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Highlighting the Holidays: An Armenian “Three Magi” at the Library of Congress

(The following is a guest post by Levon Avdoyan, Armenian and Georgian area specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division.)

17th century Armenian calligraphy sheet featuring the “three magi.” African and Middle Eastern Division.

When I began working at the Library of Congress in 1992 as the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist to the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division, it was as if a wonderfully extended Christmas began. I had certainly used the collections before then for my own research, but now I found myself with direct responsibility for an amazingly beautiful collection of Armenian manuscripts, illuminations, fabrics and documents.

The section is home to an important collection of Middle Eastern book covers and several rich collections of disbound calligraphy sheets from many of the languages of the Middle East. These and other items were procured in the 1930s from Kirkor Minassian, a dealer in fine Islamic and near Eastern art with establishments both in New York and Paris.

Of these calligraphy sheets, 17 are from Armenian manuscripts, and from these, six leaves come from a 17th century Haysmawurk‘ (Lectionary /Synaxary) – collections that provided the celebrants and worshipers with the daily textual readings associated with the various saints’ days and religious feasts throughout the ecclesiastical year. As these leaves were removed from a larger manuscript, we have no indication of the date of its creation nor, indeed, of the identities of the scribe who copied the manuscript or of the artist who sumptuously illustrated it. It is likely both from the palaeography (the style of the letters) and the artistic style of the illuminations that the manuscript was a production of the 17th century.

Leaf depicting the feast of Easter. African and Middle Eastern Division.

A particular leaf from that exceptional Armenian lectionary presents us with an intimate portrayal of the magi as they present their gifts to the infant Jesus. The regal magi are juxtaposed with Mary and Jesus set among the animals in attendance and Joseph standing in the background. The theme of the visit of the magi to the infant Jesus is a common one in Armenian manuscript illuminations, each of which reflects the artistic traditions of the era in which it was drawn. This beautiful example certainly can be enjoyed as a unique painting of the event, but as with all our collections, it can also fit into a broader historical narrative and exploration.

When I look at this particular representation of the well-known tradition, my thoughts lead to another intriguing aspect of the magi especially in the ancient Armenian tradition. A magus was not only a noble or royal personage, he was also a priest in the Zoroastrian religion. In 65 A.D., following a treaty of peace between Rome and the Persian Parthian Empire, the young magus and Parthian candidate to the Armenian throne, Tiridates I, journeyed to Rome to receive the regalia of kingship from the Emperor Nero (37 – 68 A.D.). So spectacular was his nine-month journey that several classical Greek and Latin authors described its magnificence. The description of people along the route gathering to mark its package indicates that its splendor was widely reported and appreciated.

One noted scholar of the 20th century, Ernst Herzfeld (1879 – 1948), went so far as to theorize that this journey of the Magus Tiridates, so well-known to the ancient world, might even have influenced the biblical narrative of the legendary three magi and their journey to the infant Jesus.

Ornate leaf dedicated to the feast of St. John the Baptist depicts St. George, whose image is defaced. African and Middle Eastern Division.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the cycle would be fulfilled in the early fourth century A.D. when Tiridates I’s descendent, Tiridates III, decreed that Christianity was the state religion of the Kingdom of Greater Armenia. Thus, according to the late fourth century Greek ecclesiastical historian Sozomenos, Armenia became the first nation to make Christianity its state religion.

Similar studies can certainly be based on several of the remaining leaves as well. There is a particularly ornate leaf dedicated to the feast of Easter, as well as another for the feast day of St. John the Baptist. What is curious about the latter is that while the text is clearly dedicated to St. John, the illumination on the page depicts St. George fighting the dragon and the saint is unexplainably defaced. Why that image for St. John? Why was that defacement?

What is so marvelous about the varied custodial collections of the Library of Congress is that they serve a variety of disciplines and thus as the focus of research for scholars in many of them.

Indeed, the eventual digitization of these sheets will allow art historians around the world to examine them and perhaps further identify them. And who knows? Other sheets from the same manuscript might be found, leading to its virtual reconstruction!

More of the Library’s historical treasures are highlighted here in celebration of the season. 

Highlighting the Holidays: A Camel Line Item

A camel walked into Mount Vernon … sounds like the beginning of a rather offbeat joke. However, such is not the case. On Dec. 29, 1787, our nation’s soon-to-be first president, at home on his estate in Alexandria, Virginia, played host to a rather exotic animal for the holidays.

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Aladdin. Photo courtesy of George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

I first heard this story from a friend of mine who works at Mount Vernon. Every year, the estate brings in Aladdin the camel for its Candlelight Christmas festivities in an attempt to recreate life and experiences from Washington’s time. I thought it quite fascinating that Washington had such a tradition and figured that perhaps he employed a live nativity for his 18th century holiday celebrations or brought the camel in for the enjoyment of his step-grandchildren, George and Nelly Custis.

