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Washington University School of Medicine Digital Commons@Becker Washington University Record Washington University Publications 5-5-1988 Washington University Record, May 5, 1988 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record Recommended Citation "Washington University Record, May 5, 1988" (1988). Washington University Record. Book 445. http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record/445 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington University Publications at Digital Commons@Becker. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Record by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Becker. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Trrf»rpr!- • s^rsr m 5 ^ ARCHIVES U/A5>///vc~fc>A> O/Vi \J££SirY &Q{Co&-i> g Washington WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY- IN • ST' LOUIS mCORD Vol. 12 No. 30/May 5, 1988 Thomas Eagleton will speak at 127th Commencement Thomas F. Eagleton, who served 18 years as a U.S. senator, will deliver Washington University's 127th Com- mencement address on Friday, May 20. The ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle. Eagleton will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree during Com- mencement. Currently University Professor of Public Affairs at Washing- ton University, Eagleton drafted several key pieces of legislation and sat on many Senate committees during his three terms in Congress. Eagleton, a St. Louis native, earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1950 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1953- After receiving his law degree, Eagleton returned to Missouri, where he began a long and successful career in public office. In 1956 he was elected circuit attorney of St. Louis. At age 27, he was the youngest man ever to win that office. Terms as Missouri's attorney general (1961-65) and lieutenant governor (1965-69) followed. In 1969 the Democrat from Missouri was elected to the first of three consecutive terms to the U.S. Senate. During his tenure in Congress, Eagleton served as Ranking Minority The Philip Mills Arnold Semeiology Collection in Olin Library contains 2,000 books on the study of signs and symbols. Included in the collection is Adrian Le Cuirot's Le Magazin Des Sciences (Paris, 1623) in which this pictorial alphabet appears. Member of the Senate Committee on Government Affairs and was a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Committee on Intelligence. In 1973 Eagleton authored an amendment to Kaleidoscope of titles halt the bombing in Cambodia, which was instrumental in bringing an even- Signs and symbols book collection attracts scholars tual end to American intervention in Southeast Asia. In the current country-kitchen craze, pig the deepest in the world of words — not collected cigar bands, silver paper and Eagleton was one of the principal paraphernalia is hot. But the popularity only of words, but of signs and symbols postcards in the 1930s, Philip Arnold authors of the War Powers Resolution, of pigs is not confined to the 1980s. and ways of getting an idea from one began accumulating old books. He which reasserted the constitutional According to records, the first pig mind to another." earned his bachelor's degree at Wash- authority of Congress as the only branch painting dates back some 40,000 years The 2,000-volume collection is a ington University in 1932 and his of government that can declare war. As to residents of Spain's Altamira caverns. kaleidoscope of titles, reflecting the master's degree in chemical engineering a member of the Senate Committee on Since then, pigs have been captured diverse nature of semeiology. Books here in 1941. He often took a 20-mile Environment and Public Works, Eagle- on canvas; memorialized in nursery like Symbolic Anthropology, History of trolley ride to visit used bookstores in ton helped shape the Clean Water and rhymes ("This little pig went to market") the Use of Codes and Tangible Typogra- downtown St. Louis. One of his prize Clean Air acts of 1971 and 1972, and in and children's stories ("The Three Little phy share shelf space with How Animals finds during those treks was a 1664 1982 he took a stand to oppose tobacco Pigs"), and depicted on vases, coins, Communicate, Language and Lewis British publication of Robert Boyle's subsidies. He also has worked to piggy-banks, drinking cups, church Carroll and Faith of Graffiti. Experiments and Considerations preserve former President Harry S. wood carvings, and inn signs. In fact, In a ground-breaking 1938 article, Touching Colours, which he purchased Truman's home, to revitalize the down- many English and Scottish inns are Charles Morris, professor of philosophy for $5. Today the tome is valued at $500. town area in Kansas City and to pro- called "The Pig and Whistle." at the University of Chicago, defined At first, he bought books at whim. Continued on p. 4 "Artists known and unknown have