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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Scholarly Favourites. Researching in Special Collections. Online exhibition
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
18th May 2016
Contributor
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Special Collections, University of Otago
Creator
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Special Collections, University of Otago
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Who uses Special Collections? And why? And what research results emanate from physically examining books and manuscripts? It was these questions that prompted the development of this ‘engagement’ exhibition, now called <em>Scholarly Favourites. Researching in Special Collections</em>. We certainly have a wide variety of readers. After filling out the appropriate registration forms, they settle into our Reading Room. A brief wait and they get the requested item. The type of materials used is equally varied, ranging from a single sheet Medieval manuscript and a 17th century herbal, to an issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine or a Pulp Fiction book. The actual research and the publication of the end-result can often take a long time; indeed sometimes years. It can be circuitous. The time spent poring over the books also varies: three hours to three weeks, and sometimes more. And importantly, it is just not about research. Many readers use a particular book or manuscript because it is a favourite; a work that resonates with their sense of being. It has become important to them. Readers from inside and outside the University of Otago were contacted to choose a Special Collections item. They were each asked to write 150 words on ‘their’ chosen book; their favourite, or that one item that assisted their research. <em>Scholarly Favourites. Researching in Special Collections</em> is the result. In most cases, it meant a re-engagement with the item. A new handling of an old friend. The exhibition offers true variety, with items selected from the diverse collections within Special Collections: Brasch, de Beer, Shoults, Truby King, Pulp & Science Fiction, Monro, Stack. Items on display range from Albinus’s spectacular <em>Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani</em> (1747); Augustus Hamilton’s <em>The Art Workmanship of the Maori Race in New Zealand</em> (1901); and Johannes Wolleb’s <em>Compendium Theologiae Christianae</em> (1642); to Gregory M. Mathews’s <em>Supplement to The Birds of Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands and the Australasian South Polar Quadrant</em> (1928); the scurrilous <em>Alvin Purple</em> (1974); and <em>Egypt and the Sudan: Handbook for Travellers</em> (1929). Please enjoy what others have researched and enjoyed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The History of St. Pauls Cathedral in London, from its Foundation untill these times
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
William Dugdale
Date
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1658
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
de Beer Ec 1658 D
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Books
Publisher
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London: Printed by Thomas Warren
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
William Dugdale’s <em>History of St Paul’s Cathedral in London</em> was one of my personal discoveries when I began investigating Otago’s Special Collections. Although the work was catalogued, reference to the significant topographical artist, Wenceslaus Hollar, one of my favourite printmakers, was missing. The site where St. Paul’s now stands has a long history; a church has supposedly been on site since 604. Dugdale’s work is an important book on many levels. It was part of a growing antiquarian movement that recorded and preserved information on the medieval past. Produced during Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, when so many churches were threatened by puritan zealotry, it marked a nostalgia for a royalist past. The book includes details of the cathedral in 1658, before its destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is also important because it is the first book on a particular building to contain so many illustrations of architectural views and monuments. It was ‘crowdfunded’ with subscribers paying for individual prints.<br /><strong>(Chosen by Dr Judith Collard, Department of History and Art History, Otago)</strong>