Abraham Lincoln

Among THE NEWSLETTER OF THEFriends FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY VOLUME 21 NUMBER 2 • FALL/WINTER 2008 Abraham Lincoln ½ Brown Celebrates Lincoln Bicentennial ½ The John Hay Library Dresses for Dinner ½ Launching Lincoln into the Digital Age Jeffrey Schreck ’73 From the University Librarian’s Office Chair Linda Aro ’81, MA ’83 Vice-Chair Harriette Hemmasi Joukowsky Family University Librarian Honorary Directors Maurice Glicksman ScD ’97, P ’78 Learning Martha S. Joukowsky ’58, P ’87 Chair Emerita from Lincoln Fraser Lang ’67, P ’04 Chair Emeritus wo hundred years since his upon his death, left the fruits of his John F. Mastroianni, Jr. ’71 birth in modest circumstances, years of collecting to Brown; and Barbara Mosbacher ’45 T Abraham Lincoln continues Doug Squires, who has used his Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. ’45, LLD ’70 Hon., to cast a long shadow over American endowed funds to enable the Library P ’77, P ’88, P ’MAT ’86 history and politics. The Lincoln to purchase noteworthy manuscripts Chair Emeritus Bicentennial gives us an opportunity and items as they become available. President Ruth Simmons to reconsider Lincoln’s legacy and to As the bicentennial approaches, Directors reflect on his many contributions to it is fitting that the Library is actively Board ofBoard Directors modern society. Here at Brown, we engaged in rejuvenating one of its Prof. Thomas Banchoff, P ’91 are actively engaged in spreading signature spaces: the John Hay Alice H. R. H. Beckwith ’69 awareness about this exciting Reading Room. This impressive John Berylson ’75 anniversary through a series of central space of the Hay honors a Sophie Blistein ’41 lectures, exhibits and events that giant of American history and testifies Thomas Bryson ’72 memorialize Lincoln and his role in to the history of this remarkable Seth Dorsky ’03 American politics, society and institution. Generations of Brown Mary Ann Ehrlich P ’85 popular culture. students passed through its doors, Herbert Iselin ’42, P ’79, P ’81 Serving as the foundation for consulted its collections and, by S.T. (Sunand Tryambak) Joshi ’80, MA ’82 these events are the University engaging in the life of the mind, Jon Land ’79 Library’s resources on Abraham metamorphosed from students into Brent Lang ’04 Lincoln, a collection second to none. scholars. Students and researchers Christy Law-Blanchard If a major book has been written from around the world visit the Hay Bernicestine McLeod ’68, P ’99, P ’03 about Lincoln, it is almost a foregone to learn about everything from Ryan Roth ’05 conclusion that our holdings have Thomas More’s vision for a utopian Daniel Siegel ’57 been consulted. Among the recent society to Galileo’s attempts to trace Fredi Solod ’50, P ’78 biographies that have relied on the stars, from H.P. Lovecraft’s Dennis Stark Brown’s Lincoln Collection are Doris mastery of the macabre to John J. Andrew Wendel ’85 Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, Audubon’s transcendent ability to Leslie Wendel ’55, P ’85 Douglas Wilson’s Lincoln’s Sword: capture the natural world, and from Robert Wigod ’54, P ’84, P ’88 The Presidency and the Power of Lincoln’s fight to preserve the Union Hon. Frank Williams Words, and James McPherson’s to Hay’s efforts to transform America Richard Williamson ’65, P ’03 Lincoln and the Second American into a global power. Restoring the Prof. Emeritus Don Wilmeth Revolution.These historians have Reading Room and creating Constance Worthington ’68 relied extensively on the wealth of significantly more exhibition space Member Ex-Officio primary source materials housed for its collections will facilitate Edward Widmer at Brown. these divergent streams of inquiry, Director and Librarian, The story told in these pages is inspire students and alumni alike John Carter Brown Library also the story of the unstinting and serve as a lasting tribute to the Staff philanthropy and generosity that have spirit of industry and innovation been staples of over two centuries that Brown fosters in all who pass Jane Cabral Friends of the Library and of the Library’s operation. It is through its gates. Events Coordinator attributable to donations from the Brent Lang likes of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who Communications Specialist believed that Brown deserved a Lincoln collection of its own and Harriette Hemmasi established our collection when he Joukowsky Family University Librarian purchased Charles Woodbury Cover: McLellan Lincoln rooms, with a view McLellan’s extensive library for the of Truman Bartlett’s 1877 Lincoln sculpture. University;Maury Bromsen, who, 2 Among Friends Fall/Winter 2008 Views and Re-Views: View from the Chair Soviet Political Posters and Cartoons David Winton Bell Gallery at List Art Center and John Hay Library September 6 – October 19, 2008 This exhibit of Soviet propaganda art has been curated by Professor Abbott Gleason