The finding aid for the Andrea White Papers is now available online. This collection includes speeches, written works, and other materials that document White’s civic and professional live.
Perhaps best known in Houston as the wife of former mayor and Texas gubernatorial candidate Bill White, Andrea White is also the author of eight young adult books. Her works have been featured on the Texas Bluebonnet List, and she was awarded the 2006 Golden Spur Award by the Texas State Reading Association. The collection contains drafts and translations of some of these works, along with research notes and correspondence.
Also found in the collection are drafts of speeches given by White, including while campaigning for her husband, and works documenting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The original materials are available for use by the public in the Special Collections Reading Room.
The exhibit Sacra et Profana: Music in Medieval Manuscripts is now open to the public on the first floor of the MD Anderson Library at the University of Houston.
This exhibit encompasses the sacred and secular music of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic peoples as well as the while considering manuscripts’ physical nature, their production by hand and development to print. In addition to materials from UH Special Collections, the exhibit includes items from other major Houston collections, including the Woodson Research Center at Rice University and the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.
For more information about the exhibit, visit the exhibit web page, which also includes audio and video related to the exhibit. The short slideshow below offers a sneak peek at the exhibit, including a copy of a book of hours which can also be viewed in the UH Digital Library. The exhibit is open to the public through Feb. 1 and can be visited during the library’s regular hours.
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Previous coverage:
New Exhibit Coming Soon
Folio 130 verso
An exciting new Special Collections digital collection is now available in the UH Digital Library. This collection features a fifteenth century manuscript, the Book of Hours, Use of Reims.
Created in Northern France, this book of hours contains beautifully illustrated and handwritten pages. The text, written on parchment, is in both Latin and Old French, and the scribe is identifed as Paulinus de Sorcy.
From folio 64 recto
While many medieval manuscripts feature images that are closely related to their text, this one is primarily illustrated with marginalia. These whimsical images enliven the borders of various pages and contain both humans and animals. In one illustration, a man plays a harp. In another, a monkey or ape inspects a vial of urine in a satire of medieval medicine.
The digital collection is organized into three objects — one contains the complete manuscript of almost 200 leaves, one highlights the illuminated pages, and the third shows the binding and edges. This beautiful manuscript is an exciting addition to our digital collections, so be sure to check it out soon!
The DJ Screw and the Rise of Houston Hip Hop exhibit has come down and Special Collections is busy prepping for the next exhibit, also related to music but from a completely different time and place.
The next exhibit, Sacra et Profana: Music in Medieval Manuscripts, encompasses the sacred music of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic peoples as well as the profane, or secular, music. It also considers manuscripts’ physical nature, their production by hand and development to print. It is scheduled to open on October 10.
The exhibit was produced in the context of a seminar taught by Dr. Judith Steinhoff entitled “Art Exhibition: Music in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts,” which engaged the students in all aspects of the creation of an art exhibit.
For more information about the exhibit and the class’ work, visit the exhibit page. And if you missed the DJ Screw exhibit, you can still learn about it or take a look at some of the featured items in the UH Digital Library collection, DJ Screw Photographs & Memorabilia.
Watch the blog for more information about Sacra et Profana: Music in Medieval Manuscripts as October 10 approaches!
Blanche Espy in her first evening dress, circa 1912.
Materials from the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive & Research Collection are featured in the latest digital collection from Special Collections. Blanche Espy Chenoweth, Her Life, Her Times, contains photographs documenting the life of Blanche Espy Chenoweth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The collection contains 67 individual photographs and a 48-page scrapbook. The photographs include formal portraits and snapshots, which provide examples both of formal dress and photographic customs from the time period and shots of life unscripted.
Chenoweth was a a lecturer, writer, and voice on the radio who covered topics related to women’s social customs, homemaking, and general well-being. She was born in Iowa in 1875 and spent the last 25 years of her life in Houston, prior to her death in 1960.
Blanche E. Chenoweth (far right) and others enjoy watermelon while in North Carolina, dated August 1923.
Throughout her adult life she lived and travelled in various cities giving lectures on women’s dress and grooming and their importance in a happy life. In the 1920s, she lectured and wrote on the problems of women at the Chautauqua Institute in New York, and in the 1930s she had a radio program in Chicago which gave advice on women’s personal problems.
Visit the collection in the UH Digital Library to see all of the photographs!