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.

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.

contributed by Beth Debold.

It is important to remember that rare books, or any rare material, are never valuable solely due to their age. However, many librarians, researchers, and other library users seem to have a special yen for the oldest items. I thought I might share NCSU’s oldest complete printed item with you today.

NCSU has several very old rare books. The oldest item I have come across is not a printed work at all, but rather a delicate leaf from a 14^th century manuscript discussing personal wealth and gain among medieval clergy. The next oldest item is an excerpt from Konrad von Megenberg’s Das Buch der Natur from the Friedrich F. Tippmann Entomological Collection, printed in 1482. However, since NCSU does not possess a complete copy of that work, I decided to discuss NCSU’s oldest and (as far as it is possible to tell) complete rare book: Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, or Quadripartitum, a second century Greek text on astrology.

Printed by Erhard Ratdolt (a Venetian printer of German origins) in 1484, NCSU’s copy remains in beautiful condition. It is the first printed edition of the Latin translation of the Tetrabiblos from the Greek, and is only thirty-four years younger than the first item printed using moveable type. It is an excellent example of how the production and consumption of important texts changed dramatically leading up to the Renaissance, as books became much more accessible both in terms of quantity and readability.

The copy here at D.H. Hill has another interesting trait—it was rebound in 1902 by the influential British bookbinder Katharine Adams. One of the most notable female bookbinders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Adams began binding professionally in the 1890s and opened her own bindery in the small town of Broadway in the Cotswolds in 1901. It is possible that this book was rebound there, in her Eadburgh Bindery.

The work is exquisitely but simply rendered in soft sheepskin and gold tooling. She included her personally designed signature, consisting of the initials “K A” enclosing a catherine wheel, tooled on the inside bottom edge of the back cover. This work also has a great many notes and autographs from previous owners in the margins, possibly dating back to contemporary with the printing date.

This eldest complete work here at NCSU is a beautiful example of the history of printing, early astrology, women’s history, the history of bookbinding, and the history of book ownership all in one. For a digital version of the text, take a look at this copy in Spain’s Virtual Library of Bibliographical Heritage.

To see this work, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.

Sources

Burnett, Charles. (n.d.) Ptolemy, Quadripartitum. Retrieved from http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/fah750pto.pdf

Griffiths, Jane. (n.d.) Adams, Katharine. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddnb.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/view/article/38543

The North Carolina State University Libraries has acquired an important collection of nearly 400 rare pamphlets and other works relating to animal advocacy, animal rights, and animal welfare. These materials enhance the Libraries’ collecting efforts in an interdisciplinary field that engages scholars across the humanities, human and veterinary medicine, and the sciences.

Of significant scholarly and historical importance, the collection spans a period of over eighty years from the 1870s to the 1950s, and includes a wealth of promotional, advocacy, and educational materials that throw light upon the moral, social, medical, and political dimensions of this complex movement.

Concern for animal welfare grew in the decades after the first animal anti-cruelty law was passed in 1822.   With the backing of renowned abolitionist William Wilberforce, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was established in 1824, becoming the first animal welfare organization in the world and the first law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. The pamphlets and other materials conserved in the NCSU Libraries collection continued this momentum, engaging some of the leading activists of the time including the noted feminist and social reformer Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904) and Henry Salt (1851-1939), author, social campaigner, biographer of Henry David Thoreau, founder of the influential Humanitarian League, and friend of Mahatma Gandhi. Also included are published works and correspondence from notable novelists H. E. Bates, H. G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw.

These materials stand as testament to the work of the tireless campaigners who sought to spread their message through the creation and distribution of mass publications. Because the material was often published in the heat of argument with little thought for long-term preservation, this collection provides a valuable and unique multi-disciplinary research tool, as well as potential source for future exhibitions and associated opportunities for outreach and educational projects.

