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G E O R G E T O W N U N I V E R S I T Y S U M M E R 2 0 1 1 | I S S U E 1 0 0

In This Issue

The rich tradition of Greco-Roman mythology in Western art is explored in the new, thematic exhibition in Lauinger Library’s Fairchild Gallery. Olympus and Beyond presents twenty-two fi ne prints and watercolors, as well as decorative objects and rare books. Encompassing the years from 1632, with a Flemish Bacchanal painting, to 1969, with a Pegasus by Salvador Dali, all of the selections are inspired by Classical authors and the Elysian spirit.

From the Renaissance through the 18th century, Ovid’s 15-book catalogue on the loves and transformations of the gods, The Metamorphoses, had a singular impact on the development of Western art and literature. Its tales of folly, vanity and triumph served as moral guides and were appropriated into the propaganda of monarchies. Emblem books such as Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, fi rst published in 1593, codifi ed the allegorical symbolism of the various virtues and vices in a series of woodcuts that were mined by artists for the next two centuries.

Among the examples of book arts highlighted in the exhibition is a beautifully bound volume of engraved plates for Michel de Marolles’ Tableaux du Temple des Muses (1655). It illuminates the virtues and vices as portrayed in the ancient myths in 58 plates of fantastic deities conceived by Abraham van Diepenbeeck. Another example, Abbé Antoine Banier’s 1717 illustrated translation of Ovid, was so popular it was re-issued numerous times throughout the 18th century. The exhibition includes a mezzotint from Banier’s Ovid. Jupiter and Juno fl oat on a cloud beside Jupiter’s mistress Io, whom he transformed into a cow to protect her from Juno’s wrath. continued on page 6

Olympus and Beyond2 from the UNIVERSITY

LIBRARIAN

3 WELCOME

4 LIBRARY ASSOCIATES

EVENTS

5 007 AT 20007

6 IN MEMORIAM

7 INFREQUENTLY ASKED

QUESTIONS

8 CLUB LAU

Left: Samuel Arlent Edwards, Madame Adelaide as Diana, 1902. Color mezzotint. Right: Carved 18th-century ivory, likely from Erbach, Germany.

This Newsletter is issued four times a year. It is distributed to all Library Associates, members of ARL, the Georgetown Univer-sity Board of Directors, Board of Regents, Board of Governors and selected others.

U N I V E R S I T Y L I B R A R I A N

Artemis G. KirkE D I TO R

Stephanie HughesD E S I G N E D I TO R

Maeve A. O’Connor

C O N T R I B U TO R S

John BuchtelLynn ConwayEmily DoyleAnn GallowayDavid HagenStephanie HughesArtemis G. KirkKaren O’ConnellChristen E. RungeJennifer Ann SmithLuLen Walker

E D I TO R

202-687-7833libraryassociates@georgetown.edu

B O O K A N D M A N U S C R I P T D O N AT I O N S

John BuchtelHead, Special Collections Research Center202-687-7475jb593@georgetown.edu

A R T D O N AT I O N S

LuLen WalkerCurator, University Art Collection202-687-1469llw@georgetown.edu

G I F T O P P O R T U N I T I E S

Artemis G. KirkUniversity Librarian202-687-7425agk3@georgetown.edu

Miriam NickersonLibrary Director of Development202-687-2850mn355@georgetown.edu

L IBRARY ASSOCIATES NEWSLETTER | SUMMER 2011

UNIVERSITY LIBRARIANF R O M T H EGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

2

Printed on recycled paper

O n L o a nNeither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

Many a bibliophile with a carefully constructed personal library likely understands the advice that Polonius gave to his son Laertes (Hamlet, Act 1). But no university library follows this advice, else we’d be derelict in our duties to fulfill our mission to foster teaching, learning and research at our institutions. Even when we steward (or “husband,” as Shakespeare said) rare and special items, there are instances in which the library will loan something precious to another institution, in order to round out the pictures at an exhibition, or to display a segment owned by us but missing from another library’s collection.

Such is the case at present with the Georgetown Special Collections Research Center’s Altus 2 (second alto) part of what is known as the Wode Psalter, an important collection of musical manuscript partbooks of the Psalms. It is named after Thomas Wode, vicar of St. Andrews, who, under the patronage of James Stewart, Earl of Moray, copied and compiled the books between 1562 and 1592. Edinburgh University Library possesses five parts of the Psalter; other parts are owned by The British Library in London, Trinity College in Dublin, and Georgetown University Library.

