The Beauty of Volvelles

Posted on April 27, 2021 by jmkyoung

Back in January, I was able to participate in a short class on crafting volvelles taught by book artist Stephanie Wolff. She led us through the creation of three different variations on the structure as well as shared examples of how various contemporary artists are using volvelles to convey a wide variety of concepts.

Examples of Stephanie Wolff’s volvelles
Examples of Stephanie Wolff’s volvelles

Volvelles, also known as wheel charts, are movable charts that when aligned in certain ways reveal a variety of information as decided by the creator. These were used in the past to communicate important information such as the positions of the sun and moon at certain times of the year, a vital task to many cultures. They were also used as teaching tools for early astronomers and mathematicians, as can be seen in an amazing book held in Collins library’s rare books collection- a copy of The Cosmographia by Peter Apian from 1584! For full disclosure, the first thing I did when I got a chance to peruse it was smell it; how often do you get to smell a book that was created over 400 years ago?! This book was an incredibly important resource of its time for helping people understand the known world and as such was reprinted and improved upon in a number of editions. 

The main reason the copy of The Cosmographia belonging to the university’s library is so special is that the volvelles inside are still intact and working. This is rare because they are paper instruments and as such, incredibly fragile to begin with. When you imagine how many hands this book might have encountered in its 400+ years, it is all the more incredible that you can still pick up and work the instruments that students used to understand the workings of the universe as they knew it in 1584. There are three working volvelles in the Cosmographia. They are all unique structures that allowed the students to interact with some of the material being taught in the book. These teaching tools are an incredible reminder that 400 years ago scholars were just as fascinated with understanding the universe they inhabited as we are today.

Another incredible thing to note about these instruments is that they are made from recycled paper- by looking on the backs of the volvelles you can see that they were printed on what were discarded pages of text! It might seem like a little thing, but it is 437 year old evidence of material being thoughtfully repurposed, which is pretty special in my view. A close inspection of the wheels will also reveal that whoever cut the pieces out wasn’t the most precise with scissors and the edges are a bit ragged, further evidence of a human hand’s involvement in the construction of this book, living so long ago. 

After viewing these historic volvelles and comparing them to the contemporary artist’s versions I was shown in the class, I am struck by the wide variety of forms they can take and the information they can be used to express. Books have existed in so many forms for thousands of years and it is amazing to know we can still construct and adapt their many styles to meet the needs of artist’s today.

Instructions for making a simple volvelles are as follows:

Step 1 – Cut out 2 circles of different circumference

  • Ex. One circle with a circumference of  6 inches and another circle with a circumference of 4 inches
  • Using a compass is going to aid you greatly in creating nearly perfect round circles (depending on your cutting skills) but there are no rules in my opinion and you can make a wonky circle if you so choose
  • Step 2 – Decide where you will make your cutouts on the topmost circle to reveal the information you choose to put on the bottom circle. You can make this easy and precise by measuring accurate spaces on both the bottom and top circles.

Step 3 – Decorate your volvelle however you see fit, making sure to at least put down all the information you want on the bottom circle before you assemble it in the next step.

TA DA
(yours will have cut outs like
the pink/white examples)

Step 4 – To assemble, you will need a needle and sturdy thread – I used waxed bookbinding thread. Tie off a knot at one end and then thread through from the back of the volvelle. Tie off as close to the base as possible. You want a snug fit between the knot and the paper.

– By Kendyl Chasco, Library Assistant, Studio Art ‘22

Posted in Did You Know? | Leave a comment

Writing Resources for the Aspiring Poet

Posted on April 26, 2021 by jmkyoung

Throughout National Poetry Month, we’ve featured a variety of poets and their writing, as well as tools for discovering new poetic works. By now, you may be inspired to experiment with writing your own poems! This post features guides to the craft of poetry available at Collins Library. Search these titles in Primo or use the subject heading Poetry — Authorship to find additional titles. Happy writing!

 A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built-meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space in this classic guide.

