UNC Heart Surgeon Dr. Benson Wilcox Honored

Valentine's Day is an appropriate day upon which to note that Dr. Benson Wilcox [1932-2010], a prominent cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of North Carolina for many years, has been honored with the renaming of the Special Collections Reading Room at the Health Sciences Library. Now known as The Benson Reid Wilcox Historical Collections Reading Room, the new name was approved by the UNC Board of Trustees on July 22, 2010; on January 14, 2011, a dedication ceremony, with family members, friends, and several library staff, was held to commemorate the occasion.

The Common Curator can personally attest to the contributions that Dr. Wilcox has made to the library's collections, both through his Rare Book Endowment and through the donation of over 1,400 volumes from his own personal library. The breadth and depth of the Wilcox Collection are truly remarkable, and make a significant impact upon students and researchers. An earlier post, Dr. Benson Wilcox: Surgeon, Scholar, Benefactor, describes this influence, and Dr. Wilcox' illustrious career is detailed in his obituary, also available at the Common Curator.

Note: The papier-mâché heart shown above was acquired with funds from the Wilcox Endowment. Designed by Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797-1880) and fabricated circa 1870, this and similar anatomical models were an important tool in the teaching of human anatomy in the nineteenth century. As cultural, legal, and environmental concerns limited the efficacy of using cadavers for instruction, Auzoux pioneered the development of papier-mâché anatomical models, which were employed to represent the structures of humans, as well as animals and plants. For those interested in learning more, the Smithsonian Institution's online exhibition, Artificial Anatomy: Papier-Mâché Anatomical Models, is highly recommended.

Below are pictured three UNC medical students in the Wilcox Historical Collections Reading Room examining several early volumes from the rare book collections. All are members of the longstanding Bullitt History of Medicine Club, which Dr. Wilcox helped organize in the 1950s while himself a medical student.

An Odyssey of Knowledge: A New Online Exhibition from the National Library of Medicine

"An Odyssey of Knowledge: Medieval Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the National Library of Medicine," is a new online exhibition at the National Library of Medicine by visiting curator Dr. Alain Touwaide of the Smithsonian Institution. As described on the exhibition web site:

Medicine in the Old World arose from many components: the classical Greek tradition, its Christian re-elaboration, the contributions of the Arabic World, and the unique medieval synthesis of them all. By examining significant pages and illuminations from manuscripts and early printed books of the National Library of Medicine, one can see how these cultures contributed to the creation of medical knowledge in Europe.

The exhibition is organized by the following sections: Greek Medicine and Science in the Early Middle Ages; The Arabic Contribution; A Crossroad of Knowledge: Southern Italy; The Spread of Translation; From Translation To Teaching; Diffusion; The Return of Greek; and The Many Uses of Books and Texts.

The collections of the National Library of Medicine include 90 Western manuscripts written before 1601. Many of the Library's manuscripts are recorded in Dorothy M. Schullian and Francis E. Sommer, A Catalogue of Incunabula and Manuscripts in the Army Medical Library (1950), and Seymour De Ricci and W.J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada (1935–1940), with a supplement by C.U. Faye and W.H. Bond in 1962.

Note: The image above depicts an illuminated manuscript initial with two physicians in conversation (Paris, 13th century); it is from the National Library of Medicine's Manuscript E 78, folio 35 recto.

The Raw and the Cooked – and the Rare

On April 15, 2010 treasures will come out of the stacks at the Rare Book Collection in UNC's Wilson Special Collections Library. In a free public program at 5:45 p.m., Claudia Funke, curator of rare books, will speak about the concept of rarity and the role of libraries in collecting and making rare books available. For her talk, titled "The Raw and the Cooked – and the Rare," Funke will showcase some of the collection's recent gifts and purchases. Participants will have the opportunity during a reception beginning at 5 p.m. to view additions to the Rare Book Collection from the past two years. Items will range in date from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Read more . . .

The reception will be held in the Wilson Lobby, with the book viewing in Rare Book Collection Reading Room; the lecture will be held at in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room.

