New Exhibit in Special Collections

Armchair Sportsman, Armchair Traveler
Items from the Jesse Spencer Collection

 

The Rock Island Argus obituary for Jesse Spencer, a Rock Island attorney who died in 1938, says that he was “deeply interested in the collection of rare first editions of books.” Mr. Spencer had a wide-ranging interest in books and produced a remarkable collection. Augustana purchased the Spencer Collection, which consisted of around 3,800 volumes, in 1949. Currently on display in Special Collections are items from the collection, including a first edition of Walden, John Smith’s Generall Historie of Virginia (1624), and one of Mr. Spencer’s many editions of The Compleat Angler, one of the most important books on fishing.

Distinguished Poet Li-Young Lee to Read at Augie

The River Readings at Augustana is proud to present its third visiting writer this year: poet Li-Young Lee. Reading at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 29, Lee is an award-winning poet who lives in Chicago. Of Chinese descent, Lee was born in Indonesia where his family was persecuted, his father thrown in jail. When his father escaped, Lee and his family fled the country and after some years moving around the world ended up in the U.S. where Lee’s father became a Presbyterian  minister. Lee writes about exile, home, family, love, and the everyday mysteries of reality. Known as a good reader, Lee will also visit two classes on Thursday. Wednesday evening, Lee will appear at Bettendorf Public Library where he was the judge of a poetry contest.

Margi Rogal

New display on Africa!

In support of West Africa Term (spring 2010), Black History Month, and the African Arts Festival (March 18-21), the library has mounted a display of objects from Africa along with photographs taken by Rowen Schussheim-Anderson in Ghana on a previous study abroad term. On display are colorful cloths, beads, and figures from Ghana, Zambia, and Kenya collected by Professors Schussheim-Anderson and Todd Cleveland.

Margi Rogal, Displays and Events Coordinator

Katie Reinhardt joins Tredway Library

 

Hello! My name is Katie Reinhardt and I am the new Special Collections Associate.  I am delighted to be joining the Tredway Library on a permanent basis.  Last year I was fortunate enough to work on a project cataloging titles in the Reformation Imprints Collection in the Special Collections department. Before moving to the Quad Cities in the summer of 2007, I was a cataloger at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.  I have worked as both a librarian and an archivist in historical societies and academic libraries in Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire.  My education includes a B.A. from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, an M.A. in U.S. History from the University of New Hampshire, and an MLIS from Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston, MA.  I live in Bettendorf with my husband, Dan Malachuk, professor of English at the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University, my seven-year-old son Paul, and Hector the warrior-cat.

Online Exhibtion from Special Collections

“Town and Country in Miniature: Color Plate Books at Augustana”

Color-plate books are an interesting and unusual type of publication, popular mostly in Britain between 1790 and 1860. The books are particular outgrowths of interests of Regency and Victorian society; popular topics included travel and antiquities, sports such as hunting and horse racing, scenes of British life, and caricature. Most illustrations were produced using either aquatint or lithography. Aquatint is the process most suitable for reproducing watercolors, a popular medium at the time. Aquatints were usually printed in one or two colors; the other colors would later be added by hand. Lithography gradually came to replace aquatint because it was a cheaper process and it eliminated the need for hand coloring. “Town and Country in Miniature” presents an overview of color plate books, focusing on the genres that were produced and their illustrators, who included some of the most famous artists and illustrators of the period.