Charles Darwin had close to 1500 books in his library. Now, thanks to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, one can digitally peruse over 400 of the books contained therein, including over 300 of the most heavily annotated. The library of Charles Darwin. Courtesy of Cambridge University LibraryThe Charles Darwin’s Library project is "a digital edition and virtual reconstruction of the surviving books owned by Charles Darwin." "a miserable book - all words, words, words." Annotation in Volume 1 of Histoire naturelle générale des règnes organiques by Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Isidore, 1854."The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of 12 natural history and...
In the Stacks: The National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the repository for the documents and materials of the federal government. They only retain about 1-3% of all the material produced by the government but as you can imagine there is some amazing stuff within those walls and, as is the case with all past libraries / collections / archives featured on In The Stacks, one visit is never enough.Poster: "In a War-Torn World, Let Good Books Help You", 1941 - 1945Last week the National Archives announced that they have teamed with five other national archives and five national and international research...
In the Stacks: Columbia University, From Homer to Howl
This installment of In the Stacks takes us to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University.From Homer:Fragment from Homer's Odysseyis dating from between the third century to the second century BCE. One 2000 papyrus fragments housed at Columbia.Original contract between Herman Melville and Harper & Brothers for "The Whale," or better known as Moby Dick. Columbia acquired the archive of the publisher in 1975.Alexander Anderson. Wood engraving of garden-house scene, (6.5 x 8 cm.) Anderson has been considered the father of wood engraving in America. Arthur Rackham. Self-portrait, 1924. The Rackham collection at Columbia contains 413 drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings, as...
In the Stacks: Private Libraries at the Museum of the City of New York
For the third installment of In the Stacks we visit the Museum of the City of New York which recently released 50,000 digital images from their outstanding collection.What is becoming increasingly clear in the early stages of this new series is that the plethora of material available at many of these digital destinations warrant more than one trip. Rather than overcrowd the initial posts Book Patrol will return, in due time, to select archives to bring you more book goodness.So, here on the the first visit to the Museum of the City of New York, we focus on the private...
In the Stacks: Boston Public Library
This is the first installment of a new series on Book Patrol. In the Stacks. A series dedicated to exploring the digital archives of the leading libraries, institutions and organizations of the known universeFirst up is the Boston Public Library who recently released over 15,000 images from their archive through Flickr.1895 advertising poster for Houghton Mifflin’s holiday booksGot to love this shot of kids learning "the right use of books"South Boston's class in the right use of booksBPL is the home of a tremendous collection of books designed by Sarah Wyman Whitman, the first major American professional book designer.Dorchester Branch, Summer...