William Andrews Clark, Jr. not only was a bibliophile, he founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and subsidized the first fifteen years of its existence.  Reflecting Clark’s tastes, the Library owns an important collection of printed music published in Britain dating from about 1680 to 1810.  The jewel of this collection is the compositions of…

Since our post of one of Mr Clark’s aboard-ship recordings was so popular, we thought we would share another with you this week.  This one was recorded on March 3, 1930 on the Ile de France, and was directed to librarian and assistant Cora Sanders who was overseeing the library at home in Los Angeles….

In March 1930, our founder William Andrews Clark, Jr. sent several aluminum dictation disks home to Los Angeles from onboard the ship Ile de France, which was bound from France to New York City.  These contained his audio letters to Caroline Estes Smith and Cora Sanders, his deputies at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the…

Our Interim Head Librarian/Head Cataloger, Nina Schneider, has a post up today on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Manifold Greatness blog, describing our recent exhibition on the King James Bible. The Manifold Greatness blog and the website documenting the Manifold Greatness exhibit are well worth your time!  This exhibition is now on view at the Bodleian Library…

Please join us on Friday, July 8th from 4pm to 7pm for an opening reception for our newest exhibit, Oscar Wilde and the Visual Art(ist)s of the Fin-de-Siecle. Gathering together original artwork and archival materials from the Clark’s collections, this exhibit will provide a survey of Wilde’s relationships with his contemporaries working in the fine…

The Dorothea Conyers’ Papers are now available for research, with a finding aid available via the Online Archive of California! This collection was purchased in 2002 to contribute to our growing collection of Irish materials, which include the papers of George Savage-Armstrong & his family, as well as, of course, Oscar Wilde and the Irish…

This week’s item of the week has been in the Clark’s collections since we purchased it in 1950, but we think you might like it.  It’s a manuscript second edition of George Wood’s Monarchy’s Unconquerable Champion, written by Wood in September 1685 (the full, very long title can be seen in the image of the title…

Over the last few years, the Clark has been actively acquiring the work of Pierre Louÿs, a French poet whose connections to Oscar Wilde and the decadent movement make him a perfect fit for the Clark. Our most recent acquisition is a special copy on Japon Imperial paper of Louÿs’ first published book, Astarte, printed…

Our founder’s half sister, Huguette Clark, died this morning in a New York City hospital.  She was 104. More information is available in this MSNBC article.

Last summer, the Clark had an exhibition devoted to the arts of the occult, which featured several of our collection’s rare books devoted to the subject of palmistry and physiognomy.  Not displayed with these items was a manuscript recently rediscovered by our manuscripts librarian, which includes some fantastic pen and ink illustrations. The drawing below, which…