semeiology as "a theory of signs in all Then he narrowed to color theory endeavored to capture and depict the their forms and manifestations, whether books, eventually broadening slightly to charm of pigs," write Frederick Cameron in animals or men, whether normal or communications theory books. "I Sillar and Ruth Mary Meyler in their 1969 pathological, whether linguistic or wanted a subject where I was not in book, The Symbolic Pig. The ornamen- nonlinguistic, whether personal or competition with very many other tation in abbeys, churches and cathe- social." collectors," he says. He named his drals are "evidence of the high place Semeiology spotlights the non- collection semeiology in the late 1960s. that the pig held in the affections of the verbal aspects of communications and (Semeiology - also spelled semiology - people." their relationships with written and comes from the Greek word for sign. Pigs are symbols. They signify the verbal expression. Signs might include Semiotics comes from the Greek "to everyday life of the common people: an actor's gestures, a writer's alphabet, a interpret signs.") He donated the working, playing, loving, laughing. The stenographer's notations, sign language collection to the University in 1969 and Symbolic Pig is one of 2,000 books in for the hearing impaired, and images has added to it over the years. the Philip Mills Arnold Semeiology substituted for words to convey ideas or Meanwhile, Arnold's vocation Collection at Washington University. emotions, such as a nation's flag. continued to be chemical engineering, Semeiology (also called semiotics) is the Categories within the collection and he worked for nearly 40 years at study of signs and symbols. include: cryptography (secret writing/ Philips Petroleum Co., retiring as vice Nationally syndicated columnist codes), ancient languages, pictorial president for research and development William Safire, in a recent speech at the writing, decipherment of lost languages, in 1976. Intentionally, his avocation and University, called semeiology "a hot shorthand, universal writing, memory career have no connection. new subject in the world of signs, and mnemonics (memory aids), telegra- "A lot of the early books I collected symbols, language and the communica- phy, blind and deaf communications, dealt with the meaning of symbols used tion of ideas. You (at Washington and the history of signs and symbols. for people who could not read," Arnold University) have access to the latest and While other college students says. Churches, for example, depicted Thomas F. Eagleton Continued on p. 2 Book collection continued from p. 1 saints through symbols. St. Mark was David Kahn, journalist, cryptologist associated with a lion, so paintings or and author of The Codebreakers, Hitler's statues of him always included a lion. Spies and several other books, says the The elephant is a symbol for cryptology section of Arnold's collection memory. The statue of justice is always is "certainly one of the greatest in the blindfolded, with a sword in one hand world." Kahn is editor of the journal and scales in the other. "Books from the Cryptologia and the op-ed page at 1500s tabulate these symbols and Newsday, the daily newspaper on Long explain them," Arnold says. Island in New York City. Although he has traveled the world He knows the challenge of collect- in pursuit of books, Arnold finds ing books on cryptology, because he antiquarian book catalogs to be the has his own collection. "It takes more most fruitful. "It's very time-consuming effort than collecting books on bird to visit antiquarian bookstores," he says, illustrations," he says. "Librarians classify "although it pays sometimes to go in on books on codes in several ways, so it a chance." He prefers booksellers in takes more work to dig them out. Paris, London and Amsterdam. Cryptology may be classified under Holly Hall, head of Washington shorthand, linguistics, or mathematics, University Libraries' Rare Books and and sometimes rare book dealers list it Special Collections Department, calls under occult." Arnold "a collector of vision. He has Unlike other cryptology collectors, created a distinctive and highly individ- Arnold has cast his collection in the ual collection of books and manu- larger picture of semeiology. "If a book scripts." She says the interdisciplinary gains in value by being part of a collec- In the film "The Lion With the White Mane" Czech composer Leos Janacek Munzar) conjures an collection attracts a variety of scholars. tion," Kahn says, "then the Arnold image of his muse, Kamilla Stosslova. Mark S. Weil, Ph.D., professor and cryptology collection gains in value by chairman of art history, used the being part of a broader collection." 'The Lion With the White Mane' collection's emblem books when he Arnold was truly ahead of his time studied a literary garden, the Sacro when he began to house semeiology Bosco at Bomarzo, Italy.

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