Singing the Reformation is an exhibition that opened on August 6th at the University Library, University of Edinburgh. The exhibition is part of a larger project to coordinate multidisciplinary research on the Psalter, give a series of concerts featuring the Psalter’s music, record and publish the music, and make available high-quality digital images of the complete contents of all the partbooks on the project’s website (http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/divinity/research/projects/wode-psalter/overview). A page from Georgetown’s

Wode Psalter manuscript partbook (1586)

L IBRARY.GEORGETOWN.EDU/ASSOCIATES 3

The Special Collections Research Center has loaned items from its collections before. In recent years the Gilbert Stuart 1804 painting of Bishop John Carroll was loaned to both the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the National Gallery of Art for their jointly-curated Gilbert Stuart retrospective. Jean-Louis Forain’s 1898 painting Backstage at the Opera was loaned to the Portland Art Museum for their 2008 exhibition “The Dancer: Degas, Forain, Toulouse-Lautrec.” Currently at the Smithsonian Institution’s American Art Museum in Washington is the exhibition, “The Great American Hall of Wonders,” curated by Claire Perry, a member of Georgetown University’s Board of Directors. On loan for this exhibition is a special book, American entomology, or, Descriptions of the insects of North America. Illustrated by coloured fi gures from original drawings executed from nature by Thomas Say (1787-1834), from the original “GeorgeTown [college] Library”. Georgetown recently loaned three rare books to the Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco for their exhibition: “Galleons and Globalization: California Mission Arts and the Pacifi c Rim” (Aug-Dec 2010) http://www.usfca.edu/uploadedFiles/Destinations/Library/thacher/archive/galleons.pdf. Upcoming loans include the painting Candidates for Marriage or The Cleric’s Interruption, by Howard Helmick (1845-1907), which will be at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College for their exhibition “Material Culture of Rural Ireland” (Feb-May 2012).

All exhibitions at any institution, including our own, are crafted not merely to show off beautiful objects or to exult in ownership, but to offer curators’ perspectives in portraying an era, a period of history, a technique, a type of artwork—all to teach the viewer the cultural or intellectual value of the collection assembled. More often than not, the objects will be documented online as well, so that people around the world may grasp the meaning of the exhibition and get a glimpse of the materials that compose it. Those who can’t visit Edinburgh, Washington DC, Boston or San Francisco can at least see some of their treasures virtually through those institutions’ websites. There’s nothing like the genuine article, however; libraries such as ours will continue to preserve in perpetuity the artifacts from which exhibitions—real or virtual—are developed.

--AGK

On Loan, continued

Georgetown’s Wode Partbook in situ in the Edinburgh University Library Exhibition. Photo courtesy of Edinburgh University Library.

Welcome

The Library welcomes our new Director of Development, Miriam Nickerson. Miriam joined Georgetown’s Office of Advancement as the Director of Development for the Georgetown University Library on August 24th. She comes to Georgetown with a great deal of experience in library and museum fundraising, especially at the University of Arizona (where she was the first library development officer) and at Arizona State University. Most recently Miriam was the Director of Individual Giving and Regional Campaigns for the Washington, D.C.-based National Children’s Museum.

We hope many of you will be able to welcome her in person at one of our Library Associates events.

L IBRARY ASSOCIATES NEWSLETTER | SUMMER 20114

EVENTSL I B R A R Y A S S O C I AT E S

Upcoming Events

October 3Suspense and Shiraz! Murder and Malbec! An Evening with Ellen Crosby With Wine Country mysteries author Ellen Crosby and Georgetown Professor and Critic-in-Residence Maureen CorriganGeorgetown University

November 7Science and the JesuitsFeaturing Boston College and Georgetown University Special CollectionsDr. Cyril P. Opeil, S.J., speakerBoston College, Massachusetts

DecemberLibrary Associates Holiday PartyGeorgetown University

Entertaining at the White HouseFor Reunion Weekend this spring, the Library Associates hosted Melinda Naumann Bates (I’68) for a delightful talk about Entertaining at the White House. Ms. Bates served as the Director of the White House Visitors Office for all eight years of the Clinton administration, the first person in history to serve for both of a president’s terms. She has since written a book on her experiences, White House Story, a Democratic Memoir, and recorded a CD compilation of her very best White House history stories, A Walk Through the White House.

Ms. Bates gave an engaging presentation describing protocols and pitfalls in White House entertaining over the history of the presidency, from the Marine Corps Band playing The Lady is a Tramp while President Ford danced with Queen Elizabeth, to Thomas Jefferson greeting the British Ambassador in his bathrobe. She took the audience through the selection of guests, flowers, china, and food for an event and the experience of attending a state dinner. She also offered personal anecdotes about serving in the Clinton White House, such as throwing costumed birthday parties for Mrs. Clinton and having the President excitedly show her pictures from the Mars Rover.

GU Library Board member the Hon. Selwa (Lucky) Roosevelt, who was Chief of Protocol during the Reagan administration, attended the Melinda Bates event. During the event, the Library put out on display scrapbooks donated by Ambassador Roosevelt to the Special Collections Research Center, containing memorabilia and photos from her own time in the White House.