The complete George Washington Papers collection from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 65,000 documents. Included in the collection are his financial accounts. Washington was pretty meticulous about his accounts and documented expenditures both public and private.

His entry for Dec. 29 reveals a payment of 18 shillings to “the man who brought a camel from Alex. for a show.”

According to Mary V. Thompson of Mount Vernon, there is nothing in the Library’s records that indicate how the camel ended up at the estate or truly why.

“It might be that Washington learned there was a camel in town and invited the handler to bring it to his plantation,” she said. “It is also just as likely that the pair arrived in Alexandria, learned that Washington lived 10 miles or so down the road and, knowing he was famous and probably had money, decided to make the trip on their own.”

While the records are certainly no secret among scholars, their formidable financial formats make them somewhat complicated and hard to decipher. They’ve been seldom used in comparison to Washington’s diaries and correspondence. Currently, the University of Virginia is embarking on a project to publish them in book and digital form.

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Page in Washington’s ledger book indicating expenditure for a camel. Manuscript Division.

What these records do reveal are the interesting spending habits of our first president. During his life, Washington was responsible for millions of dollars in public and private expenditures for his household, his wife Martha’s estates, his agricultural and milling business enterprises, his land investments, the Virginia militia, the Continental Army and the federal government.

“On one hand he’s a farmer, on the other a colonial. He thinks of himself as English, so he wants to be ‘fashionable,’” says Julie Miller, early American historian in the Manuscript Division.

Washington was particularly concerned with fashionable appearances and, according to Miller, wrote about it so often that he abbreviated the word to “fash.” He exported his tobacco crop to London to pay for the luxuries and other goods he would import, such as gloves, ribbon, fabric, china, even delicate Chinese table ornaments for his home in Philadelphia. There’s an item for a “pair of gloves for Kennedy to wear.” According to Miller, the gloves were for one of Washington’s slaves to better handle said ornaments.

“He was the first president of the United States, so he wanted to present well to foreign diplomats,” she added.

Washington also kept records of his charitable donations, including money given to beggars, refugees and needy family members. A curious item to note is a lottery ticket he bought from a soldier, who was selling pieces of land in order to raise money for himself.

“His spending was typical for a man of his ilk, but because he was wealthy, he bore the brunt of it,” said Miller. “He was at the center of his neighborhood, and a lot of people relied on him.”

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George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, between 1980 and 2006. Prints and Photographs Division.

His military accounts are also interesting. There wasn’t a division between his home and military life. While Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army, he refused to accept a salary and, instead, claimed only his expenses. These expenses included not only his personal accounts but expenses for his headquarters, secret intelligence and traveling expenses for his headquarters and guards.

Washington’s financial accounts are full of nuggets of information that further add to our understanding of the man himself. While we may view him as a larger-than-life historical figure, he was simply a man of his time. I even found line items of money exchanged playing cards and billiards!

A further look into Washington’s financial records can be found in these blog posts: on his weaving workshop and his business dealings with women.

Rare Book of the Month: “King Winter” – A Book to Bring in the Season

(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.) 

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“King Winter,” by Gustav W. Seitz. 1859. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

You’ve heard of Jack Frost and most certainly St. Nicholas. But how about King Winter?

a rare German children’s book written by Gustav W. Seitz and published around 1859 in Hamburg, borrows from Germanic and Norse traditions with a winter solstice figure like that of Father Time or Father Winter.

King Winter serves as the embodiment of the Christmas Spirit as he leaves his palace of snow to bring winter to the land and reward obedient children with holiday sweets. He also has helpers who are the personification of winter’s effects, including Queen Winter who “spreads all over the earth, a carpet of downy snow,” and Jack Frost who is the king’s right hand man and decorates the world in frost and ice.

It is said of Jack Frost: “Old Jack is a good and sturdy fellow, and serves their Majesties well; He’s here he’s there he’s everywhere. And does more than I can tell.”

The Scandinavian notion of King Winter who rewards good children with presents has undergone a number of transformations through time. In the third century, he becomes the Christian Saint Nicholas. And in modern times, we widely know this character as Santa Claus, the jovial bearded old man who wears a red suit and delivers presents to children on his sleigh driven by eight reindeer.

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Illustration from the book showing icicles being hung.

The charming illustrations throughout this book are rendered by process called chromolithography, which is a type of lithography. Lithography is a form of printing with oil and water that is impressed onto a plate made of metal or stone and then is stamped onto paper leaving a graphic image. With chromolithography, two or more applications of color are impressed individually on the same graphic image, creating a multi-colored print. Previous to the invention of this process, pages were hand-colored. The process was long, tedious and often expensive. The advent of lithography brought about mass production of prints in books, and chromolithography improved upon the visual richness of this medium.