The acquisition of these pamphlets builds on the NCSU Libraries’ leadership in this collecting area and augments existing archival processing initiatives, including Acting for Animals: Revealing the Records of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Movements, a 2011 grant that documents the animal welfare and the animal rights movements of the second half of the 20^th century. The Acting for Animals grant was supported with funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Dr. Tom Regan, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at NC State University, notes that “before the recent acquisition, the library’s holdings were the most comprehensive in the world. With the addition of these new materials, especially the ones from the nineteenth century, the library has strengthened its claim to preeminence.”  The depth and breadth of the NCSU Libraries’ collections now provide a rich trove of primary resources to support research in animal advocacy, rights and welfare from the 1870s to the present.

If you are interested in viewing this collection more closely, please visit the Special Collections website to view the online collection guide or request materials.

If you are interested in finding out more information about specific items, stay tuned over the next few weeks as we highlight a number of items in the collection.

contributed by Shaun Bennett.

While most of the people who work and learn at North Carolina State University are familiar with both the venerable D. H. Hill library and the shiny new Hunt library, there are hidden gems in the library collections which can be found in a slightly less well-known location: Special Collections. At the very end of the East Wing of D. H. Hill is a wood-paneled reading room, overlooked by a green and brown onyx desk. Within the vaults of this area are contained the rarest, oldest, and in many cases most unique pieces of the library collection.

This post focuses on one tome in the collection, the highly unusual and somewhat contentious The Woman in Battle by Loreta Janeta Velazquez. The Woman in Battle is the only account we have of the exploits of Ms. Velazquez, who according to her own writings disguised herself as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War and carried out a series of daring exploits.

Velazquez was born in Cuba, but migrated to the United States before the outbreak of the Civil War, settling with her fiancé in Texas. Velazquez, according to her book, followed her fiancé into the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, signing up as Henry T. Buford, with the self-appointed rank of lieutenant. She recruited over two hundred men and joined her husband in Pensacola, Florida, where her fiancé died shortly thereafter in a training accident.

After her fiancé’s death, she fought in the First Battle of Bull Run, and her book claims that she later acted as a spy for the Confederacy, and supposedly met Abraham Lincoln. She then fought at Shiloh, was wounded and discovered to be a woman, then began spying for the Confederacy again, eventually attempting to start a prison riot of Confederate prisoners of war in Ohio and Indiana.

What makes this book truly intriguing is the air of mystery which surrounds it: this is the only account we have of Velazquez’s adventures, lending a certain degree of suspicion to the narrative. The debate still continues today, but our copy here at NC State has some unique aspects. Within the front cover of the book is pasted a letter, written by Loreta Velazquez herself, to Colonel William L. Rosset of the Confederate Army, along with his reply. The text reads as follows, and is dated January 22^nd 1877:

Col. Wm. L. Roset,

How I’d be pleased to see you if convenient upon receipt – of this note – having not had the pleasure of seeing you since 1862 at Richmond. You will be some what surprised.

Yours Respectfully

Madam L. J. Velazquez

The Colonel’s reply:

I must say that I have not the slightest recollection of ever having seen the “Lieutenant” before and it is at least possible, if I had, I would not have forgotten it.

William L. Roset

Does this note help solve the mystery of Ms. Velazquez? Likely not, as it could be seen as evidence for either conclusion: Velazquez’s letter to Rosset could be seen as her seeking proof for what she knows to be true, but Rosset’s denial of her letter is evidence against her narrative.

Students of history, the curious-minded, or anyone interested in navigating the treacherous waters of the unreliable narrator are welcome to come to NC State’s Special Collections to view this book, among many others.

contributed by Kelsey Chandler.

As the Wolfpack looks towards April with hands freezing and coats firmly on, I feel, for just one chilly second that I might be back in Raleigh in the Spring of 1920. Ninety-two years ago, on an equally-chilly Spring day, Raleigh residents eagerly awaited the opening of a new Carousel in Pullen Park. The turn-of-the-century Dentzel carousel was set to begin operation on Easter Sunday 1920 and, though a storm delayed the opening to April 1st, that Dentzel carousel brings an important part of amusement park history to Raleigh.  It is one of fourteen operating Dentzel carousels in existence and it’s located here-right off of Western Boulevard.

