“Our Goatsuckers, although possessed of great power of wing, are particularly attached to certain districts and localities.  The species now under consideration is seldom observed beyond the limits of the Choctaw Nation in the State of Mississippi, or the Carolinas, on the shores of the Atlantic, and may with propriety be looked upon as the southern species of the United States.  Louisiana, Florida, the lower portions of Alabama and Georgia, are the parts in which it most abounds; and there it makes its appearance early in spring, coming over from Mexico, and probably still warmer climates.

About the middle of March, the forests of Louisiana are heard to echo with the well-known notes of this interesting bird.  No sooner has the sun disappeared, and the nocturnal insects emerge from their burrows, than the sounds, “chuck-will’s-widow,” repeated with great clearness and power six or seven times in as many seconds, strike the ear of every individual, bringing to the mind a pleasure mingled with a certain degree of melancholy, which I have often found very soothing.  The sounds of the Goatsucker, at all events, forebode a peaceful and calm night, and I have more than once thought, are conducive to lull the listener to repose.

. . .The Chuck-will’s-widow manifests a strong antipathy towards all snakes, however harmless they may be.  Although these birds cannot in any way injure the snakes, they alight near them on all occasions, and try to frighten them away, by opening their prodigious mouth, and emitting a strong hissing murmur.  It was after witnessing one of these occurrences, which took place at early twilight, that the idea of representing these birds in such an occupation struck me.  The beautiful little snake, gliding along the dead branch, between two Chuck-will’s widows, a male and a female, is commonly called the Harlequin Snake, and is, I believe, quite harmless.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 273-276 [excerpted].

The Watkinson Library is pleased to announce an agreement with Cinestudio to take possession of, maintain, and provide scholarly access to the records of its organization.  Cinestudio is a nationally recognized (and regionally famous) independent cinema located on the Trinity campus, which has enjoyed a devoted following for over forty years. Its archive is currently housed in a substandard storage area (the attic of Clement Hall), and is at risk from both bad weather and vermin.  These records, tracing the development and operation of such a unique organization devoted to the exhibition of a diverse range of films, will be an invaluable scholarly resource.  They also constitute a vital facet of Trinity’s cultural landscape from 1970 to the present day, and into the future (the Watkinson will continue to collect Cinestudio’s records going forward).  We are especially hopeful that the nascent film studies program at Trinity will make use of this collection, and that, as we serve as the depository for Cinestudio’s past, present, and future records, we will find innovative ways to collaborate in our respective public programming.

Current state of the Cinestudio archives, in the attic of Clement Hall.

The materials include approximately 75 linear feet (in over 50 boxes, tubs, and file drawers) of business records and over 5,000 movie posters amassed by this important cultural organization, which has operated at Trinity College for over 40 years.  The Watkinson will oversee the processing of these materials—which include bills and invoices, flyers, programs, catalogs, press kits, accounting records, internal memos, correspondence, etc.—according to national standards, and promote the use of the collection to students, researchers, and the general public.

What the archives will look like when they have been processed!

“The Red-tailed Hawk is a constant resident in the United States, in every part of which it is found.  It performs partial migrations, during severe winters, from the Northern Districts towards the Southern.  In the latter, however, it is at all times more abundant, and I shall endeavour to present you with a full account of its habits, as observed there.

Its flight is firm, protracted, and at times performed at a great height.  It sails across the whole of a large plantation, on a level with the tops of the forest-trees which surround it, without a single flap of its wings, and is then seen moving its head sideways to inspect the objects below.  This flight is generally accompanied by a prolonged mournful cry, which may be heard at a considerable distance, and consists of a single sound resembling the monosyllable Kae, uttered in such a manner as to continue for three or four minutes, without any apparent inflection or difference of intensity.  It would seem as if uttered for the purpose of giving notice to the living objects below that he is passing, and of thus inducing them to bestir themselves and retreat to a hiding-place, before they attain which he may have an opportunity of pouncing upon some of them . . .

The lively squirrel is seen gaily leaping from one branch to another, or busily employed in searching for the fallen nuts on the ground.  It has found one.  Its bushy tail is beautifully curved along its back, the end of it falling off with a semi-circular bend; its nimble feet are seen turning the nut quickly round, and its teeth are already engaged in perforating the hard shell; when, quick as thought, the Red-tailed Hawk, which has been watching it in all its motions, falls upon it, seizes it near the head, transfixes and strangles it, devours it on the spot, or ascends exultingly to a branch with the yet palpitating victim in his talons, and there feasts at leisure.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 265-266 [excerpted].

