Devlin Hall, Gasson Hall, and St. Mary's Hall from the Lawrence Basin, photograph by Clifton Church.

Materials recently added to the Flickr site for the Burns Library include a set of striking photographs taken by Clifton Church from about 1917 to 1934. Clifton Church was a landscape photographer who worked in Jackson, New Hampshire, and Dallas, Texas, as well as other places.

Church’s photographs capture the newness of the campus in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts. The property had been worked as a farm for many years, and some of the photographs show the fields and farm buildings. Boston College was chartered in 1863 and the first students entered in September 1864. By the end of the nineteenth century the college needed more space but could not expand near its original location in Boston’s South End.

In 1907 Father Thomas I. Gasson, SJ, was appointed president of BC, and he continued the search for a new location. In December of that year the Board of Trustees authorized the purchase of four lots in Chestnut Hill, and the Boston College community planned its move to “University Heights.”

Gasson Hall on Boston College's early Chestnut Hill campus, photograph by Clifton Church.

The campaigns to raise money to pay for the property and erect buildings proceeded slowly, and the photographs of Clifton Church reflect the gradual implementation of a plan for the new campus. His early photographs of the first structure, the Recitation Building, show it before there was any greenery on its perimeter. This building, later called the Tower Building and now called Gasson Hall, stood alone in the midst of the fields when it was opened in 1913.

In 1917 work was completed on St. Mary’s Hall, the residence for the Jesuit community. The usual difficulties with fund raising delayed the completion of the next two buildings until 1928, when the Science Building (Devlin) and the Library (Bapst) were opened. The only other construction shown in Church’s photographs was the addition made to St. Mary’s Hall, which was opened in 1931.

When Boston College announced the purchase of the former Lawrence farm in 1907, there was an enthusiastic outpouring of support from many people in the Boston area. John Doyle, a lawyer, said “It would be hard to find another such spot in the East comparable with the site you have chosen for the new home of Alma Mater. Fortunate, indeed, the fellows who will have the privilege of studying amid such surroundings; theirs will be days of noble inspiration and beautiful memories.” Like other alumni, Doyle enclosed a check to support the purchase.

Bapst Library, the fourth building constructed on Boston College's Chestnut Hill campus, photograph by Clifton Church.

The photographs of Clifton Church show the buildings that grace this much-praised location. His earliest images show several external views of Gasson Hall, built in the English Collegiate Gothic style as designed by the firm of Maginnis and Walsh.

Returning over a period of several years, Church photographed the campus as St. Mary’s, Devlin, and Bapst were added. His pictures reflect the campus in winter and show the proximity of the reservoir which was drained in the 1950’s. (You might notice his initials in a distinctive logo on his photos.)

The letter quoted above praised the choice of the site. The photographs by Clifton Church show the first buildings that helped to provide “…noble inspiration and beautiful memories…” of the expanding university.  For more information about the history of Boston College, take a look at the Sesquicentennial Digital Library section of the University Archives Research Guide.

• David E. Horn, Burns Library, Boston College

Anti-Irish sentiments of the late nineteenth century are demonstrated in Thomas Nast's "The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things" in Harper's Weekly September 2, 1871.

My elevator spiel is this:  I am examining the American reception of Irish immigrants, both Catholics and Protestants, from the seventeenth century until the beginning of the Famine in 1845.  My goal is to demonstrate that despite passing political, economic, and polemical motivations, the overarching rhetoric about Irish immigrants had religious sectarianism at its core.

In the seventh grade, I studied discrimination against Irish immigrants.  “No Irish need apply” signs, cartoons depicting Irishmen as apes, and urban riots filled my history book.  I learned about Irish immigration as if a set of flood gates opened for the first time in 1845 when An Gorta Mór began.  As a senior in college, I am looking back to provide the prelude, which is all too often missing or fuzzy in texts on Irish immigration.  It is an oversimplification to believe that there was a singular Irish people during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  For example, Ulster Scots, also called the Scotch-Irish, were subject to very different treatment than Irish-speaking Catholic servants.  My research has uncovered differing stories of assimilation for each one of these groups.  Irish immigration is much more than the story of a torrent of starving, poor Catholics arriving in New York and Boston in the 1840s and 1850s.

