Spring 199 2. Volume VI, Number 2. Nota Bene News from the Yale Library

Giacomo Meyerbeer at the Ya le Music Library Giacomo Mel'erbeer (Jakob Liebmann Meyer Bee r), th e Berlin composer kno\vn for his Parisian French Grand Operas, was born September 5, 1. 791. In Berlin and Paris, his bicentennial year, September 1991- Se ptember 1992, is bein g celebrated with special exhibits, symposia, a new biography, and new produc- tions of his operas. A bicentennial display currently mo unted at the John Herrick Jackson Music Library exhi bits items from its holdings such as rare first- ed iti on piano/vocal scores of Nleyerbeer's operas, pr ints of hi s compositions for unaccompanied chorus, a man- uscript of a fugue written as an assignment during his student days, volumes from his personal library and even a brief eleven-note autograph musical incipit and signature. French Grand Opera is an opera tic genre that brings together complex o rchestration and vocal writing, spec- tacular scenic effects, and extensive ballet scenes in operas around fOllr hours long. Dissertation research in progress at Yal e examines the large-scale musica l struc- ture devised by Meyerbeer to create a sense of gradu- ally increasin g mu sica l and dramatic momentum in these huge compositions. Rare and unique items frolll several Yale libra ri es support this research. These This engrnvcd ti rle page from Giacomo Mcycrhccr's t 8} 1 opera include complete runs of the nineteenth-century critica l Robert Ie dinble depicts a scene from the middle of Act III. With periodicals lOll mal des dt! bals and Revue et gazelle other scores and manuscripts, it wa s 011 display in the Music musicale in Sterling J"lemorial Library, manuscripts and Library in the ea rl y spring. first editions of operas by Meyerbeer's forerunners Cherubini and Mehul in the Beinecke, publications in rhi s new genre. The "splicing" in this revision is abollt operatic acting performance practice in th e obvious, with light comic scenes and seriolls dramatic Drama Library, and rare recordings of French opera scenes jumbled in together. The juxtaposition of con- in Hi storical Sound Recordings. tra sting musical sty les contributes to a sweeping musi - Yal e holds first-edition scores for both Meyerbeel' cal momentum v·/hich compensares for th e styli stic operas important to this study: Robert Ie diable of awk\va rdn ess of the score. Premiered in 1831, Robert 183 I., Meyerbeer's first Pari sian opera, and Les Ie diable was the greatest critical and popular success at Huguenots of 1836. In Robert Ie diable, the special the Paris Opera in decades. Three morc French G rand mu sical form evolv ed partially by accident, as a res ult Operas followed: Los Huguellots of 1836, Le Pro/,"e!e of a revision fr om one genre to another. Ivleyerbeer had o f r849, and L'A{ricail/e of r86;. nearly fi nished composing Robert Ie diable as a thfee- Meycrbeer's operas were a crucial influence on rhe act comic opera with spoken dialogue on a topic-the operas of Verdi and Wagner, both of w hom utilized devil-then in vogue in popular Parisian .theater, w hen Nleye rbeer's formula for overall musical srructure, the spectacular successes of the first two French Grand and expanded on the Meye rbeerian techniques of rh e- Operas, Auber's La mllette de Portid and Rossini's matic reca ll , continuous melody, an d link ed ensemble Guillaume Tell, inspired him to rewrite Robert Ie diable scenes. Ironically, however, Wagner and his ad herents engin ee red the decline of M eye rbeer's reputation. found in re search libraries easil y ava il able. New modes \Xlagner was an obsc ure and impoverished young co m- of exploiting old information are another considera- pose r in Paris w hile Meyerbeer's popularity was at its ti on. Nlost ei ecrron ic indexin g and absrracting services zenith. Jea lousy and antisemitism motiva ted \X'agner's search rapidly for words and phrases throughout their subsequent anti-Meyerbee r polemic which found emire text. Key-word sea rching and sea rching for trun· acceptance in th e na scent field of musicology. \Vag ner ca ted words vastly expand the utility of such tools as asse rted that Meyerbeer, as a Jew, \vas incapable of cre- th e Oxford Ellglish Dictionary and Disserlatiolls ativity and that his operas are fu ll of "effects without Abstracts Illtemational (186 r- ), both available on cau sesj" \'(Iagner claimed to ha ve been influenced onl y CD-ROM. by German composers. Verdi, in contrast, acknowl- In addition, the Library Sllppo rrs the ne\v modes of edged his debt to Meyerbeer. scholarship that have arisen in classics, patri stics and In other ways 1vleyerbeer's work contributed to the biblical studies, for example, fr o III the conversion of shape of modern o pera: the demand for tickers to his existing coll ection of texts to machine-readab le form. consistently sold-out operas actua ll y inaugurated the The corpus of anciem Greek literature in the Thesaurlls practice of ticket-scalping in Paris, and Meyerbeer Lillguae Craecae, the Greek and Engli sh-language ver- in ve nted th e press conference with refreshments. sions of the Bible incorporated in CD- WORD, and old -KKO'B and new editions of church fathers begin ning to appea r in the Cetedoc Library of Christiall Latill Texts ca n now be explored, compared and manipulated in new Electronic Resources at Ya le wa ys. Finall y, th ere is th e convenience factor. It is Virtually everywhere in the Ya le Library, information, easier to search through the Social Science Citation texts, images, and "meta-information" (info rm ation Illdexes on CD-ROM than in the paper ve rsion. Users about other information sources) are being acquired in ca n save valuable time fo rm erl y invested in mechani- elec tronic formats to co mplement traditional print and ca l, repetitive steps . mi crofonn publications. Librarian s consid er it impor- Electronic information re sources an d text fil es are tant to bu y them even though the purchasing power of defin itely here to Stay. The Yal e Library invests in them the "book budget" is increasingly limited. The reasons carefully and ca miously as th eir cost ma y di splace fo r selecting such resources illustrate the adva ntages other purchases . The proof of such prudence is that of elecrronic media. these resources are ind eed \vell lI sed, and the Ya le com- Librarians judge whether an electtonic publica ti on munity is cla mo ri ng for more. Mo re will come, but broadens the array of informacion sources at Yale. librari ans remain attenti ve to the need for balance in Nexis, for example, rnakes ma ny resources not usuall y our resources, favoring substance above al l. -MAK

