THE CENTURY OF THE BODY: 100 PHOTOWORKS OF 1900-2000

BOYSTOWN: LA ZONA DE TOLERANCIA

Why is a cemetery a good place to write a story? Why, because there are so many plots there! 

In addition to looking up terrible Halloween jokes, Special Collections has decided to get into the spirit of Halloween by sharing selections from our various collections that are filled with magic, the supernatural, and horror. Graduate Assistant Jessi Deane went through four of our different collections and pulled out her personal favorites to share with all of you! The best part—all of these selections are available for you to come and look at yourselves! 

GENERAL/RARE BOOKS COLLECTION

The History of Witchcraft and Demonology by Montague Summers

Written in 1926, Summers claims that this history of the supernatural spans too far across time and too far across the globe to accurately portray all of it. However, by choosing to focus on just Europe, he is able to examine two or three specific aspects of witchcraft and demonology. One of the things that stood out the most of me about Summers’ history was his argument that “it is quite impossible to appreciate and understand the true lives of [men and women]…unless we have some realization of the part that Witchcraft played in those ages” (ix). Although Summers certainly doesn’t try to claim that his findings are particularly historical or scientific,any fan of the supernatural and the occult should definitely come and check this out!

Famous Curses by Elliot O’Donnell

Not long after Montague Summers wrote his history of witchcraft, O’Donnell published a collection of famous curses that were supposedly cast around the world. One of these is the “Screaming Skulls of Calgarth,” which is quite similar to one of those urban legends that Jessi heard so often as a kid. Now, the real question is, are these tales of real curses? Or are they simply ghost stories told to children to keep them up at night? You may have to decide that for yourself. 

Bibliotheca Curiosa. A Treatise of Magic Incantations of Christianus Pazig edited by Edmund Goldsmid

Written in 1700, and translated in 1886 for an English audience, this little book traces the power of words in magic. Where do incantations come from? Why are they worded the way that they are? What powers do those words have? Or, perhaps, could it be that some of these “incantations” don’t have meaning simply because the words that they are made up of don’t have any meaning? These are all important questions that this little book attempts to answer. 

ROSENFELD COLLECTION

WerewolveSS by Jerry and Sharon Ahern

In 1944, Nazi leaders Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels outlined a plan called the “Werwolf,” which would place a guerrilla resistance force behind the Allied lines as they moved through Germany. When combining this with the popular historical interpretation of Hitler as an “occult groupie,” I’m sure you can guess where Jerry and Sharon Ahern went with this book! (Hint: Avid watchers of the hit HBO drama True Blood have definitely seen this before!)  A story of terror and suspense, WerewolveSS is definitely worth a read! 

The Howling by Gary Brandner

In the spirit of Halloween, be sure to check out another terrifying piece of werewolf literature! Following traumatic events in their lives, Karyn and Roy Beatty decide to move from the grimy city of Los Angles to the secluded mountain town of Drago. Although the town and its inhabitants seem friendly enough, it soon becomes apparent that something sinister is happening behind the scenes. The 1981 film The Howling is based on this blood curdling novel. 

The Tomb and other Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft, the author of the bone-chilling novel The Call of Cthulhu and Other Dark Tales, wrote The Tomb in 1917, making it the first piece of literature written by him in his adult life. Published in the March 1922 issue of The Vagrant, The Tomb and Other Tales consists of seventeen different short stories, early “novels”, and fragments by the master of horror fiction himself.  Jessi’s favorites are the fragments, specifically “Azathoth”; ranging from just one paragraph to only two or three pages, they were found in Lovecraft’s papers and were never expanded into short stories of their own. 

