October 2013 Archives

October 4, 2013

The Ladies Library: Or, Benjamin Franklin's Sister's Books

Yale Center for British Art Lecture Hall
Friday November 8th, 5:30pm

Professor Jill Lepore, National Book Award finalist and author of Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, will discuss her work reconstituting the lost library of Benjamin Franklin's sister Jane (1712-1794). Most of what Jane read, she borrowed, but she was an avid and discriminating reader, writing to her brother, "I Read as much as I Dare."

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her books include New York Burning, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; The Name of War, winner of the Bancroft Prize; The Mansion of Happiness, a finalist for the Carnegie Medal; The Whites of Their Eyes, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; and The Story of America. Her 2008 novel, Blindspot, written jointly with historian Jane Kamensky, was also a Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. In October 2013, Book of Ages, Lepore’s landmark biography of Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister, was published and nominated for the National Book Award.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 4, 2013 1:09 PM

October 10, 2013

Yale Indian Papers Project is Awarded a Second NEH Grant

Yale University and the Yale Indian Papers Project have received a Scholarly Editions grant of $225,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support “The New England Indian Papers Series: The State of Connecticut Collection, 1784-1869.” Slated to begin in the spring of 2014, this award will allow the Indian Papers Project, a Yale-based scholarly editing endeavor and collaborative research initiative, to add nearly 700 primary source documents written by, about, or for Connecticut Indians to its open access electronic archive.

“In an increasingly competitive funding environment this award is not only an affirmation of the work that we do but also sustains Yale’s commitment to Native American and Indigenous Studies,” said Dr. Paul Grant-Costa, the project’s executive editor.

Coming from sources as varied as Connecticut county and superior court records, passed and rejected legislation of the General Assembly, personal correspondence, journals, and photograph collections, the materials in “The State of Connecticut Collection, 1784-1869” will make virtual and intellectual access to otherwise disparate material a reality for an untold number of students, teachers and researchers, Native and non-Native. Taken together, the documents reveal a continued American Indian presence in the region from the time of the early republic to just after the Civil War and provide insight into Connecticut Native history and culture, as well as the State’s 19th -century Indian policies.

For more information on “The New England Indian Papers Series” or the Yale Indian Papers Project, visit http://www.library.yale.edu/yipp or contact indianpapersproject@yale.edu

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 10, 2013 2:33 PM

October 11, 2013

The History of the LGBT Family Equality Movement to be Preserved at Yale University Library

The Family Equality Council deeds its historical materials to the Yale University Library

Family Equality Council, the national organization that represents the three million parents in America who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and their six million children today announced an agreement to deed all historical materials related to the organization and its role in the LGBT family equality movement to Yale University. The agreement ensures the preservation of more than thirty years of materials related to the founding, growth and expansion of Family Equality Council and documents the organization’s ongoing efforts to advance equality for families with parents who are LGBT.

The Family Equality Council records include correspondence, planning documents, Governance Board minutes, annual reports, publications, and financial documents. The materials will arrive in Manuscripts and Archives, a department within the Yale University Library, in early 2014, after which work will be done to prepare them for research. They will be part of a growing collection of primary source materials documenting the history of LGBT people at the local, national, and international levels. The acquisition is a result of a generous donation from a long-time supporter of the Family Equality Council.

Family Equality Council is one of several family advocacy organizations across the country whose history has been documented in a project supervised by George Chauncey, Samuel Knight Professor of History and American Studies and co-director of the Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities. The goal of the project is to document the history of the LGBT family equality movement in the US. The oral histories, document surveys, and timelines generated as part of the project are being preserved in Yale’s Manuscripts and Archives, which also holds the papers of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the litigation group that won the right of same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other states, and Love Makes a Family, a group that worked to secure the legal recognition of LGBT-headed families in Connecticut. As part of the project, Yale University has provided Family Equality Council with one of the first tangible results of the preservation effort - a historical timeline that traces the legal and cultural history of the LGBT family equality movement. That timeline can be found at www.familyequality.org/timeline.

“The history of Family Equality Council and the LGBT family movement are closely intertwined,” said Family Equality Council Executive Director Gabriel Blau. “From our first humble beginnings as a support network for divorced gay fathers to our role as the author of an historic amicus brief that influenced the Supreme Court decisions on DOMA and Prop 8, our mission and impact have grown to meet the changing needs and visibility of our families. It is a measure of how far we’ve come that we can now take the time to preserve these historic materials. My fervent hope is that well before another three decades have passed, we can close the books on this part of our nation’s history because we will have achieved full legal and social equality for families with parents who are LGBT.”

“I’m grateful that the Family Equality Council has donated its records to Yale, and that the Yale University Library has made a commitment to preserving such materials,” said Professor Chauncey. “The dramatic growth in the number of families headed by LGBT parents in the last generation is a remarkable historical development, and it would not have been possible without the work of Family Equality Council and allied organizations to make such families more secure. These records will be invaluable to historians and other scholars seeking to document and interpret this profound cultural transformation.”

Manuscripts and Archives is a major center for historical inquiry and also serves as the documentary memory of Yale University. The Yale University Library supports all areas of current and historical lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender scholarship at Yale.

For more information about Family Equality Council, contact Steve Majors at smajors@familyequality.org or 202.664.0079.