This children’s book is from the Juvenile Collection within the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Over time, the Library of Congress has assembled an immense collection of American children’s books, and the Rare Book Division has brought together approximately 15,000 volumes of particular interest. Though the overwhelming majority of books in the collection originated in America, there are distinguished British and continental books and American editions of works of foreign authors as well.

Other Resources at the Library of Congress

Digital Collection of Rare Children’s Books

Images from the Prints and Photographs Division of Jack Frost:

Have I had a good time? I’ve been painting the town white for two nights
Winter at last

Sheet Music written about Jack Frost from the Music Division:

Jack Frost’s Arrival
Jack Frost Galop
Little Jack Frost

Highlighting the Holidays: A Tale of Two Publishings

“A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens. New York, Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

On this day in 1843, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” was published. Or was it? While researching the book’s history, there appeared to be some confusion over the date, with many sources confirming December 19 as the day Ebenezer Scrooge was introduced to readers.

As it turns out, the book has a somewhat complicated publishing history, owing to different copies that were made.

Dickens feverishly wrote his classic Christmas tale in about six weeks. Because of the disappointment of his serialized “Martin Chuzzlewit,” the author was hoping to produce something that would be both popular and profitable. Dickens set out to tell the tale of a miserly old man called on to repent his ways and make “mankind … charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence” his business.

Finished by the end of November 1843, Dickens worked with his publishers Chapman and Hall to produce the work through a rather unorthodox arrangement – he incurred all the costs of the publishing but would also gain all the profits. Dickens was certain his book would be a financial success.

However, “A Christmas Carol” proved to be costly to produce, due to Dickens’ insistence on a lavish format. An article in The Guardian’s book blog notes the author required “a fancy binding stamped with gold lettering on the spine and front cover; gilded edges on the paper all around; four full-page, hand-colored etchings and four woodcuts by John Leech; half-title and title pages printed in bright red and green; and hand-colored green endpapers to match the green of the title page.”

Charles Dickens in his study at Gadshill Place. Samuel Hollyer, 1875. Prints and Photographs Division.

Dickens scrapped some of this initial plan and changed out the green title page to blue. And while the green endpapers were first choice, at some point in the publishing process, they were switched out for yellow.

On Dec. 17. 1843, Dickens was given presentation copies to hand out among friends and acquaintances. The known copies had the red and blue title page and yellow endpapers. It’s also interesting to note some text discrepancies.

In these early copies, chapters are designated as “Stave I,” “Stave II” and so forth, and the Table of Contents also lists the staves with Roman numerals. However, in the original, uncorrected text, Stave I is designated with a Roman numeral while the rest of the chapters have the numbers written out.

Ultimately, copies of “A Christmas Carol” exist in various forms, with combinations of title pages, endpapers and chapter headings.

The Library holds the first edition, first issue (with title papers in red and blue and green end papers) in addition to one with the yellow endpapers. Both have the described “Stave I” of the first chapter heading followed by the uncorrected text.

On Dec. 19, Chapman and Hall released an initial print run of 6,000 copies of “A Christmas Carol” that sold out by Christmas Eve. Cost of the book was five shillings. Unfortunately, the overwhelming public response didn’t equal a large sum of money in Dickens’ pocket. Even after numerous printings into the next year, his profits were only about £726.

In America, interest was slow to take off, perhaps owing to Dickens’ criticisms in “American Notes for General Circulation,” a recounting of his trip to the states in 1842.

The traveling cutlery kit owned by Charles Dickens, marked with his initials and used by him during his travels to the United States in the 1860s. Steel spoon, knife and corkscrew unfold from ivory-covered case. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Needless to say, “A Christmas Carol” is firmly ensconced in literary heritage – and even in theater, movies and music! In addition to the rare presentation copies, the Library holds numerous other editions including this digitized copy from 1911.

The Library also holds first editions of many important Dickens’ works, including “David Copperfield,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” “Master Humphrey’s Clock,” “The Old Curiosity Shop,” “Baraby Rudge,” “Little Dorrit,” “Our Mutual Friend,” “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” “Oliver Twist,” “Sketches by Boz” and “Great Expectations,” among others. Our collections even include his traveling kit and walking stick.

For further reading about the Dickens’ classic, check out this blog post from the Inside Adams blog and this one from the Library’s National Audio-Video Conservation Center.

And make sure to join us over the next few days as we highlight more historical treasures in celebration of the holiday season. You can catch up on previous years here. Happy Holidays!