THE ARNOLD/HOWARD COLLECTION

Ghosts and Haunted Houses of Maryland by Trish Gallagher

Do you love haunted houses and stories of ghosts, ghouls, and spirits? Do you live in Maryland? Well, according to Trish Gallagher, you’re in luck! Claiming that our home state is “alive” with ghosts and other creepy hauntings, Gallagher records the stories of Maryland’s twenty-five most haunted sites. Although this may be Jessi’s own interest in Baltimore’s Confederate women shining through, but her personal favorite is the story of “The Hauntings at the Surratt House”. Mary Surratt, one of the alleged co-conspirators of the Lincoln assassination, is said to have begun haunting her family’s home following her execution in 1865. The best part about this book? All of these haunted sites and houses can be visited!

COMIC BOOK COLLECTION

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

Published by Dark Horse Comics from 2007 to 2011, this particular comic series follows the canonical continuation of the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The comics themselves start on year after the series finale, picking up the stories of our favorite characters right where we left them. True to the original in every way, Season Eight (and later Season Nine) was produced by Joss Whedon and utilized many of the same writers from the Whedon-verse. 

Explore the culture and history of East Baltimore!  See a slice of urban life from the 70’s!  Has much changed?  Take a look and see for yourself – now available online:  Elinor Cahn photographs.

UMBC students, faculty, and staff now have access to this digital collection of renowned Baltimore photographer Elinor B. Cahn (born 1925). Over eighty of Cahn’s photographic prints from the East Baltimore Documentary Photography Project are currently available in UMBC's Digital Collections.  The digitized prints available online demonstrate Cahn’s thoughtful views of religious and secular ceremonial processions, residents in multigenerational family homes, and other aspects of daily life.

The East Baltimore Photography Project began as part of MICA Professor Linda Rich’s social documentary course in 1976 and expanded as a four-year grant endeavor among Rich, Cahn, and Cahn’s classmate Joan Netherwood. The photographers documented neighborhoods in transition, capturing East Baltimoreans’ pride and proactive measures to improve basic services.  The images provide insightful perspectives into East Baltimoreans’ diverse houses of worship, commemorative parades, family-owned establishments, row homes, and private lives.  The East Baltimore Photography Project produced over ten thousand images, many of which were exhibited throughout the region and published in the book, Neighborhood: A State of Mind, available in our Arnold Collection of Maryland history and in the general  Library stacks.  

In addition to the Cahn’s East Baltimore Documentary Photography project, Special Collections holds Cahn’s full archives. Cahn’s collection includes images of Baltimore’s Greek community, Asklipios, Greece, the Vietnam memorial, cemeteries, a Baltimore soup kitchen, and photographs of Maine.

UMBC's Special Collections is open to the public from Monday through Friday 1-4 pm, with extended Thursday evening hours until 8 pm. We are also open by appointment. Access the digital collection of Cahn images here.

This post was written by Jen Wachtel

The Baltimore Camera Club: 130 Years of Photographic Education and Excellence 

Baltimore Camera Club trophy

Want to learn more about past activities of The Baltimore Camera Club? Have a look at the issues of the Baltimore Camera Club’s publication, Focal Point, dating from the late 1970s into the 1990s.  Or maybe you want to see the types of works that members produced -- well we have that too! The collection contains a number of member-created photographs, including prints by some of the their most famous members, like Edward Bafford and A. Aubrey Bodine, who was also a photographer at the Baltimore Sun for fifty years.

A. Aubrey Bodine self portrait

Feel free to grab a seat by the display of antique cameras in our reading room and spend some time exploring the long and interesting history of The Baltimore Camera Club.  Whether you want to bone up on your history before attending a meeting or just want to learn about the oldest photographic society in the nation, UMBC’s Special Collections department has something for you. 

RPM, Laverne L. Bodaire

More information about the Baltimore Camera Club’s meetings and current activities can be found on their website, www.baltimorecameraclub.org.

Written by former Special Collections Student Assistant Kathleen Foster

"The O'Donnell family papers consists primarily of letters and other documents written to and from the descendants of John O'Donnell (1749-1805) and his wife Sarah Chew Elliott O'Donnell (1768-1855). The most prolific writer among them was Columbus O'Donnell (1792-1873), the eldest surviving son of John and Sarah O'Donnell's sons, whose letters during and immediately after the Civil War provide a glimpse into the social attitudes and economic conditions surrounding that conflict."

