Public Services Melesinda Munbee (1744-1763) A Collection of Various Kinds of Poetry England, 1749-1750 This is the first of two volumes of a handwritten anthology of familiar poems by eighteenth-century authors such as Swift, Dryden and Pope. Melesinda dedicated it to her father Valentine Munbee, who taught her to write.…

Public Services A Treatise on Fortune Telling Thailand, before 1844 Created for active use by fortune-tellers, this manual is remarkably pristine and a rare example of the form, in part because it was never completed. All twelve animals of the Thai zodiac are depicted in it, but identifying and instructional

Technical Services Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400) The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Now Newly Imprinted (London, 1896) The iconic Kelmscott Chaucer—this copy being one of only three printed on vellum and bound in full pigskin—is the crowning achievement of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones’ ventures into book production. As a practicing

Technical Services John Updike (1932-2009) New York City: An Exile’s Impressions, 1988 I noticed this essay amidst the similar looking Updike manuscripts that lay before me.  I had just moved to Cambridge after having lived in New York City for thirteen years.  Despite a better job and a bigger apartment,

Public Services Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1955 My favorite thing about performance archives is that they show the collaborative nature of artistic creation, belying the myth of a lone genius. As Williams’ copy of the production script, this manuscript bears traces of the cast and

Office of the Librarian Emma Goldman (1869-1940) Letter to Louise Bryant, 4 November 1920   The famous anarchist Emma Goldman wrote this letter to Louise Bryant shortly after the death of John Reed, Bryant’s husband. The letter reveals much about Goldman’s state of being ten months after her arrival in

Harvard College Class of 2019, Public Services Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis Germany, ca. 1462? This volume of the Apocalypse of St. John (or, the Book of Revelation) is known as a block-book and is thought to be one of only nine known copies of this edition. Rather than using small pieces

Technical Services Bible Moscow, ca. 1575-1599 This bible’s Russian Church Slavonic text is written in semiuncial Muscovite bookhand, with red vjaz’ (ligatures) and initials, and gilt headpieces, mostly in neo-Byzantine style. This page shows the beginning of Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, which is marked by a decorative initial letter.

Preservation Services John Taylor (1580-1653) Verbum Sempiternum England, 1615 This paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments, known as a Thumb Bible, is bound in delicately embroidered green silk in the dos à dos, or back to back, style. Calligraphist Esther Inglis (1571-1624) wrote out Taylor’s popular printed abridgment in

Technical Services Silvio Hein (1879-1928) The Devil (New York, 1908) Imitations, excerpts, translations, arrangements: the Ward Collection is rich in variant versions. Here is a response to Franz Lehár’s beloved operetta Die lustige Witwe. First performed in Vienna in 1905, it received its New York premiere as The Merry Widow