Sources: history.com, John J. Burns Library Blog, The Victorian Web

 

Good Timing for a Sliming

This year’s list of 25 noteworthy films named to the Library of Congress National Film Registry is out, and it includes some well-known favorites: “Ghostbusters,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Top Gun,” even the original Douglas Fairbanks vehicle “Zorro.”  Films are annually named to the registry that are culturally, historically or aesthetically important; the object is preservation for posterity. Each film named must be at least 10 years old.

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The many frames making up the short, historic film “The Sneeze”

Ghostbusters – when you hear that word, do you think of marshmallows, or green slime? There’s probably some sort of Rorschach-y test there – leads this year’s subcategory that might be termed “tales of the weird.” In addition to the 1984 movie about a small business staffed by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis that went around vacuuming up ectoplasms, this year’s list also includes the 1931 Spanish-language version of “Dracula” (which some reviewers consider better than the Bela Lugosi version in English) and a 1906 early special-effects movie, “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend,” about a man who overeats the cheesy dish known as Welsh Rarebit, then falls into a nightmare-ridden sleep. It was based on a comic strip by the famed Winsor McCay, who also created the dreamlike “Little Nemo” strip and was among the pioneers of early animation. Later in his career, he also drew editorial cartoons.

The other big subcategory this year might be titled “Heroes and Anti-Heroes.” In addition to Zorro, based on a script written and submitted by Douglas Fairbanks under a pen name when he realized his career playing leads in romantic comedies was fading, this year’s list includes the movies “Top Gun” (1986) starring Tom Cruise, “John Henry and the Inky-Poo” (1946) which animates the folktale of the steel-drivin’ man who works himself to death proving his superiority to a steel-driving machine, and “Hail the Conquering Hero” (1944), a wry comedy about a Marine driven from the service by hay fever who is forced to pretend to be a hero, because he told his mother a set of tall tales in letters he wrote home before mustering out.

The list also includes the 1979 Peter Sellers/Shirley MacLaine film “Being There,” based on a Jerzy Kosinski novel; “Black and Tan” (1929), a brief movie starring Duke Ellington and an African-American cast and set at the Cotton Club; “L.A. Confidential,” the 1997 homage to film noir starring Russell Crowe and and Kevin Spacey; “A Fool There Was” (1915), the movie that introduced the world to Theda Bara, the original “vamp”; and “The Shawshank Redemption,” the Tim Robbins/Morgan Freeman prison-friendship movie that many movie fans consider their favorite film.

There are also some historic rarities: “The Sneeze” (1894), a film made by the Edison studios and originally presented as a published sequence of photos; and “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One,” a 1968 film by African-American documentary-maker William Greaves, who also co-hosted and produced the show “Black Journal” on public TV. Greaves’ film is a movie about making a movie, and a lot more.

You can, and should, nominate films for next year’s National Film Registry: a list of films that are yet-undesignated is here.

Enjoy the movies.

 

 

10 Stories: The End of the World! Chronicling America

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ve been sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts.

Today we return to our historical newspaper archives for stories about the END OF THE WORLD! Just goes to show you, people seem to be worried about these things all the time. The big question: when?

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“Scientists predict that the comet of 1866 will strike the earth Monday and this is what will happen.” Well, there you have it. Detail from the Daily Inter Mountain of Butte, Mont., Nov. 11, 1899.

1867: “The Year of Terrors”

“Outpouring of the Vials of Wrath—Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Cyclones—Tremendous Convulsions on Earth and in the Heavens—Meteors, Comets, and Revolutions—The Islands that Flee Away, and the Mountains that are not Found—The Appalling Wonders of 1867.” And that’s just the headline! Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, Dec. 6, 1867.

1875: “The End of the World”

The Helena Weekly Herald of Nov. 18, 1875, leads with this pretty dire account, but we’re not so sure the editors buy into it, as it appears adjacent to details on how to subscribe to the paper for up to a year.

Monday, Nov. 13, 1899: “The Earth Will Come to an End Monday”

Among the most specific predictions ever, courtesy of another one of those pesky eminent Viennese scientists. Daily Inter-Mountain of Butte, Mont., Nov. 11, 1899.

1901: “What Has Happened Once Will Occur Again—The Law of Cycles”

So says the San Francisco Call of Oct. 4, 1896: “Five Years From Next December, the Sun and the Planets Will Bear about the Same Relation to the Earth as in the Year of the Great Deluge.” Well, they were off by five years, the specific plague and a degree of magnitude—but San Francisco DID get a cataclysmic earthquake and fire in 1906.