Cover of Ursuline Report of the Burning of the Convent, August 11, 1834, Box 1, Folder 10, Anti-Catholic Documents Collection, MS2006-59, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

My thesis has triple duty to serve; the Department of History, Arts and Sciences Honors Program, and Scholar of the College program all have expectations I must meet.   The Scholar of the College program requires me to have two thesis readers.  I must graciously thank two faculty members in the Boston College Irish Studies Program, my primary adviser Professor Kevin O’Neill of the History Department and Professor Marjorie Howes in the English Department.

With advisers in both the History and English Departments, my thesis has taken on some interdisciplinary aspects.  I have been examining comic plays alongside traditional historical sources located in the Burns Library, such as the History of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick: For the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland of Philadelphia (Burns Stacks Unit Four HS1814.P5 H5 1952). I have been examining the everyday texts of the period, including schoolbooks such as H. Humphrey’s The New England Primer (Burns Stacks Unit 3 08-000013943 BOSTON).  Of particular use to me in the Burns Library collection was the Anti-Catholic Documents Collection and its documentation of the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Page from the Ursuline Report describing the burning of the convent. Anti-Catholic Documents Collection, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

On the night of August 11, 1834, rioters looted and burned the Mount Benedict convict.  One nun recorded, “Cries of ‘Down with the pope! down with the bishop! down with the convent!’ were distinctly heard in the street.  At the same time the rioters tried to break down the iron door which closed the avenue.  We had hardly had time to put on our nuns’ clothes, when a furious populace, spurred on by Dr. Lyman Beecher and the protestant ministers of Boston and Charlestown had opened a way and invaded the gardens.”  Because my thesis due date is quickly approaching, you will just need to come in to Burns yourself to read the remainder of the story in which the windows were pelted with stones, tombs were defiled, and the convent torched by Lyman Beecher’s band of furious Protestants.

• Rachel Banke, Reading Room Assistant, Burns Library and Boston College Class of 2012

Like most books published in the incunable period, this book has had the initial capitals rubricated by hand.

The Burns Library’s earliest printed book, Jean Gerson’s De Spiritualib[us] Nupciis (On Spiritual Marriage), is a book of superlatives, of firsts.

The topic of this short, 80 page quarto-sized book is a commentary on one of the shortest books of the Old Testament, the Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon. The theme of the Song of Songs is the courtship of two lovers, and the two major voices of the poem are that of a man and a woman. Despite rather explicit language – “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth-for your love is more delightful than wine” – the Song of Songs has been typically interpreted as the love of God for Israel, or for Christians as the love of Christ to His Church. Current scholarship has sometimes ascribed, underneath a beautifully sensual and erotic poem, a veiled criticism of Solomon’s rule.

This commentary on the Song of Songs is by Jean Charlier de Gerson (1363-1429), commonly known as Jean Gerson. Mystical theologian, university reformer, poet, man of letters, apologist for Joan of Arc, and from 1395 until his death, Chancellor of the University of Paris, Gerson spent his entire life in the service of the Church both as an educator and as a major force of the Conciliar movement. Gerson’s motivation  in all of his works – he wrote more than 500 works and hundreds of letters – was the desire to write in an increasingly direct and simple language so that the spirit of the law would infuse the reader, not allowing him or her (Gerson specifically wrote many of his essays towards women) to become trapped in an arid scholasticism.

Printers would often leave a tiny letter in the initial space that they had created as a guide to the rubricator, but in this case Sensenschmidt did not do this; the rubricator had to know what letter he should paint.

The Treatise on the Song of Songs, as current scholarship identifies the De Spiritualibus Nupciis, was Gerson’s last major work. Given the explicitness of the Song of Songs, it is both poignant and ironic that his final work deals with an interpretation of an erotic poem. Gerson took very seriously the canon of sexual morality developed by the Church from the time of Augustine – no sexual intimacy outside of marriage. Throughout his life Gerson sought to delineate clearly and keep separate the spiritual and erotic sides of the human longing of union and intimacy; his impassioned championing of chastity amongst the clergy and his treatise against masturbation are but two examples of this penchant. So there would be no chance he would see the eroticism of the poem as anything but spiritual.