The Poetry Toolkit: For Readers and Writers by William Harmon

This guide provides readers with essential intellectual and practical tools necessary to read, understand, and write poetry. Drawing on examples from a range of poets from more than 1,500 years of English literature, Harmon encourages students and general readers to think critically about poetic writing. This accessible guide provides the confidence to read, write, and gain a richer appreciation of the artistry and pleasures of the poetic form.

Writing Poems by Michelle Boisseau, Hadara
Bar-Nadav, and Robert Wallace

The gold standard of poetry writing books, Writing Poems is a comprehensive, easy-to-use guide that will help aspiring poets to create meaningful works. The authors, themselves published poets, eagerly share their knowledge and love of poetry throughout, and introduce readers to poetry’s traditions, teaching the essentials for developing your craft.

Posted in April is National Poetry Month | Leave a comment

Science Stories: A unique collaboration of artists and scientists, October 15, 2021 – January 14, 2022

Posted on April 22, 2021 by jmkyoung

What happens when a book artist and scientist get together? The answer:  a lot!   

Science Stories is a unique project supported by the University of Puget Sound that brings together Pacific Northwest scientists and book artists with the end result being the creation of engaging and unique artists’ books that offer new ways to interpret science and to tell a story.  

The project is the brainchild of Evergreen’s Emeritus faculty member Lucia Harrison, Puget Sound Library Director Jane Carlin, and Professor of Biology at Puget Sound Peter Wimberger. ​ Over 18 months ago they started talking about the many connections between art and science.  The University of Puget Sound created the Art & Sci Initiative to bring together ideas and concepts to promote greater understanding of science.  Wimberger, a founding member of this initiative, was eager to find opportunities to engage scientists in new ways of thinking.  Harrison, an educator with a rich history of teaching art using science as a platform has seen the impact that combining art and science in educational settings ​has had on her students at The Evergreen College as well as work she has done with the community.  And Library Director, Jane Carlin has been an advocate for local books artists as well as for integrating artists’ books into the curriculum.  As Carlin states, “These artists’ books promote unique opportunities to share ideas and to enhance understanding of science.  Combining art, text and formats in innovative ways engages the reader/viewer in ways that a traditional book can’t.”  Lucia Harrison agrees: “So often, we as the public, are removed from the important work scientists are doing.  This project offers the opportunity to showcase the important scientific work being done in our community and make it more accessible to the public.”

The Science Stories website is a wealth of information.  Artists and scientists have created videos that provide insight into their work and process, in addition to resources and reference information.

The exhibit was planned to be displayed at the University of Puget Sound Collins Memorial Library in winter 2021, but as we all know, Covid intervened.  As Harrison states, “We had to pivot and rethink how to find ways to share this information.  It has been amazing to see how the community of artists and scientists have come together to create these amazing video stories.”

The curatorial team is planning to display the books this fall, October 1 – January 14, 2022.  And as Carlin states, “We are hopeful that we will be able to welcome members of the community to Collins to see these incredible books. We want as many as possible to see the many ideas reflected in this project.”

A number of Puget Sound faculty were involved with the Science Stories project representing a wide range of research and expertise:  Dan Burgard: Working Upstream, Rachel E Pepper: Vorticella Convallaria: 1676-2020), Stacey Weiss: Striped Plateau Lizard, Peter H Wimberger: Castor and Sapient and Timeline: A View from Washington Pass, Alyce A DeMarais: Tensile: A Sublime Love Story, and Steven Neshyba: Field Study: Ice Crystals of Antarctica. In each case the collaboration took a different path and together artist and scientist contributed to the unique design.

