Hood Museum exhibition highlights treasures from Rauner Special Collections Library

Posted 01/05/01

"Our little ship was stove in, hopelessly crushed and helpless amongst the engulfing ice." This 1916 diary entry was made by Thomas Orde-Lees, a member of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition. Shackleton used this diary to recount the horrors and victories of the trans-antarctic expedition in his 1920 book South. This original diary is one of the countless extraordinary objects in the special exhibition, Treasures from Dartmouth College's Rauner Library, on view at the Hood Museum of Art from Jan. 13 through March 11. This exhibition showcases many of Rauner Library's most significant holdings selected from among more than 126,000 volumes, a half million photographs, and more than six and half million manuscripts acquired by the college over the past 250 years.

Through this exhibition, Special Collections Librarian and guest curator Phillip Cronenwett conveys the breadth and significance of the Rauner collections with works representative of statesmen, American and European writers, polar expeditions, the sciences, early manuscripts, the arts, the history of the book, New Hampshire, and Dartmouth College.

An opening lecture will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Arthur M. Loew Auditorium of the Hood Museum of Art. Cronenwett will present "Adventures in Collecting: Twelve Centuries of Manuscripts and Rare Books at Dartmouth College." A reception hosted by the Friends of Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art will follow in Kim Gallery.

Visitors to the exhibition will see personal papers and documents of such statesmen as Winston Churchill and Dartmouth graduate Daniel Webster, including Churchill's secret 1911 document anticipating the early course of World War I and Webster's hand-written autobiography.

A volume of William Wordsworth's Sonnets, a Robert Frost notebook, and writings in the hand of Phillis Wheatley, one of the first published African-American poets, offer glimpses into literary minds. Also featured are a typescript by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss (Class of 1925), and Robert May's (Class of 1926) original storyboards-complete with chalk drawings-for his classic Christmas tale, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration, recognized as one of the richest and finest polar collections in existence, is encyclopedic in its coverage of most every Arctic expedition of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This compelling display of journals, books, and photographs captures both the triumphs and failures of the races to attain both the North and South Poles.

Dartmouth's collection of scientific materials is vast, representing the physical and biological sciences as well as medicine and computing: one highlight is the first draft of BASIC: Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code by the creators of BASIC, Dartmouth mathematics professors Thomas E. Kurtz and Dartmouth College's 10th president and computer pioneer, John G. Kemeny.

An extensive collection of early manuscripts allows for the study and admiration of extremely rare works, including a painstakingly illuminated French book of hours dating to the middle of the 15th century, and what is considered to be one of the earliest musical manuscripts in a repository in the Western Hemisphere.

Selections from the library's rich arts collections are represented in the exhibition by the drafts, correspondence, notebooks, and sketchbooks of artists, writers, and composers, including a very early Maxfield Parrish sketchbook and a magnificent collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century British books gathered by Edward Sine, Class of 1951.

The study of the history of the book has been a significant mainstay of the library's collecting for many decades. Visitors to the exhibition can explore the development of the book from a page of the Gutenburg Bible (about 1455) to the Kelmscott Press's Chaucer (1896) to fine contemporary printing.

"The whole valley, which was once covered with beautiful green grass, was now complete quagmire, exhibiting nothing but ruins of mountains, heaps of timber, large rocks, sand, and gravel. All was dismal and desolate." Nineteenth-century author and historian Lucy Crawford's recounting of the White Mountain tragedy that killed an entire family represents the intensive collection of New Hampshire history materials printed in the state from the time of the first printing press to the turn of the 20th century.

An exhibition of treasures from Rauner Library would not be complete without several significant objects representing the rich history and long heritage of Dartmouth College, from the original royal charter for the college to George Ticknor's 1803 watercolor of the Dartmouth Green to the Flude Medal, worn by college presidents during convocation and commencement since 1785.

This exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated brochure. Rauner Library is situated on the Dartmouth Green in historic Webster Hall. The library is open to the public for use year-round, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Treasures of Dartmouth College's Rauner Library has been organized by the Hood Museum of Art and Rauner Library. Its presentation has been made possible through the generosity of the Bernard R. Siskind 1955 Fund and Friends of the Dartmouth Library.

Associated Events

Opening Lecture and Reception
Wednesday, January 17, 5:30 PM
Arthur M. Loew Auditorium
"Adventures in Collecting: Twelve Centuries of Manuscripts and Rare Books at Dartmouth College"
Phillip Cronenwett, Special Collections Librarian and guest curator
Reception hosted by the Friends of Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art to follow.

Lecture
Wednesday, January 31, 5:30 PM
Arthur M. Loew Auditorium, Hood Museum of Art
"Writing the Life of Frost: Some Reflections"
Jay Parini, Axinn Professor of English, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont

Lunchtime Gallery Talk
Tuesday, January 23, 12:30 PM
Hood Museum of Art
"Dartmouth's History/Dartmouth's Treasures"
Jere Daniell, Professor of History and Class of 1925 Professor

Lunchtime Gallery Talk
Tuesday, January 30, 12:30 PM
Hood Museum of Art
"Winston Churchill's Papers in Rauner Library"
Ron Edsforth, Visiting Associate Professor of History

Lunchtime Gallery Talk
Tuesday, February 6, 12:30 PM
Hood Museum of Art
"Poems by Phillis Wheatley: An Examination of Process"
William Cook, Israel Evans Professor of Oratory and Belles Lettres, Professor of English

Lunchtime Gallery Talk
Tuesday, February 13, 12: 30 PM
Hood Museum of Art
"Gods in Granite: The Cultural History of the White Mountains of New Hampshire"
Robert McGrath, Professor of Art History

Introductory Tours
Saturday, February 3, 2 PM
Hood Museum of Art
Saturday, February 24, 2 PM
Hood Museum of Art

The Hood Museum of Art is located on Wheelock Street opposite the green in Hanover, New Hampshire. Admission is free and open to the public. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM; Wednesday, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM; and Sunday, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The Hood Museum Shop is open Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM; Wednesday, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM; and Saturday and Sunday, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM. The museum and museum shop are wheelchair accessible. For additional information, please call (603) 646-2808.