Our Bright Young Librarians series continues today with Brandon C. Wason, curator of archives and manuscripts at Pitts Theology Library, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.

What is your role at your institution?

I am the curator of archives and manuscripts at Pitts Theology Library, Emory University. Pitts Library supports the academic activities of Candler School of Theology, as well as the Graduate Division of Religion and other departments on Emory's campus. In special collections, we primarily collect materials related to the Christian tradition, but other religious traditions are represented as well. As the curator of archives and manuscripts, I oversee our archives and manuscripts department and manage the special collections space. I also head up our digitization efforts and serve on the university's digital collections steering committee.

How did you get started in rare books?

When I was an undergraduate, my boss collected antiquarian books. After I expressed some interest in the "old books" he flew me and my wife, Wendy, to San Francisco to visit the 2005 California International Antiquarian Book Fair. The book fair was an amazing experience and was really the impetus of my interest in rare books and manuscripts. The highlight, for me, was seeing the 1516 edition of Erasmus's Greek New Testament on display. I went home from the fair with a nice vellum bound edition of Horace's poetry and a manuscript letter written by Bishop Lightfoot. That's how I became initially interested, but I took a detour in my first few jobs in academic libraries, which centered more on public services. It wasn't until I started my current position in 2015 that I was able to work with rare books and manuscripts on a regular basis.

Where did you earn your MLS/advanced degree?

I came into my current position as a subject specialist; in other words, I didn't have an MLIS degree or formal training in archives. Instead, I hold a Master of Theological Studies as well as a PhD in religion from Emory University. My dissertation looked at how the author of the book of Acts in the New Testament uses ancient rhetorical strategy to characterize the Apostle Paul in his speeches.

Favorite rare book / ephemera that you've handled?

At Pitts Theology Library, we have a very strong collection of Wesleyana--materials related to John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. We have hundreds of manuscripts related to the Wesleys but one in particular stands out as my favorite: John Wesley's diary from 1736. Wesley wrote in this diary during his brief but significant sojourn in the nascent colony of Savannah. Here he details his daily activities while writing in a coded shorthand. Wesley's ministry in Georgia was ultimately unsuccessful, partly stemming from a failed relationship with a woman named Sophia Hopkey, but his experiences there helped shape his later ministry and what would eventually become the Methodist church. Thus, the diary is certainly one of those pieces that generates a strong reaction from people and in my opinion was the gem of our recent exhibition called Religion of the Heart: John Wesley and the Legacy of Methodism in America.

What do you personally collect?

I don't actively collect rare books for myself. I have a few that I've purchased or have been given, including some beautiful publishers' bindings or association copies. In terms of book collecting, I've really spent a considerable amount of effort on building a robust academic library of biblical studies and related books. I am particularly interested in the history of scholarship and so I tend to focus on books that have shaped the discipline. But, because I have limited space for books, the collection has maintained a steady size of roughly 1,200 volumes. Also, now that I work at a theological library, there seems like less of a need to grow the collection.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I'm a father of two young kids (ages 5 and 2) and so that keeps me busy much of the afternoons and weekends. When I do find time I try to spend it in my workshop building furniture or other things made from wood. I actually find woodworking, especially using hand tools, very therapeutic, and so if I weren't a librarian, I'd probably build stuff for a living.

What excites you about rare book librarianship?

I'm interested in the stories that books tell--that is, the information gleaned from the book as an artifact. A book from the fifteenth or early sixteenth century shows us how manuscripts transitioned into the printed form, how the typesetter had to figure out new solutions to present text in multiple registers or unique ways. For instance, we have a 1503 edition of Rabanus Maurus's De laudibus sanctae cruces, in which the printed form beautifully mimics the figurine drawings and letter arrangement of the manuscript poems. Google Rabanus Maurus's work and you'll get a sense of what I'm talking about.

I love researching the provenance of books and investigating clues on how particular books were used by their former owners, such as their use of manicules and marginal notes. A good percentage of the books in our Special Collections are Sammelbände (or bound-withs), which tell us a lot about how certain books were associated with other books by their owners. I'm fascinated by any sort of observable data that connects us to and sheds light on the previous owners of the books. Sharing this with students, that is, these connections to people of the past, is a very rewarding experience.

