Beginning January 4^th, a new and improved Library website will be available at library.umbc.edu. Highlights include:

• A cleaner, less cluttered layout.
• A new default search tool: AOK OneSearch. View books, articles, media and more in a single results list.
• A page highlighting all of the Library's fabulous places to study
  

The Library has been working hard to make our website more user-friendly.  Please tell us what you think!  Send feedback to: WebLibrarian@umbc.edu

UMBC Special Collections is excited to announce the opening of a new online exhibit featuring the work of photographer John G. Bullock. “The Photography of John G. Bullock” exhibit, curated by Sarah Klimek, contains 81 digitized photographs, presents an overview of nearly four decades of Bullock’s photography, and highlights some of the major themes that defined his work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This exhibit is the first completed photography exhibit to be displayed on the UMBC Special Collections Online Gallery, https://umbcspecialcollections.culturalspot.org/home, a new online photography exhibition site designed to showcase some of the remarkable and unique collections held within Special Collections.

UMBC students, faculty, and staff now have access to a new online collection of Baltimore photographs through UMBC’s Digital Collections. The Baltimore Collection, which includes approximately 96 photographs and negatives, represents contributions from various donors that have been compiled to showcase the rich history of our city.  The original photographs are available for view at Special Collections.

The Baltimore Collection features a wide range of images that capture prominent historical figures and events in Baltimore, as well as scenes from daily life in and around the city. These photographs offer a detailed and vivid look at life in Baltimore in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, highlighting memorable events that have shaped the city’s past and defined its landscape while showcasing the Baltimoreans who lived during this time.

Highlights  

Among the photographs in the Baltimore Collection are several images depicting the aftermath of the Great Baltimore Fire, which took place on February 7 and 8, 1904. Nearly 86 city blocks and over 1500 buildings were destroyed during the fire. Images in the collection portray the extent of the fire’s damage, from crumbling foundations of former buildings to wide expanses of city streets that have been reduced to piles of rubble.

 The Baltimore Collection also features images of the Baltimore Sesqui-Centennial in 1880, which celebrated the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore. The photographs show streets and buildings throughout Baltimore, including the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Place and the Baltimore Sun Building, decorated with flags, banners, and commemorative arches.

In addition to images of historic events and daily life, the Baltimore Collection also contains negatives of the iconic Edgar Allan Poe. These images include portraits and magazine photographs of Poe as a younger man and later in life. The collection also features photographs of Poe’s memorial grave in the Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore.

Access the digital images of the Baltimore Collections here to learn more about the people, places, and events that have shaped Baltimore’s history!

UMBC’s Special Collections is also open to the public by appointment in the summer and as well as Monday through Friday from 1pm-4pm, with extended hours on Thursday until 8 pm during the semester. 

This post was written by Special Collections & Reference student assistant Sarah Klimek.  Sarah helped to digitize, create metadata, produce contextual information for the collection, make the landing page, and publicize it all while volunteering in Special Collections during spring 2015. Thanks, Sarah!

Today's pick:  Freedom : a photographic history of the African American struggle

 

 

THE CENTURY OF THE BODY: 100 PHOTOWORKS OF 1900-2000

BOYSTOWN: LA ZONA DE TOLERANCIA

Why is a cemetery a good place to write a story? Why, because there are so many plots there! 

In addition to looking up terrible Halloween jokes, Special Collections has decided to get into the spirit of Halloween by sharing selections from our various collections that are filled with magic, the supernatural, and horror. Graduate Assistant Jessi Deane went through four of our different collections and pulled out her personal favorites to share with all of you! The best part—all of these selections are available for you to come and look at yourselves! 

GENERAL/RARE BOOKS COLLECTION

The History of Witchcraft and Demonology by Montague Summers

Written in 1926, Summers claims that this history of the supernatural spans too far across time and too far across the globe to accurately portray all of it. However, by choosing to focus on just Europe, he is able to examine two or three specific aspects of witchcraft and demonology. One of the things that stood out the most of me about Summers’ history was his argument that “it is quite impossible to appreciate and understand the true lives of [men and women]…unless we have some realization of the part that Witchcraft played in those ages” (ix). Although Summers certainly doesn’t try to claim that his findings are particularly historical or scientific,any fan of the supernatural and the occult should definitely come and check this out!

Famous Curses by Elliot O’Donnell

Not long after Montague Summers wrote his history of witchcraft, O’Donnell published a collection of famous curses that were supposedly cast around the world. One of these is the “Screaming Skulls of Calgarth,” which is quite similar to one of those urban legends that Jessi heard so often as a kid. Now, the real question is, are these tales of real curses? Or are they simply ghost stories told to children to keep them up at night? You may have to decide that for yourself. 