Eli zabeth Deering Hanscom was the vc r}' first wom an to receive a Yale Ph.D . di ploma due to th e alphabetica l ar rangcmcnr of th e nam es of the women cnndidates. Th e se ven women who received degrees in 1894 made lip one th ird of the docrorn l degree rec ipienrs. This pOrfrnit is in an exh ibit Celebratillg tbe lootb Anniversary of tbe Admission of Womell to tbe Yale Graduate Scboof in Sterl ing ;\tll-moria l Li bra ry.

Visitors stud y the exh ibit Rellovat;,tg 011 Edifice of Beauty: Sterfillg Memoriaf Library which opened in Sfo.H;s Memor:1bi lia Room to coincide with the I\-tay wd launching of Yal e's 51·5 bi lli on fundraising cam paign. Nexis NoUJ Available sense is abundantly demonstrated in the exhibition by The Un iversi ty Library and Computing and Informa- numerous works that point, with dazzling precision, tion Systems are pleased to ann ounce the availabil ity of [Q the violence of wa r, the banality of hum an pretense, the Nexis service to all Yale fac ulty and students. Nexis and the d isasters of environmental po llu tion . prov id es access to the full rext of more than 600 news- For many years, supplied trenchant papers, journals, and wire services including the New political cartoons to , while his York Times. Washington Post, Christian Science Moni- drawings and illustrations appeared widely in books 101; Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Africa News, and in magaz ines such as The Atlanl.ic Soviet Press Digest, and Xinhua (New China) News Harpers, Life, and \!ogue. Known for his firmly held Agency. Abstracts appear ing in an additional I ,OOO opini ons, Osborn has offered a sustained commentary sources are also ava il ab le on Nexis. on Am eri can li fe and tim es, his unerrin g li ne assessing The value of the Ncxis se rvice derives from the sheer types as well as individuals: the se naror, the D.A.R., the size of its database an d its pov./cr (0 search th rough bird-watcher, Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Dan vast amounts of text for specific words or phrases. A Quayle, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Calder. use r CQ uld, for example, search rh e last eleven years of The Beinecke exhibition includes nearl y 100 of the New York Times and fourteen years of the Wa sh- Osborn 's original drawings in watercolor, charcoa l, and ington Post for a personal name, an event, or the title pastel. Also on view are a selection of Osborn 's ea rli est of a book or play. The resu lts of the search can be work, his posters des igned to train nava l av ia tors during viewed and primed or downl oaded in a va riety of for- World War II , and examples of published drawing. mars, including the complete text of the article. Robert Osborn was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Nexis is currentl y avail a bl e to a ll Yale faculty and and a ft er graduating from Yale in t928 taught briefly srud enrs th rough va ri ous ca mpus networks, dia l access at the in Lakeville, Connectic ut. He via modem, and selected Orbi s terminals in Sterling spent mllch of the 1930S in Eu rope, srud ying an in Library and other Ya le lib rar ies. There is also a Nlacin - Rome an d Paris. His ca reer as a ca rtoonist began dur- tosh workstation dedicated to Nexis in Sterling'S CD· ing the Second World War: as a l11 ember of the Navy ROM Reference Center, avai lab le on a sign-up bas is. Aeronautics Training Program, Osborn deve loped a Dera iled access and search in g in structions arc ava ilable at the Sterling Library reference desk. Nexis for Academic Cou rses : To use Nexis as a resou rce for a course you plan to teach, please contact Alan Solomon, Reference Department, Sterling Li brary ar 432-1778 o r Solomac@Ya levm. Tra ining and Documentation: For additional infor- mation about Nexis, including trai ning, please contact Nota Br"e is published during the academic year to Paul Constantin e, Reference Deparnnent, Stet ling acquaint the Yale community and others imercsted with Library at 432-1783 or Constan@Yalevm. - ACS the resources of the Yale libraries. Please direct comments and questions to Susanne Roberts, Ediror. Bibliograph)' Department, Sterling Memorial library (432.-1762.). Robert Osborn Drawings Copyright 1991. Ya le University Library at the Beinecke ISSN 089"' 135J