1910: “Halley’s Comet Is Already Making Trouble on Earth”

As in ancient times, the occasional astronomical anomaly can get folks worked up, as the New York Tribune scoffs on May 8, 1910. “Hysterical People Consulting Astrologers and Expecting the Worst.” Plus: “There Was Fear in Chicago…” those skittish midwesterners!

1918-ish: “Will End of World Come After the War?”

The religious writer for the Seattle Star suggests modern signs of biblical prophecies of end times following World War I, described at the time as “the War to End All Wars,” Oct. 3, 1917.

Dec. 17, 1919: “Tremendous World Catastrophe to Happen on Dec. 17?”

“Professor Porta Insists That the Peculiar Grouping of the Planets Next Month Will Produce a Gigantic Sun Spot Which Will Explode the Earth’s Volcanoes, Shake Us with Earthquakes and Bury Us with Floods, but the Government Scientists Explain Why All This Is Not Likely to Happen.” Terror and reassurance, all in one extended headline in the Washington Times, Nov. 9, 1919.

Mid-20th Century: “A Coming Cataclysm”

In the Pittsburg[h] (Pa.) Dispatch of Sept. 14, 1890, Professor Jos. Rodes Buchanan is quoted quite correctly predicting social and political upheaval (and war) in Europe within a decade, then goes on to suggest social and political revolution in the United States. He was close on the latter: there was a great deal of social change during the first two decades in the U.S., but nothing approaching “cataclysmic” revolution.

Not 1933: “When Will the World Come to an End?”

In which J.P. Cole refutes a prior assertion by J.T. Boyd that the world will be destroyed by a comet in 1933. However, Cole makes no specific predictions of his own. St. Paul (Minn.) Globe, Jan. 18, 1903.

Any Time Now: “Science Finds a Force That Could Blow Up the Earth”

A somewhat clear-eyed discussion of the “explosive power of hydrogen,” which we still hope today “is more likely to serve life than to endanger it.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 14, 1922.

Millions of Years Away: “End of the World”

To end on a calming note: Camille Flammarion presents a reasoned view in describing “various ways in which our Earth may cease to exist.” Take heart: our fate appears to be quite some time off. New York Tribune, April 8, 1906.

Speaking of Chronicling America, the National Endowment for the Humanities (our partner in the project) has launched a nationwide contest, challenging you to produce creative web-based projects using data pulled from the newspaper archives website. We’re looking for data visualizations, web-based tools or other innovative web-based projects using the open data found on Chronicling America. NEH will award cash prizes, and the contest closes June 15, 2016.

Launched by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2007, Chronicling America provides enhanced and permanent access to historically significant newspapers published in the United States between 1836 and 1922. It is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint effort between the two agencies and partners in 40 states and territories. Start exploring the first draft of history today at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov and help us celebrate on Twitter and Facebook by sharing your findings and using the hashtags #ChronAm #10Million.

From Russia With Love: Illustrated Children’s Books in Hebrew

(The following is a post by Ann Brener, Hebraic area specialist in the Library ’s African and Middle Eastern Division.)

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“La-Sevivon” (“To the Dreidel”). Omanut Press, ca. 1921. Original poem by Zalman Shneur. 

Imagine that some brightly plumed bird-of-paradise has flown in amongst your backyard warblers, and you’ll probably know how I felt upon discovering a beautifully illustrated book in the vaults of the Library of Congress. Nestled between ancient Hebrew treasures – the huge volumes of Talmud, the thickly bound Bibles, the time-worn prayer-books and commentaries – I found myself gazing down at a book open to the image you see here to the left.

What was this book? Clearly it was a very old picture book for children, which is what surprised me so greatly. Today, in Israel, Hebrew picture books get churned out by the cartloads, but this one was printed in “Moscow-Odessa” and in a style that stunned me by its avant-garde beauty and its whiff of the early 1900s. No date and no author – just a title proclaiming it to be “La-Sevivon” (“To the Dreidel”), published by Hotz’at Omanut (“Art Press”). In other words, as I was soon to discover, the volume was one of the very first picture books ever published for children in Hebrew. And the story behind its publication proved fascinating.

It all began in Moscow, in the summer of 1917. Russia was in the throes of revolution and even established presses were finding it hard to obtain supplies or even get their workers past the street battles raging just outside their doors. It was hardly the most auspicious time to be launching a new publishing venture. That it got published at all was due to one woman – Shoshana Zlatopolsky Persitz, the 24-year old founder of Omanut Press and its guiding spirit over the years to come.

