Libraries / Special Collections

Media Assistance: Andy Clendennen Senior News Writer; Assoc. Record Editor andyc@wustl.edu (314) 935-5293

Home Page: http://library.wustl.edu/

Rare Books - Incunabula (books printed before 1501); Western European imprints produced in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries representing all the disciplines for which Olin Library collects; 19th and 20th century British and American Literature, including St. Louis and westward expansion; book arts and typography, semeiology.

Manuscripts - Collections of literary papers, press archives, and magazine archives. The bulk of the collection consists of the papers of major twentieth-century literary figures including James Merrill, Samuel Beckett, Howard Nemerov, Stanley Elkin, William Gass, Mona Van Duyn, and many others.

University Archives - Washington University history, 20th century St. Louis history: politics, business, social welfare, and transportation.

Film and Media Archive - The Henry Hampton Collection is a unique archive of film and other materials used or created by Hampton's film production company - Blackside, Inc. - in producing many historic documentaries.

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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Wee reads Miniature book exhibition opens at WUSTL (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/11390.html) March 27, 2008 -- Photo by David Kilper Miniature books have served many purposes, from political propaganda to curiosities. Throughout history, people have been fascinated by extremes, whether it's the tallest mountain, the longest river or the deepest sea. Julian Edison is no exception — only instead of things large, it's small books that fascinate him. Edison, a noted miniature book collector, is displaying approximately 200 of his volumes in the exhibition "Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures," which recently opened at Washington University in St. Louis' Olin Library.

Frances Moore Lappe to give advice on how to 'get a grip in a world gone mad' Saving the World, One Meal at a Time: Diet for a Small Planet author to give Assembly Series talk (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/10440.html) Oct. 30, 2007 -- Many of the principles guiding the modern food movements can be traced back to concepts first explored by Frances Moore Lappe in her pioneering 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet. The book sold millions and influenced a generation about the social and personal significance of a new way of eating, and as a result, a new way of viewing the world. On Tuesday, November 6 at 4 p.m. in Graham Chapel, Lappe will present a talk for the Assembly Series based on her most recent book, "Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad." The program, co-sponsored by the University Libraries and the student organizations Feed St. Louis and Assn. of Students Against Poverty, is free and open to the public. Graham Chapel is located on Washington University's Danforth Campus.

My Friend, Tom: Tennessee Williams in St. Louis Acclaimed poet William Jay Smith to speak Oct. 17 and 18 (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/7927.html) Oct. 5, 2006 -- Courtesy photo William Jay Smith Download William Jay Smith, a Washington University alumnus and former Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U.S. Poet Laureate), will read from his work at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, in Olin Library's Ginkgo Reading Room. In addition, Smith will speak on "My Friend, Tom: Tennessee Williams in St. Louis" — recounting his time as a classmate of the great playwright and fellow Washington University alumnus — at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall.

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Scribes of the Digital Era Chronicle of Higher Education Jan. 26, 2006 -- Article on a library-scanning project that brings public-domain materials online and offers an alternative to Google's model. Internet Archive, is guiding a mass-digitization project called the Open Content Alliance, which was announced in October and is rapidly gaining partners. The alliance plans to take carefully selected collections of out-of-copyright books from libraries around the world and turn them into e-books that will be available free to scholars and anyone else who wants to view them, print them, or even download them to their own computers. WUSTL recently joined. Shirley Baker, vice chancellor for information technology and dean of university libraries, comments.

University library's collection tells story of secret codes Associated Press and St. Louis Post-Dispatch Aug. 15, 2005 -- The invention of the printing press didn't just make it easier to disseminate information, it made it easier to hide it, too -- as the collection of books in a vault at WUSTL shows. The books, some more than 500 years old, chronicle the history of secret codes -- some concealed so intricately that art professor Ken Botnick regularly shows them to his students. (Link also contains the text of the longer St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on the collection.)

Malcolm X the thinker, brought into focus The New York Times, Art Daily and 1 others May 19, 2005 -- Preview of a major exhibition on Malcolm X at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The exhibition, a public look at his personal and professional papers and other artifacts, represents the opening of a vast trove that many scholars say will prompt new interpretations of the life and thinking of one of the most important black figures of the 20th century. In addition to family-owned material, some of the property in the exhibition comes from a collection at WUSTL and from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History in Detroit.

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