Author: Lee Anne Titangos
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2
Mark Twain’s complete, uncensored Autobiography was an instant bestseller when the first volume was published in 2010, on the centennial of the author’s death, as he requested. Published to rave reviews, the Autobiography was hailed as the capstone of Twain’s career. It captures his authentic and unsuppressed voice, speaking clearly from the grave and brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions.
The eagerly-awaited Volume 2 delves deeper into Mark Twain’s life, uncovering the many roles he played in his private and public worlds. Filled with his characteristic blend of humor and ire, the narrative ranges effortlessly across the contemporary scene. He shares his views on writing and speaking, his preoccupation with money, and his contempt for the politics and politicians of his day. Affectionate and scathing by turns, his intractable curiosity and candor are everywhere on view.
Now available at the UC Press. Click here for ordering info.
The online free-to-use version is accessible through The Mark Twain Project.
On Exhibit: Berkeley Student Cooperative at 80
October 1, 2013 – March 31, 2014
The Bancroft Library Rowell Cases
Open during the operating hours of The Doe Library
Fourteen Depression-era UC Berkeley students, guided by the campus YMCA general secretary Harry L. Kingman, established a house in 1933 that would launch the University of California Students’ Cooperative Association. Now known as the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC), the student-operated non-profit cooperative has continued to grow, with 20 properties offering affordable housing options to 1,300 students from UC Berkeley and other Bay Area colleges and universities.
This exhibition celebrates the 80th anniversary of the BSC, the largest student cooperative in the United States, with photographs, brochures, publications, correspondence, and other documents drawn from the BSC records and other collections in the University Archives. It explores the origins, traditions, artistic activities, political involvement, and environmental sustainability efforts of the Co-op.
On Exhibit: Cartoons, Comics, and Funny Papers
September 26, 2013 – March 1, 2014
The Bancroft Library Gallery
Open Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm
Phil Frank’s long-running cartoon strips Travels with Farley and Farley have recently joined the drawings of Rube Goldberg, one of UC Berkeley’s best-known alumni, and of Gus Arriola, creator of the ever-popular Gordo strip, at The Bancroft Library. In addition to the work of these cartoonists, the exhibit will feature comics by underground artist Dan O’Neill, creator of Odd Bodkins, and Lou Grant, editorial cartoonist for the Oakland Tribune from 1954 to 1986. This show will highlight both the topical and the timeless nature of the cartoon, one of the oldest forms of visual art known to mankind.
Roundtable: Bolton, His Maps, and the Bancroft Library
September 19th
Lewis Latimer Room, Faculty Club
12:00 PM
Led by Albert L. Hurtado, Travis Chair in Modern American History, University of Oklahoma, Author of Herbert Eugene Bolton: Historian of the American Borderlands
Herbert E. Bolton was director of the Bancroft Library from 1916 to 1942. His decisions about hiring and acquisitions guided the library’s development in ways that continue to shape Bancroft’s collections today. Bolton’s papers, among the most important manuscript collections in the Bancroft Library’s holdings, document his work as library director as well as his work as historian and member of the UC Berkeley History Department faculty.
Bolton was particularly well known for his detailed field work and production of maps of Spanish explorers. He also created impressive and sometimes quite large maps to support his signature course, History of the Americas. Professor Hurtado will explain the development of Bolton’s interest in cartography and its continuing importance in the Bancroft Library.
There is no one better qualified to shed light on Bolton’s legacy than Professor Hurtado. The community is invited to join us for this presentation. Please join us to kick off the Bancroft Round Tables for the 2013-2014 academic year!
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Oral History Project
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Oral History Project tells the story of this engineering marvel. Enabling billions of passengers to drive from Oakland to San Francisco, or vice versa, since it opened to the public 1936, the Bay Bridge binds together the region like no other man-made structure. The majority of interviewees for this project spent their careers working on and around the bridge, and they offer their perspective on the engineering achievements, the maintenance challenges, and the complex symbolism of this massive structure.
