By: Jennifer Baker

This weekend, C-SPAN 2: BOOKTV aired a short video on a few items in the Rare Book collection here at NCSU. In the video, Eli Brown, Head of the Special Collections Research Center, discusses several early entomology books from the Friedrich F. Tippmann collection. These books have beautiful, detailed engravings and as Eli turns the pages she recounts the history, biography, or in one case tragedy, that accompany each volume.

If you are interested in seeing any of these books, please contact the  Special Collections Research Center .

By: Kristen Merryman

The Cultivating a Revolution project team has just finished digitizing the project reports series from the Department of Horticulture Records.  Included in the series is a folder that holds a report that was requested by Governor Jim Hunt in 1982 from the College of Agriculture and Life Science on how North Carolina could expand it’s production in agriculture in areas beyond tobacco.  The report was to be included in a finalized report about the future of the state’s economy as a whole that was to be put together by the “Commission on the Future of North Carolina” or as it was commonly known, NC 2000.

The letter sent out to department faculty soliciting input for this report reflects a growing reality in the early 1980s in NC agriculture – that tobacco was going to fade as the primary crop of NC and that new crops needed to be identified that could become a good source of income for NC farmers.  The Dean of the School of Agriculture wrote:

“In 1981 tobacco accounted for a major portion of the farm income in North Carolina and was among our most profitable agricultural enterprise in terms of returns to capital investment, labor, and management.  Although the “tobacco program” will undoubtedly undergo modification to comply with the federal mandate that the program operate at no cost to the federal government, tobacco will undoubtedly remain a primary source of agricultural income in North Carolina.  It is, however, incumbent on our School to identify other profit generating agricultural enterprises for North Carolina farmers.”

In the report there are maps of assorted crops that the horticulture faculty thought had the potential to be greatly expanded in the state, including many that we identify as primary NC crops today in 2013, such as strawberries, blueberries, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers.

Strawberry production by county, 1977-1979

Blueberry production by county, 1977-1979

To read the whole report, visit our site here. And to learn more about the Department of Horticulture and other materials digitized as part of the Cultivating a Revolution project, check our website: http://go.ncsu.edu/car

By: Kristen Merryman

A lot of the materials we’ve digitized for the Cultivating a Revolution project is work of faculty and students at NCSU and also highlights the work of ordinary farmers in testing the research.  But these are not the only people that shaped the economy of agriculture in the mid 20th century.  Politicians and the government also played a large role in shaping agriculture policy (as they still do today, with items such as the Farm Bill that is currently up for debate in Congress.)  Several of the films digitized for the project are clips of speeches given by local and national politicians about various aspects of agriculture policy.  A few of those films are highlighted below.

Lt. Governor of NC Jim Hunt discussing his past experience with agriculture

President John F. Kennedy speaking at a national dairy convention in 1963

Senator Jesse Helms discussing the 1977 Agriculture Act

Commissioner of NC Agriculture, Jim Graham on anti-tobacco proponents in NC

To view more films from the project and other digitized materials, visit http://go.ncsu.edu/cultivatingarevolution.

By: Kristen Merryman

Contributed by Holly Withrow.

In addition to the Agricultural Chemicals School, now the Crop Protection School, discussed in our blog post last week, many other continuing education programs related to agriculture are held here at NCSU.  These include schools such as the “Peach School,” and the “Apple Pest Control School.”

Above is an example for a program for an Annual Peach School, put on by NCSU.  This school is one of many that NC State sponsored over the years to reach out to the public and keep them up to date and educated on many fields related to agriculture.

Above is a diagram of the life-cycle of Apple Blotch Fungus, a handout from the 1949 session.  The Apple Pest Control School was held in two locations, Hendersonville and Wilkesboro.  The Plant Pathology department had received so many inquiries about this subject from apple growers and had not had enough personnel to address them all.  To solve this problem, the Apple Pest Control Schools were designed to focus on the pressing issues of disease, rodents, and insects and their effects on apple production.