Thoughts on the future of special collections / rare book librarianship?

As academic libraries tend to collect the same circulating books or subscribe to the same databases, it is often special collections departments that distinguish one library from the next. With that in mind, I think there will be a continued rise in the interest of special collections. One of the areas that I'm really excited about is taking digitized collections beyond simply making them publicly accessible. At Pitts Library, we have a few interesting projects in the pipeline, such as collaborating with other institutions to reunite similar collections or separated manuscript leaves. Our library has also been working with the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship to enhance the discoverability of our collections through adding additional media types to digitized collections (e.g., adding searchable text to an audiovisual collection), or to produce online critical editions of works in our collections, and to present content in new and meaningful ways.

Any unusual or interesting collection at your library you'd like to draw our attention to?

We recently had an inscription in a book identified as a previously unknown autograph of Martin Luther. The book, part of our Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection, was written under a pseudonym and there was uncertainty about the identify of the author. Yet a three-line inscription written by Luther puts to rest any uncertainty and identifies the author as Johannes Petzenstein. The timing couldn't have been better. Ulrich Bubenheimer, the scholar who identified the writing as Luther's, made this discovery about one month before the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 Theses.

Any upcoming exhibitions at your library?

We have a fairly vigorous exhibition program at Pitts Theology Library and typically have three major exhibitions each year. In August we'll install a new exhibition called Looking Back - Looking Forward: Reading at the Reformation through the Lens of Contemporary Christianity. Following that, we'll have an exhibition featuring Emory's collections of Illuminated manuscripts and incunabula. Then, after that, we'll have an exhibition on the histories and traditions of the Bible in English. For more on our exhibitions, see this page.

Late last week the UK's Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, Michael Ellis, announced a temporary export ban on a study table once owned by Charles Dickens. The round mahogany table with a revolving drum top covered in green leather was made around 1835 and was used by the famous author for most of his career, according to the Minister's office, "first in his London home at Devonshire Terrace; then his offices on Wellington Street where he published Household Words and All the Year Round; and finally in his library at Gad's Hill Place in Higham, Kent." It remained in the possession of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens' descendants until its recent sale at Christie's London for £65,000 ($87,000). Presumably the winning bidder wished to 'take it home,' as it were, prompting Ellis to issue the export ban. 

Ellis commented in a press release, "As one of Britain's most famous novelists, it is only right for there to be great expectations on us to protect Dickens' study table for the benefit of the nation."

A decision regarding the buyer's export license has been deferred until October 26, giving UK institutions a chance to raise £67,600, the amount needed to keep the table in the country. Readers may recall a similar snafu with some Jane Austen jewelry years ago, which was resolved when an anonymous benefactor stepped forward with £100,000, thus keeping Austen's turquoise and gold ring out of the hands of American singer Kelly Clarkson. (It is now in the collection of the Jane Austen House Museum.) 

The pending sale of Dickens' table also calls to mind several writers' desks that have gone to auction in recent years--one of which was owned by Dickens and was "saved for the nation" with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.  
 

Not a particularly busy auction week, but much to look at if posters or comics are of interest!

On August 1, Swann Galleries sells Vintage Posters, in 608 lots. A group of four Art Nouveau decorative panels by Alphonse Mucha, representing the times of the day, rates the top estimate at $40,000-60,000. Leoneto Cappiello's 1911 Carnaval poster (pictured) could fetch $20,000-30,000, while a 30 x 20-inch copy of the (now) iconic "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster from 1939 is estimated at $12,000-18,000.

Heritage Auctions holds a Comics, Comic Art & Animation Art Signature Sale in Dallas, August 2-4, with a whopping 4,675 items offered. Expected highlights include an original 1972 Frank Frazetta painting which was used for a 1974 reissue of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Escape on Venus (with a reserve of $500,000); a copy of The Incredible Hulk #1 (Marvel, 1962); and original cover art for Amazing Spider Man #55 (Marvel, 1967).

