Beware the books…

Happy Halloween all you rare book lovers! Welcome to another installment in our annual creepy old book series.

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Cuban Vinyl in the Archives

In addition to more than 400 recordings of interviews and music from Africa, Cuba and the United States, the Ivor L. Miller Papers contain over 200 vinyl disk music recordings made and produced predominantly in Cuba and largely unavailable in the United States.

That’s right.  Here in the Archives we have a substantial Cuban record collection.

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“Howdy” Groskloss, Renaissance man

Howard Groskloss (AC 1930) and young Rosemary Sprague, ca. 1931

It was the name that caught my eye. I’ve been working on the Sprague Family Collection: Atherton Sprague (AC 1920) taught mathematics at Amherst College and coached tennis. His wife, Marion Whittemore Sprague and daughter Rosemary Sprague were both Smith College graduates and fixtures on the Amherst theatrical and literary scene. I was processing a photo album from Rosemary Sprague’s childhood when I came across photos of her and a young man, captioned “Howdy Groskloss.”

I Googled the name and discovered that Howard Hoffman “Howdy” Groskloss was a 1930 Amherst College graduate. A look into his Amherst College Archives and Special Collections Alumni Bio File reveals just how extraordinary Howdy Groskloss was.

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Our new Native American authors collection

Detail from title page of Black Elk Speaks (1932)

You may have heard through other sources, such as this college press release, that the Archives and Special Collections recently acquired a very large and exciting collection of Native American literature. As we have explained on our page about the collection, it is…

…one of the most comprehensive collections of books by Native American Indian authors ever assembled by a private collector. A generous gift from Younghee Kim-Wait (AC 1982) made it possible for the library to purchase the Pablo Eisenberg Native American Literature Collection. Pablo Eisenberg devoted years of his life to collecting nearly 1,500 books written by Native American Indian authors ranging in date from 1772 (Samson Occom) to living writers still publishing today (Louise Erdrich).

 

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CAUTION: Emily Dickinson Minutiae Ahead

A recent trip along the byways of a new acquisition, the Daniel and Tammy Dickinson Family Papers, reminded me of the pleasure of new discoveries, especially unexpected ones.  In this case, the discoveries came while processing an unassuming little collection about the family of Daniel Dickinson, a fourth cousin twice removed (I think…) of poet Emily Dickinson (although Daniel wouldn’t have understood this claim to fame), and his wife Tammy Eastman, member of another widespread local family.  This branch of the Dickinsons lived in North Amherst, where Daniel farmed the land his father had farmed before him, raised a family, and helped start the North Amherst Congregational Church.

Daniel had several brothers, among them Baxter and Austin, who are more well known today, or at least more easily discovered, than Daniel.  Both brothers were clergymen, and both helped found Amherst College – Baxter with some of his modest salary, and Austin with efforts to obtain a charter.

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