Research Tips: Researching the Author

Many of us, alongside reading poetry and novels or travel narratives, want to know about the context in which the author lived. Who were their families? Did they have a specific person of whom they dreamed when they wrote about love? Understanding the author can give us a better understanding of their meaning, their focus, and their world.

Unsurprisingly, I’d recommend starting with what other scholars have written. If those books don’t exist, or I am after a deeper understanding, I would start looking into what I could sketch out about the author and then look for unpublished papers in archival collections or other repositories using search interfaces such as ArchiveGrid or ArchiveFinder.

The Case Study: Angelina Weld Grimké

Author portrait in black and white with face turned right.
Portrait of Angelina W. Grimké from Negro Poets and their Poems (1923) via Wikimedia. | Public Domain.

For the purposes of this exploration, I’m going to look at one of my many favorite poets: Angelina Weld Grimké (Wikipedia). This poet, born in 1880 in Boston, wrote poignant poems about life and love, many of which were published in the 1910s. They died in 1958 in New York City.

Based on that information, I expect Grimké to have possibly written and received letters to and from family and publishers; to maybe have kept account books or diaries; and possibly to appear in or have created family papers.

There are other kinds of sources that might exist for our purposes as well, but I’m sticking to these for now.

Looking for Unpublished Materials

Unpublished material such as letters is usually held by archives; historical societies/museums; estates; or family/friends. The latter two can be a harder reach, but the first two usually try to let researchers know what they hold. With that aim, many archives upload their finding aids (here’s information from Bancroft Library about what a finding aid is) into collective search interfaces like ArchiveGrid and ArchiveFinder. To find additional ways to search archival collections, take a look at the Library Resource Guide History: Locating Archives.

To use either of those two databases, I usually recommend writing out a list of possible permutations of the person’s name. “Angelina Weld Grimké” might written as such, but it also might appear as:

  • Angelina Grimké
  • Angelina Weld Grimke
  • Angelina Grimke

Some English language search interfaces are designed to ignore accents, and some will fail a search if the characters in a name do not precisely mirror whatever a finding aid says.

Searching ArchiveGrid

OCLC runs this platform and, as far as library search interfaces go, I like it well enough. Do be aware that it sits behind a paywall and you must be logged in with your institution to use it.

Screencapture of ArchiveGrid landing page with map in center and search box on right.
Example of ArchiveGrid Landing Page from February 2025

Once I have the initial search page up, I usually start my search with the full, formal name; in this case (Angelina Weld Grimké) without quotation marks and with the accent over the “e.”
In this case, I got two results, one of which was the “Weld-Grimké family papers.” When I use the link to the University of Michigan’s finding aid, however, I find out that the collection, substantial at 14 linear feet, focuses on Angelina Weld Grimké’s grandparents, one of whom was abolitionist Angelina Grimké.

Screencapture of ArchiveGrid search results
Example of ArchiveGrid Search Results screen from February 2025

The second result, relating to scholar and poet Akasha Hull, is actually more on point as Hull wrote about Angelina Weld Grimké. Based on the collection listed in New York Public Library’s finding aid, however, material about Angelina Weld Grimké is likely to be sparse as the “Scope and arrangement” section note that the collection covers a significant number of topics and the “Detailed description” only mentions Grimké once.
At this point, I ran the other permutations of the name and didn’t get any other relevant collections. So, I move on to the next resource.

Using ArchiveFinder

ProQuest runs ArchiveFinder and I am not a big fan of their interface, largely because of the layout. The point and goal of the interface is much the same, but different archives/repositories subscribe and use different interfaces, which means I need to search both for a wider results list.

So, I start with the same name and search for (Angelina Weld Grimké).

Screencapture of ArchiveFinder search results
Example of ArchiveFinder Search Results screen from February 2025

The results here are much more directly on topic. I still get the Michigan result for the Weld family papers at the top. The following results, however, are new and include a collection called “Grimké, Angelina Weld” AND “Angelina Weld Grimké papers, 1887-1958” both at Howard. A few of the other collections, including Fisk University’s “Negro collection” appear to hold potentially interesting information.

Reading a Relevant Finding Aid

In deciding which collections to focus on, I read the associated finding aids, focusing first on description and size. For Howard’s “Grimké, Angelina Weld” (finding aid) is 8 linear feet and includes drafts as well as published material.