Conjure an image of early America, and Federal-era architecture, bustling shipyards and streets, and bucolic farm scenes probably come to mind. Whether most of us realize it or not, much of how we view that era was created by William Birch (1755-1834), a London transplant whose work became synonymous with the time when a young nation was full of hope and optimism.

Now through October 5, the Library Company of Philadelphia is showcasing Birch's paintings, including never-displayed manuscripts, enamels, and other pieces illustrating Philadelphia during the nineteenth century when it was the capital of America.

"The exhibition tells the story of Birch's entire life from his early years in England to his death in Philadelphia," explained the Library Company's prints and photographs curator Sarah J. Weatherwax. "It also explores the influence Birch's work had on Philadelphia iconography long after his death. While many people are aware of Birch's views of Philadelphia, few know much about his work as an enamel painter or his aspiration of being a landscape architect, themes that are examined in the exhibition."

Considered America's first "coffee table book," Birch's now-iconic The City of Philadelphia (1800) showed a civilized city and helped bolster early national pride. It was also a commercial success. "The City of Philadelphia showed Philadelphia as the cultural, economic, and political capital of the newly formed United States," Weatherwax said. "Here, between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers was a city where important institutions flourished, where businesses prospered, and where the inhabitants carried out their activities of daily lives. The engravings are large, colorful (if you paid to have them hand-colored), and engaging."

Meanwhile, Birch's follow-up book, Country Seats, was less successful. "The views in Birch's Country Seats are much smaller in size and appear rather lifeless," explained Weatherwax. "Nor is there a built-in audience for scenes of a wealthy gentleman's country estate in the same way that views of city's street life would have. Also, Americans of the period tended to think of the countryside as the location for agricultural endeavors or other practical uses, not the rural retreats Birch portrayed." Though Country Seats met a tepid response, Birch knew his work held importance beyond what his contemporaries thought. In his autobiography, Birch wrote that his book was "the only work of its kind yet published." Little could he have realized the historical record his achievements would provide over two hundred years later.

Birch is considered to be one of the first commercially successful artists in America, and his work remains as relevant as ever, even if the places he painted are drastically changed. "Birch's views of Philadelphia provide us with our most comprehensive documentation of an 18th century American city and continue to be the cornerstone of how we represent a late 18th century urban space," said Weatherwax.

Approximately 100 items from the Library Company of Philadelphia's collection are on display, including material loaned from other institutions and private collectors. Highlights include Birch's private copy of the Country Seats with a notation stating, "intended to be continued but no encouragement," two ceramic vases made by the Tucker Factory of Philadelphia decorated with views from Birch's Country Seats, a watercolor sketch of Birch's country estate, and a copper engraving plate used for City of Philadelphia.  

The Library Company's director Michael Barsanti likened Birch's portraits to America's baby pictures, and that "they show the strength and promise of our country as it appeared in its earliest days. They also show what we looked like through the eyes of a new immigrant, who saw a contrast between its vitality and undeveloped natural beauty and the England he left behind."

I would like to say that after organizing the London PBFA book fair, Marcia and I had a well earned rest. In fact we moved house, which has kept us busy for the last month. But now our gaze returns to the books, and one of the largest fairs of the year is the Dordrecht book market (or Dordtse Boekenmarkt as it is properly known). 

This was held on July 1, and this year welcomed almost 500 exhibitors. The market is held outside and takes over the market square in Dordrecht center, as well as ten of the surrounding streets. You can get some idea of the scale of the fair from the map below. 

I set off at a decent pace (you need to with a fair of this size), naturally beginning at number 700/842! With the temperature at 33 degrees (91°F), I was glad of my trusty panama.

Of the 500 stands, 300 can be skipped past at a fair pace. They are stocked with general "reading copies" and although exceedingly popular with the public, cannot hold me for long. Another 100 stands are largely offering comics and "strips," which remain very popular in the Netherlands. This left 100 stands for me to pick over. Still a pretty healthy number to work through. 

And work I did! Amongst the highlights I discovered were a lovely color sample book and a book of cartoons celebrating the Canadian Army in Holland during the second world war. Both from Klikspaan, an excellent antiquarian shop based in Leiden.