The book itself as physical object is an exquisite example of an incunabulum (incunabula, the plural, means “diapers” in Latin), yet it was made a scant 15 years after the first book came off a printing press. The book itself fails to identify the publisher/printer, of which there were two, but this was not unusual in this very early stage of the printed word. The publishers and printers – in this time period both jobs were often subsumed by the same individual(s) – were Johann Sensenschmidt of Eger and Heinrich Keffer of Mainz.

The end, or colophon of the book, was where early printers left the information we now associate with the title page: place of publication, name(s) of those associated with the book's publication, and a date. But all we find here is that the book was published in Nuremberg in 1470; it is left to bibliographies to tell us who the printers were.

Sensenschmidt probably learned the art of printing in Mainz and also was probably involved in the printing of the 36-line Bible in Bamberg. He established the first printing firm in Nuremberg not later than 1469, as there is extant an undated imprint in the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg which was already rubricated by April 1470. His first dated imprints are from 1470: Franciscus de Retza’s Comestorium Vitiorum and our De Spiritualibus Nupciis.

Sensenschmidt throughout his career lacked the capital to go it alone, so he partnered at various junctures with other investors who also served as labor for the shop. Keffer, his first partner and the co-publisher/printer of the De Spiritualibus Nupciis, had learned the trade by working with none other than Gutenberg himself!

Front cover of De Spiritualibus Nupciis, Burns Room 114 BS1485 .G47 1470.

The Burns Library’s copy is in superb, almost mint shape: the paper is white and supple, the text very easy to read, and the rubrication (from the Latin “rubrico,” to color red) of initial capital letters is exquisite.

Exquisitely beautiful, on an ancient, erotically-charged poem, of significant historical importance, the Burns Library’s De Spiritualibus Nupciis is a book well worth your time. You can view the digital surrogate here.  If you would like to look at the actual book, then please contact the Burns Library Reading Room at 617-552-4861 or burnsref@bc.edu.

• David Richtmyer, Senior Cataloger, John J. Burns Library

Anglo-French writer and historian Joseph Hilaire Peter Belloc was born in Celle Saint-Cloud, France in 1870. His mother was an English citizen, and the family moved to England after Belloc’s father died. After Belloc finished school, he returned to France to complete his compulsory military service. He attended Balliol College, Oxford. In 1896 he completed his degree with first class honors in history.

Last week, Professor Robert Stanton from the English Department brought his class in to explore some rare and unique materials housed at the Burns Library.   I usually give Professor Stanton’s “Introduction to Advanced Research”  an overview of the Burns Library’s collections in hopes of stirring up some possible paper ideas.  By the end of the semester, the students in this class complete a major research project, usually based on archival sources. The assignment gives them three options from which to choose – writing an edition, a literary biography or a reception history. In this post, I’m going to focus on how to write your own edition using archival sources at the Burns Library.  Future posts will feature examples of the other two types of projects in this assignment, i.e. literary biography and reception history.   An edition may involve transcribing the text of some documents, e.g. letters, diaries, meeting minutes.  Students doing this type of project usually work with a small group of documents (8 – 10).   In the final paper, the student must present the transcriptions with explanatory footnotes and an introduction. Good introductions concisely explain the history that surrounds the documents so that a reader will gain a deeper historical appreciation of the materials.   Many of the footnotes explain references to people, places or things in the documents.  Students do research for these footnotes in all kinds of different ways – books, articles, online databases and archival sources.  An example of one such project would an edition of the letters between Anglo-French Catholic author Hilaire Belloc (1870 – 1953) and Winston and Clementine Churchill.  You would have most likely found out about this piece of correspondence by looking through the finding aid for the Belloc Papers.