Color photograph of archival boxes stacked on a shelf.
Example of what unlabeled archival boxes can look like in 2025. | CC0

Given the highly-relevant description, I then skim the rest of the finding aid, which includes folder and box level description. That means Howard hasn’t recorded information about every piece of information in the box, but you can get a great sense of what’s there. For example, the description for Box 38, folder 15:

Series F Notebooks Box 38-15 French vocabulary exercises, writings of prose and poetry, and recipes

suggests that it contains some poetry along with other types of material. That might not give a clear sense of what poetry is in there or how it’s presented, but something of interest is there! Or, I think it will be. My personal, vague, castle-in-the-sky hope is that there will be poems about food scrawled on whatever recipe information is there.

If there are only one or two papers that are of interest, then I’d likely check the archive’s information about rights and reproductions. If they have options for digital copies, I might request the page or two.

In this case, there are hundreds of items associated with the collection. Most archives won’t copy that number of pages for staff and resource reasons. In consequence,
I would consider a visit to the archive and read their informational pages on the subject. In this case, Howard’s Moorland-Springarn Research Center page on the subject suggests writing to them before making a research appointment.

Additional Steps

There are several additional approaches to finding additional material about an author. For Grimké, I’d head to historical newspaper sets such as the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America.

I would also take a look for government records in Ancestry.com (public libraries often have subscriptions, for Berkeley see here), the National Records and Archives Association, as well as check historical association centers around where Grimké was born, lived, and died.

There is a lot one can do to find information. Whether one wants to take those steps often depends on your time, funding, and how relevant the information is to your research.

If I’m focused on one author, then I’d likely try to find out what’s out there. If I’m looking for 100 people, I wouldn’t do in-depth research into each but focus on specific types of information.

Let your literature librarian know if you’d like to talk about research strategies for you.


New York Times Best Art Books of 2024

Check out some of the New York Times “Best Art Books of 2024.”

A Book about Ray                            At the Louvre                   Atlas of Never Built Architecture                  Emergency Money

 

Exit Interview                                        Iconophages                                 If the Snake                            Louis Carlos Bernal

Mandalas                                            Painting Men                                         Truckload of Art                      Hello We Were …

 


george a. miller (1936-2025)

Older man talking with two students who were recipients of a scholarship at an event at UC Berkeley
Miller with two “Miller Scholars” at UC Berkeley

 

We are sad to announce the passing of george miller (his preference for lower-case spelling). 

George entered the world of The Bancroft Library in 1997, shortly after his retirement and originally as a volunteer helping to process the records in the history of water rights and engineering in California. George had had a storied career in finance, bearing witness to and shaping some of the key developments in the US finance industry in the last half of the twentieth century. Most notable was his idea of passive investment in the form of an index fund, which would track a basket of top-performing stocks, premised on the notion that the growth of the market over time would beat active money managers. While at Bancroft, George also became captivated by the collection of oral histories produced by the Oral History Center. Over time, he began to make contributions to the archive by sponsoring oral histories with key figures in Bay Area politics, environmental activism, and journalism. 

It was through this engagement with oral history that my predecessor Martin Meeker eventually persuaded George to do his own oral history. An important theme of George’s oral history is his philanthropic calling, which he described as “graduating from his day job … to more productive things.” A great feature of a life history is that one gets a sense of when values or passions took root. Early on, George developed a sense of duty, which led to a distinguished vocation as a philanthropist to institutions and causes dear to him, repaying the opportunities he was given, not just to his almae matres, UPenn and Cal, but to his community, to young students, to his city, his state, and to the world. 

George was known for the pithy sayings that his friends and family called GAMOs – “george a. miller observations.” Underlying many of them was a pragmatic outlook on life, for example, “time is like money; you can only spend it once.” He took one of his father’s aphorisms to heart throughout his life as well, “There’s nothing sadder than something done well that shouldn’t be done at all.” Taking great care to identify what was worth fighting for, he was humble about his ability to bring about change. Musing on this, he proposed his own obituary: “He lived. He cared. He tried. Then he gave up.” But this is someone who spent thirty-five years finding a way to derive steady revenue from the chaos of the market. He invested where he thought he could have an impact. He cared and tried enough to build a credit union in Vietnam from the ground up to 160,000 members, fund the education of hundreds of students at UC Berkeley, make improvements to small-claims courts across the country, support environmental organizations, help revive the Market Street Railway, and secure the future of a beloved bar and grill in San Francisco, to name just a few of his accomplishments.

