Another day, another mystery photograph. This time, from the E.S. Davison Collection. We’re pretty sure this groundhog is telling these folks that spring is coming.
Groundhog predicting the weather, from the E.S. Davison Collection
Hopefully Shubenacadie Sam says the same thing!
From the vault: a bizarre photo of three people holding what looks like a stingray.
We know nothing about the photograph except that it was taken by Gilbert Kempton. We also think it needs a hilarious caption! Help us out by posting your suggestions here, or on our Facebook page.
RIPM was established in 1980 to provide access to eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century periodical literature dealing with music. The Dal Libraries are now offering a 30-day trial of RIPM’s new interface for the Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (1800-1950), as well as the full-text Online Archive of Music Periodicals. The trial runs until February 26.
Explore RIPM and let us know how you like this music resource by posting comments here!
IPA Source is the web’s largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. The goal of IPA Source is to promote the comprehension and accurate pronunciation of foreign language texts in art song and opera so singers can give each syllable the appropriate emotional content.
Extras offered on this database include diction help and MP3 recordings of songs and arias in Latin, Italian, German and French.
IPA Source is available both on and off campus, so start singing now!
Holger Pils and Karolina Kühn from the Lübecker Museen’s Buddenbrookhaus are currently working in University Archives and Special Collections (DUASC) on the Elisabeth Mann Borgese collection. Museum Director Pils and science staff member Kühn are examining Elisabeth’s papers in preparation for a major exhibit they are mounting in Lübeck to mark the 10th anniversary of her death. The exhibit is being mounted with major support from the International Ocean Institute and in partnership with the Geomar, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.
Lübeck was the original home of the Mann family, whose members include the Nobel Prize winning writer Thomas Mann, Elisabeth’s father, and the novelist Heinrich Mann, her uncle. Elisabeth was born in Munich, but the Mann family left Germany after Hitler came to power, moving first to Switzerland and then to the United States. In 1978, Elisabeth relocated to Halifax, and became a Canadian citizen.
As a Killam Fellow, Elisabeth taught courses at Dalhousie in Political Science and continued her work on projects relating to disarmament, international development, integration of marine resources and marine management. Awarded the Order of Canada in 1988, Elisabeth is remembered primarily as the founder of the International Oceans Institute and as a passionate advocate for environmental issues.
Holger and Karolina are very excited about the biographical exhibit they are planning, which will focus on Elisabeth’s life, work, and the impact of her legacy. It will also highlight her personal relationships: her love for her father, her complex relationships with her brothers and sisters, and her marriage to Giuseppe Antonio Borgese. “Germans identify strongly with the Mann family,” says Holger, “some even call them ‘the Windors of Germany’ because their lives are so vivid, full of contradictions and tragedies. But we know them primarily as talented writers and humanists. Elisabeth’s life work on the protection of the oceans is less well known in Germany than it is here.” The exhibit will include not only her papers but also photos, films and interviews, and personal belongings from her estate, as well as paintings and a bust of Elisabeth done by her father Thomas. “We’re trying to cover all of the life,” Holger explains, “to give a holistic picture of what drove her, what was behind her view of the world. We’ll make it a real show!”
The Elisabeth Mann Borgese collection is one of DUASC’s largest and most significant holdings. It was donated to DUASC in two parts, the first by the Public Trustee of Nova Scotia after Elisabeth’s death in 2002, and the second by the International Ocean Institute in 2009. A finding aid with a detailed description of the collection is available online.
“Elisabeth Mann Borgese and the Drama of the Oceans” will be on display at the Buddenbrookhaus from June through October 2012. It will then travel to Kiel, Berlin, and possibly abroad in 2013. The Buddenbrookhaus museum also holds an archive of the Mann family papers.
Great news for classical music lovers! Alexander Street Press has just added 1,409 new albums (over 35,000 tracks) to its Classical Music Library, an online database of streaming audio. The new release contains content from EMI Classics, Angel Records, Capitol Catalog, and more. Check out the list of new tracks – there’s something for everyone.
The Classical Music Library also has free biweekly downloads. You can sign up for alerts when new tracks are made available and follow news and announcements on Alexander Street Press’ music blog. Happy listening!