One of the more important aspects of overseeing a facility the size and value of the Watkinson is to control the environment.  Leaky pipes, faulty HVAC systems, cracks in the foundation, and vermin (mice, bugs, naughty readers) are all potential threats to the collection, and must be kept at bay through CONSTANT VIGILANCE.  Fortunately, Associate Curator Sally Dickinson is on the case, as she reports on a recent activity:

“This September I attended a 2-day workshop on “Sustainable Preservation Practices for Managing Storage Environments.”  R.I.T.’s Image Permanence Institute presented the workshop at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.)  Curators, librarians, and facilities professionals attended, including staff from the Smithsonian Institute and other cultural organizations in the Northeast.  We had a crash course in how artifacts age, what makes an optimal preservation climate to prolong the life of materials, and how to achieve these conditions through sustainable use of climate control systems.  The Image Permanence Institute is a leader in the research of how materials age and climate management strategies for cultural institutions.”

We would like to thank Honorary Board member James B. Lyon for his recent gift of 41 books on old New England, most of which were produced by Samuel Chamberlain (1895-1975), a veteran of World War I, an architecture professor at MIT, and a photographer/printmaker who produced a series of excellent and popular books on New England locales.  Most of these books were signed by Chamberlain, and are welcome additions to the Watkinson’s collections relating to architecture, photography, and New England-ana.

Yesterday we hosted professor Karen Miller’s class on ” Female Bodies in the Nineteenth Century,” and the students examined a myriad of sources, including frontier newspaper ads from the 1880’s, issues of Harper’s Weekly from the 1860s and 1890s, huckster medical guides, and legitimate obstetric manuals spanning the 19th century.  The students took turns presenting sources they were given (at random), and generally agreed that the parallels and the differences between Victorian-age and modern advice on beauty, child-rearing, and proper behavior for women were fascinating.

ON DISPLAY THROUGH DECEMBER 7TH

An assortment of sources, all printed in 1812, relating to events and issues around the world, are currently on display to show off the breadth of the Watkinson collection.  There are 39 items grouped into topics (war, religion, literature, science, economics, American travels, world travels).  The image to the left is from a popular edition of an account of the Lewis & Clark expedition.

The following is one of my favorite items in the exhibition:

Robert Southey, Omniana; or Horae otiosiores (London, 1812)

Robert Southey, the son of a linen draper, was born in Bristol in 1774.  After his father’s death an uncle sent him to Westminster School but he was expelled in 1792 after denouncing flogging in the school magazine.  In 1794 Southey met and befriended  Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the two developed radical political and religious views and planned to emigrate to Pennsylvania to set up a commune, which was predictably abandoned.  Southey gradually lost his radical opinions.  In 1807 he was rewarded with an annual allowance by the Tory government, and in 1813 he was appointed poet laureate.  Lord Byron and William Hazlitt accused him of betraying his political principles for money.

Essentially a writer’s notebook, this volume is comprised of 246 broad-ranging anecdotes derived from observation and reading—including such topics as “Mexican tennis,” chess, biography (deploring the “sharking booksellers” who dissect a “great” man’s life immediately on his death), stationers in Spain, and longevity.  The contents are always surprising, shedding light on contemporary concerns, and displaying the ironic wit and curiosity of the poet.

Yesterday afternoon we were happy to host Erin Valentino’s First Year seminar (“The Information Age & the Digital Divide”), as the students cover a unit on print culture and book history.  Each student has picked a book from the Watkinson (which range in date from ca. 1400 (a medieval Book of Hours) to 1860 (a guide for sailors) as a focus for their research.  Each student will write a contextualizing label, and all of the books (or scans, for the most valuable) will be placed on display in the Main Library’s atrium.  The “opening” event of this exhibition will be held during Common Hour on Tuesday, October 23rd.

“This little bird was by mistake engraved, and named after my friend W. Swainson, Esq., during my absence from London, one drawing having been accidentally substituted for another.  It is in reality the young of the Black and Yellow Warbler, and was intended to form part of the Plate which will represent the adult male and female of that species.  My good friend will, I know, excuse this mistake, as I have honoured a beautiful new species with his name.

… you will permit me, kind reader, to postpone the habits of this species until you see the whole group together.”

–J. J. Audubon, Ornithological Biography, I (1831), 260 [excerpted].