Day: August 20, 2012

October 7, 2011 – March 30, 2012
The Bancroft Library Rowell Cases
Open during the operating hours of The Doe Library

In October 1911 California became the sixth state to embrace equal suffrage for women, one of the signal reforms of the Progressive Era. Meanwhile, women in the university were pursuing their academic careers with vigor – and glaring inequality. Although women students had been admitted on an equal basis since 1870, their access to the university’s intellectual, social, recreational, and athletic resources was restricted in comparison with men. Drawn primarily from the University Archives’ collections, this exhibition examines the status of women on campus in this critical period.

The Classic 17th Century Folio Editions of Shakespeare’s Works

March – May 14th 2012
The Bancroft Library Reading Room Exhibit Cases
Open during the operating hours of the Bancroft Reading Room

On display are the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Folios of Shakespeare’s works along with a rare quarto edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen.

The First Folio of 1623 is the crowning glory of any English literature collection. This first publication of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies appeared seven years after the Bard’s death. It contains the first editions of twenty of his plays, including more accurate texts for eight plays which had been previously published. The Second Folio of 1632 is a close reprinting with a few incidental variants of the text of the First Folio. The Third Folio of 1663 is the rarest of the four folios, as an unknown number of the unsold copies were destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666. The text includes the first appearance of Pericles, the last play to be accepted into the Shakespeare canon. The Fourth Folio of 1685 is a reprint of the Third Folio and the last of the great folio editions published in the 17th century.

As a contrast to the four folios on display, it is fitting to include one quarto. Quartos are small pamphlets that were produced in haste and sold on the street for a few pence. Several of Shakespeare’s plays were first published in quarto editions, but since they were small and ordinary looking, they were not assiduously preserved and are now very scarce.

April 9 – December 1, 2012
The Bancroft Library Rowell Cases
Open during the operating hours of The Doe Library

Over the course of more than 120 years, Presidents of the United States — past, present, and future — have visited the University of California, Berkeley campus for commencements, Charter Day celebrations, and other notable campus occasions. From 1891 when Benjamin Harrison offered brief remarks from a carriage in front of South Hall, to 1962 when John F. Kennedy energized tens of thousands at California Memorial Stadium, Berkeley has welcomed these chief executives.

At least five sitting Presidents — Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy spoke at the Berkeley campus during their presidential terms. Others — including William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton — visited Berkeley either before or after their term(s) in office. One president, William McKinley, was scheduled to visit, but had to cancel in the same day.

In the Presidential election year of 2012, we look back at these visits, the pomp and circumstance, politics and poignancy, of the occasions when the University of California played host to “Mr. President.” We also commemorate fifty years since the last official visit by a sitting President, John F. Kennedy in 1962.

April – July 2012
The Bancroft Library Gallery
Open 10am – 4pm, Monday through Friday

You have been invited to a grand party. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are your hosts. Gathered in one room are over 150 years of Americans embodying a rainbow of diversity who have one thing in common: a non-normative sexual orientation. Here you will encounter lesbians and bisexuals and gay men. You will find individuals who self-identify as transgender, queer, polyamorous, questioning — and none of the above. Here are the old and the young of many races and ethnicities. In text, image and voice these Americans have taken their unique and often difficult life experiences and have transmuted them into beautiful and fierce art. In 1919 a Crow Indian named Woman Jim explained life as a berdache in four words: “That is my road.” For the LGBT guests at this party — the poets and the novelists, the cartoonists and the classical composers, the drag queens and the blues singers, the starving artists and the superstars — this is their road.

Visit the companion online exhibit:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/aplaceatthetable