Smithsonian Libraries

Seeking Applications for 2013 Dibner and Baird Resident Scholars!

Situated at the center of the world’s largest museum complex, the Smithsonian Libraries is a vital part of the research, exhibition, and educational enterprise of the Institution. Each Smithsonian scholar engages in an individual voyage of discovery using the artifacts and specimens of the Smithsonian Institution in conjunction with the Libraries’ written and illustrated record of the past. The Libraries is uniquely positioned to help scholars understand the continuing vitality of this relationship, via exceptional research resources ranging from 13th-century manuscripts to electronic journals.

 

Stipends of $3,500 per month for up to six months are available to support scholarly research in the Special Collections of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in Washington, DC and New York, NY, in an extensive range of subject areas. Historians, librarians, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows are welcome to apply.

The Spencer Baird Resident Scholars will use collections including rare books in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History (pre-1840 works on topics such as botany, zoology, travel & exploration, museums & collecting, geology, anthropology, and James Smithson’s library); World’s Fairs printed materials from the 19th and early 20th centuries (located at the Dibner Library, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum/ National Portrait Gallery, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and National Museum of American History libraries); manufacturers’ commercial trade catalogs at the National Museum of American History Library; rare materials in the history of ballooning, rocketry, and aviation from the late 18th to the early 20^th centuries at the National Air and Space Museum Library’s Ramsey Room; European and American decorative arts, architecture, and design collections from the 18th to the 20th centuries at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum Library’s Bradley Room; and rare materials on the history of art and artists, exhibition catalogs, catalogues raisonnés, and artists’ ephemera at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library.

The Dibner Library Resident Scholars will use Th e collection of the Dibner Library contains over 20,000 rare books and 1,800 manuscript groups covering a wide variety of subject areas and time periods. Th e strengths of the collection are in the fields of the physical sciences, particularly mathematics, astronomy, classical and Renaissance natural philosophy, theoretical and experimental physics (especially electricity and magnetism), engineering technology, as well as scientific apparatus and instruments. The periods covered range from early printed works of ancient Greek and medieval scholars through the Renaissance and Early Modern eras up through the 19th century. The collection includes significant holdings of works by Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Sacrobosco, Regiomontanus, Apian, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Laplace, Euler, Gauss, Oersted, and many others.  The Dibner Library is located in the National Museum of American History on the Mall in Washington, DC.

 For further information about the Resident Scholar Program, including application forms and procedures, please visit the SI Libraries’ website: www.sil.si.edu/Galaxy.cfm?id=3.3. Additional inquiries may be addressed to SILResidentScholars@si.edu or Smithsonian Institution Libraries / Resident Scholar Programs / P.O. Box 37012 / NMAH 1041 MRC 672 / Washington, DC 20013-7012. Resident Scholars are required to be in residence during the award period, which must be taken during the 2013 calendar year. All application materials must be submitted by March 15, 2012.

 

Image: Reading machine or book wheel from Le Diverse et Artificiose Machine, 1588 by Agostino Ramelli

Happy 100th Birthday to the State of New Mexico!

Today, January 6th, marks the 100th anniversary of New Mexico's statehood. In 1848, the land was cededed to the United States by Mexico via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the territory was later admitted as a state of the union in 1912 when President Taft signed the statehood declaration.

 

This image, showing the entrance of an adobe home in Paguate,  was taken by photographer Edward S. Curtis, ca 1925. His  tome The North American Indian attempted to chronicle what he called a "vanishing race". The Smithsonian Libraries holds a complete set of his work, donated by Mrs. Edward H. Harriman, whose husband had conducted an expedition to Alaska, with Curtis as photographer, in 1899. To learn more about Curtis, click through our online exhibit here. To learn more about the State of New Mexico and their centennial activities click here.

Cooking from the Collections: James Smithson's Gingerbread and more

Welcome to our monthly Cooking from the Collections feature! This month, our intrepid recipe testers tried their hand at old fashioned sweets.  The treats included Martha Washington’s recipe for sugar cookies, a boozy 1950’s  rum pudding, and a gingerbread cookie that might have been a favorite of James Smithson. Who do you think would win the holiday bake-off? The founder of the Smithsonian, our very first First Lady or an aspiring June Cleaver? Today we showcase a recipe from a cookbook owned by James Smithson. Stay tuned for more recipes next week!



Like many well-reared gentleman and natural philosophers of his day, James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, was given to penciling annotations (notes, corrections, commentary, preferences, etc.) into his books.  Marginalia, as we call it in book circles.  Poking through his copy of Hannah Glasse’s cookbook, The art of cookery made plain and easy (1770), I found two recipes for “ginger-bread”.  Gingerbread as you may know can refer to either a cookie or cake (beware though that in the 18^th century “cakes” could also mean cookies!).  In Smithson’s copy there is an “x” gently penciled next to the cake-like (or quick bread) version, and a dog-ear on the page with the cookie recipe.  It left me wondering if Smithson was trying to distinguish his preference for the cookies over the cake. 

