Special Collections Blog
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June 11, 2008
It's a Grand Old Collection: Patriotic Selections from Special Collections
When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect. ~ Adlai Stevenson
Patriotism has long been part of the fabric of life in America. In fact, a 1998 study done by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that Americans are the world's most patriotic people and are prouder of their country than any other people in the world. Expressions of pride, love of country, and nationalism take many forms. It's a Grand Old Collection showcases these forms of patriotic expression as they are represented in the University Libraries' Special Collections. Included are letters and publications from the Civil War era, World War II maps of D-Day, music and song books, and a 48-star flag.
We invite you to visit Special Collections, located on the second floor of the Glenn G. Bartle Library and experience patriotism in the stacks!
Posted by jgreen at 04:29 PM
June 03, 2008
Professor Gillan Donates Papers, Books to the Libraries
By Bern Mulligan
Professor Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Director of the Creative Writing Program, recently donated her papers to the Binghamton University Libraries. Professor Gillan, a renowned poet, short story writer, and essayist, has been a member of the Binghamton University faculty since Fall 2001. Prior to that, she was the Director of the Poetry Center and the Cultural Affairs Department at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey for twenty years.
Professor Gillan has written eleven books of poetry and co-edited four poetry and fiction anthologies with her daughter, Jennifer. She has both written poems in Italian and translated poems into Italian. Her poetry, stories, and essays have appeared in dozens of anthologies and numerous magazines and journals. Her papers include her personal journals from 1954 to 2007; nearly all of her published work; drafts of poems and stories from 1957 to the present; DVDs, CDs, and audio tapes of programs on which she was featured; forty years of correspondence with well-known poets, fiction writers, editors, and scholars; feature articles on her and reviews of her work; photographs of her with many of the most prominent poets of the last thirty years; and the Poetry Center and Cultural Affairs Department archives.
Much of Professor Gillan’s work deals with her Italian-American heritage. Her poetry collection, Italian Women in Black Dresses, has appeared in three editions. She has also been heavily involved in promoting multicultural writing in her classes and publishing multicultural writers in her anthologies.
Since 2002, Professor Gillan and the Creative Writing Department have held two annual contests, the Milton Kessler Poetry Book Award and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. From the submitted entries to these contests, she has donated more than 100 poetry and fiction titles each year to the Libraries’ literature collection. She has also donated titles to the Broome County Public Library and the Elmira Correctional Facility Library.
Posted by jgreen at 12:54 PM
June 02, 2008
Cool Site for June 2008
To celebrate the reopening of their 1916 galleries this month, the Cleveland Museum of Art archives has mounted a three month “collection in focus” featuring the history of the museum on their website at http://library.clevelandart.org
Enjoy learning about the founders of the Cleveland Museum of Art, take an architectural tour of the museum, or see the 1916 Inaugural Exhibition.
Posted by jgreen at 01:14 PM