Collins Unbound

When Leonardo da Vinci is brought up, many think of his art: the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper just to name a few. However, I have discovered that da Vinci was more than just a man of art but also a man of thought, his paintings merely documentations of his findings.

Here is a quote from da Vinci I found in the book Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Drawings and Paintings by Frank Zöllner in the Archives & Special Collections.

Unable to resist my eager desire and wanting to see the great [wealth] of the various and strange shapes made by formative nature, and having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern, in front of which I stood some time, astonished and unaware of such a thing. Bending my head back into an arch I rested my left hand on my knee and held my right hand over my down-cast and contracted eyebrows; often bending forth one way and then the other, to see whether I could discover anything inside, and this being forbidden by the deep darkness within, and after having remained there for some time, two contrary emotions arose in me – fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things within it…

In a very poetic way, Leonardo da Vinci paints a colorful image of the desire for knowledge and how it is both frightening and wonderful at the same time.

Stop by and take a look Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 1:00-3:00 p.m. in the Archives & Special Collections on the second floor of the Library.

By Sierra Scott

Last year I stumbled across Bibliodeath by Andrei Codrescu. The title is tantalizing–the death of books? Isn’t that a bit of a hot topic for libraries, especially with the rise of digitization (it is, but to me it’s the duty of libraries to unbiasedly collect information about all subjects, even the controversial ones)?

This particular book in our special collections falls into the classification of Z: books, writing, libraries, and bibliography. While it falls alongside publication such as the New Colophon (a book collector’s quarterly) and other codices, this book holds the status of an autobiography hiding within an archival exploration. It studies the boundaries and relationships between printed word and digital word through metaphor and anecdote.

An Amazon review touted that “it may at times make your brain hurt, like a math problem”, and I find this to be an accurate description. As an exploration of archives and Codrescu’s own life, the writing and ideas are simply too elaborate to simply paraphrase, and a mere skimming of the book reveals little to me of its true motivations.

Though at first glance most of the personal stories remain in the footnotes, you quickly discover that the footnotes can get quite lengthy. One footnote referencing A Chekhov Novella extends for 5-6 full pages of the book, expanding out from the margins and crowding out the general text.

You might be wondering why such a book would be hiding in the Archives & Special Collections, and the simple answer is because it’s special. The actual reason is because it’s a signed prepublication edition.

If you want to make your brain hurt but also want to come out the other end of this novel with a new perspective on books and archives, come check it out any time on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday from 1-3 p.m. on the second floor of the library!

By Morgan Ford

Despite having lived in Tacoma for the last three and a half years, I am the first to admit that much of the city remains a mystery to me, and in my last semester at UPS, I have been trying to get out more and experience all that Tacoma has to offer. Last month, I found myself back in Tacoma in early January with little to do before classes started up again. At a loss for ideas, I headed to trip advisor, hoping to find some undiscovered Tacoma attraction. In my search, I came across Tacoma’s Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, which is located just across the street from the Seymour Botanical Conservatory, in Wright Park. I had been meaning to check it out since I’d heard about it over the summer, but hadn’t yet visited. So, in the spirit of getting to know the city a little better, I ventured out with a friend in tow.

The Museum is currently showing a Mark Twain Exhibit, which features letters, manuscripts, notes, and illustrations by or about Mark Twain’s works. While the exhibit was interesting, the director of the Museum, Tom, is arguably more informative than the exhibit itself. As my friend and I were the only two people in the museum at the time, Tom ended up giving us a personal tour, as well as telling us about various materials that have moved through the museum in past exhibits. The whole experience was surprisingly interesting and engaging- I learned quite a bit about Mark Twain, and I got to chat with Tom about rare books and the variety of materials that rotate through the Tacoma Karpeles. He even brought out some reproductions of some of the other items in the Karpeles collection, including a “historical” time line of Narnia created by C.S. Lewis when he was doing the world-building for his books, which was really fun to see.

While the museum is free and open to the public, with only one employee, it remains in a state of disrepair and seems to remain a mystery to much of the city. Intrigued by my visit, and mildly confused about why the museum hasn’t been marketed better as a Tacoma cultural attraction, I decided to do a bit of quick research on the topic.

The Karpeles system as a whole is rather eccentric- developed by David Karpeles, a southern California mathematician turned real estate tycoon, the creation of the museums allowed him to display his ever expanding manuscript collection to the public. The museums are solely funded by Karpeles himself, and all are free to the public. Karpeles’ holdings include a wide range of materials, from the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, to a Papal decree from 1183, and none of the museums have a permanent exhibit. Instead, exhibits rotate among the museums roughly every four months. While the cities in which Karpeles museums have been established may seem random—Duluth, Minnesota, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Tacoma Washington—Karpeles reportedly established museums in cities that lacked cultural resources, rather than in urban metropolises. With so many museums across the country—fourteen locations in all—it seems that some locations may be better cared for then others.

That being said, the Tacoma Karpeles Museum is definitely worth checking out. The museum provides a hands-on way to experience history, and with the non-existent price of admission, may be a more accessible way for students like us to experience the variety of rare materials the Karpeles system has to offer.

For more information about the museum, check out Kate Albert Ward’s article in Post Defiance: http://postdefiance.com/the-tacoma-karpeles-manuscript-library-museum/ or the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums official website: http://www.rain.org/~karpeles/

By Kara E Flynn