To get more information on these and other Schools held by the Plant Pathology Department and other departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, check out the Cultivating a Revolution project!

By: Jennifer Baker

contributed by Beth DeBold.

The Special Collections Research Center owns two large sets of books, printed approximately prior to 1700. The first is the complete works of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, a Spanish poet and playwright, and the second is the complete works of Aristotle.

The Complete Works of Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Printed between 1698 and 1731, Calderón’s works are spread out across nine volumes. This set presented something of a mystery to me, as the printing years did not correspond neatly with the volume numbers. For example, the first part was printed in 1726, while the ninth part was printed in 1698. In between, the volumes jump from 1715 to 1731. Additionally, several different printing houses printed different volumes. However, all the volumes NCSU owns appear to have been bound and kept as a set for some time, as their bindings are identical vellum covers dating from approximately the eighteenth century, with the title, author’s name, and volume number inked in similar handwriting and design along the spines. The sole exception is volume six, which has been rebound in a different, likely mid-twentieth century binding. Since it’s missing the title page, it is unfortunately impossible to tell when it was printed, or by whom.

Primera Parte de Comedias, 1726

The most likely explanation for the variation in printers and dates is that printing houses sometimes collaborated on large works such as this. Philip Gaskell, in his A New Introduction to Bibliography, notes “individual volumes of four collections of plays by Calderón were set at two or three separate printing-houses in Madrid in the 1670s.” Although these volumes were published between 1698 and 1731, it is possible that they might be a product of that concurrent production. But how were these volumes collected, and bound as a set? We may never know.

The Complete Works of Aristotle

The set of Aristotle’s works is similarly mystifying. All the volumes are bound in potentially contemporary vellum with gold decoration, or “tooling”, overlaying the simple ink inscriptions on the spine. This seems to indicate that the eleven volumes have also been kept together as a set for some time. All of the volumes were printed in 1560, excepting the eleventh and final volume, which was printed in 1562. Tridino Montisferrati, a Venetian printer, printed each one in NCSU’s set. Again, although it seems likely that this set has stayed together since the sixteenth century, it could be impossible to tell without intense study. Even then, we would never be completely certain regarding its specific history. The formation and planning that went into printing a set is a fascinating subject, and one into which I hope to delve more deeply in future research.

If you are interested in this or any of the other books that have been discussed in this blog, please contact the Special Collections Research Center .

Resources:

Gaskell, P. (2012). A new introduction to bibliography. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, p. 168.

By: Kristen Merryman

Front of the 1971 Program

Back of the 1971 Program

The 5,300 students who graduated last weekend at PNC Arena are not the only type of student that North Carolina State University serves.  Continuing education, particularly for farmers, is something that NCSU has been involved in since the university opened its doors over a century ago.  Recognizing that many of those who could most use the information learned in research done at the university are not the regular college-aged student, “schools” such as the Agricultural Chemical School have been held annually to teach in a short period of time (usually a week, or weekend) the newest information about a particular topic.

Comments and Suggestions from Attendees to the 1960 School

The Agricultural Chemical School or “Pesticide School” was started in 1948 and was typically held over a weekend in January, the off-season for farmers.  It was attended by both farmers and those in the pesticide development industry and educated the attendees on the latest research and techniques on pesticide use, both being done at NCSU and across the country.  The program has remained popular and continues to this day, although the School is currently called the Crop Protection School and is run jointly by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Office of Professional Development, a unit of Continuing & Professional Education.  he focus of the School today remains much the same as when it started, to “present information on the effectiveness, safe application, and proper use of agricultural chemicals for the benefit of dealers, applicators, formulators, manufacturers, county Extension agents, farm superintendents, vocational agriculture teachers, and other agricultural leaders.”  The Special Collections Research Center, as part of the Cultivating a Revolution digitization project, has just completed digitization of all the materials held in the Agriculture Chemicals School Records.  Those materials can be found here.