At nearly 500 stalls, the fair is almost too big to cope with, and I am sure I missed many wonderful items as I skimmed past stalls. 

Of course it isn't all fun & books. My labors were rewarded with an enormous ice cream, courtesy of Arnoud Bosch of Antiquariaat Salamander. I have naturally, had to promise to buy a book from him at the next fair. An the next fair is another "Biggie:" The annual Deventer book market, the largest fair in Europe with 878 (yes almost 900) stalls. Wish me luck!

Our Bright Young Librarians series continues today with Curtis Small, Jr., Coordinator of Public Services for Special Collections at the University of Delaware. 

What is your role at your institution?

My title is Coordinator of Public Services for Special Collections. The main part of my job involves overseeing our exhibition program, our instruction activities, and our reference services. A number of my colleagues handle these tasks as well, but I'm the front line person. I monitor our reference queue, which receives inquiries from researchers everywhere, as well as requests from our faculty for instructional support. I may accommodate the requests myself, or pass them over to colleagues, as appropriate. My special collections colleagues and I regularly curate exhibitions in one of the four exhibition spaces in the library. It is my responsibility to make sure there are no gaps in our exhibition program, so I take an active role in  planning. Also, I am a member of the project team for the Colored Conventions Project, an award winning Digital Humanities project that documents the largest African American advocacy movement of the nineteenth century.

How did you get started in rare books?

Before starting library school I got a Ph.D. in French literature from New York University. I wrote a dissertation examining the Haitian revolution for independence  as represented in French and francophone Caribbean literature. My training at NYU did not emphasize book history, beyond a general knowledge of the importance of the printing press for early modern European literature. About seven years ago, an online course on the history of the book was my real introduction to the topic. Later, while working on my MLIS degree at Simmons GSLIS, I did an archival processing internship at the American Antiquarian Society, and a digital collections internship in Archives and Special Collections at Mount Holyoke College. As an MLIS student, I was not set on working in special collections, although I certainly enjoyed being exposed to rare and historic materials. When I went on the job market, it turned out that my general background in literature, along with my internships and teaching experience made me a good fit for the position I have at University of Delaware. I'm very happy things worked out this way!

Favorite rare book / ephemera that you've handled?

While my home institution has really wonderful collections, I must say that the most amazing items I have touched have been at the New York Antiquarian book fair. At last year's fair I encountered presentation copies of James Baldwin's two early novels Go Tell it on the Mountain and Giovanni's Room. Both were inscribed to Baldwin's mentor Beauford Delaney, an African American abstract painter who emigrated to Paris and died there in the late 1970s. Baldwin said it was Delaney who took him under his wing in Paris and taught him what it means to be an artist.  In part, I learned French and went to study in Paris during grad school because Baldwin and other Black writers had done the same. Go Tell it on the Mountain is one of the most important novels to me, and finding a copy that reflected such an important artistic relationship was an experience I didn't think could be topped. However, this year at the New York fair I came across a presentation copy of Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land ) by Martinican poet Aime Cesaire (b.1913 - d. 2008). This book length poem from 1939 is the founding work of the Negritude movement, in which poets from French colonies in Africa and the Caribbean forged a literary aesthetic that reflected their sufferings and aspirations in the face of colonialism. When I saw a copy of the Cahier in a Parisian dealer's stall in New York, I thought how great it was to discover a first or early edition of a work I had read so many times. When he let me examine it, I realized this copy was inscribed by Cesaire to Andre Breton, the leading poet of French surrealism.  In 1941 Breton left France to escape the Vichy regime. While in Martinique on his way to New York, he came across the literary journal Tropiques, produced by the young Cesaire and his circle. In a now well-known story, the two poets met and recognized each other as literary kindred sprits. The edition at the New York fair had Breton's famous, laudatory essay on the Notebook, and a gorgeous poetic inscription from Cesaire to Breton. Many readers in the Francophone Caribbean see Cesaire as a literary father figure, and I came to see him that way myself while studying his work in graduate school, especially the Cahier. One of my dissertation chapters was devoted to Cesaire, in fact. I had to leave the fair in order process what I had just seen.