and Jo-Ann Conklin and is drawn from a private collection. The show is mounted at the Bell Gallery and the John Hay Library with auxiliary selections at the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library and the Cogut Center for the read sometime this summer that had a very small collection of books Humanities. Brown University was identified available to him, and he owned Child’s Play: Abraham Lincoln by The Princeton Review as one practically none. Until Lincoln was in Games, Toys and Stories I of ten U. S. colleges with the happiest elected to federal office and went to John Hay Library students. If Brown has a culture that Washington, D.C., his access to September 1 – October 31, 2008 makes students happy, what is that newspapers and periodicals was For more than a century, Abraham culture? I hope it is a culture that extremely limited. Lincoln’s knowledge Lincoln has been employed by authors, values the libraries and special of world events was narrow and his toymakers and educators to present a Exhibits Calendar collections that we as Friends of the administrative and executive model of honesty and probity for chil- dren. This exhibition will display some Library have come to cherish. experience almost completely lacking. of the more unusual items from the For those of us who are focused Yet from this limited background McLellan Lincoln Collection docu- on the well-being of the University’s came one of the most respected, menting the didactic use of Lincoln’s libraries, we believe that the quality important and influential Presidents image while promoting childhood fun. of those libraries is an extremely in United States history. Jews and American Comics: important measure of Brown as an Assisting Lincoln was the much Selections from the Holdings academic institution. Some of the younger John Hay, who was both a of the John Hay Library most revered parts of Brown’s libraries trusted advisor and like a son to John Hay Library are the special collections. According Lincoln. Hay is said to have spent November – December, 2008 to Josiah, the Library catalog, there more time with books at Brown than Students from Paul Buhle’s American are more than 250 separately named with people, and he was well-educated. Civilization class “Jewish Americans: Films and Comics” will participate in collections at Brown. Yet Hay also was a fun-loving, witty, the selection of materials and writing One of the most widely cultured and debonair young man the exhibition text. For further infor- publicized special collections at — a very different personality from mation contact Rosemary_Cullen@ Brown is comprised of more than the austere President he served early brown.edu. 30,000 items in various media by in his career. Abraham Lincoln: and about Abraham Lincoln. The What did these two men — The Man, the Myth, and the foundation of Brown’s Lincoln Lincoln and Hay — have in common? Making of a President Collection was acquired for the Among other things, they shared a John Hay Library University in 1923 by John D. love of poetry and books. Certainly January 5 – March 6, 2009 Rockefeller, Jr., Class of 1897. The no one in their day bothered to survey Abraham Lincoln has become so Lincoln Collection has grown over whether college students were happy. enmeshed in American mythology that it is difficult to discern the real man the years and is now five times its Yet Hay is said to have referred to behind the public icon. With the distance original size. A related special his studies at Brown as “delightful” of two hundred years before us, this collection concerns John Hay, Class — a pretty good indication that he exhibition will draw on unique materials of 1858, an aide to President Lincoln liked Brown. Perhaps it is wishful in the McLellan Lincoln Collection, the who was later Secretary of State thinking, but I would like to believe John Hay papers and other holdings of the Hay Library to reveal the truth of under Presidents William McKinley that a large part of what made John Lincoln’s origins and rise to the presi- and Theodore Roosevelt. John Hay Hay happy at Brown was his access dency. At the same time, it will explore is perhaps the most famous Brown to the collections of great books that important elements of the Lincoln University graduate of all time. It is Brown already had. mythology and how they were shaped fitting that the John Hay Library by public needs as well as perceptions of Lincoln’s leadership as president houses many of the University’s during the long years of the Civil War. special collections, including those devoted to Lincoln and Hay. For library hours and updated Biographies of Abraham Lincoln information on library exhibits visit: make it clear that he lacked the http://dl.lib.brown.edu/libweb/hours.php educational advantages of other Jeffrey Schreck ’73 http://dl.lib.brown.edu/libweb/exhibits college students of his day.

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