Posts on April 2015 from Beyond the Reading Room

Posts on April 2015
from Beyond the Reading Room

Watermark Wednesdays: Bow and arrow

This Wednesday's watermark feature: watermarks in Isl. Ms. 78 (copied in 1401 or 2), one of the earliest manuscripts in our Islamic Manuscripts Collection copied on watermarked paper.

"Who is this Jack Carney?"

Take a peak at what a visiting Irish researcher is working on in the Labadie Collection!

A New Exhibit: Through the Magnifying Glass: A Short History of the Microscope

We are pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit on the seventh floor of the Special Collections Library: Through the Magnifying Glass: A Short History of the Microscope.

A New Home for a Historical Microscope

In 2013, an extraordinary collection on the history of medicine was transferred from the Taubman Library to the Special Collections Library, University of Michigan Library. Among the books, we came across three eighteenth-century microscopes stored in plain boxes and in need of conservation treatment. They have now been repaired and are in new homes. Here is a video explaining in detail the conservation work performed in one of these wonderful microscopes.

Recent Acquisition: Rare 151st plate from Audubon’s Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

The University of Michigan Library’s first acquisition was John James Audubon's The Birds of America . After a brief interval of 175 years, it has been joined by Audubon's final work. In August, we acquired the only known complete copy of his Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which includes the long-rumored but never before seen 151st lithographic plate, depicting the Lepus antilooapra of North America. This image is lacking in all other known copies of the work.