Letter from Winston Churchill to Hilaire Belloc, June 22, 1917, Hilaire Belloc Papers, MS2005-02, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Since the Belloc Papers is a very large collection containing many letters, perhaps you were intrigued by letters between the well-known Churchill and an Anglo-French author about whom you might not have heard.  Upon further investigation of the relevant box and folders in the Burns Library Reading Room, you discover that the main subject matter of the letters revolves around Belloc’s assistance in setting up a wine cellar for the Churchills.  You also discover that the correspondence not only consists of letters – for instance, there are several telegrams and a couple of nicely printed invitations.  While you might spend some time deciphering the handwriting on a few of these letters (although many of these documents are typed), you also try to piece together the story that these letters tell you about the Winston and Clementine Churchill, Hilaire Belloc and that small part of British society that these people represent in the early twentieth century.  In an attempt to gain more background knowledge of the historical events of 1917, you might make use of the BC Libraries’ research guides for History and English.   Whatever story your paper ultimately unfolds, this research process will teach you quite a bit about the work of professional scholars.  If you are interested in the Hilaire Belloc Papers then take a look at this finding aid or contact the Burns Library Reading Room at 617-552-4861 or burnsref@bc.edu.

Justine Sundaram, Reference Librarian, John J. Burns Library

An "Information Wanted" column from The Boston Pilot in 1858.

The Information Wanted Database contains information taken from missing persons advertisements posted between 1831 and 1921 in the Boston Pilot, a newspaper for many years geared toward Irish and Irish-American readers. The searchable online database contains detailed information taken from the individuals mentioned in the ‘Missing Friends’ column and enables it to be organized into fields such as name, point of origin, occupation, immigration date, locations lived in, and other categories to be used by academic and family history researchers. Staff members at the Burns Library engaged in adding records to the database occasionally come across fascinating stories of the lives of Irish immigrants and their families. Missing siblings and spouses tend to be the most sought after, but a recent find in the December 14th, 1867 column proved to be highly interesting.

The search for one missing sailor and one marine coincidently appeared on the same page of the ‘Missing Friends’ advertisements. Two individuals, James Curry and Garrett May, were aboard two different United States Navy ships when last heard from.  Each of these men was sought by a mother who had been widowed and left behind in Ireland. Curry and May had likely immigrated in search of a better life in America. Although the Great Irish Famine took place primarily in the 1840s, the effects were still present in the rural countryside and poor tenant farmers could not afford rent or even food for their families.  For those Irishmen that did immigrate to America, like Curry and May, the US military’s offer of free food, clothing, and training, was almost immediately accepted even at the risk of one’s life.  One can only imagine the extreme difficulties and hardships these men faced in Ireland that propelled them to leave their home and enlist in the navy. The ‘Missing Friends’ advertisements offer some limited insight to Curry and May’s background and can be seen to exemplify the service of Irishmen in the US military during the 1800s.

USS Tyler. Drawing by F. Muller, c. 1900. (Courtesy US Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.)

James Curry was a native of County Mayo who enlisted in the US Marines on May 18^th, 1863 and served aboard the Union timberclad gun-boat Tyler out of Norfolk Station, VA. The USS Tyler saw action on the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the Civil War as a member of the Western Gunboat Flotilla, and played a decisive role in the Union success at the Battle of Shiloh along with the gunboat USS Lexington. The USS Tyler continued on campaign southward during the war, encountering Confederate forces in Tennessee and Arkansas.  The last major battle fought by the Tyler occurred on the 24^th of June 1864, along the White River near Clarendon, Arkansas. The battle was a success for the North; the Tyler was able to engage the Confederate shore batteries and allow Union forces to seize control of the region. It is possible that Curry lost his life during this last battle of the USS Tyler. Curry’s last appearance in the Marine Corps muster rolls from March 1864 describe him as “in confinement” for unknown reasons, but, according to information provided for the newspaper by his widowed mother, Honora Curry, in Mayo, her son was last heard from in 1864 at the mouth of the White River. Unfortunately the exact fate of Curry remains as unknown to modern inquirers as it was for Curry’s mother, whose questions for information on her son in The Pilotwere likely never answered.

Curry, James. US Marine Corps Muster Rolls for March 1864 (Courtesy of the National Archives).

