Celebrating the Cello Music Collection: The Greenhouse Legacy

Among the most distinguished cellists of the 20th and early 21st centuries, Bernard Greenhouse, now in his 95th year, continues to teach at his home on Cape Cod and to inspire music lovers the world over, largely through his many recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio. As the founding cellist of this legendary trio, Greenhouse joined forces in 1955 with pianist Menahem Pressler and violinist Daniel Guilet (later followed by Isidore Cohen) to perform and record the entire standard piano trio repertoire before retiring from the group in 1987. However, as Greenhouse is ever quick to point out, his career on the international chamber music stage represents only one dimension of a richly varied musical life. This exhibit of materials from his personal library, now part of UNCG’s monumental Cello Music Collection, throws welcome light on the range of Greenhouse’s activities—as a virtuoso cello soloist, as a student of Casals, as a collaborator with composer Elliott Carter, and as the long-time cellist of New York’s Bach Aria Group.

- Mac Nelson

Exhibit dates : January 24 - February 3, 2011

2010 Women Veterans Luncheon

On Saturday, November 6th, the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project hosted our 13th annual women veterans luncheon.



Our speaker this year was Command Sergeant Major Teresa S. King, the first female commandant of the U.S. Army's Drill Sergeant School at Fort Jackson, SC. CSM King, a North Carolina native,spoke about her life and career and was given a standing ovation.





UNCG Chancellor Linda P. Brady gave remarks. The Chancellor comes from a military family and always makes very insightful comments.



The luncheon is a great chance to catch up with all of the women who have donated their oral histories to the collection and to meet and greet other women veterans.

More photos of the event are on flickr. CLICK HERE.

North Carolina WWII Experience Documentary includes WVHP veteran

WUNC-TV has produced a two-hour documentary North Carolina's WWII Experience about North Carolinians during World War II.

The film includes The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project's "very own" Virginia Russell Reavis, who served as an air evacuation nurse for the U.S. Army Air Force, telling her story.

• Virginia Russell Reavis' Papers: http://library.uncg.edu/dp/wv/collection.aspx?col=286

• Information about the film: http://www.unctv.org/pressroom/wwII/mediaadvisory.html

• Website for the film: http://wwii.unctv.org/

Promoting Archival Material

One of the goals of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is to promote its many collections to University classes. In early November 2010, Reference Librarian Jenny Dale, sent Interim University Archivist Hermann Trojanowski an e-mail requesting an exhibit tailored especially for the History and Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education (KIN 351) class. Jenny said the class's instructor Pam Kocher Brown wanted to integrate University Archives material into the session and asked that we display vintage items for the class to view.

On November 23rd, fourteen students and two instructors from the KIN 351 class visited the University Libraries' Conference Room where Kathelene Smith and Hermann Trojanowski displayed items from University Archives including twenty-eight photographs of athletics and sports, five yearbooks, and six vintage athletic uniforms such as a 1913 black wool gym suit and 1931 red athletic vest with archival photos of early students wearing the items. The yearbooks from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s gave the students a visual touchstone with early campus sports.


When the students arrived, Kathelene and Hermann gave an overview of the textiles and other items on display. Then the students viewed the items and asked questions.


At the end of the session, Jenny asked the students to pick one artifact and talk about why it was their favorite. After the students left the Conference Room, they went to the CITI computer lab where they reviewed the UNCG Timeline, which had been created by University Archives staff. Their assignment was to pick two dates and give their reason for those dates being important to them.

This is an excellent example of outreach that the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Department has been conducting in the past few years to promote its collections.

A student's perspective...

I’m Katie Whetzel, a graduate student in the Library and Information Studies program and while loving to read is not a requirement to be a librarian that is how I got interested in working with the NC Literary Map. I work in Special Collections and Archives as a graduate assistant. I research basically anybody remotely related to NC and enter their biography/published literature into the map.