Bibliotheca Curiosa. A Treatise of Magic Incantations of Christianus Pazig edited by Edmund Goldsmid

Written in 1700, and translated in 1886 for an English audience, this little book traces the power of words in magic. Where do incantations come from? Why are they worded the way that they are? What powers do those words have? Or, perhaps, could it be that some of these “incantations” don’t have meaning simply because the words that they are made up of don’t have any meaning? These are all important questions that this little book attempts to answer. 

ROSENFELD COLLECTION

WerewolveSS by Jerry and Sharon Ahern

In 1944, Nazi leaders Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels outlined a plan called the “Werwolf,” which would place a guerrilla resistance force behind the Allied lines as they moved through Germany. When combining this with the popular historical interpretation of Hitler as an “occult groupie,” I’m sure you can guess where Jerry and Sharon Ahern went with this book! (Hint: Avid watchers of the hit HBO drama True Blood have definitely seen this before!)  A story of terror and suspense, WerewolveSS is definitely worth a read! 

The Howling by Gary Brandner

In the spirit of Halloween, be sure to check out another terrifying piece of werewolf literature! Following traumatic events in their lives, Karyn and Roy Beatty decide to move from the grimy city of Los Angles to the secluded mountain town of Drago. Although the town and its inhabitants seem friendly enough, it soon becomes apparent that something sinister is happening behind the scenes. The 1981 film The Howling is based on this blood curdling novel. 

The Tomb and other Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft, the author of the bone-chilling novel The Call of Cthulhu and Other Dark Tales, wrote The Tomb in 1917, making it the first piece of literature written by him in his adult life. Published in the March 1922 issue of The Vagrant, The Tomb and Other Tales consists of seventeen different short stories, early “novels”, and fragments by the master of horror fiction himself.  Jessi’s favorites are the fragments, specifically “Azathoth”; ranging from just one paragraph to only two or three pages, they were found in Lovecraft’s papers and were never expanded into short stories of their own. 

THE ARNOLD/HOWARD COLLECTION

Ghosts and Haunted Houses of Maryland by Trish Gallagher

Do you love haunted houses and stories of ghosts, ghouls, and spirits? Do you live in Maryland? Well, according to Trish Gallagher, you’re in luck! Claiming that our home state is “alive” with ghosts and other creepy hauntings, Gallagher records the stories of Maryland’s twenty-five most haunted sites. Although this may be Jessi’s own interest in Baltimore’s Confederate women shining through, but her personal favorite is the story of “The Hauntings at the Surratt House”. Mary Surratt, one of the alleged co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination, is said to have begun haunting her family’s home following her execution in 1865. The best part about this book? All of these haunted sites and houses can be visited!

COMIC BOOK COLLECTION

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

Published by Dark Horse Comics from 2007 to 2011, this particular comic series follows the canonical continuation of the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The comics themselves start on year after the series finale, picking up the stories of our favorite characters right where we left them. True to the original in every way, Season Eight (and later Season Nine) was produced by Joss Whedon and utilized many of the same writers from the Whedon-verse. 

Explore the culture and history of East Baltimore!  See a slice of urban life from the 70’s!  Has much changed?  Take a look and see for yourself – now available online:  Elinor Cahn photographs.

UMBC students, faculty, and staff now have access to this digital collection of renowned Baltimore photographer Elinor B. Cahn (born 1925). Over eighty of Cahn’s photographic prints from the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project are currently available in UMBC's Digital Collections.  The digitized prints available online demonstrate Cahn’s thoughtful views of religious and secular ceremonial processions, residents in multigenerational family homes, and other aspects of daily life.

The East Baltimore Photography Project began as part of MICA Professor Linda Rich’s social documentary course in 1976 and expanded as a four-year grant endeavor among Rich, Cahn, and Cahn’s classmate Joan Netherwood. The photographers documented neighborhoods in transition, capturing East Baltimoreans’ pride and proactive measures to improve basic services.  The images provide insightful perspectives into East Baltimoreans’ diverse houses of worship, commemorative parades, family-owned establishments, row homes, and private lives.  The East Baltimore Photography Project produced over ten thousand images, many of which were exhibited throughout the region and published in the book, Neighborhood: A State of Mind, available in our Arnold Collection of Maryland history and in the general  Library stacks.  

In addition to the Cahn’s East Baltimore Documentary Photography project, Special Collections holds Cahn’s full archives. Cahn’s collection includes images of Baltimore’s Greek community, Asklipios, Greece, the Vietnam memorial, cemeteries, a Baltimore soup kitchen, and photographs of Maine.

UMBC's Special Collections is open to the public from Monday through Friday 1-4 pm, with extended Thursday evening hours until 8 pm. We are also open by appointment. Access the digital collection of Cahn images here.

This post was written by Jen Wachtel