Garrett May of County Cork set sail from Boston for Asia in 1859 on board an American sloop-of-war, the Boston-built USS Hartford.  May stood 5’ 7 ½” tall and was about 27 years old when he shipped out for the Far East. One can only imagine how unsuited his blue eyes and light complexion were for the sun and heat of the long passage around the Cape of Good Hope to the South China Sea where the Hartford carried diplomats to negotiate American interests with Asian nations. According to the advertisement placed by his widowed mother Elizabeth, May reached Shanghai in 1860, but his future was left unrecorded after this point.  A history of the Hartford reveals that the ship was called back to the United States once the Civil War began in 1861. During the war the ship participated in the successful capture of the southern port of New Orleans and supported the Union victory at Vicksburg. It is possible that if May made no further contact with his mother or family since leaving Asia, then he may have died either at sea on the Hartford’s journey home from China or while fighting for the Union in the war. In his short life Garrett May saw more of the world aboard the USS Hartford than the typical Irishman of his age. It is unknown if his mother back home in County Cork ever learned more information of her son or his role in the American Navy.

Sloop-of-war USS Hartford. Painting by E. Arnold.

James Curry and Garrett May, both Irishmen, both navymen, and both sons of widowed mothers, were listed on the same page of the ‘Missing Friends’ advertisements for the 14^th of December 1867, a coincidence too fascinating for Burns Library staff to ignore. Both individuals chose to serve their adopted country like so many others of Irish birth who were involved in US military affairs throughout the 1800s. Their stories, though incomplete at present, exemplify the struggles, opportunities, and sacrifices of immigrants and their families who came to America looking for a fresh start.

• Kathleen Horigan and Carolyn Twomey, Student Assistants to Kathleen Williams, Irish Studies Librarian

Many thanks to Mr. Joseph Keefe of the National Archives, Waltham, MA for his assistance in locating U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls for James Curry and United States Naval Enlistment Rendezvous, 1855-1891 for Garret May

The entrance to the Burns Library is located on the side of the Bapst building that faces Commonwealth Avenue.

At the Burns Library, we’re looking forward to another semester filled with fun classes and interesting questions about the wonderfully unique collections housed here.  Did you know that over 300 students participated in sessions taught by Burns Library staff members last semester?  The content of these sessions ranges from a general overview on how to do research with archival materials at Burns to targeted class sessions that focus on specific Burns materials relevant to the subject of the class.  For Spring 2012, quite a few professors are already planning to bring their classes to Burns.  Professor Jeremy Clarke’s Globalizing Jesus History seminar will examine books from the Jesuitica Collection.  Professor Robert Stanton’s Introduction to Advanced Research Methods class will explore the in’s and out’s of archival research.  And, last but not least, Dean Burns’ Capstone class on the history of Boston College will look at University Archives materials available at the Burns Library.  While the Burns session itself usually takes place during one class period, the questions and ideas that arise during these sessions often lead students and faculty to engage with primary sources in new and exciting ways that extend beyond the single session. For example, in November 2011 students from Holly Vandewall’s history of science class attended a Burns session, during which they got their hands on some early scientific books in the Burns Library’s collections, including Galileo’s 1613 book on sunspots and a 2nd edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia.

Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton, London, 1687. This 10-inch-tall volume, from the initial printing of 250 copies, was acquired by the Burns Library in January 2010. Photograph by Lee Pellegrini.

Although these students were not fluent in the languages in which these books are written (Latin and Italian), the students were all able to answer certain basic questions about the books using the library’s online catalog and secondary sources (selections from bibliographies and short articles) that I chose to supplement the books.  This exercise helped the students think about books and the transmission of scientific knowledge in the times of Copernicus and Galileo.  They also learned how to glean basic publication and author information from the title pages in older books.  This is just one example of how primary source materials can enrich student learning here at Boston College.  So if you have an idea for a Burns session or would just like to learn more about the collections at the Burns Library then please contact the Burns Library Reference Department at 617-552-4861 or burnsref@bc.edu.  You can also learn more about Burns collections, events, exhibits and digitization projects by reading our weekly blog posts, checking out the John J. Burns Library’s Facebook page or our Burns Libguide. If you want to enjoy some amazing visuals of items from our collections then please visit the Burns Library’s photostream on Flickr.  Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Justine Sundaram,  Reference Librarian, John J. Burns Library

Illustration from Flann O'Brien's copy of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Flann O’Brien's Library, John J. Burns Library, Boston College. Image from Shelley Barber's Talk Like a Pirate Day post on September 19, 2011.