Many people do not stop to consider the history of the amusement business or the incredible amount of information that brightly-colored amusement devices, like Pullen Park’s rare carousel, can hold. However, the amusement industry holds a wealth of information for historians, engineers, and social anthropologists, as well as other disciplines. Dr. Norman Anderson, retired professor Emeritus of Science Education at North Carolina State University, saw the value of this industry- from its ability to capture the imagination to its fascinating historical trajectory. For Dr. Anderson, the Ferris Wheel held particular appeal. Amassing decades of research on the “star of the Midway” Anderson traced the history of the Ferris Wheel from its first, manually operated incarnations to its current place among the tall observation wheels, like the 443 foot tall London Eye. Anderson’s research, like the historic Dentzel, is now available to residents of Raleigh.  Anderson’s extensive collection of publications, photographs, and research materials will soon be available at the Special Collections Research Center.

The material included in this collection is centered upon Dr. Anderson’s research, but Dr. Anderson’s thorough collecting ensures that there is a wealth of varied material available. Engineering students and researchers will find a great deal of information in the extensive collection of patents and related information, various mechanical diagrams, and a truly unique unpublished Senior Engineering Thesis from Cornell University, dated 1894. Anderson’s collection of materials is a boon for researchers. It covers vast sections of the amusement park business  from debates on the morality of sideshows to the history and public relations efforts of the Eli Bridge Company;  fascinating information on the World’s Fairs, including  souvenir publications from the Colombian Exposition in Chicago and the Official World’s Fair in Pictures: A Century of Progress, dated 1933. Pictured below are just a few of the remarkable pieces in this collection. Of course, the “star of the Midway” takes precedence in these files.

For more information contact North Carolina State University’s Special Collections here: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/research/requestinformation.html.

Also, be sure to check out Dr. Norman Anderson’s Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History, available in D.H. Hill Library! (call number:  GV1860 .F45 A532 1992)

contributed by Shaun Bennett.

While most of the people who work and learn at North Carolina State University are familiar with both the venerable D. H. Hill library and the shiny new Hunt library, there are hidden gems in the library collections which can be found in a slightly less well-known location: Special Collections. At the very end of the East Wing of D. H. Hill is a wood-paneled reading room, overlooked by a green and brown onyx desk. Within the vaults of this area are contained the rarest, oldest, and in many cases most unique pieces of the library collection.

This post focuses on one tome in particular, the History of Facts of the Great Naval Battle Between the Merrimac-Virginia C.S.N. and the Ericsson Monitor U.S.N. by E. V. White, who served as a junior engineer on the Virginia from her construction to her destruction. In the book he describes his experiences upon the Virginia, and notes that as the junior engineer in charge of relaying orders to and from the gun deck, he had “fire port-holes for observation” which he viewed the famous battle through.

White’s prose is straightforward and easily read, capturing the feel of the battles beautifully. As he watched the aftermath of the first engagement of the Virginia, he wrote, “As I was one of the unfortunate ones place on first watch, I had very little rest, but was fully compensated for the performance of this arduous duty by witnessing the grand and impressive sight of the explosion of the Congress [a U.S. ship defeated by the Virginia earlier] later in the night – a scene too solemnly beautiful to attempt to describe.”

White also includes reports from other eyewitnesses, such as a writer from Fort Monroe, who described the sailors clambering ashore after the sinking of another Union vessel, the Cumberland: “Sailors from the Congress and Cumberland came, one of them with his ship’s flag bound about his waist, as he had sum with it ashore, determined the enemy should never trail it in dishonor as a trophy.”

Truly the most remarkable part of White’s account is the famous battle between the two ironclads, as the Virginia and the Monitor met in battle: “It was now ‘Greek meeting Greek’, iron against iron. Hundred-pound shot rattled against the mailed and impenetrable sides of the combatants in this tremendous duel and glanced off like hail. Never before had ships met carrying such heavy guns.”

Finally, White closes his account with the eventual scuttling of the Virginia: “I was one of ten selected to destroy the ship, and held the candle for Mr. Oliver, the gunner, to uncap the powder in the magazine to insure a quick explosion, and, necessarily, was among the last to leave her decks. A more beautiful sight I never behold than that great ship on fire, flames issuing from the port-holes, through the gratings and smokestack – the conflagration was a sight ever to be remembered.”