Clyde Edgerton, Margaret Maron, Kathy Reichs and Timothy Tyson are all among my favorite authors. One reason is that they’re all fantastic writers. The other is because I’m connected to North Carolina and its people when I read about the characters. I’m a North Carolinian all the way- love the bbq, am spoiled by having the mountains and beach so close, and am a basketball fan only when the NCAA comes around.

I enjoy coming across authors who live or wrote about a place that I’ve actually been. I even end up looking at original manuscripts that Special Collections has since I’m already here. It is awesome looking at original illustrations and handwritten notes made by the author. The NC Literary Map allows me to do research on stuff that I would never do in my spare time. I’ve learned that the famous line from Sunset Boulevard, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up” refers to Cecil DeMille (the father of Hollywood) who grew up in Washington, NC (It’s east of Greenville, for those of you who would have to look it up on a map like me). Another interesting fact about North Carolina is the experimental college started in 1933 in Asheville. Black Mountain College was open for only 23 years and yet people still talk about it. It seems like something that lasted only that long should have faded away by now, but the number of people who went on to be extremely influential is unbelievable. From my research, everyone keeps saying that the works of ‘Black Mountain writers’ are so varied from each other that they can’t be grouped together. I find it kinda crazy that NC can lay claim to something so radically different and out of the box.

It’s that connection between me, history and that quirky Southern culture which I love (and the latter which I’m slightly fearful is disappearing) that keeps my interest. I consider this research to be pretty much like reading People magazine or being obsessed about celebrities’ lives. These people just live closer and some details are just as scandalous! If you’re interested, you can check out the NC Literary Map here: http://library.uncg.edu/dp/nclitmap/

Don Etherington and Monique Lallier

Among the most renowned bookbinders and conservators practicing their craft today, Monique Lallier and Don Etherington have produced scores of beautiful and creative bindings, among them award winners in major competitions.

Monique Lallier has served as director of the American Academy of Bookbinding and as chair of the Standards Committee of the Guild of Book Workers. Her binding designs have been featured in many prominent exhibitions throughout the world, and among her awards was the De Golyer Jury Prize for Design in 2003. Monique has conducted many seminars and workshops on binding and tooling in the U. S. and abroad and maintains a binding studio at her home in Summerfield, where she continues to train apprentices in the art of custom binding.

Don Etherington is renowned as both a leading conservator and a creative bookbinder and has conducted numerous seminars and workshops in both areas. The founder of Etherington Conservation Services and a major consultant on such projects as the Florence reclamation project of 1966 and the restoration and housing of such precious documents as the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution, Don has his bindings represented in major public and private collections in the United States and abroad, including the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Library of Congress.

University Libraries is proud to display its seventeen custom bindings by Don and Monique, a small showcase of the art of two very talented and creative binding designers.

~William K. Finley

Bound to Please : Custom Bookbindings by Don Etherington and Monique Lallier
November 15 - December 22, 2010
Hodges Reading Room

A Gentleman's Library : The Classic Book Collection of Norman B. Smith

George Catlin, ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS AND CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
London: Henry Bohn, 1850

First published in 1841, ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS is George Catlin's best-known work documenting the life and customs of numerous Indian tribes. Catlin's illustrations and notes on Indian life provide an incomparable record of what was even in 1841 a rapidly vanishing culture.

Fascinated from boyhood with Indian life and lore, Catlin began his journeys among Indians in 1830 when he accompanied General William Clark up the Mississippi into Indian territory. He eventually visited sixty-eight tribes, sketching and taking notes on all aspects of Indian life and culture. Catlin ultimately amassed some 600 paintings and a huge assortment of artifacts, which became his famous Indian Gallery.



This early text contained over 300 line-drawings based on Catlin's pictures; his later North American Indian Portfolio (1844) added additional sketches. Two later related volumes were Last Rambles Among the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes and My Life Among the Indians. Catlin's superb Indian Gallery was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1879.

- William K. Finley