Amer ican politi cs, th e Vi etnam war, aviation history, Comrihlltors to this issue include Martha L. Brogan, music, and th e Connecticut landscape are some of th e Krist in T. Hacken. Michael A. Keller, Kathleen K. topics covered in the Be inecke Librar y's sp ring exhibi- O'Brien. Christa A. Sammons, and Alan C. Solomon . Specia l thanks are due Kristin T. Hacken. tion, Serious \'(Ihimsy: The Drawings of Robert 011 2 Osborn, which will be view from Apri l until Photographs on pages I, 2., '" S are by Michael Marsland. the end of June. Ca ll ing Roben Osborn "one of the ve ry few masters Design is by John Gambell and Jeanne Spencer. of illustrati ve cartooning, " Garry Trudea u says, "Pro- Millicent D. Abell, Uni\o'ersiry Librarian pelled by a deeply mo ra l sensibility, Osborn used hi s Susa nne F. Roberts.. Editor pen to sort out the good from the bad." This mo ra l "A Meeting of designin g th e magazin e \'(!es tvaco In spirations (or of th e Minds" Prin ters, and th e annual limited edition Chri stmas is o ne o f many clftoons and volumes. dra wings by Born ill 1911 and educated at Washburn University, artist Ro bert Thompson has built a distinguished reputati on through Osborn (Yale hi s inn ovative work in graphic design. From hi s contri- '28) on disp lay in rh e Bcinecke butions as art direc tor of Madem oiselle to the 95 Lib rary thro ugh United States postage stamps he designed, T hompson's Ju ne. work has perm ea ted American print. Among his notable achievements ha ve been his designs for Smith- sonian, Harvard Business Review, Art News. and Art News Alllmal. Additionally, sixty-one issues of Wes t- seri es o f humorous training brochures, in which th e vaeo Inspirations utilized hi s skill for melding di sparate misguid ed doings of the pil ot Dilbert taught new Aiers elements in to a cohesive whole, while lau ding th e what not to do. importance of th e printed word. As a Yale student, Osborn was on th e staff of the Some of his inn ovati ons consist o f ada pting old- Yale Record and drew caricatures for th e New Haven world paintings and oth er non-traditional artwork for Register. Bur hi s humor and origin alit y were not always use as illu strati ons, using different colored printing apprec iated: he tells an amusin g story of being thrown inks to create di stinct im ages and the illu sion o f motion out o f a pres tigious drawing class at Yale fo r turning a on pa per, and designing la youts th at cover two pages practice sketch into a caricature of George Bernard instead of o ne. His Washburn Co llege Bible introduced Shaw. Years la ter, th e university made partial amend s, a more rea dable style of un even lin e lengths corre- awarding Osborn the Yal e Arts Associati on medal for sponding to the natural cadence of speech, interspersed di stincti on in the visual arts. with reprodu ctions of old-world paintings and fron- In hi s auto bi ography, Robert Osborn describes him- tispieces by Josef Albers. Thompson's contributions to se lf "as a drawer" who aims to express "' not so much Wes tvaco's Am eri can Cla ssic Books Series, composed how things look as how they feel. " Hi s dra\vings, he of selected writings from an earlier Ameri ca, are says, attempt to repre se nt subjective sensa ti ons; he has designed with meticul ous attention to unity o f format tried to capture the essence of fear, joy, terror, music, or and content. aggression-to name a fe w exa mples-by dra\ving th em The exhi bit , whi ch includes examples rangin g across from the in sid e. "I draw what I feel," writes Robert th e spectrum of Th ompson's work, \vill run fro m July Osborn, "it is as simple as that, and th e stronger th e through Se ptember. -KTH feeling the better the picture. The drawings I li ke best seem to come right out of my un consc ious-full blown f.------___ --==-=-.0=---==-_-, and no changes made- and th ey are, of course, what I am, " America's Robert Osborn's drawings have come to th e Beinecke !lIWlJij Libraries Library as a gift from the artist. - CAS m .ti5 IISAX): Designing Art: FIRST DA··y-'--:COF"'I::CSS"'U:::E-- The Bradbury Thompson Exhibit A summer exhibit in Sterling !vlemori al Li brary \vill comm emorate th e car eer of Bradbury T hom pson, Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design in the Yale School o f Art. At the cl ose of the exhibit, its contents will find a perm anent home in the Library's Arts of th e Book Coll ecti on, thanks to the generosity of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (Wes tvaco). Many First dny isslle o f the Arn er icn 's l ibra ri es postage sta mp desig ned by Bra dbury Thompso n in T982, Oth er exam pl es fr o m the rnnge of Thompson's notable works stem fr om hi s long of Th ompsoll 's work will be on dis play in Ster li ng l\·1c rn o rin l associati on with \X'estvaco, including twenty- four yea rs Li brary from July rhrough September. Preservation Grant for Social Sciences titi es, convert ca talog records, prepare volu mes for The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) film ing, and process the completed film. A faculty has awarded a $ 1. 