If you were unable to attend the lecture you can watch it online at www.library.georgetown.edu/digital/lecture-hall.

--JAS

Ambassador Roosevelt and University Librarian Artemis G. Kirk peruse one of the Roosevelt scrapbooks on display. Photo by David Hagen.

Melinda Bates signs her book after the event. Photo by David Hagen.

007 at 20007

L IBRARY.GEORGETOWN.EDU/ASSOCIATES 5

Upcoming ExhibitionsGUNLOCKE ROOM

June—SeptemberSpy Fiction

October—JanuaryWomen Travelers

FAIRCHILD GALLERY

July—October Olympus and Beyond

KERBS EXHIBIT AREA

September—OctoberDinaw Mengestu’s How to Read the Air

LEON ROBBIN GALLERY

September—JanuaryItalian Opera in the Leon Robbin

Collection

Title page of a rare first edition of the libretto for Domenico Cimarosa’s opera, Gli Orazi e i Curiazi (1797).

This summer the Special Collections Research Center put the spotlight on fictional spies with its Gunlocke Room exhibition 007 at 20007: Spy Fiction at Georgetown. The origins of the substantive Spy Fiction collections at Georgetown University Library lie in a subset of Colonel Russell J. Bowen’s Military Intelligence Collection, housed in Special Collections since the early 1980s. The collection includes some 3,500 spy fiction titles, including 19th-century ephemeral works, pulp fiction, and parodies. Perhaps the best known of all fictional spies is Agent 007—James Bond— created by British author Ian Fleming (1908-1964). Strong James Bond holdings in the Bowen collection made him the synthesizing theme of the exhibition.

James Bond is an icon of both fiction and film. Some biographers have found similarities between Fleming and his character; some believe that Bond is purely fictional fun. From hardcover first editions to mass-market paperbacks to serialized stories in Playboy, Ian Fleming and James Bond found a wide readership. The stories of James Bond continued even after Fleming’s death in 1964. An “authorized” biography of the fictional character was written by Fleming’s own biographer John Pearson. To date, there have been five authors officially sanctioned to carry on the tales, from Kingsley Amis in 1968 to Jeffrey Deaver in 2011. There are almost certainly more stories to come.

Beyond the James Bond writers, numerous other authors are represented in Colonel Bowen’s Spy Fiction collection, as well as throughout the rare books and general collections of the Library, that contribute to this genre’s story. The exhibition draws from strengths across the Special Collections Research Center such as our Graham Greene holdings. The Rare Books unit in Special Collections is grateful to several Lauinger staff for input on themes and objects, and to Special Collections Volunteer Emily Doyle, whose enthusiasm, diligent research, and hard work made this exhibition possible.

--KO’C

William Le Queux’s The Great War in England in

1897 (1897) from the Library’s general collections

and Spies of the Kaiser (1909) from the Bowen Spy

Fiction Collection.

Olympus and Beyond

L IBRARY ASSOCIATES NEWSLETTER | SUMMER 2011 6

continued from page 1

Mythology was an important infl uence on court ritual and iconographic decoration in the palaces of clergy and monarchy alike. Guido Reni’s famous mural in the ceiling of the Casino dell’Aurora in the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome is rendered in a 19th-century print. The master of Italian classicism, Annibale Carracci, was commissioned to decorate the Camerino of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese’s Roman palace with the story of Hercules, represented here in an engraving of the resting demigod by the French painter Nicolas Mignard, who resided in the Farnese Palace in the 1630s. The court of Louis XIV, whose reign was iconographically tied with the sun god Apollo, is depicted in an allegorical engraving commissioned as a frontispiece to a volume glorifying The Union of Painting and Sculpture under his reign. Allegorical portraits of two of his great-great-granddaughters, depicted as the goddesses Diana and Flora, are recreated in early 20th-century color mezzotints by Samuel Arlent Edwards.

Decorative objects in the exhibition include a set of alabaster fi gures of Apollo and the Muses, donated to Georgetown in the early 19th century by one of the Italian sculptors who worked on the U.S. Capitol. This was recorded in an 1880 inventory drawn up by James Curley, S.J., the fi rst director of Georgetown’s Astronomical Observatory. An outstanding piece of 18th-century German ivory carving, depicting a mythologically inspired frieze, is also included in the exhibition.

The splendor of earlier eras is still evident in the 20th-century prints populated by classical gods and lesser creatures. Intaglio prints by Louis Rosenberg and Henry Winkler respectively capture the architecture of the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome and the Fountain of Leda in Paris’s Luxembourg Gardens. While some artists became freer in their interpretation of classical themes, both the Symbolist painters and the Surrealists drew heavily from mythological subjects. This is shown in Elihu Vedder’s malicious-looking female triad, The Phorcydes (1880), in a print by Dali, mentioned above, and in Prentiss Taylor’s ominous lithograph Orpheus-The Look Back. With the expressive potential of lithography and other modern printmaking techniques, artists embraced anew the vivid characters and myths of classical antiquity. See an online version of the exhibition at www.library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/olympus-and-beyond-mythological-prints-georgetown.