Visit the project website: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/baybridge/
On Exhibit: Zines from the Bay Area
August 12, 2013 – TBA
The Bancroft Library Reading Room Cases
Open during the operating hours of The Bancroft Reading Room
zine noun \’zen\: a noncommercial often homemade publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter.
Zines are small circulation publications that do not depend on the financial backing of advertisers, and are not produced under the guidance of a large corporation or editorial staff. Also known as fanzines, these publications are usually homemade, self-published works produced on a very small budget, and often express alternative ideas on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from feminism and punk rock culture, to cooking and country music. The San Francisco Bay Area has been a starting point for many zines, some that grew to a larger circulation and others that remained relatively obscure.
Newest Bancroftiana issue now online!
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Number 141, Fall 2012 Highlights Fiat Lux Redux: Ansel Adams and Clark Kerr Mark Twain’s Autobiography, Volume 2 “A Perfection of Art” |
On Exhibit: Clipper Ship Sailing Cards in The Bancroft Library
Clipper Ship Sailing Cards in The Bancroft Library
August 1, 2013 – TBA
The Bancroft Library Corridor Cases
Open Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
The clipper ship sailing cards first appeared during the 1850s, advertising the departure of a ship on an imminent but indeterminate date. The cards were produced to attract last-minute customers to a not-yet-full vessel that would sail shortly, generally from New York to San Francisco. Clipper ships brought thousands of hopeful individuals to California during the Gold Rush, when sailing around Cape Horn was the fastest way to the Pacific coast from the eastern United States. Numerous artists, engravers, and printers turned to this new advertising medium at a time when color printing processes were also improving. The cards, designed to stand out in an agent’s window display, were letterpress printed onto cardstock, and accented by colorful wood-engraved images or dramatic lettering. Today, less than 3,500 clipper cards are estimated to remain, and about 140 are housed in The Bancroft Library.
From fascist Europe to U.C. Berkeley: Students help uncover a history of intellectual migration
“It must have been an Indiana Jones moment for Stuart Fine. Poring over rare documents, many of which had been boxed up for decades, the 19-year-old U.C. Berkeley freshman uncovered a lost world.
Fine was one of nine students taking part in a project of the university?s Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship program. Their mission: Explore the lives of 70 professors, most of them Jewish, who had fled Nazi-occupied Europe in the ?30s and later joined the U.C. Berkeley faculty. Their findings will be part of a 2014 exhibit at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Berkeley.
‘It was fascinating to learn about these people,’ Fine said. ‘I knew about the Jewish intellectual diaspora after the war, but I had no idea so many amazing people came to U.C. Berkeley or that Cal accepted so many persecuted Jews.’
The documents had been stored at the university’s Bancroft Library, which houses a portion of the Magnes’ archives.” – Dan Pine, jweekly.com
Click here for Full Article
Exhibition: The Colors of California Agriculture
April 26 – July 26, 2013
The Bancroft Library Gallery
Open 10am – 4pm, Monday through Friday
The Colors of California Agriculture highlight the recently donated Goin and Starrs Archive of California Agriculture, containing photographs and panoramas by Peter Goin and field research notes by Paul F. Starrs. These materials were compiled during the five years in which they co-authored the UC Press publication, Field Guide to California Agriculture, the first major survey of agriculture in California in 30 years. The Goin and Starr Archive is featured in the context of documents, photographs, and prints from The Bancroft Library’s historical holdings on this subject.
In the corridor exhibition cases adjacent to the Gallery, select produce labels from the Schmidt Lithograph Collection are on display. At its peak from 1910-1929, the Schmidt Lithograph Company was the largest label producing company in California. The company’s growth paralleled that of California’s agricultural production. The 47 Schmidt scrapbooks are a visual cornucopia advertising California’s bounty of dried, canned, crated fruits and vegetables.