Classical Antiquity and Local Identities: from Newfoundland to Nigeria and Ghana March 7-9, 2019

One installment of a two part exhibit (the other piece was at the Rooms) created by Dr. Luke Roman and Classics graduate students Karen Gill, Kara Hickson, Morgan Locke and Marina Schmidt for the conference: Classical Antiquity and Local Identities: from Newfoundland to Nigeria and Ghana March 7-9, 2019. Program here.

The group worked with staff of the Archives & Special Collections, and the Centre for Newfoundland Studies to identify and select materials. The QEII exhibit includes newspaper articles, scripts, posters and a selection of Early Modern editions of the classics.

A Journey through Illustrations of the Past

This exhibit looks at a collection of manuscripts and rare book leaves complied by New York book dealer Alfred W. Stites (1922-2016). Stites created “leaf books,” sets of leaves removed from rare books and manuscripts and made into portfolios. His intention was to show the progress of writing and printing over the centuries. The exhibit selects pages from Portfolio 1, History of the Written Word, number 10 of 15 numbered sets. The entire collection consists of 157 original leaves and artefacts. Digital copies of the pages can be found here.

The exhibit highlights 31 pages from the Portfolio 1. The leaves are organized into various categories: people, scenery, Persian literature, art & architecture, and miniatures. Most of the illustrations are in black and white, so the few that are in colour stand out.

The exhibit was curated by Emma Hollett, a third-year student at Memorial University, majoring in Folklore with a minor in Archaeology. Emma also works as a student assistant in archives & Special Collections.

In 2018, Special Collections purchases a collection of approximately 300 artists’ books from Newfoundland book artist and painter Tara Bryan. Here are some examples.

Bryan, Tara. Walking on Eggs. St. John’s. Walking Bird Press, 1997.

30 x 11 x 7 cm. The work is contained in a Newfoundland brand egg carton (moulded pulp by means of a mechanized papier-mâché process). 1/1.

The inside of the lid functions as a title page and offers a minimalist introduction to the work in the form of a definition of the word poverty. The work plays on the notion of the egg as a staple source of protein. In 2011, approximately 70.7 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide (“Global,” 2018). Each egg in the carton is a discrete unit, and might be considered as a sentence, a paragraph, or a chapter—or perhaps, because each one is a whole, as a poem or a short story. All twelve of the eggs are blown, the whites and yolks removed. Inscribed on the fragile, empty shells are various statements related to poverty, some attributed to Statistics Canada. The concept plays ironically against the decorative arts associated with Easter and the message of resurrection through rebirth associated with the egg.

Michaelis, Catherine A. Old Flames Mismatched. Vashon Island, Washington: May Day Press, 2000.

5.0 x 3.8 cm unused matchbook.

Each of the 30 matches in the book is imprinted with a word or a phrase. The top row of ten matches reads as follows: “Lisa / loved / tiny things / like / miniskirts. / David / was a / great lover / but had / bad values.” The work plays on the notion of the book (book of matches) and the concept of finding a match (in terms of relationships). The story changes as matches are used. If the “Lisa” match is removed, the match underneath changes the narrative to “Peter / loved / tiny things / like / miniskirts. / David / was a / great lover / but had / bad values.” If the “bad values” match is then removed, the lines change to “Peter / loved / tiny things / like / miniskirts. / David / was a / great lover / but had / muscles.” This is a clever work that uses a static medium to play with meaning and narrative the way hypertext or computer-generated stories often do. It manages to reimagine the miniature book while at the same time using the structure of the matchbook (and the nature of it) to say something about the combustible and ephemeral nature of relationships.

Leñateros, Taller (writer), and Ambar Past (artist). The Lady of Ur. Taller Leñateros, 2004.

12.5 x 9 x 7 cm closed. Twenty-five folds, printed on both sides. The concertina form extends to approximately 5 m. 24/50.

The bas-relief cover in papier-mâché is the work of Maribel Rotondo and was inspired by a Sumerian sculpture (c. 3500–3000 BCE) of Inanna, a goddess associated with love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice, and political power. The cuneiform/pictogram inscription on the back cover (c. 2112–2095 BCE) translates: “For Inanna the Lady of Ur-Nammu: the powerful King of Ur. Ruler of Sumer and Akkad has built your temple” (from the colophon).

As of May 28, 2018 staff of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies (CNS) will retrieve Special Collection materials during times when the CNS is open and the Archives and Special Collections reading room is closed.

CNS hours can be found here. Archives and Special Collections reading rooms hours here.

Marginalia in the Herbert Halpert Collection is the focus of our current exhibition, curated by Steve Kiraly (M.A. History, 2017).

A link to Mr. Kiraly’s thesis “Writing in the Margins: An Exploration of the Dr. Herbert Halpert Folklore Collection at Memorial University of Newfoundland” can be found at the end of paragraph three on the following page.

The Mullock Collection (Basilica Museum, St. John’s)

The Mullock Collection is the only nineteenth-century book collection in Newfoundland and Labrador that survived in its original setting dating from 1856. Held by the Basilica Museum in St. John’s, the library of Dr. John Thomas Mullock (1807-1869), Roman Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland and then St. John’s, reflects its owner’s wide-ranging learning and multilingual abilities. The Mullock Collection includes some 1300 books in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and other languages, published over four centuries, from the early sixteenth century to Mullock’s death in 1869. Originally intended for public use, the Mullock Collection forms the nucleus of the current Episcopal Library. The attached catalogue contains books that bear Mullock’s ownership mark and are housed respectively at the Basilica Museum and Memorial University’s Queen Elizabeth II Library.

A digital copy of the illustrated book of essays on the Mullock Collection, The Finest Room in the Colony. The Library of John Thomas Mullock, eds. Ágnes Juhász-Ormsby and Nancy Earle (St. John’s: Memorial University Libraries, 2016) can be found through the following link:

370 x 290mm. [45] leaves. The written area measures 320 x 180mm, in two columns (except for the introduction and afterword), with lettering and decoration by Boyd Warren Chubbs, in black, brown, gold, blue, red and claret inks, with punctuation in gold. Text and decoration on the recto side only. There are 32 large decorated capitals, 24 smaller decorated capitals, as well as numerous large coloured capitals highlighting various areas of the text. There is a vine and leaf motif, pen flourishes, paraph marks, and rubrication throughout. Head and tail pieces separate the various books. Line numbers are in red. The text is illustrated with 31 watercolours by Gerald Leopold Squires, including 2 full-page illustrations (Fol. 4 &Fol.18). Written on 320lb deckled-edged “Aquarelle Arches” paper, the leather binding is by Dr. Brian Roberts, ‘The Book Doctor.’

…from A Grand Tour: Catalogue

Please visit the Alcuin Book Awards page for more information.