Persitz was the daughter of Hillel Zlatopolsky, a sugar tycoon well known for his generous patronage of Jewish culture in early 20th-century Russia. Like her father – and indeed like many of the Jewish intelligentsia in Russia and elsewhere – Persitz was passionately committed to the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, seeing it as the natural choice for the pioneers rebuilding the Jewish homeland in Palestine. Ever the educationalist, Persitz wanted Jewish children to acquire a love for the Hebrew language while young. Yet, to her dismay, there were no beautiful picture books in Hebrew with which to instill this love. While the children of other nations were brought up on the wonderful children’s stories illustrated by the likes of Walter Crane, Arthur Rackham and Ivan Biliben, Jewish children, as Persitz was to recall many decades later, “had no books of their own” through which to enjoy a similar experience. And thus Omanut Press was born.

It was surely no coincidence that Persitz named her new publishing house Omanut, or “Art” in Hebrew. In Russia, the “World of Art” (“Mir iskusstva”) was the leading periodical for the Russian avant-garde and by linking her own venture to this prestigious arbiter of taste, Persitz proclaimed her own commitment to the highest standards of modern art and literature.

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“The Roosters and the Fox,” by Chaim Nachman Bialik. Omanut Press, ca. 1921.

Unfortunately, the Russian Revolution soon caught up with Persitz’s best-laid plans, with the Bolsheviks nationalizing the press and taking over her equipment. A year after opening and before a single book had even been published, Omanut closed its doors in Moscow and moved to Odessa, a bustling port on the Black Sea located in the Ukraine and as yet untouched by the Revolution. Odessa was already a flourishing center of Jewish culture, home to such luminaries of Modern Hebrew literature as Mendele Mocher Sforim and Chaim Nachman Bialik. But the events of 1917 sent even more Jewish writers and artists pouring in.

With such a stable of local talent from which to draw, Odessa was to prove fertile ground indeed for Omanut. Bialik himself created the text for one of the books: a beautiful rhymed version of a medieval fox-fable. Zalman Shneur, famous novelist in Hebrew and Yiddish, wrote the poem for “To the Dreidel.” Another book was a translation by Asher Ginzberg, renowned Zionist thinker better known by his pen name Ahad ha-Am.

“To Please Everybody.” Omanut Press, ca. 1921. Russian folktale adapted by Tolstoy; translated into Hebrew by Ahad Ha-Am (Asher Ginzberg).

It was also Jewish art students at the Odessa School of Art that provided the beautiful illustrations accompanying these and half a dozen other books published by Omanut. The group of four young men in their early 20s signed collectively as “Havurat tsayarim” or “a Group of Painters” in Hebrew.

As the Bolsheviks advanced on the Ukraine, Persitz relocated again, this time to Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany. There she republished the beautiful picture books illustrated by the young art students in Odessa and also began publishing the polished Hebrew translations of world literature for children by which the press was to become famous.

In 1925, Omanut left Europe altogether, establishing itself once and for all in Tel-Aviv. Yet the end of Omanut’s odyssey was also to prove something of a beginning for Persitz, whose contributions to Jewish education were quickly recognized by the leaders of the emerging Jewish State. For years she played a key role in the Tel-Aviv Department of Education, and in 1949 she was elected to the first Knesset (“Legislative Assembly”) of the newly established State of Israel, chairing the Committee of Education and Culture.

By the time Omanut closed its doors in 1945, its books had become a staple of education for several generations of Israeli youth, introducing them to such world-class authors as Victor Hugo, Jules Verne and Lewis Carrol. The exquisite picture books, however, were apparently never reissued and remain almost completely unknown even to dedicated bibliophiles.

On Tuesday, Dec. 15, at noon, Ann Brener gives an illustrated lecture on the legacy of Shoshana Zlatopolsky Persitz, including a rare opportunity to see these and other exceptional children’s books. More information can be found here. The presentation will be taped and will later be accessible here. 

Library in the News: November 2015 Edition

Willie Nelson was the talk of the town as the Library celebrated his work and career during a concert in November, as he received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

“When Willie took the stage to accept the Gershwin prize, you could see the pride on his face,” wrote Brendan Kownacki for Hollywood on the Potomac. “He joked the evening was ‘a lot of great music, and I remember SOME of it.’ Kidding aside though, he declared this ‘one of the greatest things to happen to me’ and noted that a lot has happened in his 83 years.”

“Willie Nelson concerts tend to be boisterous affairs, with hippies and hillbillies dancing to the music side by side,” wrote Juli Thanki for The Tennessean. “Wednesday night’s event at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., a star-studded tribute to Nelson, the 2015 recipient of the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, was a little more staid (the audience featured several members of Congress in suits and ties), but no less adoring.”

Other stories ran in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and on Associated Press TV.

Don’t miss the broadcast Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. Eastern on PBS stations.