His friends called George “a piece of work.” He made a cheeky, no-nonsense difference in the world, a difference that we at The Bancroft Library and the Oral History Center have felt deeply and will miss.  

 


Russian Women Writers Project Completed

At UC Berkeley Library, with the leadership and guidance from the library’s current acting AUL for Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology, Lynne Grigsby, we are excited to report the completion of the Russian Women Writers Collection’s digitization. The collection’s analog items can be searched here.

The digital component of the project can be accessed here.

My predecessor, Dr. Allan Urbanic, was instrumental in helping us with the description of the project, which is as follows, “Russian Women Writers Collection
This project has been created in cooperation with the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. In recent years, scholarship has focused on women’s contributions to the history of Russian literature. It has also been discovered that many of these writers were poorly represented in American libraries’ collections. The project first concentrated on filling in the corpus of women writers at the beginning of the 19th century. As the project moved forward, the works of Russian women authors of the later 19th century and the 20th century have been added.”

 Maklakova, Lidii͡a Filippovna. Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ. Izd 2-e. Moskva: Tipo-lit. T-va I.N. Kushnerev i Ko., 1894. Terms governing use and reproduction Researchers may make free and open use of the UC Berkeley Library’s digitized public domain materials. However, some materials in our online collections may be protected by U.S. copyright law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use (Title 17, U.S.C. § 107) requires permission from the copyright owners. The use or reproduction of some materials may also be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, or trademark law. Responsibility for determining rights status and permissibility of any use or reproduction rests exclusively with the researcher. To learn more or make inquiries, please see our permissions policies (https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies).
Maklakova, Lidii͡a Filippovna. Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ. Izd 2-e. Moskva: Tipo-lit. T-va I.N. Kushnerev i Ko., 1894.

Terms governing use and reproduction
Researchers may freely and openly use the UC Berkeley Library’s digitized public domain materials. However, U.S. copyright law may protect some materials in our online collections (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use (Title 17, U.S.C. § 107) requires permission from the copyright owners. The use or reproduction of some materials may also be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, or trademark law. Responsibility for determining rights status and permissibility of any use or reproduction rests exclusively with the researcher. Please see our permissions policies to learn more or make inquiries (https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies).
Source
Russian Women Writers

One can look at the usage data of the item called Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ as shown below,

Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ's download statistics as a graphical representation
Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ’s usage statistics

Black History Month 2025

2025 Black History MonthFebruary marks the start of Black History Month, a perfect time to celebrate the cultural and artistic impact of African American writers. Check out our list of novels and poetry by both acclaimed and budding Black authors for you to explore!

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New Library Guide for Iberian Literatures

Iberian Literatures

Today, we are launching a new library research guide for Iberian Literatures & Criticism. The new guide will improve navigation and discovery in UC Berkeley’s vast literature collection in Romance languages, mostly found in a classification commonly known as the PQs. Over the course of the past year, we have critically reviewed the former guides, weeded outdated resources, and replaced them with more current content with links to digital resources when available.

This literary research guide, like the others for Italian and French & Francophone literatures launched last year, is now benefiting from the LibGuides platform, which makes it much easier to revise than the former PDFs. The guide is structured by sections for article databases, general guides and literary histories, reference tools, poetry, theater & performance, and literary periods. In addition to literature in Spanish and Portuguese, it also includes less commonly taught literatures and languages such as Catalan, Galician, Basque, Arabic, Ladino, and more. There is also a new section for Luso-African and Hispano-African literature.

The online guide also interfaces seamlessly with related guides published by the UC Berkeley Library. For example, on the home page, there is a prominent link to the online list of recently acquired publications on the general Spanish & Portuguese guide, making it even easier to stay current on new books in all of the call number ranges.

Because the guides are much easier to update, they encourage user interaction and invite community suggestions for inclusion (or deletion).

When you have time, please take a look at this new resource and let us know what you think.