Fine Books & Collections Back in Print

Fine Books & Collections has now returned to print with the publication of its Spring 2010 issue. Among the items in the latest issue are:

:: Dard Hunter's passion for paper;
:: Biblio 360, a comprehensive guide to book-related events;
:: Edward Stratemeyer's life in New York;
:: Nicholas Basbanes interviews the new archivist of the United States;
:: A look into Baldwin's diary.

Subscription and other information is available on the magazine's web site.

See related post: Fine Books & Collections Returning to Print.

Library of Congress to Offer Junior Fellows Summer Internships

This summer the Library of Congress is once again offering special 10-week paid internships to college students. For a stipend of $3,000, the 2010 class of Junior Fellows Summer Interns will work full-time from June 7 through August 13 with Library specialists to inventory, describe, and explore collection holdings and to assist with digital preservation outreach activities throughout the Library. The focus of the program is on increasing access to collections and awareness of the Library’s digital preservation programs by making them better known and accessible to researchers including scholars, students, teachers and the general public.

The interns will be exposed to a broad spectrum of library work: preservation, reference, access standards and information management. The program is made possible through the generosity of the late Mrs. Jefferson Patterson and the James Madison Council.

In addition to the stipend (paid in bi-weekly segments), interns will be eligible to take part in programs offered at the Library. Interns are temporary employees of the Library, and as such are not eligible for federal employee benefits and privileges.

Applications will be accepted online only at USAJobs.gov, keyword: 1840256, from Friday, March 12, 2010, through midnight, Friday, March 26, 2010. For more details about the program and information on how to apply, visit www.loc.gov/hr/jrfellows/. Questions about the program may be sent to interns2010@loc.gov.

Fine Books & Collections Returning to Print

February 1, 2010, Durham, NC. Fine Books & Collections magazine, which targets collectors of rare and collectible books, will return to a regular print schedule in April 2010.

The magazine had suspended its bi-monthly publication schedule in November 2008, but published an edition in Fall 2009. Based on very positive results, the publishers will return the magazine to print on a quarterly basis. The annual subscription price will be $25.

In announcing its plans, the magazine said it would continue its monthly e-letter online and its very popular blog. According to associate publisher Kim Draper, the web site has grown tremendously in the past year, having just topped 50,000 monthly visitors.

"We don't hope to achieve as much readership in print, but we do think print has a certain charm and value that is impossible to obtain online," says Draper. "It remains a conundrum why collectors of print love reading online, but we are delighted to be able to serve both needs."

The online editor, Rebecca Rego Barry, will also serve as editor of the print edition. According to Barry, the content of the magazine will be a collection of some material used online as well as new features, columns, and resources that will not appear online. "We are intrigued with the idea of archiving some of our best online stories in a print format, but we will also be offering readers new content in each issue. It was a formula that worked very well for us with the edition we published last fall."

The magazine said that it plans some operational changes to make publishing more affordable, most notably that it will not process any subscription without a valid email address. According to Draper, "When we looked at our operation, we realized that contacting people via the postal service was just too expensive. We plan to handle all renewals and communication efforts via email, so there's really no point in having a subscriber with whom we can't communicate."

Writers in the upcoming print edition will include Nicholas Basbanes and Joel Silver, two stalwarts of the book collecting world. The magazine will continue its annual directory of booksellers started last fall that featured more than 700 book-related businesses, and it will add a feature called Biblio/360, an annual guide to classes, societies, fairs, and symposiums related to book collecting.

2010 Schedule for Rare Book School

The 2010 course schedule for Rare Book School is now online. Courses will be offered at RBS's home base at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and at several other venues, including the Johns Hopkins University and Walters Art Museum (Baltimore), and (tentatively) at the Freer and Sackler Galleries (Washington, DC) and the Morgan Library and Museum (NYC).

Rare Book School offers a wide array of intensive, seminar-style courses on topics related to the history and production of the book, as well as manuscript and digital materials. Its founding director, Dr. Terry Belanger, won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005, and retired last year. A profile of Belanger entitled, "The Book Mechanic," appeared recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education (December 6, 2009).

Rare Book School has long enjoyed an excellent reputation for the strength of its faculty and the quality of its instruction. RBS faculty member and papermaker Timothy Barrett, for example, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2009 (see related Carolina Curator post). On September 1, 2009, Michael Suarez, S.J. succeeded Belanger as Director, and promises to build on the storied legacy of RBS.