While Nelson was being inaugurated as the seventh Gershwin Prize winner, author Kate DiCamillo was enjoying her final days as the 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

She had this to say to The Washington Post: “When I first set out on my journey as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature … I wanted to let people know that we can all — young and old — connect more deeply through stories. But oddly, what happened is that as I worked to deliver the message, the message was delivered to me. By that I mean that I have traveled all over the country. I have visited people gathered together in classrooms, libraries, lunchrooms, bookstores, community centers, auditoriums, gymnasiums and theaters.

“And everywhere that I have gone, people have welcomed me. They have opened themselves to me. Over and over again, I have looked up from the page I am reading and seen faces gathered together, listening.”

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the Library’s Veterans History Project (VHP) was also recognized.

“Americans will pause Wednesday to remember the nation’s veterans. But one Library of Congress project is working to ensure veterans’ stories are preserved for years to come,” Bridget Bowman wrote for Roll Call.

NBC4’s special report, “Saluting Our Veterans,” provided an in-depth look at the work the project does in collecting the wartime remembrances of our nation’s veterans.

The Washington City Paper highlighted a new VHP initiative: to collect the stories of D.C.-area veterans.

“A number of reasons may explain why D.C.-area vets are underrepresented in the Library’s archives,” wrote Andrew Giambrone. “(Andrew) Huber says the project has historically relied on word-of-mouth and its partner organizations to reach veterans; additionally, many veterans in D.C. area (especially affluent ones) may not take advantage of local services that function as access points for the VHP.”

The Veterans History Project is part of the Library’s American Folklife Center. In addition to collecting stories of the nation’s veterans, the center also partners with StoryCorps, whose oral interviews are archived at the Library. This Thanksgiving, StoryCorps introduced “The Great Thanksgiving Listen,” inviting any child to record an interview with a grandparent or another elder using a free StoryCorps app.

“‘There are certain things we don’t talk about, and don’t ask’ in ordinary conversation. But knowing people may listen to this generations from now, he (StoryCorp Founder Dave Isay) says, means we ‘talk about things you don’t usually,’” reported KJ Dell’Antonia for The New York Times. “‘Ask ‘is there anything that you want to tell me now that you’ve never told me before?’ Often these really surprising and wonderful things happen.’”

Other stories ran on Mashable, Huffington Post and USA Today.

Going to Extremes: The Greatest Wedding Cake on Earth?

(The following is an article written by Audrey Fischer, managing editor of the Library of Congress Magazine, and featured in the November/December 2015 issue. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

The Library’s food collections include once-edible artifacts.

Minnie Maddern Fiske and her husband, theater manager Harrison Grey Fiske. Tom Thumb’s widow sent the cake to Harrison Fiske in 1905, perhaps hoping that it would lead to stage work or some publicity for her autobiography published the following year. At the time, Fiske was editor of “The New York Dramatic Mirror.”

“The public are under the impression that I am not living,” she noted in her letter to Fiske, which accompanied the slice of cake. In 1885 she married Count Primo Magri—two inches shorter than her first husband. To support their lavish lifestyle, the couple continued to perform into their later years.

Recent “food finds” in the Library’s collections include a hand-made greeting card decorated with rice sent to civil rights activist Rosa Parks by her nephew and a candy conversation heart from the 1920s in the Coolidge-Pollard Families Papers—a collection related to the maternal side of President Calvin Coolidge’s family.

Looking Back on the Bus Boycott

(The following post is by Jeanne Theoharis, distinguished professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and the author of the award-winning “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.” A revised edition of the book has just been published with a new introduction drawn from the recently opened papers at the Library of Congress.)

“We are having a difficult time here, but we are not discouraged. The increased pressure seems to strengthen us for the next blow.”

            –Rosa Parks writing a colleague during the Montgomery bus boycott

Rosa Parks waving from a United Air Lines jetway in Seattle, Washington. Photograph by Gil Baker, 1956. Rosa Parks Papers, Library of Congress.

Sixty years ago, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. Her decision lead to a yearlong bus boycott and galvanized a new chapter of the modern black freedom struggle. But too often it ends there. In our public imagination of the boycott, she kicks it off and then fades into the background. The movement just seems to happen.

The problem with this story is that it backgrounds all the work – the organizing, the building, the fundraising and traveling – that laid the ground work for that moment to turn into a movement and the effort that kept it going for a year. It turns the Montgomery bus boycott into an obvious event that was destined to succeed, rather than one created by the visions, efforts and continued steadfastness of ordinary people.

What transformed Rosa Parks’ courageous refusal into a movement was a group of seasoned activists in place in Montgomery and a community that united in struggle. Rosa Parks was one of those seasoned activists. Yet the crucial part she played in the boycott’s continuation, not simply as its spark, has not been widely acknowledged. The new collection of Rosa Parks’ papers and photographs that opened at the Library of Congress last February demonstrates vividly the significant role Rosa Parks played not just in catalyzing but in laying the groundwork and maintaining the yearlong bus boycott.