Claude Potts, Romance Languages Librarian
Cameron Flynn, RLL Doctoral Candidate


PhiloBiblon 2025 n. 1 (enero): Final de una época

La semana pasada colgué las versiones últimas y finales de BETABITECA BITAGAP en la web de PhiloBiblon de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Desde este momento no habrá más cambios en los datos presentados allí. Dentro de unos meses, un PhiloBiblon nuevo y renovado aparecerá en FactGrid:PhiloBiblon en la universidad alemana de Jena, donde compartirá espacio virtual con otros cuarenta proyectos históricos, desde los estudios cuneiformes hasta la época nazi en Alemania.

Es el final de un largo periplo que empezó en 1975 con el proyecto Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language de la University of Wisconsin, encabezado por Lloyd Kasten, con quien había estudiado yo ecdótica unos diez años antes. Fue el primer proyecto de humanidades digitales en el ámbito hispanico. Kasten fue secundado por su joven colega John Nitti, el arquitecto del entorno informático del proyecto. Para garantizar la autenticidad del corpus de español antiguo, se necesitaba un repertorio de manuscritos españoles escritos antes de 1501. Tal repertorio no existió y pusieron a ayudantes de investigación a vaciar dos obras, el Catálogo de los manuscritos castellanos de la Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, del benemérito, y martirizado, padre Julián Zarco Cuevas; y la Bibliografía de la literatura hispánica del igualmente benemérito José Simón Díaz. Identificaron 966 obras y Kasten y Nitti imprimieron el resultado como Bibliography of Old Spanish Texts en 1975. Siguió una segunda edición en 1977, con 1869 fichas. Al año siguiente yo me encontraba en la Hispanic Society, redactando su catálogo de manuscritos medievales y enviando adiciones y correcciones a BOOST. En 1981 Kasten y Nitti me ofrecieron la dirección de BOOST como proyecto autónomo, y lo demás, como dicen, es historia.

Pronto tuve un colaborador, un jovencísimo Ángel Gómez Moreno (UCM), que acababa de pasar un año de estudios de posgrado en Wisconsin. Al volver a España se lanzó con entusiasmo a la tarea de repasar los ficheros y catálogos (en papel, por supuesto), de la BNE, la Biblioteca de Palacio, la RAE y la RAH, siempre en busca de nuevos manuscritos para BOOST. En los años 80 estudiantes de carrera y posgrado sirvieron como ayudantes de investigación, primero María Morrás (UPF), y en los 90 Ángela Moll Dexeus y Antonio Cortijo (UC Santa Barbara), durante su paso por las aulas de Berkeley.  Ya desde 1993 BOOST era BETA, la Bibliografía Española de Textos Antiguos en CD-ROM y en la red en 1997. En 2000 Ángel me mandó como becario por dos años a Óscar Perea Rodríguez; y desde entonces Óscar ha sido mi mano derecha en el proyecto, organizando los seminarios de PhiloBiblon, primero en San Millán de la Cogolla y luego en Madrid. Más recientemente ha trabajado como ayudante en Berkeley Heather Bamford (George Washington University), mientras que, en España, en la UCM, Álvaro Bustos ha participado en varias campañas de investigación conmigo y ha reclutado nuevos miembros del equipo de BETA.

Kasten y Nitti fueron responsables también de la Bibliography of Old Catalan Texts (BOOCT, 1985), base de datos gemela a BOOST, compilada por Beatrice Concheff (†), antigua alumna de la University of Wisconsin y que, en aquel tiempo, ejercía como profesora de inglés en una escuela de lenguas de Barcelona. Era una aficionada a la literatura catalana, pero no era experta en ella en términos académicos; por ello, la inmensa mayoría de sus citas a obras y manuscritos medievales provenía de fuentes secundarias. Y además, en el año de 1989, por desgracia, Concheff se encontraba con una salud muy delicada y era consciente de que no podría dedicarse a la compilación de una segunda edición de BOOCT.

En una de las sesiones de trabajo del congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas de Barcelona de 1989, mi amigo Francisco Marcos Marín me presentó a Vicenç Beltrán. Expuesto el caso a Vicenç, vio inmediatamente la importancia de seguir adelante con BOOCT. En seguida Vicenç embarcó en el proyecto a su jovencísima alumna, doctoranda en aquel entonces, Gemma Avenoza i Vera (†). Fue Gemma la que enseguida quedó al cargo del mismo. Era ya una codicóloga consumada, como se puede comprobar en su tesis doctoral, Repertori dels manuscrits en llengües romàniques conservats a biblioteques barcelonines. Además, Gemma era de los escasos expertos en filología de la época que sabía manejar un ordenador, habilidad absolutamente necesaria para trabajar con PhiloBiblon. Ambos, Gemma y Vicenç, romanistas al estilo antiguo y expertos no sólo en las literaturas medievales ibéricas, sino también en las de Francia e Italia, comprobaron la utilidad del (entonces recién bautizado) PhiloBiblon,  pues podría facilitar la tarea de catalogación y descripción de los textos y testimonios del corpus de literatura medieval ibérica en lenguas castellana, catalana, portuguesa y gallego-portuguesa.