Tally of types of Registrants to the School in 1967

To learn about the history of other continuing education programs at NCSU in agriculture, check out our digitization project, “Cultivating a Revolution.”

By: Jennifer Baker

contributed by Beth DeBold.

One of my favorite texts in the pre-1700 imprints here at NCSU was De la Demonomanie des Sorciers by Jean Bodin. I enjoyed all of the books with which I worked for different reasons, but beyond aesthetically pleasing covers and woodcuts, I fell in love with several items for their content alone. Bodin’s influential work on demonology and witchcraft was one such.

De la Demonomanie des Sorciers, 1598

A philosopher and politician, Bodin was active in the upper echelons of society in late sixteenth century France. At this time, there was a great deal of religious tension across Europe following the Protestant Reformation—although Bodin was nominally Catholic, he made it clear in many of his writings that he did not ascribe to one particular faith. Instead, his writings are filled with non-denominational vagaries, a trend that papal officials found suspicious.

De la Demonomanie des Sorciers, or On the Demon-mania of Witches, was first published in 1580. Although slightly mysterious regarding many of his beliefs, Bodin did believe deeply in the powers of the Devil, as well as in the prevalence of men and women to practice witchcraft through his evil influence. This treatise discusses magic and witchcraft in depth, as well as how to identify and torture practitioners, whom Bodin viewed as a growing threat to the French state. In effect, this is a casebook on the prosecution of witches for the legal minds of the time. Divided into four parts, Bodin’s work concludes with an additional chapter refuting the writings of Johann Weyer, a Dutch demonologist who disagreed with Bodin’s approach.

Ironically, Jean Bodin’s interest in and knowledge of witchcraft, combined with his less-than-enthusiastic commitment to Catholicism, caused him to come under suspicion of witchcraft himself. In June of 1587, authorities ordered his home searched, and he was saved further indignity (and possible accusation) only when several influential friends intervened and vouched for him. Nevertheless, his criticism of Catholicism earned many of his works a place on the Church’s Index of Prohibited Books, including De la Demonomanie des Sorciers in 1594.

NCSU’s copy of this work was published in 1598 in Paris. This leads me to wonder about the exact circumstances of its printing. Already banned by the Catholic Church, and written by a man suspected of consorting with the Devil (in spite of his apparent eagerness to burn and torture witches), it’s possible that Bodin’s actions unintentionally helped assure its place on the bestseller list. Of course, witchcraft has always been a compelling topic for the public.

English speaking readers can borrow a translation from Duke via TRLN, or purchase a copy through Amazon, while those able to read French are welcome to come to the D.H. Hill Library to read from our original.

Sources:

Wier, William. (2002). 1593: the Bible of Demonology and Witchcraft : Jean Bodin : De la Demonomanie des Sorciers. Retrieved from http://www.wierus.com/catalog/bodin/

Jean Bodin. (2005). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bodin/#1

By: Jennifer Baker

contributed by Kristina Bender.

What was Albert Einstein doing on August 21, 1937?

Someone with a popular knowledge of Einstein might recite E = mc² or mumble a few details about the Manhattan Project.

Most people would not imagine Einstein–famous by then and rightfully bracing for another war–scribbling from his desk at the Institute for Advanced Study, a passionate letter in praise of an animal welfare pamphlet.

Einstein wrote to Bertram Lloyd of the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports, an animal advocacy organization out of London that day. This “very interesting letter from Professor Einstein” endorsed the views expressed by activist Henry S. Salt in the pamphlet Two Similar Pastimes: Sport and War, a publication of the society. Einstein’s letter, forwarded by Lloyd to the National Council for Animals’ Welfare, was printed in the November 1937 issue of the council’s monthly magazine, The Animals’ Friend. An original copy of this issue now resides in Special Collections at NC State.

