The Clark Library’s Head Cataloger was at the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA to celebrate 100 Years of Wood Type with the Southern California chapter of the American Printing History Association. If you’ve never been there, you should know that there are literally hundreds of printing presses, a few linotype machine, monotype casters, acres…

From Library Assistant, Derek Quezada: As part of the Heritage Book Shop donation, the Clark received quite a few boxes of dealer catalogues. Most of these catalogues were quite simple, useful more as bibliographic reference than as collectible objects. However buried within a few of the boxes were some exceptionally extravagant items that merit at…

The finding aid for the collection of Edward Burne-Jones letters to Violet Maxse is now online via the Online Archive of California.  As mentioned last week, when we highlighted the drawings of Burne-Jones’ “prominent women,” the collection consists of 2 albums of letters and drawings sent between approximately 1892 and 1898 to Violet Maxse (who…

The Clark recently acquired two albums of letters sent from artist Edward Burne-Jones to Violet Maxse (later Viscountess Milner), the daughter of one of his friends.  Throughout his adult life, Burne-Jones made a habit of making friends with girls and young women to whom he wrote sometimes comic, sometimes emotional, often illustrated letters.  The vast…

From Bruce Whiteman, Head Librarian This second edition (in fact a re-issue of the 1705 edition with an altered title-page) of Bladen’s translation of Caesar is one of the very earliest publications of Edmund Curll (1675-1747), the infamous London publisher of naughty books and the nemesis of Alexander Pope. Curll took over the shop of…

Please join the West Adams Heritage Association for an ice cream social on the Clark Library grounds this Saturday, August 14th, from 1.30-4.30pm.  More information is available at the WAHA website!

Tucked away on the south side of the Clark Library is the outdoor reading room, a little-used space of late that contains some wonderful sculpture.  One of these sculptures is a casting of the face of Copernicus, made from a full-length statue of the astronomer by Archibald Garner.  This full-length statue is a part of…

William Andrews Clark, Jr’s younger half-sister, Huguette, was the topic of a story featured on the Today Show last week. Though a little bit sensational — one does understand why Huguette retired from the public eye in the first place — there are still some interesting tidbits of information about her as a person, discussed…

William Andrews Clark, Jr. founded not only our Clark library, but also funded the building of Clark Hall at his alma mater, the University of Virginia.  Originally the law library (Mr Clark was part of the law school class of 1899), Clark Hall now houses the Science and Engineering Library, but still contains the same…

From Derek Quezada, Clark Library Assistant: Although the occult exhibition has come and gone, we here at the Clark feel that a number of the books showcased still have a bit more to offer. One of them is an unusual manuscript entitled, A Treatise on Witchcraft (1793) by Ebenezer Sibly. Itself a transcription of another…