A los pocos meses de ese primer encuentro en Barcelona, en el otoño de 1989 Gemma ya pudo visitarme en Berkeley para adentrarse en el arcano mundo de PhiloBiblon y encargarse, junto con Vicenç, de BOOCT, que pronto cambiaría su nombre en BITECA (Bibliografia de Textos Catalans Antics), de forma paralela a BETA. Desde entonces hasta su demasiado temprana muerte en 2021, Gemma fue la mano directriz de BITECA, pronto secundada por Lourdes Soriano, alumna tanto de Gemma como de Vicenç. Durante casi 20 años, pues, Gemma, Lourdes y yo estuvimos en contacto constante. Las dos supieron atraer a más de medio centenar de colaboradores y ayudantes de investigacíon. Los miembros actuales del equipo de BITECA son Joan Mahiques Climent (Universitat Jaume I),  Joan M. Perujo  (Universitat d’Alacant), Helena Rovira Cerdà (Universidad de Murcia), Glòria Sabaté (Universitat de Barcelona) y Ferran Triadó Sales, (Universitat de Barcelona), todos ellos alumnos o antiguos alumnos de Gemma y Lourdes.

Ya por la misma época, en 1988, entablé discusiones con mi querido colega y vis-à-vis (literalmente) en el departamento de español y portugués de Berkeley, Arthur Askins, sobre la posibilidad de crear una base de datos paralalela a BOOST y BOOCT. Se llamaría Bibliography of Old Portuguese Texts (BOOPT) y formaría un nuevo tomo en la “Bibliographic Series” de la Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies. Pero ya la época de publicación en papel había pasado. Con una subvención de la Sociedad Estatal del Quinto Centenario, BETA, BITECA y el recien bautizado BITAP (Bibliografia de Textos Antigos Portugueses) saldría en disco CD-ROM en 1993. Más tarde, el nombre BITAP se cambiaría en BITAGAP (Bibliografia de Textos Antigos Galegos e Portugueses).

Arthur había sido testigo ocular de mis investigaciones con BOOST desde 1981 y se había dado cuenta de la utilidad de las bases de datos en sus propias investigaciones sobre la biblioteca de Fernando Colón. Estaba intrigado, pero se dio cuenta desde el principio que esto tendría que ser un proyecto de equipo. Reclutó a sus amigos y antiguos compañeros de estudios de Berkeley, Harvey Sharrer (†), profesor en la University of California, Santa Bárbara,  y Martha E. Schaffer, en aquel entonces profesora la University of Chicago y actualmente en la University of San Francisco.

Iniciados sus viajes de investigación anuales en Portugal, muy pronto los tres persuadieron a Aida Fernanda Dias (†), profesora de la Universidade de Coimbra, que se uniera al equipo. Luego, comenzando en 2008, se incorporaron Pedro Pinto (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), con su olfato extraordinario para encontrar manuscritos de interés, Cristina Sobral (Universidade de Lisboa), Filipe Alves Moreira (Universidade do Porto, actualmente Universidade Aberta), Maria de Lurdes Rosa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa),  Ricardo Pichel Gotérrez (Universidade de Santiago y actualmente Universidad de Educación a Distancia), Mariña  Arbor (Universidade de Santiago y Diana Fontão (Universidade de Porto / Universidad de Salamanca).

Como en los casos de BETA y BITECA, el equipo de BITAGAP ha contado con al menos una centena de buenos colaboradores, entre estudiantes y colegas del mundo entero.

PhiloBiblon no sólo ha sido creación de las personas mencionadas aquí, sino de todos aquellos colegas que nos han escrito pidiendo u ofreciendo información sobre tal o cual texto, manuscrito o persona. Por y para ellos hemos dedicado tanto esfuerzo durante más de cuarenta años, el mismo esfuerzo precisamente que todos los miembros del equipo vamos a continuar haciendo en esta nueva etapa que se abre ante nosotros.