The Animals' Friend, November 1937

This is one of many fascinating tidbits found in the recently acquired collection of animal rights, animal welfare, and animal advocacy pamphlets dating from the 1870s to the early 1950s. These pamphlets illuminate the social, political, ethical, and scientific discourses surrounding the animal rights movement in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Einstein’s letter, in particular, exemplifies the rich interdisciplinary possibilities of such rare materials. For Einstein, the connections Salt draws between “blood-sports” and “war” are “essential to any truly humane outlook on life.” Furthermore, Einstein explains, to replace the primitive “love of slaughter” with a more “civilised” pacifism involves not only “our attitude to the animal world, but also the whole question of man’s humanity to his fellows.”

How might this bit of information complicate our understanding of Professor Einstein, as a public figure and an ambivalent individual, especially considering his impending association with nuclear proliferation in World War II? What does his letter tell us about the work of Henry Salt, the role of pamphlets, or the state of the animal rights movement in the 1930s?

This kind of interdisciplinary inquiry is enabled and enriched by the new additions to the NCSU Libraries. If you are interested in seeing this or any of the other materials in this collection. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center.

By: Jennifer Baker

contributed by Beth DeBold.

Subject strengths are usually the result of careful collection development, and while NCSU has certainly developed parameters for collecting rare books in the last twenty years, collecting was less directed prior to the formation of the Special Collections Research Center in 1993. The current Rare Books collection at NCSU is a the result of accidental acquisition, donations, and the more recent, focused development of the last 20 years. What is certain is that it is a fascinating, eclectic collection with something to interest everyone– what was uncertain to me, when beginning my collection-level analysis, was whether or not one or more subjects stood out amongst the rest as being particularly well-represented.

Historia Insectorum Generalis, 1685

I did find a clear strength in natural history in relation to the amount of other titles available. Out of all the works considered in my study, 43% were given subject headings directly relating to natural history in the NCSU library catalog. The library has been lucky to acquire several early printed works on entomology (the study of insects) through the acquisition of the collections of two prominent entomologists. Titles include an excerpt from a copy of Konrad von Megenburg’s Buch der Naturprinted in 1482, a 1638 printing of Ulisse Aldrovandi’s De Animalibus Insectis, and a first edition of Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum by Thomas Moffett, printed in 1634. There are several endowments currently dedicated to growing special collections in entomology, but most notably for the Rare Books collection, the North Carolina Entomological Society is busy growing an endowment specifically for the purchase of rare books on this subject. Given the right purchases, donations, and opportunities, it is possible that entomology could become a subject strength among the pre-1700 items in the collection.

Added to these titles are works on botany, broad treatments of natural history, and specific titles on bees, snakes, ambergris (a flammable, waxy substance produced by whales, often used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as a cure for various ailments, or for perfume or flavoring), nuts, fruit trees, and mollusks, to name just a few. Other subjects of note in the pre-1700 imprints include Science and Technology, and to a lesser extent, the History of Medicine. There are also a significant amount of titles that would be of interest to students in the humanities and social sciences, which are likely the result of the earliest collecting in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.

To view any of these titles, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.

By: Kristen Merryman

Contributed by Holly Withrow.

One of the more important aspects of a Plant Pathologists job is diagnosing plant diseases for farmers via inspecting specimens.  In North Carolina, where the range of crops grown is so vast, plant pathologists are an especially important aspect of keeping crops healthy.

In a recent collection of digitized papers from the Plant Pathology department, the development of the Plant Disease Clinic at North Carolina State University is detailed.  Up until 1951, only one Extension Plant Pathologist was available to examine specimens.  Over time, and in relation to the spread of black shank disease of tobacco, the number of specimens needing to be examined rose dramatically.  To answer this need, the Plant Disease Clinic was born.  Its goal was to systematically and quickly analyze the specimens given to the Plant Pathology department.  Farmers would send in information about diseases affecting their crops and the plant pathologists would help them figure out what it was and how to treat it.  The records that have been digitized help to show what diseases have afflicted plants in North Carolina since the 1950s.

The program was so successful that it continues until this day.  To find out about the workings of the Clinic presently, check out it’s website. For more history on the Plant Disease Clinic, check out the Cultivating a Revolution project.