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Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog

Books on a shelf

Welcome to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library blog! As the special collections and archives library at the University of Kansas, Spencer is home to remarkable and diverse collections of rare and unique items. Explore the blog to learn about the work we do and the materials we collect.

That’s Distinctive!: Typefaces

August 4th, 2023

Check the blog each Friday for a new “That’s Distinctive!” post. I created the series because I genuinely believe there is something in our collections for everyone, whether you’re writing a paper or just want to have a look. “That’s Distinctive!” will provide a more lighthearted glimpse into the diverse and unique materials at Spencer – including items that many people may not realize the library holds. If you have suggested topics for a future item feature or questions about the collections, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

This week on That’s Distinctive! we share The Encylopaedeia of Type Faces. Written by W. Turner Berry, A. F. Johnson, and W. Pincus Jaspert, the 358-page book was first published in 1953 and reissued in this revised and expanded edition in 1958. The book shares examples (or specimens) of typefaces.

According to Wikipedia, “A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display.” Many typefaces come with variations of size, weight, slope, and width. Each variation of a typeface (roman, italic, bold, etc.) might be considered a font, within the larger font family. A more in-depth discussion of typefaces and fonts can be found on Wikipedia.

The introduction of the volume explains its purpose:

“This selection of type faces has been compiled to provide a reference book for all those who use type — typographers, printers, publishers, advertisement designers and the business man who takes some interest in the choice of type for his stationery and publicity. It may also be of value to the lettering artist, the signwriter, and the engraver, who in consequence of the limitations of their own books of alphabets, often turn–we trust with a little uneasiness of conscience–to printers’ type for inspiration.”

I found this book simply by walking through the stacks, and I stopped because the title sounded interesting. Come to find out, the book is exactly what the title says. It shares hundreds of typefaces – organized into categories – throughout its pages, which is super fascinating. I’m sharing just a few pages this week, but the entire book can be viewed at the library.

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Selected pages from The Encyclopaedia of Type Faces by W. Turner Berry, A. F. Johnson, and W. Pincus Jaspert, 1958. Call Number: D6048. Click images to enlarge.

Tiffany McIntosh
Public Services

HBCULA Preservation Internship, Summer 2023

August 3rd, 2023

Aryana Derritt served as KU Libraries’ fourth HBCU Library Alliance Preservation Intern in the summer of 2023. She spent six weeks taking classes online with her cohort, who were each assigned to U.S. research libraries with conservation departments for four concurrent weeks of on-site internships. In this post, she describes her experiences at KU Libraries.

Interning at Kenneth Spencer Research Library in the conservation lab as the 2023 HBCU Library Alliance Intern has been an amazing experience. I have learned so many ways to preserve books and papers from different collections. I performed treatments on the Sumner High School collection which is a part of the Kansas Collection. I chose to do this collection because my grandmother and great-uncle went to Sumner High School.

Page from high school year book.
The Sumnerian, 1965, Sumner High School yearbook. Call Number: RH Ser D1286 1965, Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.

During my four weeks at Kenneth Spencer Research Library, I have learned how to mend, rehouse, and humidify materials. I mended a folder of papers, made a tuxedo box for a book, and humidified papers for the Sumner High School collection.

Sumner High School is in Kansas City, Kansas, and was founded in 1905 under the enactment of Bill No. 890. This school was named after Charles Sumner who was described as a courageous and open-minded individual. The school started with six girls and four teachers and soon grew the year after. Most of the collection consisted of ruled paper and many items had small tears that needed to be mended. Sadly, I did not finish working on the collection, but I am happy to have been given permission by Ms. Deborah Dandridge (Field Archivist/Curator, African American Experience Collections, Kansas Collection) and Mr. Phil Cunningham (Curator, Kansas Collection) to work with the different items.

(More information about the Sumner High School collection can be found at https://bit.ly/46MCMUJ.)

Typed piece of paper with weighted mending boards on top. Microspatula, tweezers, Teflon folder to the right of the paper.
Mending item from the Sumner High School collection. Call Number: RH MS 1137.

Also, I learned how to make phase boxes from Ms. Angela Andres (Special Collections Conservator), and Ms. Roberta Woodrick (Collections Conservator) taught me how to make tuxedo boxes. I appreciate their patience in teaching me how to use the tools and going at my pace.