Charles B. Faulhaber
University of California, Berkeley

Referencias:

Faulhaber, Charles B., PhiloBiblon, pasado, presente, futuro: Historia de un proyecto de investigación, San Millán de la Cogolla: Congreso Internacional. Códices literarios españoles (Edad media) 2007-11-29

_____, PhiloBiblon: Pasado y futuro, (Incipit 29 2009: pp. 191-200)

_____, PhiloBiblon, Information Technology, and Medieval Spanish Literature: A Balance Sheet, Bern: Humanitats a la Xarxa: Món Medieval – Humanities on the Web: The Medieval World 2014: pp. 15-43

_____, PhiloBiblon and the Semantic Web. Notes for a Future History, València: La Literatura Medieval Hispánica en la Imprenta (1475-1600) 2016: pp. 75-93

____. Harvey L. Sharrer (1940-2024). PhiloBiblon blog 2024-10-10

Dias, Aida Fernanda, Arthur Lee-Francis Askins, Harvey L. Sharrer, A ‘Bibliografia de Textos Antigos Galegos e Portugueses’ na Internet, Lisboa: Revista Portuguesa de História do Livro 1 n. 2 1998: pp. 173-80)

Martín Molares, Mónica PhiloBiblon 2020 n. 1 (febrero): Crónica del V Seminario Internacional PhiloBiblon-BNE-UCM (Madrid, junio de 2019), (PhiloBiblon Blog 2020-02-28)

Perea Rodríguez, Óscar, y Charles B. Faulhaber, Esbozos sobre la evolución y el futuro de un pionero de las humanidades digitales hispánicas: el proyecto de PhiloBiblon, Revista Digital Universitaria 18 n. 1 2017

Schaffer, Martha E. Homenagem a Aida Fernanda Dias oferecida pelos seus colegas de Philobiblon, eHumanista 31 2015: pp. i-v, 1-275) 

Sharrer, Harvey L., BITAGAP (Bibliografia de Textos Antigos Galegos e Portugueses): um armazém da memória histórica, Madrid: (Tenh’eu que mi fez el i mui gran ben. Estudos sobre cultura escrita medieval dedicados a Harvey L. Sharrer 2022: pp. 39-67)

_____, A BITAGAP no seu 30o aniversário: a expansão de dados e expectativas para o futuro, Berlin: O Medievalismo no século XXI 2020: pp. 157-68) 

_____, The BITAGAP project since 1988 – Expansion of the corpus of texts and important discoveries, Bern: Humanitats a la Xarxa: Món Medieval – Humanities on the Web: The Medieval World 2014: pp. 169-83


Art as Resistance

Check out these, and other books that explore and represent the use of art as social and political resistance, currently on display in the Art History/Classics Library.

Elizabeth Catlett                                                 How to Design a Revolution                            LaToya Ruby Frazier

Propagandopolis                                          Resist! The Art of Resistance                                             Showing Resistance


Library Trial: Muslim in Russia Online (Brill Database)

UC Berkeley Library has set up a trial of Brill’s Muslim in Russia Online Database. The database trial will continue until February 1, 2025. You can access the trial here.

This collection examines the varied Russian Muslim population during the period of 1861-1918. It includes works by and about Muslims, highlighting the significance of this heritage as the history and spirituality of Muslims in Russia are being reexamined. A word of caution: Most of the periodicals in this database have been digitized from microfilms; thus, digitization quality is problematic. The OCR seems unchecked and automated “dirty,” so one has to look at the images.

Please access the database here: https://shorturl.at/M4IyT

Please see the screenshot below:

Title: V mīri͡e musulʹmanstva:ezhenedelʹnai͡a, literaturnai͡a, politicheskai͡a i obshchestvennai͡a gazeta.<br />Date: 1911<br />
Date in Source: [1911-1912]
Title: V mīri͡e musulʹmanstva:ezhenedelʹnai͡a, literaturnai͡a, politicheskai͡a i obshchestvennai͡a gazeta.
Date: 1911
Date in Source: [1911-1912]
 

Here are the key points about this database are highlighted below:

  • Role in Russian State: Muslims played a crucial role in the creation of the multinational Russian state, completed with the annexation of Central Asia in the 1860s. By 1897, Muslims made up almost 11% of Imperial Russia’s population (14 million).
  • Russian State Policy: Russian policy towards Muslims varied. Initially, there was forced Russification and Christianization. From Ekaterina II onwards, the policy shifted towards legitimizing Muslims. Under Alexander III, discrimination against non-Christians, including Muslims, increased.
  • Early 20th Century: The early 1900s saw a rise in Muslim nationalism, fueled by religious reformism and liberal ideas. The First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) led to significant political changes, including creating the State Duma and civil freedoms.
  • Union of Muslims of Russia: Formed in 1905-1906, this organization became the most powerful political body for Muslims until 1917, with branches across various regions.
  • Intellectual and National Identity: Early 20th century saw more Muslim intellectuals and interest in national identity, heritage, and traditions.
  • 1917 Revolutions: Muslim nationalist movements grew during the February and October Revolutions of 1917. Post-1917, Bolshevik policies negatively impacted Muslims’ religious freedoms.
  • Muslim Press: Until 1905-1907, Muslim issues were poorly reported. The 1905 revolution led to a surge in Muslim publications. These periodicals covered a range of ideological perspectives and helped address Muslim problems.
  • Unique Publications: Publications from 1861-1918 provide insights into Muslim life in the Russian Empire and their leaders’ perspectives. These works are valuable for understanding Muslims’ historical and spiritual heritage in Russia.

Library Book Talk (Webinar): On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

Please save the date on your calendars for an exciting upcoming conversation-book talk (On Savage Shores : How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe) for our community of UC Berkeley Library and affiliated staff and librarians.
Date: February 6, 2024
Day: Thursday, Time: 12-1 pm (Pacific Time) 8 pm-9 pm UK Time

Zoom Webinar Link: https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LGoU0V9ZQXegc5fHxlF_WA

Registration: https://ucberk.li/3GW

Free and Open to All with prior registration. If you need special assistance or accommodation, please contact Dr. Liladhar R Pendse, the event organizer.

About the Webinar: In this webinar, Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (She/her) will discuss her book, On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe. This book challenges the traditional Eurocentric view of the Age of Discovery by focusing on the Indigenous Americans who crossed the Atlantic to Europe after 1492. For centuries, history has taught that global history began when the “Old World” met the “New World” with Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. However, Caroline Dodds Pennock’s research reveals that, for many Indigenous people—Aztecs, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit, and others—Europe was the “New World.”

A Collage of pages of Codex Mendoza. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541.[1] It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society. The codex is written using traditional Aztec pictograms with a translation and explanation of the text provided in Spanish. It is named after Don Antonio de Mendoza (1495-1552), the viceroy of New Spain, who supervised its creation and who was a leading patron of native artists.
Collaged pages of Codex Mendoza. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541.
These individuals, including enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants, and traders, saw Europe as a land of both wonder and cruelty, filled with vast wealth inequality, and strange customs. Their experiences, marked by abduction, cultural clashes, and loss, have been largely excluded from mainstream historical narratives. This book tells the untold stories of the Indigenous Americans who traveled to Europe, such as the Brazilian king who met Henry VIII, the Aztecs at the court of Charles V, or the Inuit displayed in London pubs. Pennock uses their stories and European accounts to reveal how these Indigenous people, though marginalized, left a lasting impact on European culture and society.

About the author

Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (She/her) has been at the University of Sheffield since 2010, where they are known as one of the few British historians specializing in Aztec studies. Their current research, however, has expanded to include Indigenous histories in a global context, with a particular focus on the Atlantic world. Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock recently published On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe, which tells the stories of Indigenous Americans who traveled to Europe in the sixteenth century. These accounts, often involving abduction, loss, and cultural appropriation, have largely been overlooked in mainstream history.

Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (she/her)B.A., M.St., D.Phil. (Oxon), FRHistS School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities Professor in International History Department Director of One University, University of Sheffield
Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock, University of Sheffield. Image Credit: University of Sheffield

Dodds Pennock, Caroline. On Savage Shores : How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe / Caroline Dodds Pennock. First American edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.

https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/1thfj9n/alma991086032106106532

Event Sponsors:  Social Sciences Division. Library’s Equity and Inclusion CommitteeInstitute for European Studies, UC Berkeley and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), UC Berkeley