Striped Plateau Lizard by Dorothy McCuistion

Professor Stacey Weiss, who worked with local Tacoma artist Dorothy McCuiston reflects on her experience:
“Working with Dorothy was a wonderful experience and I was struck by both the depth and breadth of her research about the natural history of my lizards and the ecology of their environment. We had been hoping that she could visit my field sites in Arizona with me, but the pandemic prevented both of us from traveling there. When she decided to use a dying process with plant materials, I reached out to my friend and Director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Southwestern Research Station, Geoff Bender, and requested that he send us a bundle of plants from my study site, which he did. The result is just incredible! The colors that transferred to Dorothy’s art book are so reflective of the place that I love, it really blew me away.”

Alyce DeMarais Professor Emerita, Department of Biology shares thoughts about her experience.  She worked with local artist and letterpress printer, Jessica Spring: 
“I have always appreciated the melding of art and science.  I view science as a creative endeavor and marvel at the science that underlies artistic processes.  Working on this project with Jessica Spring provided new insights–it was fascinating to see how Jessica approached the project and how she connected data with words and images.  Her work captures the complexity of the science and its place in the world.”

Working Upstream by Jim Oker
Working Upstream by Jim Oker

Dan Burgard, Professor of Chemistry worked with artist Jim Oker and Suze Woolf. Oker writes: “Through the Working Upstream book project, book designer, Suze Woolf and I strove to explore the nature of this work and the issues it raises through images that evoke the notion of seeing aspects of the world in and through water. Water can become a lens through which the world can be seen, both figuratively and literally.”  The book’s form and materials also makes reference to a scientist’s microscope lens.  In discussions of this work, viewers will see a way of studying drug use in a community without violating individual privacy.”

All of the artists used images, innovative book structures, and tactile materials to seduce their audiences to engage in a dialog about issues raised by the scientists’ research.  Each one offers insights in the research being conducted in our region and helps foster a greater understanding of science and the connection that art has in helping us understand this complex work.

Posted in Exhibits | Leave a comment

Featured Resource: Poetry & Short Story Reference Center

Posted on April 19, 2021 by jmkyoung

Poetry & Short Story Reference Center is a collection of full-text classic and contemporary poetry, short stories, and supplemental content, as well as biographies and authoritative essays on such topics as poetic forms, movements and techniques. It also includes high-quality videos and audio recordings of interviews and poets reading their work from the Academy of American Poets and other sources. Researchers can search for poems, poets, short stories, authors and more using a single search box, or browse content alphabetically by most-studied poets and authors, most-studied works, poetic forms and techniques, themes, literary periods and movements. Find it under Databases A-Z on the library website!

Posted in April is National Poetry Month | Leave a comment

Recent Poetry Titles at Collins Library

Posted on April 12, 2021 by jmkyoung

National Poetry Month is an annual celebration of poets and their craft, and this week we’re featuring some of our favorite recent poetry titles available at Collins Library. These collections showcase the unique and powerful ways that poetry has been used to explore a multitude of human experience and respond to pressing social issues. Search for these titles and many more in Primo to discover a new favorite verse!

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song edited by Kevin Young

An ambitious anthology of Black poetry, gathering 250 poets from the colonial period to the present. This volume also features biographies of each poet and notes that illuminate cultural references and allusions to historical events.

Hull

HULL by Xandria Phillips

Phillips’ debut collection explores emotional impacts of colonialism and racism on the Black queer body and the present-day emotional impacts of enslavement in urban, rural, and international settings. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry.

New Poets of Native Nations

New Poets of Native Nations edited by Heid E. Erdrich

This anthology gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages, and tribal affiliations to present the extraordinary range and power of new Native poetry. Heid E. Erdrich has selected twenty-one poets whose first books were published after the year 2000 to highlight the exciting works coming up after Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie. Collected here are long narratives, political outcries, experimental works, and traditional lyrics.

Homie: Poems

Homie: poems by Danez Smith

From the publisher: Danez Smith’s third poetry collection is a “magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer…. Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danez’s friends and for you and for yours.”

Oceanic

Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

In her fourth collection of poetry, Nezhukumatathil writes a love song to the earth and its inhabitants. Oceanic is both a title and an ethos of radical inclusion, studying forms of love as diverse and abundant as the ocean itself and speaking to the reader as a cooperative part of the earth, an extraordinary neighborhood to which we all belong.