Dear Burns Library Blog Readers,

It’s the end of another great semester here at Boston College and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for reading the John J. Burns Library’s blog this semester and to review the posts by our wonderful staff members and student employees whose contributions have made the blog so engaging this semester.  In September, Katie Lyle gave us a post on the advertisements from a different era in the Heights, Shelley Barber celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day with books and manuscripts from the Burns Library’s collections and Andrew Kuhn told some stories from the Dublin Penny Journal.

A sample of publications among the Burns Library Irish Collection that relate to the reprieve petition featured in the Cataloger's Corner post by Meaghan Madden from October 17, 2011.

In October, Shelley Barber wrote about the story behind the Richard King stained glass windows, Barbara Adams Hebard related her experiences helping the McMullen Museum with the Making History exhibit, Meaghan Madden highlighted a petition begging a reprieve for six convicted IRA men and books related to this topic from the Burns Irish Collection, Katie Lyle examined a controversial production of Beckett’s play Endgame by the American Repertory Theater and Kathy Williams showed us some frighteningly good research with her Irish Gothic research guide.

In November,  Barbara Adams Hebard wrote of classes, bindings and learning in the Conservation Lab, Robert Williams narrated the exciting adventures of Captain Blood, James Daryn Henry paid tribute to noted theologian Frans Jozef van Beeck, S. J. and Andrew Kuhn updated us on the latest exhibit at the Burns Library.

In December,  Shelley Barber ushered in the holiday spirit with some beautiful holy cards from the Norman Castle Holy Card Collection and Catherine Macek wrote a fascinating report on her work as the Bookbuilders of Boston intern here at the John J. Burns Library.

Here you see the book Auctor operum sequentium complete with its clasps. Photo from Catherine Macek's post on December 12, 2011.

From next week until classes begin in January 2012, the Burns Library’s blog will be on hiatus so we can gather more wonderful posts for you to enjoy.  In the meantime, please peruse any older posts that you may have missed and be sure to subscribe to the blog so that the Burns Library’s blog post can be delivered directly to your inbox!  Any comments, suggestions or ideas for posts are most welcome and should be sent to me at justine.sundaram@bc.edu.

Again, many thanks to all blog readers and post authors for your time, attention and engagement.  It is most sincerely appreciated.  Best wishes to all for the holiday season!

Fondly,

Justine Sundaram, Reference Librarian, John J. Burns Library

Three volumes of Mémoires des Chinois from the Burns Library's Jesuitica Collection, which contains thousands of volumes covering a wide variety of subjects. Photo by Kerry Burke.

As the Bookbuilders of Boston intern for the 2011-2012 academic year, I have the privilege to work with the Burns Library staff learning the ins and outs of a special collections library and the book trade. This semester, my time was concentrated in the cataloging department under the instruction of David Richtmyer and in the conservation lab with Barbara Adams Hebard. Through processing the Burns’ Jesuitica collection, learning about conservation issues when dealing with rare books, and a trip to the Hynes Convention Center for the annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, I have learned a lot about the history of the book in a few short months!

When Barbara approached me with a pair of clasps which were detached from a book, I seized the opportunity to travel back in time to the Incunable Era, ca. 1450-1500 AD, to study their origins. The Incunable Era represents the decline of illuminated manuscripts and the beginning of printed books using metal type. Many of these printed books still incorporated elaborate manuscript initials and illustrations until artisans mastered the ability to include intricate woodblock engravings for printed illustrations. Furthermore, the method of binding remained largely unchanged. Despite the production of paper pages, binders still continued to prepare books with heavy boards and clasps that originally served to help vellum pages hold their form. Although they technically serve no purpose, the intricate designs of the bindings and clasps represent the symbolic and financial value that a book encompassed in the early Renaissance.