Parks’ papers had languished out-of-sight for nearly a decade following her death in 2005, because of a dispute over her estate. In fall 2014 the Howard Buffett Foundation bought the papers and entrusted them to the Library of Congress as a 10-year loan. These newly opened papers confirm her “life history of being rebellious,” as she put it – that began decades before her bus stand and continued for decades after. While many across the country will be marking the 60th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott and Rosa Parks’ galvanizing act, this essay quotes from speech notes, letters and other personal writings found in the Library’s collection to frame the story through her own words.

For more than a decade before her bus stand, Rosa Parks worked alongside union activist E.D. Nixon to transform Montgomery’s NAACP into a more activist chapter – “getting registered to vote, examin[ing] cases of police brutality, rape, murder, countless others.” She found it demoralizing, if understandable, that in the decade before the boycott “the masses seemed not to put forth too much effort to struggle against the status quo,” and she noted how those who challenged the racial order like she did were labeled “radicals, sore heads, agitators, trouble makers.”

Parks understood that her refusal to give up her seat meant she might “be manhandled but I was willing to take the chance. … I suppose when you live this experience…getting arrested doesn’t seem so bad.” Though the rightness of her actions may seem self-evident today, at the time, those who challenged segregation were often treated as “troublemakers” by many white people and some black people. Her writings show how she struggled with feeling “desolate” and crazy, even amidst other sympathetic individuals. “Such a good job of brain washing was done on the Negro,” Parks observed, “that a militant Negro was almost a freak of nature to them, many times ridiculed by others of his own group.”

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Rosa and Raymond Parks, seated at a banquet table (left side, third and fourth chair), likely at an NAACP branch meeting, Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1947. Photographer not identified.

Her surprise and delight at the movement that followed her refusal to give up her seat on the bus on Dec. 1, 1955, comes through clearly, calling the community’s reaction to her arrest “startling” in a letter to a friend. In speeches, she noted the power of organized protest on the participants themselves “We surprised the world and ourselves at the success of the protest.”

Rosa Parks lost her job five weeks after her arrest, as did her husband, and they struggled economically for many years. Despite her family’s own imperiled situation, Rosa Parks spent much of the boycott year on the road raising attention and funds for the movement back home. As she told a Pittsburgh audience in 1957, the “2 block bus ride of Dec. 1 has taken me to many places.” Going from Seattle to Los Angeles, from New York to Baltimore to Chicago to Indianapolis, by bus, car, train and plane, she brought news of the boycott across the country, turning a local struggle into a national one. Photos, datebooks, programs and speech notes found in the collection reveal her key role in raising attention and funds for the movement back home. White lawyer Clifford Durr referred to her as one of the Montgomery Improvement Association’s best fundraisers. According to news reports, she spoke “brilliantly” to audiences, while in letters home she wrote about how heady yet tiring her experiences were.

Rosa Parks collecting NAACP membership dues of $2.00, likely during her trip to Los Angeles, California, in 1956. Photograph by McLain’s Photo Service. Rosa Parks Papers, Library of Congress.

For one month, Parks also served as a dispatcher in the car pool created to sustain the year-long boycott. Police and local whites constantly harassed the car pool. Attempting to break the boycott, the city indicted 89 boycott leaders (including Parks) in February 1956. But people kept going. The boycott is “more than successful,” Parks wrote, “in spite of all the obstacles placed against us.” Her faith sustained her. “I do not feel alone, God is with me,” she told a reporter.

Rosa Parks saw the point of the protest as larger than a seat on the bus but dismantling a system of oppression. On the back of a program the day the Supreme Court declared Montgomery’s bus segregation unconstitutional, her speech notes read “happy to hear of it,” but there was “more work to be done.” Despite the boycott’s successful end, the Parkses still continued to receive death threats and couldn’t find steady work. Eight months later, they left Montgomery for Detroit, where her brother lived. There, Rosa Parks would remain active in the struggle for justice in Detroit and across the country for the next half a century.

Looking at Rosa Parks’ actions during the boycott demonstrates vividly there was nothing predestined about its success. People chose, amidst threats to their person and their livelihood, to take repeated action to make it happen. But the version we are often taught turns it into a museum piece to be admired, the gold standard of American protest now mistakenly used to diminish contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter. By reading Rosa Parks’ papers, we see the effort and sacrifice the boycott took and the lessons and parallels it offers to struggles for justice today.

Selected items from the Rosa Parks collection will be accessible online in the early months of 2016. A few resources are currently available as part of this primary source gallery for teachers.