66 million grant to theYa le Univer- advisory committee, chaired by Brogan with sity Library to preserve 20,100 brittle volu mes impor· Nlarcia Wart an d Susa nn e Robens, Humanit ies Bib li - rant to research in the hi story of po litical sc ience and ographer for European History, serves to gu ide th e pro- the hi story of economi cs. T hi s is Ya le Library's second ject. Its members incl ude: Joseph Hamburger, Pelatiah conseclitive three-yea r preservation grant fro m NEHj Perit Professor of Political and Social Science; Cha rl es the fi rst project, to preserve 18,700 volu mes in Euro- Lindblom, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Economics pean history, concluded successfu ll y o n December 31, and Po li tical Sc ience; Harry Miskimin, Professor of [99 1. History; William Parker, Phillip G. Bartlett Professor The currcnr preservation project, Yale 's largest to Emeritus of Economics an d Economic History; and date, began January I, 1992, and \vill continue through David \'(/eiman, Associate Professor of Economics and December 3 I, 1994. With this grant Ya le Library jo ins American Studies . -MLB the Un ive rsity of fvl ichigan Library in focllssi ng on the social sciences and ensuring that sign ifica nt materi als in politica l sc ience and economics are avai lab le to fu ture generations of scholars nationally and intern a- ti ona lly. Ya le's social sciences coll ections arc among th e oldest and stronges t in the United States. These materi- als, some of which were written by Yal e's nationally acclai med ea rl y social scientists like \X1illi am Gra ham Sumner, Francis W. Coker, Irving Fisher, and Harold D. Lasswell , laid the groundwork fo r socia l studies ever since. The project will support scholars working on a wid e array of topics including economic histOry, lega l hi story, T8th and 19th-century socia l and political hi s- tory, labor hi srory, women's studies, diplomatic history and international relations, politi cal philosoph):, and the hi story o f the social sciences. Titles publi shed in contin ental Europe and the British Commonwealth between 1850 and 1950 wi ll be treated along with those publis hed in die United States between 1850 and 1875. All materia ls are reviewed on a tirle-by-tirle basis by the Social Sciences Bibliogra- pher, Martha Brogan, to determine the priority and need for preservation th rough microfilming. Books and seri als selected for treatment are microfilmed fo ll owing national preservation microfilming standard s. A nega- tive master, dupl icate negative, and positive service microfilm copy are produced. \X1here intrinsic va lu e or patron use warrant additional formats, a copyf) o is made from the film or th e origin al item is retai ned and Ada m Smith, re presenr ing the fields o f economics and sociology. returned to the li brary stacks. All tides, both mono- su rmounrs a buttress on the High Sneer fa c:ldc o f Sterling graphs and se rials, receive catalogin g in th e Research J\·lemorial Library. Libraries In formarion Network (RUN) database. This makes it possible for libraries to avoid dupli cate filming and for scholars across the country to obtain copies at a minima l cost. In add ition, all records are converted into machine reada ble form and \vill appear in Yale's on line cata log, Orbi s, many of them for th e first rime. Marcia \X1att, Preservation Librarian, directs the pro- ject, with a staff of twelve who identify and search Calendar of Exhibits

BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT MED ICA L LIBRARY LIBRARY Nurse Specialist: Modem Nursing at Ya le The Car/oonist and Artist Robert Oshant (Yale '28) through September through June From Hebraica to Judaica: Three Centuries of Collectillg at Yale STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY .J uly through Seprcmber The Vladimir and Wanda Tascan;n; Horowitz ArchhJcs rhrough June Celebrating the Hfwdredtb Anniversary of the DIVINITY LIBRARY Admission of Wo men into tbe Gradllate School Listoll Pope, '909-l974 through June

The YDS Faculty ill the 1950S Bradbury Thom/Js on: lmlot/olive Designer Alumnai Publica/iolls from YDS July through September thro ugh August Restoring all Edifice at Beauty: Sterling Memorial Librar), through Oecl'mber

This bookplate designed by German engraver Johann Martin l3ern igc rorh (17 13- 1767), best known for hi s cngravcd portrairs of German royalt y and nobility, is from the Bookplate Co ll ection.

Ya le University Library Non-Profit Organization p. O. Box I 603 A Yale Station U.S. Postage Paid New Haven, Connecticut 06520-7429 Nev.' Haven, Connecticut Permit N umber 470

Nota Bene News from the Yale Library