This past Sunday, March 17, ESPN aired the latest episode in its “30 for 30″ series, “Survive and Advance,” about NC State’s 1983 Men’s NCAA Tournament victory. After a string of close wins that got them to the championship game, the Pack upset the heavy favorite Houston with an unlikely buzzer beating play. The director, Jonathan Hock, writes, about the winning basket, “This was the moment that the NCAA Men’s Championship Tournament became March Madness, the miracle that made college basketball a highlight of the sports calendar right up there with the Super Bowl and the World Series.”

The show’s trailer features Jim Valvano discussing what must have been a very motivating practice.

Thirty years on, the Pack is in the dance, and they’re up first against Temple. Here’s to another round of upsets!

Best of luck to the team.

See the above and other images of State basketball at NCSU Libraries’ Rare and Unique Digital Collections.

Computer simulation pioneer and library donor Dr. Robert Sargent was recently honored by NCSU Libraries in a special book plating ceremony held at the Hill Library. Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Susan Nutter oversaw the ceremony, which honored Dr. Bob Sargent’s contributions and donations to the Libraries.  Sargent’s daughter Tiffany attended, as did Bob’s colleagues Dr. Dick Nance and Dr. Jim Wilson.  Dr. Sargent’s papers are housed in the SCRC and are one of the core collections in the growing Computer Simulation Archive. To explore these collections, go to: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/simulation/

contributed by Meaghan Lanier.

On Monday, December 17, 2012, the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN)[1]

held a reception for all of the current participants in the internships and fellowships across the university library systems at the Rizzo Conference Center in Chapel Hill, NC. Nearly all of the participants in the programs were in attendance as were many administrators and faculty members. N.C. State hosts two programs, the Fellows program and the Library Associate program. Five fellows attended, Bertha Chang, Bret Davidson, Kate Hill, Charlie Morris and Mike Nutt, and two library associates attended, Lori Harris and Meaghan Lanier. In addition,  members from the administration of the NCSU Libraries were present at the event, including Susan Nutter (Vice Provost and Director of the Libraries), Carolyn Argentati (Deputy Director of Libraries), Wendy Scott (Associate Director for Organizational Design and Learning), Greg Raschke (Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication), David Goldsmith (Associate Director for Materials Management), Eli Brown (Head of the Special Collections Research Center), and Rob Rucker (Head of Research and Information Services).

In addition to those from N.C. State, there were several participants from North Carolina Central’s ALA Spectrum Scholars program, UNC’s Carolina Academic Library Associates (CALA) program and Duke’s graduate assistant and internship programs. Several administrative staff and faculty from those universities were also in attendance.

This was an excellent opportunity for people starting out in the field of library and information science to network with fellow peers as well as important staff from the TRLN system of libraries. The participants enjoyed being appreciated in a nice environment with fine food and drink as well as being able to meet and get to know a variety of people in the libraries from neighboring universities. It was interesting to learn about the variety of opportunities available to students throughout the TRLN university system.

For a complete list of participants in the fellowship and internship programs in TRLN, please visit:

http:// www.trln.org/events/fellows12.htm

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[1] The Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) is a collaborative organization of Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the purpose of which is to marshal the financial, human, and information resources of their research libraries through cooperative efforts in order to create a rich and unparalleled knowledge environment that furthers the universities’ teaching, research, and service missions (from trln.org).

The University Archives Memorabilia Collection, (collection guide now available), contains some interesting scientific instruments, most likely used in various departments on campus.  Some significant pieces include several sets of sophisticated “analytical balances” or scales that were used in the 1940s and 50s.  There is also a pH Meter, a piece of equipment used for testing the acidity and alkalinity of a liquid.  This early example, called a “Beckman pH Meter,” was named for Arnold O. Beckman who invented it in 1935. It has been designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society and pH meters are still widely used today.  A “Pilling Cattle Case” from around 1910 reflects N.C. State’s agricultural roots. This box contains instruments and pamphlets for treating cattle disorders and diseases..”Cattle instruments needed by every dairyman!” as a contemporary advertisement reads.

Stay tuned for more highlights from the Memorabilia Collection!