--LLW

In Memoriam

The Library has lost a good friend in Donald A. Casper (C’70, L’77). Don was a long-time Georgetown University Library Board member and, while his interests were myriad, he is best remembered on the Hilltop for his eventful tenure as editor-in-chief for The Hoya, as well as for his wise, witty and articulate conversation.

Don Casper was vice president of the San Francisco Civil Service Commission and a prominent figure in San Francisco Republican politics. He practiced law in San Francisco for 34 years. Kevin Starr, historian and California State Librarian Emeritus, who delivered Don Casper’s eulogy, said, “How did this essentially solitary man make so many friends? Why did everyone know him, whether it be the doorman of an apartment building or the man who sold wind chimes on River Road? How did he become such an essential member of so many families, beloved, not just by his male friends, but by their wives and children as well? How did a man so involved in politics, a Republican in a Democratic town, have so many friends on both sides of the aisle? How did such a contemplative person become so involved in the human comedy, befriending hundreds and knowing so much about them – to include their backgrounds, as well as, in so many cases, their hopes and dreams? The answer to this question eludes us. Each of us, as persons, as individuals, contain within ourself a mystery, a cache of hidden dreams, desires, secrets, and longings, that make each of us so much more than the sum total of our formation or inherited traits, however visible or dramatic.” Our thoughts are with Don’s many, many friends.

L IBRARY.GEORGETOWN.EDU/ASSOCIATES 7

Were the Georgetown College Cadets once a volunteer militia?

It seems so. According to a reference in the University Archives, the U. S. Government entered into an agreement with Georgetown College on June 13, 1838 to supply the College Cadets with sixty short flintlock muskets. The caveat, though, was that in order to receive the muskets the Cadets had to become a volunteer militia. This agreement, titled “Regulations for the issue of arms to the Militia of the District of Columbia,” is a part of Record Group 156 at the National Archives. This first group of Cadets fizzled out and reformed in a more organized fashion in 1852. It is not clear what happened to the rifles or the Cadets’ Militia status during their time of inactivity; however, it appears that the Cadets and the Government entered into other munitions agreements. Late 19th century correspondence between Georgetown President J. Havens Richards, S.J. and the War Department’s Ordnance Office regarding rifles on loan to Georgetown can be found in the University Archives.

Is Georgetown the oldest Catholic university in America?

No. Georgetown, founded in 1789, is the oldest Catholic university in the United States. Saint Thomas University in Bogotá, Colombia was founded in 1580, and is likely the oldest Catholic university still in operation in America.

What are some historical connections between Georgetown University and China?

Georgetown’s Charles Denby, a student from 1841-1844 and honorary degree recipient in 1885, was appointed Minister to China by President Grover Cleveland in 1885. He served until 1898 and is one of the longest serving U. S. envoys to China since the first U. S. envoy was appointed in 1843. Denby was an influential arbiter between China and Japan during the Sino-Japanese War in 1895.

In 1979 Georgetown’s American Language Institute hosted 26 exchange students from the People’s Republic of China for intensive English language courses. The courses were intended to enable the students to go on to conduct independent research at various institutions in the U.S. The Georgetown contingent of students was part of a larger group of over 500 Chinese professionals and scholars, in the fields of science, medicine, and engineering. They were the first such group to visit the U.S. following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

--AG

Infrequently Asked Questions f r o m t h e d e s k o f t h e A s s i s ta n t U n i v e r s i t y A r c h i v i s t

The Georgetown College Cadets, 1889.

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The Party at Club LauLibraryAssociates

The Georgetown University Library Associates are a group of Georgetown alumni, parents and friends dedicated to helping the Library shape the creation of knowledge, conserve culture for posterity and transform learning and research. To learn more, contact us at 202-687-7446 or visit us at:

library.georgetown.edu/associates

Did you miss one of our Library Associates events? You can fi nd full-length videos online in the Digital Georgetown section of our website. Go to www.library.georgetown.edu/digital/lecture-hall.

The Library held our now-traditional annual Party at Club Lau on September 3rd, and as usual, it was THE place to be on Saturday night. Students began lining up to get in at 9:30 p.m., half an hour before the Party started, and the line stretched back to Healy Hall for most of the night. The room was still at capacity when the party ended at 2:00 a.m. We’re already looking forward to seeing everyone again next year for the one night that the Library literally rocks! Thanks to Georgetown Library Board member Pat Collins Sarnoff (P’98), The Joe Raposo Music Group, and the Office of Student Affairs for their generous support of The Party at Club Lau.