Was your childhood filled with the tales of Alice in Virusland?  Ann the Anopheles Mosquito?  Huber the Tuber?  No?

In the early 20th century, long before WebMD and daytime television, it was a struggle to get the word out about public health risks in a way that was both attention-getting and informative.  Using illustrations provided a double advantage- it was an easy way to depict what could not easily be photographed, and it also played off the huge popularity of daily newspaper comic strips at the time.

The American Society for Microbiology Book Collection, part of Special Collections at the Albin O. Kuhn Library, provides several great examples of the innovative use of illustrations and humor to get across some very serious messages.  ASM Archivist Jeff Karr shared three such publications for us to highlight.

Alice in Virusland is a slim volume containing the transcript of an address given in 1938 by Paul F. Clark, a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin and president of the Society of American Bacteriologists (the predecessor of the American Society for Microbiology).  Clark borrows heavily from Lewis Carroll’s original work, mimicking many of Carroll’s songs as well as his prose style, in order to lament the dangers of anti-vaccine sentiment.  The book is filled with fantastical illustrations of microbes and viruses in traditional Alice in Wonderland situations, dating from a time when no one was really sure what many of these things looked like.

Printed in 1943, This is Ann is about Ann the Anopheles Mosquito, and the ways in which she and her type spread the dread disease of Malaria.  Produced by the War Department, this helpful little booklet lets soldiers know how Ann operates, and how to avoid her, by sleeping under mosquito nets and making sure their bodies are covered at all times.  The booklet is filled with the uncredited, but distinctive, drawings of one Captain Ted Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss!  Additionally, it was written by Munro Leaf, author of Ferdinand the Bull.

While recovering from the effects of tuberculosis, Harry A. Wilmer, M.D. had quite a bit of time on his hands.  He filled his days by creating the character of Huber the Tuber, a tubercle bacilli who along with his friends, invade and infect Lungland.  Written in 1942 as World War II raged, Huber the Tuber: A Story of Tuberculosis features Wilmer’s Tubers as thinly disguised Nazis, including their leader, Nasty von Sputum.  For a medical doctor, Wilmer shows himself to be quite the talented illustrator, deftly combining medical drawings with cartoonish characters.

Although these three books are not exactly great works of literature,  they do provide a fantastic record of the early 20th century public education efforts of the medical establishment.  You can see them and more in person.  The American Society for Microbiology Book Collection is in the catalog.  You can also stop by the Special Collections Department to access them.  Special Collection is located inside of the Library Gallery, Monday-Friday from 1-4pm, and Thursdays from 1-8pm.  Other hours are available by appointment:  email speccoll@umbc.edu.  

This post was written by former Special Collections student assistant Steve Ammidown.

Related Resources 

American Society for Microbiology

This is Ann from the Navy Department Library

USDA digitized version of This is Ann

Alice in Virusland digitized

9 Things You May Not Know about Dr. Seuss

Want to read some Superman? Jonesing for some Archie? UMBC’s Special Collections department holds over 6,500 comic books! Featuring a variety of genres, from superhero comics to underground comix, this collection will have something for every comic book fan.

With so many comic books, navigating the collection can be a bit daunting. But don’t fret! Special Collections now has a new online comics guide to help you sort through the collection. Now it is easy to find a comic book that fits your interests, from superheroes, to romance, and horror.

You can check out the guide at http://lib.guides.umbc.edu/comics

You can also come to Special Collections to read any of these comics. Although the comics do not circulate (you have to read them in our department) the Special Collections staff will do their best to work with your schedule. Special Collections is open 1 to 4 Monday through Friday, with extended hours from 4 to 8 on Thursday nights, or you can request an appointment. To contact Special Collections, visit their website, email us (speccoll@umbc.edu) or call 410-455-2353.

This post was written by Special Collections Graduate Assistant Johanna Schein.