Category: Archives

Book Collecting Contest Winners Announced

The First Annual 2013 Reed College Book Collecting Contest winners were announced on April 16, 2013. Senior Mack Sullivan won the top prize of $1,000 for his essay entitled “How to be Alone”. His essay, with annotated bibliography attached, could be characterized as a philosophical musing on how books can change your life. Richard Aldersley won the second prize of $500 for his collection and essay on “Ernest Hemingway: A Writer’s Education”, while Francois Paultre won the third prize of $250 for “Tipped In–A Collection of Illustrated Literature”. The other six entrants were each awarded an honorable mention gift certificate to Powell’s Books. The Contest was co-sponsored by the Himes & Duniway Society, a Portland book group, and Reed College. All nine essays are on the Himes & Duniway website at. The winner may go on to enter the national Book Collecting Contest with awards announced in October at the Library of Congress.

Christmas Mass: Victorian Illuminated Manuscript

Reed recently acquired an illuminated Christmas Mass, calligraphed and illustrated by Marie Granville and perhaps others, dated 1854.

This lovely manuscript has been digitized and is now part of the Digital Collection.

This work is illuminated with many initials in colors and burnished gold, with full borders on every page in a variety of styles based on Medieval prayer books, most with floral decoration in bright colors. Several borders contain miniatures in rondels that show great detail; one page contains views of the Great Exhibition of 1851 London including the Crystal Palace. The binding is an excellent example of the amazing leather work of Leon Gruel, a well-known French binder.

Beatus vir, a late Medieval Illuminated Manuscript

One of Reed’s three illuminated manuscripts, the Beatus vir, created around 1510 in France, has now been digitized and may be perused online at http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/beatusvir/ as one of Reed’s newer digital collections. The Beatus vir is a psalter and prayerbook containing 40 painted miniatures, ten of them full-page. Particularly appealing are the many images showing genesis and the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, birds, insects, and fish, man, and trees and flowers.

Secret Books!

Secret Books! Exhibit

August 28 – November 7, 2012

Many surprises lurk in the Reed library collections: books that have unexpected contents, hidden accessories or decoration, or are just downright unreadable. The long history of cyphers and steganography (concealed writing) attests to the appeal, and sometimes the necessity, of hiding meaning in communications and texts. A broader look at books— including artists’ books—containing secret surprises of any sort is currently on display in the flat library cases just beyond the entrance.

New Book about Manuscripts in Reed’s Special Collections

The Origins, Glory & Decline of the Humanist Cursive in Italy 1400-1650 is a new title written by Reed alumnus Steve Herold ’63 about the Early Writing Collection in the Reed library’s special collections.  Herold has traced the history of the italic cursive popularized by Professor Lloyd Reynolds in his calligraphy classes at Reed presented from 1938 until his retirement in 1969, when Robert Palladino continued the classes until 1984.  For the last 8 years, Herold has been giving various documents to Reed’s special collections to join those collected by Reynolds.  Heavily illustrated with wonderful historical examples, the title also reprints a difficult-to-find article by Stanley Morison on “Early Humanist Script and the First Roman Typeface.”  It is available in the Reed bookstore ($24.95).

Calligraphy at Reed

May 22 – August 2012

This exhibit sheds some light on the history of calligraphy at Reed and the impact of Lloyd Reynolds’ teaching, showing a selection of his letterforms, correspondence, and student work.  The calligraphy that Reynolds taught at Reed from the late 1930s through 1969 remains a strong presence in college life.  Robert Palladino continued teaching that course through 1984, and since then there have been Paideia classes, Reunion themes, major exhibits, catalogs, and classes taught through the Cooley Gallery to school children, Reed students, and others.

Flat cases and the wall case behind the reference desk in the Hauser Library

Flora in the Library: Books with Flowers

Flower

February 9th through early May, 2012

Flowers surround us and yet are normally seen as merely a decoration or a passing interest beside our path.  Books that contain flower images, however, abound from early treatises on husbandry to artists’ books and include photographic essays, guidebooks, and fancy illustration.  Some interesting examples have been selected from the library’s special collections for this exhibit.

Museum of Contemporary Craft exhibit features Reed books

A new exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, now in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art, will focus on artists’ books from the Reed College collection.  “Object Focus:  The Book,” running from November 18, 2010 through February 26, 2011, will consist entirely of Reed books selected by Professor Gerri Ondrizek and the staff of the Museum.

Their statement about the exhibit:  “The artist’s book is an object that extends work beyond the boundaries of a gallery setting. Through selections from the significant 20th century modern and contemporary artists’ books in Reed College’s Special Collections, this exhibition explores the book as an object which defies the categories of art, craft and design through forms ranging from the recognizable to the deconstructed.”