What do you personally collect?

I've always bought books, but more from the perspective of a reader than a collector. Since becoming a librarian I have begun purchasing signed or unsigned first editions in the areas of African American literature and African or Caribbean literature in French. My first "collector's" purchase came during a Rare Book School course several years ago during "bookseller's night," a Thursday evening ritual. I found a copy of the 1922 English translation of the novel Batouala (1921) by Martinican author Rene Maran. The novel is unknown to most Americans today, but, like Cesaire's Cahier, Batouala is a canonical work in Black francophone literature (and winner of France's Prix Goncourt. Maran was the first Black writer to win the prize). Set in Africa, it sets out to portray the abuses that resulted from French colonialism. Batouala was widely read and admired by African American intellectuals during the Harlem Renaissance period. The copy I found was sitting on a shelf in a Charlottesville bookstore, surrounded by completely dissimilar items. And it wasn't expensive!

What do you like to do outside of work?

The idea that librarians read a lot is a stereotype with a basis in truth, I've found. So, besides reading, I enjoy music, singing and vocal music in particular. I studied voice while in undergraduate school (along with French) and have often sung in choirs over the years. A couple of years ago I started taking guitar lessons and I'm working on my skills at self-accompaniment. I also like to take in art exhibits and do yoga.

What excites you about rare book librarianship?

During my course on the history of the book, I wrote a report on an illuminated Latin Vulgate Bible from the 14th century. Before then, I had never spent so much time with a volume as old as that. The experience brought me face to face with the fact that objects from the past outlive their creators and communicate to us in ways that are completely unique. That vellum, manuscript Bible  captured my imagination and inspired me by its beauty. I have experienced many similar thrills since becoming a rare books librarian. 

As a teacher and scholar of literature, I was expected to know a great deal about a specific area. As a special collections librarian, I'm learning about about Irish poetry, the history of architecture, the Black Power movement, early astronomy, solar power, and many other subjects related to our collections. I love that.

Thoughts on the future of special collections / rare book librarianship?

We are all aware that many colleges and universities are highlighting the uniqueness of the special collections materials on their campuses I think this is a wonderful development that bodes well for the survival of special collections departments in this country. I want to address another point, however.  Above, I stated that I was not intent on entering special collections when I was in library school. This was  because I believed that there would not be a lot of racial diversity among my colleagues. Once I joined the profession, I saw that my suspicion was well founded. This is a problem for librarianship in general. In special collections the situation is even more serious. Archives and special collections need to do more to welcome members of underrepresented groups into the profession. Our institutions, our collections and our patrons will benefit from this. Fortunately, I have seen changes, thanks to some of the fellowship and scholarship initiatives that have come out of Rare Book School and RBMS, as well as the vision and commitment of RBMS leadership. Each year I am meeting more and more library students of color who are interested in Special Collections, and who have a great deal to offer the profession.  I am currently serving as co-chair of the Diversity Committee of RBMS.  My fellow committee members and I recently developed RBMS Diversity Stories, a StoryCorps site that features interviews with librarians and archivists of color. The goal is to offer advice to students who may not have considered archives and special collections as a career

Any unusual or interesting collection at your library you'd like to draw our attention to?

Currently, the Alice Dunbar Nelson papers are getting the most attention from researchers.

Alice was married for a couple of years to Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first truly successful American American poet. Their marriage was troubled and short-lived, but she went on to have a long career as a writer, teacher, activist, newspaper columnist and more. The collection is large and contains a great amount of still untapped material. This includes her library, which features signed and unsigned first editions of books by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Countee Cullen, Charles Chestnutt, and other major literary figures. There are also first editions of works by Paul himself, many of which he no doubt gave to Alice.  Last year, the 19th Century Women's Writers Working Group met at here at University of Delaware. The meeting featured presentations and discussions of Alice's work.  Around that time, an issue of the scholarly journal Legacy was also devoted to her. A couple of years ago, Special Collections hired a postdoctoral fellow who has used the collection for research and teaching. This scholar's work has included producing the first transcriptions of Alice's reading journals, and developing digital humanities  projects based on the reading journals and Alice's scrapbooks. The first biography of  Dunbar-Nelson is also in the works, and there are discussions around publishing one of her novelistic manuscripts for the first time. All these projects depend on access to the Dunbar-Nelson papers, and it's very exciting to be connected to this work.

