Yes, the Special Collections will be closed for a long Memorial Day weekend, from Friday, May 24th through Tuesday, May 28th.  Should you have any questions or need assistance during this time, please email archives@utc.edu or contact the library dean, Theresa Liedtka at (423) 425-4508 or at Theresa-Liedtka@utc.edu, and we will certainly try to accommodate you, but certain items,  collections, and services may be unavailable during this period.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.  The department will reopen on Wednesday, May 29th, at 9:00 am.

The above book is from our Rare Book Collection and is A  History of the Origin of Memorial Day, printed in Columbus, Georgia, in 1898.  Many cities across the United States claim Memorial Day to have originated in their city.  Two from the South -  Columbus, Mississippi and Columbus, Georgia – both had observances a year after the end of the Civil War to remember the fallen.  Similar observances were held across the United States in those first years after the war.  There is no definitive agreement as to where the holiday originated, but the important thing is that we remember those that have given their lives to serve and protect our country!

One item of interest, though, is an 1805 book titled The Confessions of William Henry Ireland.  Upon looking at the title page and the illustration you can see there is a connection to Shakespeare.

William Henry Ireland (1775-1835) was the son of a British Shakespeare collector and an antiquities dealer, who hoped to impress his father by “discovering” documents involving Shakespeare, particularly those bearing Shakespeare’s signature, which were rare even in the late 1700s. Ireland began by forging simple documents, which his father believed were real, and then went on to “discover” the original manuscripts of several plays, like Hamlet.  He eventually went one step further and “discovered” an unknown Shakespeare play, Vortigern and Rowena.  Even though there were skeptics as to the authenticity of this play (other appraisers suggested could be an early Shakespeare work), the play was produced and performed in 1796 by the Drury Lane Theatre in London.  The play was literally laughed off the stage at its premier and shortly thereafter Ireland admitted the whole thing was a hoax.  Ireland’s father, however, was not convinced the play was a forgery, perhaps believing his twenty-year-old son was not smart enough to write an entire play by himself.  In 2008, however, the play was again produced and performed by the Pembroke Players at Pembroke College at Cambridge, with the full knowledge that the play was not an authentic Shakespeare play.  The Confessions of William Henry Ireland was published in London by Ellerton and Byworth, for Thomas Goddard, and the Special Collections’ copy, a first edition, is part of the Charles Hubbard Collection acquired several years ago by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Happy Birthday to the Bard!  There’s nothing phony about his other plays……

As part of this collection, we have been documenting the progress of the construction of the new $48 million library, due to open in 2014.  This will be only the fifth location for the university’s library since the school opened in 1886.  From the chilly late January 2010 day when we had the groundbreaking (and 5″ of snow a few hours later) to the first inside tour the internal library building committee got on Friday, March 22, here are a few photographs of the last three years progress.

   Members of the Internal Library Building Committee, library dean, and university administration at the January 2010 groundbreaking.

The cleared ground on which the library would stand, several months later in April 2010.

Foundation and support pillars added by October 2011.

Crane atop the structure in February 2012.

Internal Library Building Committee, on top floor of the new library, March 22, 2013.

Entrance to the new Special Collections Department, on the top floor on the new library.

Architect’s rendering of the finished library, to open in 2014.

The Special Collections will be closed for the Spring Holiday (Friday, March 29), and the following week:  April 1-5, 2013.  Should you have any questions or need assistance during this time, please email archives@utc.edu or contact the library dean, Theresa Liedtka at (423) 425-4508 or at Theresa-Liedtka@utc.edu, and we will certainly try to accommodate you, but certain items,  collections, and services may be unavailable during this period.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.  The department will reopen on Monday, April 8 at 9:00 am.

The Wicked Witch on the cover of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz    (1986)

If you think Moser’s “Wizard” bears an uncanny resemblance to anyone in particular, you wouldn’t be mistaken!

It’s been a long time coming, but we are very excited to announce the launch of our newest digital collection, The Hood-Williamson Digital Collection on Serpent Handlers of Southern Appalachia.  The Hood-Williamson archives, held in the Special Collections of the library, is a very important and unique collection of primary source videos documenting the serpent handling churches of Southern Appalachia.  The videos see quite a bit of in-house use from researchers and we field many requests from researchers all over the world who are interested in the collection.  Until this point however, we have been unable to offer any remote viewing options to the global audience for this collection.

The launch of the online collection will be completed in installments, the first of which is now live and available for use.  As the collection statement indicates, the full collection will “consist of a range of the available materials covering several years of services at each church and all of the interviews Drs. Hood and Williamson conducted.”  This initial installment includes 4 church services from the legendary Jolo, West Virginia Church of the Lord Jesus and 6 interviews with serpent handling practitioners.  The digital collection will grow over time to include around 40 church services (in their entirety) and  35 interviews with serpent handling practitioners.

We highly recommend using either the Google Chrome or Internet Explorer browser to view the videos.  Selecting another browser may result in significant playback delays. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on the collection via email at archives@utc.edu or by giving us a call at 423-425-2186.

These prints appear to date back at least to the 1800s.

         Romeo and Juliet                                                   Troilus and Cressida

             Titania sleeping, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The exhibit is in the Special Collections of Lupton Library (on the 2nd floor) and will run until April 29th. For more information please call 425-2186 or email: archives@utc.edu.

A piece of pottery from Ecuador

A tapestry from China

Indian Paint Brush

Deer Grass or Meadow Beauty

[Editor's Note: We like to unleash our awesome student assistant on the blog at least once a semester & now's the time!  Please welcome our guest author, Noelle Boggs.]

Over the last few weeks, I have been sifting through, organizing, and researching the William Crutchfield Collection here at the Special Collections. This collection consists of over 400 watercolor paintings of wildflowers that grow in the Southeast. Needless to say, I have really enjoyed going through this collection not only because the works are beautiful to look at but also because I have learned so much about wildflowers through the research. Although I am still unable to name most flowers offhand, as Crutchfield could do so easily, the research has made me value the simple beauty of flowers and realize just how talented and devoted Crutchfield was to his artwork (which was just a hobby!).

William Crutchfield was born on March 13, 1889 in Chattanooga. He attended Chattanooga city schools and graduated from Chattanooga High School before moving to Idaho to work on a ranch. By 1916, he has graduated from the University of Illinois with a BOS degree in architecture. Although he served in both World Wars, Crutchfield spent most of his life devoted to architecture. He designed some of Chattanooga’s most beautiful residences and outstanding public and commercial buildings, many of which still stand today. However, in his spare time, Crutchfield liked to combine two of his favorite interests: painting with watercolors and flowers/nature. It was during the Great Depression that Crutchfield began his color studies on wildflowers, which, as he says, “was in a way a life saver” because the Depression had temporarily crippled his architecture business. By the time of his death in 1956, Crutchfield had created 460 watercolors of wildflowers which provide another way to appreciate the beauty and place in nature of native wildflowers.

Although there are many beautiful flowers in this collection, those pictured above are just a couple that really stood out for me.  Of course, the whole collection is available in the Special Collections, so if you want to see more watercolors just come by!

Happy New Year and have a great 2013!

The Cap and Bells Club

The cast from the student play, Our Wives

The Kappa Chi Literary Society