These pictures are of the clasp as seen through the Scanning Electron Microscope.

My first questions to answer when working on the clasps were “What are these clasps made of?” and “Do they represent materials manufactured during the Incunable Era?” Barbara contacted Dr. Greg McMahon of Boston College’s Clean Room on the Newton campus and he graciously offered his support and the lab’s resources. On one sunny October day, I ventured to the Clean Room and suited up in a white plastic one piece suit, to complete this materials analysis. After examining one of the clasps under a high-definition Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), we used the energy emitted from the electron beam to determine the chemical composition of the metal.

This graph shows that although the clasps are brass, other elements are incorporated in its structure.

As shown in the accompanying graph, these clasps are undoubtedly brass. The presence of many other chemical compounds in the sample including iron, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus and chlorine left room for more questions, however. Dr. McMahon pointed out that while these chemicals may be byproducts of corrosion, they could also be lingering from the slag or, more simply, the production of the brass itself. Unfortunately, research into the production of brass in the fifteenth century yielded no obvious answers to its place of origin.

With the same questions in mind, Barbara pointed me to a website that Scott Husby, former Conservator at Princeton University created to exhibit fifteenth century printed books in original bindings. His collection includes incunables from libraries all over the United States (although he forgot to include Boston College’s 75 volumes!)  and represents the diversity of design by region. Perusing through the website, I was easily able to eliminate many European countries as possible origins for these clasps based on style. After a long time searching, I finally stumbled upon a book in the San Marino Library collections with clasps which looked identical to our lone pair! After contacting rare book librarian Stephen Tabor at the San Marino library, I found out that these clasps were typical of clasps designed in the “Maria” motif.

Scott Husby had determined that the printer of the book matching the style of my clasps was Anton Koberger. Originally a goldsmith in Nuremburg, Koberger gave up his career in metalworking and became a publisher, printer and bookseller. He was a very successful businessman, expanding his enterprise to employ over a hundred workers and increasing his contacts to countries all over Europe (all this and he still had time to father 25 children!). David Richtmyer taught me how to do a command search in Quest (the BC Libraries online catalog), narrowing the limits of my search to incunables printed in Nuremberg from 1450 to 1500. As it turns out, we have six of Koberger’s incunables, a very impressive collection!  Could one of these be the accompanying volume to our clasps?

In this photo, observe the matching detail between the clasp and its corresponding piece on the binding!

Robert Williams ’14, conservation assistant, Barbara, and I investigated the incunable collection at the Burns Library, there locating the five volumes that I had found listed in the Quest catalog. Unfortunately, none of Koberger’s incunables were a match.  Unrelenting in our search, we examined the other incunables in our collection one-by-one and finally found the accompanying volume! This book, Auctor operum sequentium was published in Basel, Switzerland by Johann Amerbach.

Why do books from two different printers have such similar clasps?

Here you see the book Auctor operum sequentium complete with its clasps.

During the Incunable Era, the production of books was often in the hands of many different craftsmen. The text block was completed by a printer and sold “as is.” Only wealthier patrons would then have that text block bound by a binder. It is likely that a binder would obtain the clasps and other materials needed for binding from a metalworker or other craftsmen. Therefore, the similarity of the clasps used by Koberger and Amerbach may indicate that the clasps were originally made in the same metal workshop. This distribution of work clearly makes it difficult to pinpoint the complete history of a book- a text block printed in Italy could later be bound by a binder in Germany who obtained his materials from France!

Despite using material analysis, I couldn’t with that information alone determine what book the clasps belonged to:  a close examination of our personal incunable collection led to a satisfying end to my conservation project. Finally, the clasps were re-united with the volume to which they had been attached all those years ago!