Any upcoming exhibitions at your library?

An upcoming exhibition curated by my colleague Alex Johnston [profiled in Bright Young Librarians in 2014] is entitled "Things Are Not What They Seem: Forgeries and Deceptions From the University of Delaware Collections." It will feature books, manuscripts, and works of art from our extensive collection of literary hoaxes and artistic forgeries. It begins on August 28th, and will run the length of the fall semester this year. For spring 2019, I am developing an exhibition on illustration and its relationship to narrative. I am collaborating with the chief curator of the museums here at University of Delaware. There will be books from Special Collections as well as prints and paintings bearing a relationship to the illustrations in the books. As a result of a recent reorganization, Special Collections is now a part of University Museums here at UD. This exhibition is the first to be co-curated by members of the two sections, and it will feature the largest number of Special Collections books ever displayed in one of the art galleries here on campus.

With all the news about book theft of late (in Pittsburgh; and Dayton), and a nationally screened film about the 2004 robbery of Audubon's Birds of America in Kentucky, it may seem as though Travis McDade's new book, Torn from Their Bindings: The Story of Art, Science, and the Pillaging of American University Libraries, was ripped from the headlines. Sadly, the truth is that not-so-clever book thieves are always with us, as borne out in his meticulously researched page-turner that focuses on the case of Robert Kindred, who sliced thousands of antique prints out of rare books and journals in 1980.   

McDade is the author of several books about book theft, including Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring (2013), excerpted in our spring 2013 issue, and Disappearing Ink: The Insider, the FBI, and the Looting of the Kenyon College Library (2015). He is also the curator of law rare books at the University of Illinois College of Law, which is to say, he is the leading expert on rare book crimes. McDade's approach is methodical as he tracks Kindred (driving a Cadillac, no less) from Southern California to Texas to Illinois, with a few stops in between, stopping at university libraries to pillage the stacks. It is the heist Kindred tries to pull off at the University of Illinois, and for which he got caught, in June of 1980, that McDade zeroes in on. Kindred and his accomplice, Richard Green, had attempted to steal several oversized illustrated books but were foiled when a maintenance man literally stumbled across their cache on his way into the building late one night. 

Turns out Kindred, a hustler with a string of bad ideas, is a character right out of fiction, and McDade harnesses that to tell a suspenseful tale and make a compelling argument about library security and preservation issues. Another of the useful takeaways of McDade's true crime has little to do with crime or even books per se, but much to do with art, in the form of embedded mini biographies of illustrators Eaton, Bewick, and Thorburn, to name a few. The color plates by these illustrators depicting flora and fauna, from journals like Ibis and Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, were Kindred's main targets, as they were easily removed with a razor blade and rarely marked with ownership stamps. The difficulty of proving their provenance would work in his favor, and would ultimately hamper efforts to return much of the purloined art even years after the case closed.  

Ten years in the making, McDade has delivered a book that should be of great interest to bibliophiles everywhere, particularly those guardians of collections who too often have to deal with the likes of Kindred and his ilk.  

At Bunch Auctions on Monday, July 23, Books & Works on Paper, in 269 lots. Top-estimated lots include an engraving of Marcantonio Raimondo's "Massacre of the Innocents" from around 1515 ($5,000-7,000); some signed William Gibson volumes ($1,200-1,500); and a 1490 Augsberg edition of the sermons of Robertus Caracciolus ($800-1,000). A wide-ranging sale, with estimates mostly in the three-figure range.

On Tuesday, July 24, Doyle New York sells Angling Books from the Collection of Arnold "Jake" Johnson, in 344 lots (this is a timed, online-only sale). Highlights could include Richard (or Charles) Bowlker's The Art of Angling Improved in All Its Parts ($700-1,000) and Eric Taverner's Salmon Fishing (1931), estimated at $1,200-1,800. Lots 111-113 comprise three photograph albums of fishing trips taken by Zane Grey in the 1920s (each is estimated at $700-1,000).