 

Gingerbread recipes from James Smithson's copy of The art of cookery. Note the very faint "x" in the bottom left corner of the top photo and the dog-ear crease in the top right of the bottom photo.

 

To further Smithson’s initial mission of the Smithsonian Institution as an establishment for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge”, and in the holiday spirit, here is the recipe for the gingerbread cookies Mr. Smithson may have preferred from his own copy of Glasse’s Art of cookery. I’ve halved the recipe and adapted it for modern consumption though you will need a kitchen scale.  Below is an image of the original recipe.  For all you food historians and 18^th century English scholars out there, I encourage to comment on my adaptation and interpretations. 

 

Making the cookies. From L-R: A few ingredients (including treacle), beating the ginger, cutting the cookies.

 

 

Ginger-bread cakes [i.e. cookies]

Adapted from Hannah Glasse’s Art of Cookery (1770)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lb. flour
• ½ lb. sugar
• ½ lb. butter, at room temperature
• 1 oz. fresh ginger, peeled and beaten fine*
• ½ nutmeg seed, grated
•  ½ lb. treacle (i.e. golden syrup*)
• ¼ c. heavy cream

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°*.  Have ready two cookie sheets either lightly butter or lined with parchment.
2. In large bowl, rub together with finger tips flour, sugar, and butter into a fine meal.
3. Rub in nutmeg and ginger.
4. Stir together over medium heat cream and treacle until warm (not hot).
5. Add warmed cream/treacle mixture to flour mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon or sturdy rubber spatula until dough is a stiff mostly unified mass*.  If there are stray crumbs, don’t worry, they can be pressed in to the dough when forming discs.      
6. Form dough into three discs.  Roll out on a lightly floured board until about 5 mm. or 3/8” thick.
7. Using a small glass or cookie cutter, cut dough into desired forms and transfer to prepared cookie sheets.
8. Bake one sheet in the middle of the oven at a time for 11 min. or until light brown at the edges.  Or two sheets at a time, in the top and bottom third of the oven, rotating sheets halfway through baking.
9. Let cookies rest for at least 2 minutes on sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

 

*Notes on recipe interpretation, and other observations:

• A “slack” oven was called for, which loosely translates as “moderate”.  I took that to mean 300-325 degrees.  My oven at home runs a little cool, so I baked them at 325.  For authenticity I chose to use unlined baking sheets, but did opt for a bit of butter to prevent sticking even though the recipe did not mention greasing the “tins”.
• Since the type of ginger (dried or fresh) was not indicated, I assumed Ms. Glasse meant fresh, since an ounce of “beaten” dried ginger would be *a lot* of flavor.
• For the dough, I found that “stiff” correlated to dry, like shortbread dough.
• In North America, golden syrup can be found in the British international section of specialty grocery stores. It is readily available in England.

 

The art of cookery was written in “plain and easy” manner for literate servants.  It was one of the most popular cookbooks of its time among the British elite because it freed the lady of the house from having to explain recipes to the household help.

—Daria Wingreen-Mason

The Fix: Die Branchienschnecke

Welcome to our monthly preservation feature! We're calling it "The Fix". What do you think?

 

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries has hundreds of pamphlet bindings in its rare book collections bound during the mid to late 20th century when the long term effects of acidic bindings was not yet realized.  One of these pamphlets is “Die Branchienschnecke,” an article about snails from around 1820, by Franz von Paula Gruithuisen.  The pamphlet came to the Conservation Lab from the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History bound in an acidic pamphlet binder.  The acid from the binder had discolored the first and last pages of the pamphlet.  The paper was otherwise high quality and in good condition with one color plate.  Additionally, the pamphlet has the bookplate of William Healey Dall (1845-1927), the eminent malacologist who worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and donated hundreds of rare books and publications.

 

Before treatment – Pamphlet cover and bookplate

Before treatment – Title page and colored plate

 

Due to the discoloration of the paper, the paper was washed in de-ionized water and buffered in a Calcium Carbonate solution. After drying and pressing, the pages were re-sewn and a new case was created using handmade paper.  The bookplate was removed from the old acidic covers and placed in the same position on new acid-free end-papers.

 

 

After treatment – front cover and bookplate

 

After treatment – Title Page and Color Plate

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries has many pamphlets in need of repair.  Some of these pamphlets are part of the Adopt-A-Book Program. The program provides funds for the purchase or preservation of items for or in the library’s collection.

—Katie Wagner