Catherine Macek, John J. Burns Library Bookbuilders of Boston Intern and Boston College, Class of 2012

A crowned Mary standing and holding the infant Jesus. Norman Castle Holy Card Collection, MS2005-054, Box 1, Item 65. John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

This Flickr set is a small selection of images of holy cards from the Norman Castle Holy Card Collection (MS2005-054) at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College. The entire collection includes 182 Catholic holy cards produced in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. These cards cover a variety of devotional subjects including Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Saints, sacraments, angels, and the Holy Spirit.  The materials in this collection are written in several languages including French, English, Latin, German, Spanish, Italian.

The front side of the holy card often includes a small amount of text. The back of the card usually contains the text of prayers, contemplations, explanations of religious figures or events, or indulgences. The back also sometimes includes a handwritten note from the giver to the recipient of the card. This reflects the manner in which holy cards were distributed – as gifts and rewards. (This Flickr set does not include images of the cards’ backs.)

Jesus sitting in hay holding three nails. Norman Castle Holy Card Collection, MS2005-054, Box 1, Item 16. John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

These cards were collected by Norman Castle, a Boston College librarian. Castle was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on December 31, 1908.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Boston College in 1930.  While at Boston College, Castle – the “laughing philosopher” – participated in Sodality, the French Academy, and the History Academy.  As an undergraduate student, he also worked in the college library his first two years at Boston College, followed by two years as an Assistant Faculty Librarian.

In 1931, Castle joined the cataloging department at Boston College’s Bapst Library and held the position of Head Cataloger. In 1967, Castle became the Boston College Planning Librarian, a position he held until his retirement in 1974. He died in San Francisco on December 6, 1984.  If you would like to look at these beautiful holy cards in person, then please contact the Burns Library Reading Room at 617-552-4861 or burnsref@bc.edu.

• Shelley Barber, Library/Archives Assistant, John J. Burns Library

Part of the Burst the Heart Open Exhibition Crew, from left to right: Robert Williams, Conservation Assistant & Class of 2014, Catherince Macek, Bookbuilder Intern and Class of 2012, Kathleen Williams, Irish Studies Librarian and Barbara Adams Hebard, Conservator, Burns Library. Photo by Gary Wayne Gilbert.

The Boston College Center for Irish Programs and the Boston College Libraries extend a warm invitation to the exhibition of Irish paintings entitled Burst the Heart Open, showing at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College. Sponsored by Culture Ireland and the Office of Public Works, Ireland the collection of paintings spans a century of Irish art – art that was created across a time period that saw enormous change in the island of Ireland.  Exploring the rich and various approaches of artists the exhibition includes works by Patrick Collins, Louis le Brocquy, Ciaran Lennon and Paul Doran.

Most of the artists represented are Irish by birth or have lived and worked in Ireland. Some represent the Irish Diaspora. While the selections included do not form a complete survey of painting in Ireland, they do present an overview of works that manifest the joy of working in the medium of paint.

The "Burst the Heart Open" and "Painter, Illustrator, Author: Irish Art in the Twentieth Century" exhibits are on display in the Burns Library's Irish and Fine Print Rooms from November 14th, 2011 - January 14th, 2012. Photograph by Andrew Kuhn.

The passion for Irish painting present in Burst the Heart Open cannot be contained in oil and canvas.  The book has also been a site where Irish painters have honed their craft as illustrators, designers and writers.  This intersection of Irish painting, literature, and book arts has provided an opportunity for the Burns Library to place volumes from its Irish and Fine Print Collections in dialogue with Irish painting.  As a companion exhibit to Burst the Heart Open, Painter, Illustrator, Author: Irish Art in the Twentieth Century seeks to understand the paintings of artists such as Jack B. Yeats, Louis le Brocquy, Norah McGuinness, and Barrie Cooke through a consideration of their artistic endeavors printed within the pages of books.  Taken together, the exhibits invite the viewer to experience the richness of Irish art in a variety of media and emphasize the fruitful collaboration between Irish painting and the book arts in the twentieth century.  The exhibition runs from November 14, 2011 through January 14, 2012. For information on Burns Library hours and directions to the Burns Library, click here.

• Andrew Kuhn, Curator for Painter, Illustrator, Author: Irish Art in the Twentieth Century, Burns Library Reference Assistant and Ph.d. Candidate in the Department of English