Person demonstrating a conservation technique to another person.
Roberta Woodrick instructing Aryana Derritt in making a tuxedo box, Conservation Services, KU Libraries.

In the first week, I was taught by Ms. Whitney Baker (Head, Conservation Services) how to make an accordion book, which was quite fun. This activity took skill and technique. I was also taught by Ms. Angela Andres and Ms. Whitney Baker how to bind a book. When I first started bookbinding, it was new to me, but I conquered that challenge and am delighted that I learned that skill to take home with me.

Group of seven people holding up small handmade accordion books.
Conservation Services student employees and staff with their handmade accordion books. Conservation Services, KU Libraries.

This internship taught me about the role of libraries and the importance of preserving history. I explored things from Medieval manuscripts which are made with parchment to African American literature. I appreciate that I had the opportunity to learn about the details of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library.  

Cover of Black Poetry from Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
Cover of Black Poetry. Call Number: C23704. Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.

The biggest challenge for me was learning the time and effort it takes to complete a task such as mending and splicing tape in the audiovisual preservation department. I enjoyed the challenge and learned that it is rewarding when you finally finish the task at hand.

On the final day of the internship, I reflected on and learned not just the skills of conservation and preservation but also what it means to have a family work environment and how to function as a team. There was even a storm on my final day but to me, it was a bittersweet ending, and I value everyone that poured their knowledge into me.

Resources:

Sumner High School, n.d, School – Misc “The Story of Sumner High School” by Anita P. Davis, RH MS 1137, Box 2

Sumner High School (KCK), 1955, Events – Commencement, RH MS – P

Sumner High School (KCK), 1958, Events – Commencement, RH MS – P

Sumner High School (KCK), 1965, Events – Commencement, RH MS – P

Sumnerian 1965, Sumner High School collection, RH Ser D1286

Aryana Derritt
2023 HBCU Library Preservation Alliance Summer Intern

The Seven Year Itch; or, A Sabbatical in Search of a Bibliographer

August 2nd, 2023

A séance with L.E. James (Jim) Helyar, our late fellow librarian, and bibliographer of KU’s foundational Ralph N. Ellis collection of ornithology, is in order.

In our recent attempts to catalog mysterious heretofore unidentified bibliographical puzzlements in our Ellis collection backlog, we nailed the identity of a royal folio without a title page that had stymied Jim: he knew it was related to Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology, but not how. Even though Jim was closer to solving this who-done-it than he knew, he wrote in notes left behind that “I don’t immediately see anything under Wilson or Bonaparte which corresponds.” “I suspect it’s something that ‘every [ornithological bibliographical] schoolboy knows’, but not me.”

Apparently, Jim was thrown off by the “Wilson/Bonaparte, American Ornithology” notes written at the bottom of the vulture plate shown below, so in fact who-done-it was not exactly who Jim thunk done-it. This messy (both physically and bibliographically) volume turned out to be an imperfect variant of one of our exceedingly rare ornithological tomes: the royal folio edition of Scottish naturalist Captain Thomas Brown’s Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, published in Edinburgh in 1835 (Call Number: Ellis Aves H76). This volume was created as an atlas to accompany a much earlier text, Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology, first issued in Philadelphia between 1808 and 1814. In his notes Jim mentions Thomas Brown only as one of the artists credited for the “Wilson derived illustrations.”

Color illustration of a vulture standing on grass with mountains in the background.
A plate in Thomas Brown’s Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano. With the addition of numerous recently discovered species, and representations of the whole sylva of North America superbly illustrated with 124 large copper plates engraved by Lizars, Scott, Mitchell and others all beautifully colored by hand. Edinburgh: Frazer & Co., 1835. Call Number: Ellis Aves H161. Click image to enlarge.
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Close-up view of the handwritten note at the bottom of the vulture plate in Thomas Brown’s Illustrations. It reads “Wilson, A, & C. L. Bonaparte. American Ornithology. 4 vols. See VIII 90.” Call Number: Ellis Aves H161. Click image to enlarge.

I have created a small exhibition of the two copies, plus my start on what could be an arduous time-taking continent- and/or world-crossing project, to complete a census, not altogether do-able, ideally, entirely on-line or by phone. I was tempted at first to try the on-line and phone route, but same as with Jim perhaps … oh, the press of time …

The exhibit is free and open to the public in the North Gallery through September 16.

Sally Haines
Special Collections Cataloger