Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair, May 19, 2013

Thirty Fifth Annual 

Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair

Sunday, May 19, 11:00 - 5:00

Admission: $5.00

Michigan Union Ballroom, 2nd Floor
530 S. State (S. State & S. University), Ann Arbor, MI

Come see some 40 booksellers, map and print dealers gathered in one location. You will find first editions, old and collectible books, literature, children’s books, Americana, prints and more. Your $5 admission fee benefits the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.

For more information, contact the book fair director Jay Platt at the West Side Book Shop in Ann Arbor (113 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor MI 48104), ph. (734) 995-1891, or via email.

For more updates about the Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair, follow on Twitter @ASquareBookFair or like the Facebook page.

annarborbookfair.com

Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Antiquarian Booksellers Association

A benefit for the William L. Clements Library

Congratulations to Naomi Herman-Aplet for Best Graduate Student Poster at MAC

Naomi Herman-Aplet, a School of Information work-study student in the Manuscripts Division, won the best graduate student poster at the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) last weekend.

She says, "My MAC poster was entitled, "Constructing K-12 Learning Activities in Archives," and focused on the Family Day I planned for the Proclaiming Emancipation Exhibit."

"The core of my presentation focused on the new National Common Core Standards, which call for the use of primary documents in the classroom. The new standards emphasize skill-building over fact learning, so students will have the opportunity to interpret documents and make new arguments, in effect to learn history by learning how to be a historian. As a former social studies teacher, it's something I'm very excited about."

"In Proclaiming Emancipation, I created five learning stations based around the five stages of historical inquiry: connecting to background knowledge, seeking new information, interpreting documents, evaluating sources, and creating new content. Students (roughly age 5-12) showed a tremendous amount of interest and enthusiasm for the activities."

Current Exhibit: From My Collection to Yours: Provenance of Treasures in the Clements Library

Now on display in the center cases of the Main Room:

From My Collection to Yours: Provenance of Treasures in the Clements Library

Many of the rare books and pamphlets in the Clements Library have provenance trails to great collectors, dealers, bibliographers, and auctioneers. Bookplates, ownership signatures, dealer and auction invoices, and other evidence tie individual titles here to a long list of noteworthy Americanists -- White Kennett, Isaiah Thomas, John Carter Brown, James Lenox, William Menzies, George Brinley, Brayton Ives, Wilberforce Eames, Edward E. Ayer, Lathrop C. Harper, Thomas W. Streeter, and dozens more.

Since the Grolier Club's founding in 1884, the Grolier roster has included most of the leading Americana collectors, curators, and connoisseurs of each generation. William L. Clements was a Grolier member from 1920 to his death in 1934. In honor of the Club's April 2013 visit to the Clements, this exhibit features a range of Clements rarities once owned by Grolier members.

In the News: "Clements Library to Receive $17M Interior Renovation"

Last week, the Michigan Daily featured an article by Stephanie Shenouda on the Clements Library renovation, including quotes from library director Kevin Graffagnino. "Clements Library to receive $17M interior renovation" describes the library's plans to move the reading room and add an underground addition for collections storage.

This summer, the library will move staff and collections to a temporary location on Ellsworth Road, where reader services will resume in the fall. Please check our renovations update page for the latest information.

Online Exhibit: The Geometry of War

The Clements Library is pleased to offer a new online exhibit, The Geometry of War: Fortification Plans from 18th Century America, curated by Brian Leigh Dunnigan, Associate Director and Curator of Maps. This exhibit was originally on display from October 15, 2012 - February 15, 2013, in the Great Room of the Clements Library.

Fortification is as old as human conflict, and secure defensive positions have played an important part in warfare. Of course, their design and construction have changed steadily, always in response to the weaponry brought against them, whether stones, arrows, cannon, or aircraft.

The 18th century was a time of intensive military activity in Europe and in the Americas. Much of this centered on fortified towns or positions. The period from the 1680s to the French Revolution has been called the “classic century of military engineering,” a time when earlier forms of artillery fortifications were perfected and frequently tested in battle.

Designing, constructing, and recording fortifications was the job of the military engineer. He followed well-tested principles of design, based on geometry, to construct fortified places. These were recorded in detailed plans, many of surprising beauty and complexity. The Clements Library is rich in examples, manuscript and printed, and offers a sample illustrating the science of fortification in 18th-century America.

A list of all the Clements Library's online exhibits may be found on our website.

Founder's Day Lecture by Scott Stevens, "Accessing Indigenous Archives: Language, History, and Law," April 4, 2013

William L. Clements Library Founder's Day Lecture

Dr. Scott Manning Stevens

"Accessing Indigenous Archives: Language, History, and Law"

Thursday, April 4, 2013, 4:00 p.m.

Main Room, Clements Library

Sponsored by the American Indian Studies Interdisciplinary Group (AISIG)

In this lecture at the Clements Library, Dr. Scott Manning Stevens will explore the links between archive and communities, especially as related to activism of various types, including federal recognition cases, treaty rights, sovereignty, and linguistic and cultural revival. Drawing from his research in Iroquoia (and relating this to other Great Lakes tribes) Dr. Stevens examines possibilities for archives (and academics) to forge links with indigenous community members and work in partnership with one another on a range of issues in which the archive can play a key role.

Scott Manning Stevens is the director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library, Chicago. He is the author of the forthcoming Indian Collectibles: Encounters, Appropriations, and Resistance in Native North America.

Free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Library at (734) 764-2347 or visit our website: www.clements.umich.edu.

William L. Clements Library 

909 S. University Ave. 

Ann Arbor, MI

Recent Acquisition: Rare 17th Century Account of New France

In 2012, the Clements Library received a generous gift from Charles and Julia Eisendrath, with an appraised total value of $150,000. The gift includes a page from the Gutenberg Bible and a first edition set of Premier Établissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle-France, written by Chrétien Le Clercq and published in Paris in 1691. 

Le Clercq was a 17th century Catholic missionary to the Micmacs of the Gaspé Peninsula. His two-volume work documents the establishment of Roman Catholicism in the French colonies of North America. This set is exceptionally rare, with only one copy having come to auction in the last 30 years. The newly acquired copy is particularly noteworthy, as it includes the original folding map found in few copies. The map, "Carte Generalle de la Nouvelle France ou est compris La Louisiane Gaspesie et le nouveau Mexique avec les Isles Antilles," has been called "fundamental to North American cartography." The Library's other Le Clercq volumes, from the personal collection of William L. Clements, have the map only in facsimile. 

The Clements has an outstanding selection of books describing the early histories of European colonies in the Americas. Many of these discuss religious matters and missionary activities among the native peoples of America. The LeClerq set is an excellent addition to the Clements book collection, and will be helpful for instruction sessions with University classes on topics such as the history of exploration in North America, the history of missionaries and religion in the Americas, France in the New World, and early North American cartography.

The Eisendraths' gift is featured in the Clements Library's current exhibit, Recent Acquisitions: Building on the Clements Collections.