Eye Level

Eye Level: poems by Jenny Xie

Xie’s award-winning debut takes us far and near, to Phnom Penh, Corfu, Hanoi, New York, and elsewhere, as we travel closer and closer to the acutely felt solitude that centers this searching, moving collection. Animated by a restless inner questioning, these poems meditate on the forces that moor the self and set it in motion, from immigration to travel to estranging losses and departures.

Posted in April is National Poetry Month | Leave a comment

National Poetry Month: Poet Laureates

Posted on April 5, 2021 by jpelger

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month through the work of current poet laureates!

U.S. Poet Laureate: Joy Harjo 

Appointed by the Librarian of Congress, the U.S. Poet Laureate serves as the nation’s official poet. Joy Harjo is currently the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States (2019-present) and is the first Native American poet to hold this honor. View the Library of Congress’s resource guide to Harjo’s work and explore her signature project “Living Nations, Living Words,” which features the work of contemporary Native American poets across the country through an interactive Story Map and audio collection. 

Harjo’s latest book of poems An American Sunrise is available to check out from Collins Library.

Washington State Poet Laureate: Claudia Castro Luna

Appointed by the Governor, the Washington State Poet Laureate serves to build awareness and appreciation of poetry through programming in communities throughout the state. Claudia Castro Luna is the 5th Washington State Poet Laureate (2018-2021). She is the author of several poetry collections and also the creator of Seattle Poetic Grid, a digital mapping project which traces the city in the voices of its citizens. Her book One River, a Thousand Voices, available in Archives and Special Collections, commemorates a statewide project about the Columbia River “to explore a sense of place, of ecology, of history, and to celebrate the power of words and stories to define ourselves and our communities.” Learn more about Castro Luna’s work at her website.

Tacoma Poet Laureate: Lydia K. Valentine

The Tacoma Poet Laureate Program was founded in 2008 to showcase local artists and celebrate Tacoma’s literary community. Playwright, poet, and educator, Lydia K. Valentine will serve as Tacoma’s next Poet Laureate for 2021-2023. Her first poetry collection, Brief Black Candles, was published in November 2020. Find out more about Valentine’s current projects at her website, Lyderary Ink, and mark your calendars for the Pass the Torch Virtual Event, when she will officially assume her title. This free, public event will be held Thursday, April 22, 2021 from 6–7:15 PM on TV Tacoma, livestreamed on the City’s Facebook page, and on Zoom.

Stay tuned for future posts celebrating National Poetry Month throughout April!

Posted in April is National Poetry Month | Leave a comment

Poetic Women

Posted on March 29, 2021 by jpelger

As Women’s History Month comes to a close and we transition to National Poetry Month in April, your reading list might benefit from a combination of the two! This post features recent poetry collections by women authors available at Collins Library. Search these titles in Primo or use the subject heading American poetry — Women authors to find additional titles.

Magical Negro: Poems by Morgan Parker

Winner of the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. From the publisher: “MagicalNegro is an archive of black everydayness, a catalog of contemporary folk heroes, an ethnography of ancestral grief, and an inventory of figureheads, idioms, and customs. These American poems are both elegy and jive, joke and declaration, songs of congregation and self-conception. They connect themes of loneliness, displacement, grief, ancestral trauma, and objectification, while exploring and troubling tropes and stereotypes of Black Americans.”

Lima::Limón by Natalie Scenters-Zapico

Natalie Scenters-Zapico’s second poetry collection is a lyrical exploration of the intersection between gender roles and desire on the U.S.-México border.

Nasty Women Poets: an unapologetic anthology of subversive verse 

edited by Grace Bauer & Julie Kane

An anthology of poems– from women poets– that address stereotypes and expectations women have faced from the time of Eve to today’s political climate. This anthology is curated to represent a range of diverse voices unified in a message of female empowerment, activism, and the subversion of gender expectation norms.

