; Arts and Letters; Religion; and Realizing the Newberry Idea, library 1) acquire and preserve a broad array Travel. The Newberry 125 is divided into nine 1887–2012 of special collections research materials; 2) sections, corresponding to The Newberry’s sustain the highest standards of collection collection strengths: American History and & preservation, bibliographic access, and reader Culture; American Indians and Indigenous The Newberry at 125 services; 3) encourage life-long learning, as Peoples; Chicago and the Midwest; Geneal- The Newberry Library, Chicago well as civic engagement; and 4) foster re- ogy and Family History; History of the Book; 6 September – 31 December 2012 search, teaching, and publication. The struc- Maps, Travel, and Exploration; Medieval, ture of the exhibit itself and the order of the Renaissance, and Early Modern Culture; These two exhibitions marked the 125th cases, however, were more complex. Preced- Music and Dance; and Religion. Though anniversary of the Newberry Library, from ing the four named sections were three others cross-referenced, the numbered items were its inception a free public library dedicated – Librarians; Building; Employees – and the scattered throughout the exhibit’s quite dif- to education, research, and reference, and cases formed a complex interweaving that ferent groupings, which purposefully (as documented it as both institution and as made the “Recommended Route” necessary. The Newberry 125 stated) created “subject collection(s). Both are closely coordinated All materials were drawn from the Newberry’s categories meant to challenge standard ways with a volume of essays, The Newberry 125, archives, and documented the development of of thinking about the collection,” emphasiz- Stories of Our Collection, which presents an policy and practice from one librarian to the ing their use. Spadafora’s essay’s final section exemplary sampling of the Newberry’s hold- next over the Newberry’s history. discusses other possible arrangements of the ings. Given the impossibility of representing Spadafora’s social history of the Newberry 125 artifacts chosen, noting that many of the the Newberry’s collections comprehensively, is also a history of the intellectual life of Chi- objects fit in more than one category and “are as well as a tendency to eschew master nar- cago for which it has been an axis (with radi- difficult to pigeonhole – a fact worth relishing ratives, the Newberry’s staff collaborated in cal, bohemian Bughouse Square at its front rather than a problem in taxonomy.” selecting a symbolic 125 items, accompanied door). The Newberry’s trustees and librarians The exhibit was fascinating and sugges- by essays that “exemplify and illuminate have always considered the ecology of educa- tive, if somewhat difficult to parse due to what the Newberry has, how and why such tion, knowledge, and information in which the shifting organization, from section to materials have come to us, what we have been all the major Chicago schools and libraries section, case to case, and objects to catalog. doing about and with them since the library’s participate, shaping the Newberry’s activities The catalog, while not arranged chronologi- founding in 1887, and why they matter to us accordingly. Beyond the contributions of the cally, feels more coherent in the presentation and our community,” as David Spadafora, scholars who have served as librarians and cu- of each object with its accompanying brief present Newberry Librarian, notes in his rators, the Newberry’s impact on intellectual essay, and is a handsome volume, with lavish introduction to the volume. “Realizing the life has been both broad and deep, ranging illustrations and a generous index. While the Newberry Idea” is in many ways a version of from local education to international schol- bibliographical information might have been Spadafora’s introductory institutional history, arship, as documented in the exhibition and ... /2 while “The Newberry at 125” exhibits the in more comprehensive detail in Spadafora’s objects in the catalog portion of the book. essay. Scholars of modern intellectual and CONTENTS Yet neither exhibit replicated the book, and, academic life will find much of interest both for better or worse, both exhibits seemed to in the essay and in the entries, the cross-refer- EXHIBITION REVIEWS 1 refuse to guide viewers explicitly. ences of which weave a complex profile. Clearly, discomfort must have prompted “The Newberry at 125” lacked either a BOOK AWARDS 5 the creation of the handout “Recommended pamphlet overview or a “Recommended BOOK REVIEWS 6 Route through the Exhibition,” provided for Route through the Exhibition,” and the viewer E-RESOUrcES REVIEWS 12 “Realizing” in addition to its pamphlet; only entered the space without clear orientation. AS WE SPEAK 14 a copy of The Newberry 125 was available as Signage categorized cases and identified the IN SHORT 16 guidance beyond explanations on doors and objects within them by essay number, direct- BIBLIOGRAPHY 16 walls (both exhibitions provided printed lists ing the viewer to The Newberry 125, available THE SHARP END 16 Published by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 2013 1 SHARP News, Vol. 22, No. 2 [2013], Art. 1 2 c SPRING 2013 SHARP NEWS VOL. 22, NO. 2 ... /1 fuller, such details are available in the online (transmutation), and “The Great Work” of SHARP NEWS catalog, while the information in the essays is Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton, fathers of not available elsewhere. For SHARPists, the modern science. All of the cases are similarly EDITOR book will provide much fodder for consider- designed, with imagery from contemporary Sydney Shep, Wai-te-ata Press ing artifacts within their information universe, texts in the background of each case situating Victoria University of Wellington as well as their dissemination and reassembly the objects in a historical context. Succinct, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand 6140 at the Newberry. informative passages accompany the texts, [email protected] Linde M. Brocato all of which seem to have been selected for University of Memphis visual impact and variety as well as scientific EDITORIAL ASSISTANT - 22.2 importance. Sara Bryan The Newberry 125: Stories of Our Collections. Introduc- The case on transmutation contains vari- Publication Assistant, Wai-te-ata Press tion by David Spadafora. Chicago: The Newberry ous editions in multiple languages of Basil Library; dist. The University of Chicago Press, Valentine’s Keys, cleverly juxtaposing illustra- REVIEW EDITORS 2012. 220 pp. ill., facsims., chiefly color; index. tions of a famous alchemical allegory: a roost- Fritz Levy, Books – Europe ISBN 9780911028270. US $45. er eating a fox, eating a rooster, representing University of Washington, WA, USA the volatization of gold into gold chloride. [email protected] c The final case features texts by Boyle and Millie Jackson, Books – Americas Newton, who corresponded about a recipe University of Alabama, AL, USA The Alchemical Quest for the famous Philosopher’s Stone. Newton’s [email protected] The Chemical Heritage Foundation, very manuscript containing two of three Susann Liebich, Books –Australasia/Pacific Philadelphia stages in the recipe is included here, along Victoria University of Wellington, NZ 2 July – 31 December 2012 with the third edition of his Opticks (1718) [email protected] and the first edition of Boyle’s masterpiece Abhijit Gupta, Books – South Asia The first exhibit mounted by James Voe- The Sceptical Chymist (1661), a foundational Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India lkel, Curator of Rare Books for the Othmer text for modern chemistry. A quotation from [email protected] Library of Chemical History, “The Alchemi- the thirty-first query in Newton’s Opticks Lisa Pon, Exhibitions cal Quest” explores the role of alchemy as the decorates the wall behind this final case, Southern Methodist University foundation of modern chemistry, making use philosophizing whence the “Phænomena of Dallas, TX, USA of new scholarship at odds with the occultist Nature,” and, appropriately, leading the visitor [email protected] school of thought on the science. Synony- back into the permanent exhibit beyond the Katherine Harris, E-Resources mous terms in the sixteenth and seventeenth glass wall: “Making Modernity.” San Jose State University, CA, USA centuries, alchemy and chemistry derive from A truly modern addition to “The Alchemi- [email protected] the Arabic al-kimiya, which, among other cal Quest,” and the first of its kind employed in a rare book exhibit,