Though the original purpose of this volume was recording cooking recipes for things like ginger bread and short bread (two of the recipes seen above), it also ended up being a place to press ferns and a place to copy out favorite passages of poetry and prose for a teenage girl named Helen Brackenridg. The…
Read MoreBibliotheca Classica, written by John Lempriere in 1788, is a recent Clark purchase, made with funds endowed by the late Dr. Adam Wechsler, a great friend and supporter of the library. John Carter’s Printing and the Mind of Man names this particular work as “the first specialist work designed as a substitute for, rather than…
Read MoreSo begins the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for editor, writer, figure of scandal and friend of Oscar Wilde, Frank Harris. A new finding aid describing the Clark’s Harris-related material is now available via the Online Archive of California. Born in Ireland, Harris emigrated to the United States by himself when still a teenager. …
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This curious pamphlet came across our desks today. Purchased in 1948, The Prayer of Old Plodder, a Presbyterian teacher during the late election at Lancaster, in the county of Lancashire is purportedly published in Geneva and printed, for the instruction of the elect, in 1733. We thought it appropriate, with primary season upon us, to…
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While looking through oversize drawings last week, Clark staff discovered this lovely drawing of the original garden plan for the Clark Library and estate, probably dating from the library’s construction in the 1920s. Rendered beautifully in colored pencil, the plan details some aspects of the Clark grounds that are familiar, and others that were never…
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Of late, the Clark Library cats have been receiving attention from more than just the staff members and visitors who see them everyday. The February 2010 issue of Cat Fancy magazine ran an article entitled “Library Cats and their Favorite Books,” featuring none other than our very own Hannah. The Neighborhood News Online recently posted…
Read MoreA new article and slideshow on MSNBC.com written and researched by Bill Dedman concerns William Andrews Clark, Sr. (our library’s namesake and founder’s father) and his youngest daughter, Huguette. At the age of 103, Huguette has lived a reclusive life for decades and the article explores both her retirement from public life, and the story…
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A new finding aid to the Robert Gibbings collection at the Clark is now available via the OAC. Gibbings (1889-1958) was an Irish author and artist best known for his wood engravings. He bought and ran the Golden Cockerel Press in Berkshire, England from 1924-1933. During and after World War II he wrote and illustrated…
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Architect Robert D. Farquhar is famous in the Los Angeles area for designing a number of notable buildings, including the California Club, the Fenyes Mansion in Pasadena, and the Canfield-Moreno Estate in Silverlake. He also designed multiple buildings for William Andrews Clark, Jr., including this library, the Alice McManus Clark Library (now Clark Administration Building)…
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In 1923, Mr. Clark purchased a set of promptbooks made by actor Lark Taylor, documenting the Shakespearean productions of Julia Marlowe and E.H. Sothern in which Taylor took part. Until last year, however, these volumes had never been cataloged. (Oops!) Now however, they are cataloged and discoverable through UCLA’s online library catalog and via the…
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