Whereas by Layli Long Soldier

Winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Oglala Lakota author, Layli Long Soldier wrote this collection in response to S.J. Res 14, a congressional apology and resolution to the native peoples of the United States. Adapted from the publisher: Through an array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, she confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators.

Posted in Women's History Month | Leave a comment

Looking Forward: The Feminist Utopia Project

Posted on March 25, 2021 by jpelger

Women’s History Month encourages reflection and engagement with women’s historical and contemporary contributions to American society, but what of the future?

In The Feminist Utopia Project: fifty-seven visions of a wildly better future, editors Alexandra Brodsky and Rachel Kauder Nalebuff combine over 50 contemporary voices and invite us to imagine a truly feminist world. Among the many writers represented in this collection are Melissa Harris-Perry, Janet Mock, Sheila Heti, and Mia McKenzie, Joey Soloway, Mariame Kaba, and many more. Their contributions cover a wide range of topics, including reproductive rights, justice, empathy, body image, parenting and employment. These selections challenge the status quo that accepts inequality and violence as a given, “offering playful, earnest, challenging, and hopeful versions of our collective future in the form of creative nonfiction, fiction, visual art, poetry, and more” (Library Journal).

Available to read now as an ebook!

Posted in Women's History Month | Leave a comment

Women’s Rights in Primary Sources

Posted on March 23, 2021 by jpelger

Continuing our celebration of Women’s History Month and last year’s 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, we recommend these digital collections featuring a wide variety of primary sources related to women’s suffrage and women’s political organizing in the United States.

Women’s Suffrage: Campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment is a primary source set from the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) that documents women’s struggle for voting rights in the United States and the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment. Sources featured include photographs, advertisements, maps, and other documents that shed light on this historic moment in U.S. history. Dig deeper with DPLA’s additional primary source sets related to other eras and aspects of women’s history. 

Although the 19th Amendment states that voting rights should not be denied on the basis of gender, the reality was that the vast majority of women who were able to vote after its ratification in 1920 were white; most Black women and all Native American women remained disenfranchised for decades due to a tangled web of exclusionary laws and policies. The Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative project from the Digital Public Library of America and their academic partners to provide access to primary source materials “documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960.”

The Women’s Rights page on DocsTeach features primary sources from the National Archives and document-based teaching activities related to women’s rights and changing roles in American history – including women’s suffrage, political involvement, citizenship rights, roles during the world wars, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and more.

Posted in Women's History Month | Leave a comment

Women’s Studies On Campus

Posted on March 19, 2021 by jpelger
The Trail, Dec. 3, 1971 issue, Women’s liberation issue, pg. 8-15

In Fall 2020, students, faculty, and staff celebrated the arrival of Puget Sound’s new academic major in Gender & Queer Studies, but did you know that the university has offered courses in Women’s Studies since 1972? 

As reported in the November 5, 1971 issue of The Trail (pg. 9), the first was an introductory course titled “Women in American Society,” which promised to “foster an understanding of the contemporary situation of women through historical introspection.” To generate interest and promote the new course to the campus community, students coordinated a special women’s issue of The Trail published in December 1971. This fascinating issue features contributors engaging with a variety of topics reflecting the agenda and concerns of the national women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as competing perspectives on feminism from Puget Sound students.

Like many early Women’s Studies programs, University of Puget Sound’s program experienced its share of growing pains and other difficulties due to limited administrative support, budgets, staffing, and resources, in addition to broader challenges to Women’s Studies as a necessary, political, and academically valid field of study. Its survival, promotion, and continued development into our current GQS program relied on the interest, support, and dedication of a sometimes small, yet passionate group of students, faculty, and staff over the past (nearly) 50 years. Learn more about the history and development of the Gender & Queer Studies program at Puget Sound and gendered experience on campus through our University Historical Collections, which include digitized copies of The Trail, yearbooks, University Bulletins, and much more! 

Posted in Women's History Month | Leave a comment