Today we’re taking a peek into the medically and scientifically obsolete. As home to many scientifically minded faculty and students throughout the nineteenth century, Amherst College acquired a significant collection of literature from now defunct practices.
Archive for February, 2013
Pseudoscience roundup
Posted in Amherst College Alumni, Book History, tagged Amherst College, Fowler and Wells, galvanism, hydropathy, hypnosis, mesmerism, Orson Squire Fowler, phrenology, physiognomy, pseudoscience, water-cure on February 26, 2013| 3 Comments »
Sir, I Desire an Interview
Posted in Amherst College Alumni, Emily Dickinson, tagged George Gould, Indicator on February 14, 2013| 8 Comments »
On this holiday dedicated to lovers (of both the practicing and the prospective kind), we should note that Emily Dickinson’s first appearance in print was in the form of a valentine. “Magnum bonum, ‘harum scarum'” had its debut in the February 1850 issue of the relatively new Amherst College student literary magazine, The Indicator. Like all of Dickinson’s writings published during her lifetime, it was believed to have appeared without her consent. The editors of the magazine intimated that a good many contributions came in from female admirers but they chose this one to be published.
It is not hard to see why. “Magnum bonum” is no conventional valentine:
Clarence Birdseye in Labrador
Posted in Manuscripts, tagged Clarence Birdseye, journals on February 11, 2013| 2 Comments »
Fans of the series “Mysteries at the Museum” on the Travel Channel may already have seen this recent short piece about the Clarence Birdseye field journals held in the Archives & Special Collections at Amherst College. As you might suspect, there is more to the story than what is covered in this 2-minute clip.
Birdseye 1910-11 Field Journal
Victorian London’s version of Google Street View: A Grand Architectural Panorama of London (1849)
Posted in Acquisitions, Book History, Illustration, tagged London, wood engravings on February 2, 2013| 1 Comment »
1849
2012
Before we get to the star of today’s post, a bit of context. Between 1838 and 1840, John Tallis published a series of 88 London Street Views which served as street directories “to assist strangers visiting the metropolis through all its mazes without a guide.”
The Consecrated Eminence 