News for James Ford Bell Library
What exactly do librarians do?: A Q/A with Anne Good, associate curator of the James Ford Bell Library
The last article of a three-part Q/A series that explaining the ins and outs of librarianship, and all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into supporting public knowledge. This interview features Anne Good, associate curator of the James Ford Bell Library, and of Special Collections and Rare Books.
The Right of the People: Honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
The exhibit is open through Jan. 15, 2027, weekdays only.
Women Travelers in Russian Lands in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Travel narratives written by women in the premodern era are quite rare, and, prior to the 1970s, they were sometimes not collected by rare books libraries because their value was not recognized. The Bell Library also has relatively few of these narratives written by women, but those we have are really interesting, and we are always looking for works to add to the collection.
Happy International Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day!
Happy International Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day from the James Ford Bell Library.
Salt and Memory
My end-of-summer reading included “Time Shelter” by Georgi Gospodinov, a future dystopia about memory and the past, which deservedly won the International Booker Prize in 2023. While Gospodinov is most interested in the more recent past and its political reverberations today, every once in a while he dips into the deep past.
In the News, part 2: “America’s Oldest Firm Meets Its End”
A recent article on MSN announced: “America’s Oldest Firm Meets Its End. Some Argue Its Fate was Avoidable.” Underneath the headline was a photo of one of the last operating department stores of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
In the News, part 1: The Gulf of Mexico – A guest post by Stephanie Leitch
Earlier this year, an historical op-ed by Stephanie Leitch appeared in several news outlets: “Will Google Maps have regrets about America?” Since Professor Leitch was the recipient of the William Reese Company Fellowship at the Bell Library in 2023, I thought her essay would be of interest to friends of the Bell Library and readers of this blog as well.
Potato Apotheosis
A few of months ago, a headline in the Minnesota Daily proclaimed: “Paisley Purple potato debuts at local restaurant” (24 September 2024). This story is not a culinary review as such, but rather adds a new chapter to the history of potatoes.
“The Place of the Cure of the Soul”
I read an enchanting book over the holidays: Irene Vallejo’s Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World (New York, 2022), translated from Spanish by Charlotte Whittle. The book weaves together reflections on the ancient and the modern world and celebrates libraries, books, and the power of words.
The Pizzigano Portolan: A cartographic mystery at the James Ford Bell Library
Venetian cartographer Zuane Pizzigano's 1424 Nautical Chart has a mystery in its lines: a group of improbably large islands in the western Atlantic that scholars today call the Antilia group.
Something ancient; something new
My previous post, “The teeth of time,” drew inspiration from one of the brief tangents in Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (London & New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011). The digression on bookworms allowed Greenblatt to explore the reality of what happened to books produced in Antiquity, and, poetically, to evoke the idea of impermanence and the disintegration of all things.
“The teeth of time”
I have been reading The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (New York & London: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011) and enjoyed some of his invocations of the bookworm as one of the ultimate, slow and steady destroyers of material joy.