 PBA Galleries sells Modern Literature on Thursday, July 26, in 563 lots. Seven lots share estimates of $3,000-5,000, including a first book printing of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a first edition of The Call of the Wild in a very well-preserved dust-jacket, a full set of the 63-volume James Joyce Archive, and an inscribed first edition of Catch-22. Lots 440-563 are being sold without reserve.

Finally, on Saturday, July 28, Potter and Potter Auctions holds a Fine Books & Manuscripts sale, in 619 lots. A copy of the Peter Force facsimile engraving of the Declaration of Independence is estimated at $15,000-20,000, while a 1917 "Destroy This Mad Brute" World War I enlistment poster could fetch $12,000-18,000. Other lots include a collection of Hugh Hefner's correspondence with a high school friend ($10,000-20,000); Emil Orlik's Aus Japan ($10,000-15,000); and a 1958 Fidel Castro letter to arms smuggler Pedro Luis ($8,000-12,000).

A rare copy of Ada Lovelace's groundbreaking first computer program turned up at a regional auction house, Moore Allen & Innocent, in Glouchestershire, England, today and sold for £95,000 ($125,000) after an intial estimate of £5,000-6,000 was increased to £40,000-60,000.  

Bound in burgundy leather with tooled and gilded "Lovelace" on cover, this copy of Sketch of The Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babage Esq. by L F Menabrea of Turin Officer of The Military Engineers, with notes by the translator, who is identified in a handwritten note as Lady Lovelace, also contains extensive reading notes on Lovelace on the flyleaf, and a typed memo attributing the notes to physician William King, a friend and advisor of hers, who published a paper called The Cooperator. (Lovelace also married a different man named William King, strangely enough.)

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke, was born on Dec. 10, 1815, in London, England, and was taught math by her mother. Her mother also surrounded her with the best education and tutors and introduced her to scientist Mary Somerville. It was that introduction that led Lovelace to know the work of Charles Babbage at 17, soon after she made her society debut. He showed her a large brass calculator and she became obsessed with it. 

Not long after she translated Menabrea's academic paper on Babbage's analytical engine, she added a section that extended the length of the paper by three times. This section is simply titled, "Notes." In "Section G" she published her algorithm, a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers with the engine, which would have worked had it been built. Additionally she mused about the role of computers in society, described how they would be faster than humans at computations, and dismissed the concept of artificial intelligence, explaining, "the Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths." 

Lovelace died of uterine cancer at age 36. There is disagreement about the importance of her contribution to science and math, and whether or not her contribution can indeed be considered the first computer program or simply an enhancement to Babbage's work. Recently, she was finally given an obituary by the New York Times in its record-redressing "Overlooked" women of history special section, along with Sylvia Plath and other female luminaries.

Planning a visit to Cambridge, MA, in the coming weeks? If so, be sure to check out an exhibition at Harvard's Houghton Library addressing the very hot topics of immigration, DACA, asylum, and travel bans. Passports: Lives in Transit is in its final weeks, and library curators are inviting the public to examine passports, visas, and travel documents hailing from Harvard Library collections, as well as an installation of expired passports. Featured famous migrants include Leon Trotsky, George Balanchine, and others.

On August 10, the library is hosting a closing celebration from 4:30pm to 7pm. First up is a panel discussion and Q & A with speakers from Harvard's Administrative Fellowship Program. Hosted by Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton's director of scholarly and public programs, panel participants will discuss "Global Mobility: Identity, Migration, and Passports."

From 5:30pm to 7pm, visitors are invited to the Mama Africa Party in the Houghton Library's Edison and Newman room. Billed as a "cross cultural celebration of humanity's common roots," live music will be performed by Afro-pop musician Albino Mbie, dancing performed by Angie Egea, and food provided by Suya Joint All African Cuisine.

Though free to the public, RSVPs are requested to ensure enough food and drink for all: 
http://houghton75.org/?event=passports-lives-in-transit-closing-event