Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles
Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman. In the late 1870s, Los Angeles was a […]
Exhibition Opening: Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Other Worlds
Folklore and fairy tales have been intertwined throughout their history, with early fairy tales deriving from the oral tradition before moving into the world of printed literature, and literary stories shifting back into the spoken realm. These tales are infused with mystical and mythical traits, while their traditional elements gave rise to new and otherworldly […]
The Binfords & Mort Story: Publishing Books About Oregon, 1930-1983
In 1891 while still teens in Portland, Oregon, Maurice and Peter Binford started an influential career as publishers. They went on to found the Binfords & Mort publishing company focused on Pacific Northwest literature. This talk will explore how this mostly forgotten company, once the largest publisher west of the Mississippi, cast a large shadow […]
The Binfords & Mort Story: Publishing Books About Oregon, 1930-1983
In 1891 while still teens in Portland, Oregon, Maurice and Peter Binford started an influential career as publishers. They went on to found the Binfords & Mort publishing company focused on Pacific Northwest literature. This talk will explore how this mostly forgotten company, once the largest publisher west of the Mississippi, cast a large shadow […]
City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry
California’s 1849 gold rush triggered creation of the “instant city” of San Francisco as a base to exploit the rich natural resources of the American West. City of Wood examines how capitalists and workers logged the state’s vast redwood forests to create the financial capital and construction materials needed to build the regional metropolis of […]
A Journey in Bookplates: The Art and Life of California Designer Beulah Mitchell Clute
Come along on a collector’s journey as Claudia Smukler takes you through the fascinating world of bookplates, also known as ex-libris. The term ex-libris refers to all marks of provenance in a book, including stamps, labels, and names written on the inside cover. Book owners have been doing this for centuries. The bookplate is a […]
Golden Slumbers: California’s Dormant Fine Press Scene
Building on themes from his book, Dreaming on the Edge: Poets & Book Artists in California, Alastair Johnston explores overlooked figures in the history of printing in the Golden State. Johnston’s work was the first in 80 years to assess the impact of small and fine presses on the culture of California, challenging the long-held […]
Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling
Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling takes aim at the obsession that swept the post-war nation: bowling! More than just a sport or a hobby, bowling became the ultimate modern lifestyle for Americans savoring the boom years that followed World War II. Bowling alleys were modern palaces; companies constantly aimed to outdo each other, whether competing for the […]
Encrypted Books – Mysteries that Fill Hundreds of Pages
The lecturers have studied about 120 books that are entirely or partially encrypted. In this talk, they introduce the most fascinating ones. This includes the famous Voynich Manuscript, a 15th century tome that has never been deciphered, and the Rohonc Codex, a 17th century creation that was recently solved by Hungarian scientists. It also includes […]
Acquisition Notes: Building Rare Book and Manuscript Collections at the UC Davis Library
Dr. Kevin Miller, Head of Archives and Special Collections at the UC Davis Library, discusses the library’s approach to building rare book and manuscript collections that support its educational mission and meet the needs of the researching public. Taking actual acquisitions as examples, this talk presents a tour through the library’s major collecting areas by […]