The EAC recently donate its archival records to Dalhousie
The University Archives and Special Collections has had a busy year! Newly catalogued items enter the Special Collections on a routine basis and our music room is as busy as every. We’ve also been busy acquiring and processing some exciting archival material. Not all of the material is ready for research – it takes some time to create finding aidsto our collections – but we want to spread the word about a few acquisitions to give you a sense of what we’ve been collecting:
This is just a selection – we’ve acquired over 100 metres of archival records this year alone! We’re always working to process and make available new acquisitions and our extensive collection of unprocessed archives – business, shipping, personal, and university records. If you’re interested in learning more about a collection, don’t hesitate to contact us!
The Archives and Special Collections is excited to share news of an upcoming talk at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
Portrait of Archibald MacMechan from the Archibald MacMechan fonds (MS-2-82)
On December 13 at 7:30 p.m., Elizabeth Peirce will give a talk titled Shaped by the Sea: The Life and Times of Archibald MacMechan. Peirce is the editor of In the Great Days of Sail, a new collection of reprinted MacMechan stories. She will speak about MacMechan’s life, times, and contribution to Nova Scotia’s cultural history.
We’re excited about the talk because Archibald MacMechan’s papers are right here at Dalhousie (we just blogged about his report on the Halifax Explosion). MacMechan’s papers are one of our most interesting collections. It contains manuscripts of his published and unpublished works, photographs, correspondence, and other materials documenting his life and career as an educator, historian, and author. MacMechan is a key figure in Nova Scotia’s cultural history. From the Maritime Museum’s website:
Archibald MacMechan (1862-1933) was a well-known Nova Scotian writer, academic, and chronicler of his adopted province’s seafaring past. He taught in the English department of Dalhousie university for many years and counted among his students Lucy Maud Montgomery and Hugh MacLennan. Though well-respected as a scholar–he was among the first to teach a course in Canadian literature and to publish a critical survey of that literature, Headwaters of Canadian Literature, in 1924– MacMechan’s best-remembered work was contained in three collections of stories from Nova Scotia’s golden age of sail: Sagas of the Sea (1923), Old Province Tales (1924), and There Go the Ships (1928). These collections reveal MacMechan’s careful documenting of life at sea in the nineteenth century through many years of correspondence and visits with those who experienced it firsthand; many of his accounts of sea calamities and sheer human endurance through mutinies, storms, fires, and shipwrecks read more like thrilling fiction than bare fact.
Like Helen Creighton after him, Archibald MacMechan acted with incredible foresight to salvage an important part of Nova Scotia’s past from oblivion.
All talks at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic take place in the Small Crafts Gallery at 7:30 p.m. We hope you drop in to learn about MacMechan’s many contribution’s to Nova Scotia’s history. If you can’t make it, his papers are here at the Archives and Special Collections on the 5th floor of the Killam Library.
Wednesday Dec. 21: 8 am – 6 pm
Thursday Dec. 22: 8 am – 6 pm
Friday Dec.23: 8 am – 12 pm
Saturday Dec. 24: CLOSED
Sunday Dec. 25: CLOSED
Monday Dec. 26: CLOSED
Tuesday Dec.27: CLOSED
Wednesday Dec. 28: 10 am – 6 pm
Thursday Dec. 29: 10 am – 6 pm
Friday Dec. 30: CLOSED
Saturday Dec. 31: CLOSED
Sunday Jan.1, 2012: CLOSED
Monday Jan. 2, 2012: CLOSED
Regular hours resume on Tuesday January 3, 2012.
…Halifax experienced a tragedy unlike any other in its history. At 8:40 a.m. on December 6, 1917, the SS Mont-Blanc, a fully loaded French munitions ship, collided with the Norwegian relief ship Imo. The Mont-Blanc ship caught fire and exploded roughly 25 minutes later, completely destroying buildings and structures within a two-kilometer radius. Some 2,000 people were killed by debris, fire, and collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 more were injured.
Unidentified house destroyed in the Halifax Explosion, Halifax, NS, December 1917. (Thomas Head Raddall fonds, MS-2-202 Box 28, Folder 10, photograph 14)
The Halifax Explosion, as it has come to be known, remains a defining moment in Halifax’s history. The Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections contains extensive records documenting the explosion and the events that followed. Here’s a selection from our vault:
Photographs, letters, and other materials related to the Halifax Explosion can be found throughout the Archives and Special Collections. Come visit us on the 5th floor of the Killam Memorial Library to find out more.
MacDonald Library after the Halifax Explosion, December 1917