Posts on August 2014

The Ted Kaczynski Papers: FBI Files and Photographs

The Ted Kaczynski Papers are part of the Special Collections Library’s Joseph A. Labadie Collection which documents the history of social protest movements and marginalized political communities from the 19th century to the present. The Ted Kaczynski papers were acquired in 1998 and the bulk of the collection includes correspondence written to and by Kaczynski since his arrest in 1996. Other materials in the archive include legal documents used during his trial, writings by Kaczynski, clippings...

Database Names are Hard to Learn

Word cloud showing frequency of incorrect spellings of database names

More than 15% of user searches for the seven most commonly used databases on the University of Michigan Library’s website were misspellings of the database name. We looked through our search logs for the three months spanning January 1-April 2, 2014, to find correct and likely incorrect search queries.

An Early Predecessor of "American Beauty"?

Peter Tröschel (1615-1680). Hierinnen mann befind dass recht loss Haussgesind. [Nuremberg:] Paulus Fürst, [ca. 1650].

We have recently purchased an engraved broadside (259 x 339 mm.) depicting what at first sight looks like a regular scene of family life in the seventeenth century. However, a closer examination reveals a very different picture: a dysfunctional household or, to be more precise, a satire of domestic happiness...

Folk Rhymes on the Flyleaf

Flyleaf rhyme: "Richard Briscoe is the owner's name. Dare not to steal this Book for fear of shame. Whoever thou be, as dare to steal this book from me, I'll spend twice the book but well rewarded thou shall be."

Rhymes that identify book owners, warn or threaten book thieves, and extol the virtues of learning appear in interesting variations, particularly on the pages of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century school books.

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