For more information about the records, contact Mary Caldera in Manuscripts and Archives at or mary.caldera@yale.edu or 203.432.8019.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 11, 2013 10:12 AM

October 16, 2013

Emma Hamilton Dancing - A new Exhibit at the Lewis Walpole Library

Curated by John Cooper, Clare-Mellon Fellow in the History of Art, Yale University

In 1794 the dancing and Attitudes, or expressive postures, performed by Emma Hamilton (1761?-1815) were rendered in twelve neoclassical images engraved by Thomas Piroli after drawings by Frederick Rehberg. After the death of her husband Sir William Hamilton in 1803 and that of her lover Admiral Lord Nelson in 1805, Emma Hamilton and her Attitudes were the subject of a second, ‘enlarged’ edition of parodies by James Gillray in 1807 in which her person was dramatically inflated. Emma Hamilton Dancing displays these two editions beside each other for the first time.

Emma Hamilton Dancing presents these Attitudes among images of the tarantella, the waltz, minuet, cotillion, and quadrille as well as prints of ballet dancing in the age of the ballet d’action and works on the theory and practice of dancing. In this context, the Attitudes are seen moving within the world of dancing in ballrooms and onstage in Europe during the era of revolution in America, France and the Kingdom of Naples.

The exhibit is on view until April 4, 2014. It is free and open to the public during gallery hours on Wednesdays 2-4:30 pm, or by appointment. Please call 860-677-2140 for more information.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 16, 2013 4:13 PM

October 17, 2013

October's Digital Initiatives & Technology Newsletter now online

The October issue of the Digital Initiatives and Technology newsletter is now available online at http://enews.library.yale.edu/digital/october2013.html. Among other things, it features details of the upcoming New Directions for Digital Scholarship forum in November.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 17, 2013 3:18 PM

October 18, 2013

This week, the Bass Media Lab Petting Zoo showcases a Portrait Kit!

Looking to gain some experience with professional-grade media equipment? There is now a Bass Media Equipment Petting Zoo in the Bass Media Lab (BML)! Specialized equipment is checked out by the media techs that staff the BML so that patrons who are interested in some of the more specialized equipment might have some practice time with it before they check it out for themselves. This week, they are showcasing a Portrait Kit. Come down to the BML and test drive professional-quality Canon products which are sure to get you the perfect headshot!

Media techs staff the BML from 3-9pm during the week and on Sunday, and 10am-6pm on Saturdays. Check with the staff in the Bass Library for details.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 18, 2013 10:19 AM >

October 21, 2013

Register now for the fall chapter of New Directions for Digital Scholarship on November 15th

Register now for the fall chapter of New Directions for Digital Scholarship, coming up on Friday November 15, 3-6pm in the Whitney Humanities Center Lecture Hall, 53 Wall Street.

In the humanities and the social sciences, technology is radically transforming scholarly practice. In light of these developments, scholars are posing new questions as technology continues to alter the horizons of research, knowledge dissemination, public engagement and teaching in unanticipated and sometimes disruptive ways. This forum will examine how scholarship and its supporting institutions might face the upcoming opportunities and challenges of an open, digital, and networked environment.

At the conference, leaders in digital scholarship will explore the implications of computing and communications technology for the humanities and social sciences. They will discuss new directions for digital scholarship and the transformative and innovative role Yale might assume in this rapidly changing scholarly landscape. Yale University Librarian Susan Gibbons will introduce the forum and a number of digital scholarship projects from across the university will be featured.

The keynote speaker is Claire Warwick, Professor of Digital Humanities, University College London.

Other Yale speakers include: Michael Dula on Open Access Scholarly Publishing; Mark Turin and Trip Kirkpatrick on Teaching Across and With Yale’s Himalayan Collections; Lindsay King and Peter Leonard on Mining Digital Magazine Archives; Holly Rushmeier on New Image Analysis Tools for Manuscripts; and Taylor Arnold on Photogrammar, a Yale NEH DH Start-Up Grant Project.

The event is free, but please register ahead of time at: https://ndds-november-2013.eventbrite.com . For more details about the speakers and topics: http://digitalscholarship.commons.yale.edu/schedule/

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 21, 2013 2:02 PM

Part of Upcoming PBS Episode on African American History Filmed in Manuscripts and Archives

A film crew recently spent time in the Manuscripts and Archives Reading Room in Sterling Memorial Library where they filmed a portion of the sixth episode of the six-part PBS series, The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross. The series spans five centuries of history and is narrated by Harvard scholar, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
As part of final episode, A More Perfect Union (1968-2103), a crew from Ark Media used the Manuscripts and Archives reading room as a backdrop for filming an extensive interview between Professor Gates (’73 B.A.) and Kurt Schmoke (’71 B.A.) about the latter’s participation in the campus and local events leading up to the 1970 May Day Rally in New Haven, and the impact those events had on Schmoke’s subsequent career. They spent time on camera reminiscing over Manuscripts and Archives collection materials documenting the May Day Rally era. To read more about the filming experience and to see some pictures taken during the time, view the Manuscripts and Archives blog at: http://mssa.commons.yale.edu/2013/04/07/documentary-filming-in-manuscripts-and-archives-over-the-weekend/

In the final episode, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discusses how, after 1968, African Americans set out to build a bright new future on the foundation of the civil rights movement’s victories, but a growing class disparity threatened to split the black community in two. As hundreds of African Americans won political office across the country and the black middle class made unprecedented progress, larger economic and political forces isolated the black urban poor in the inner cities, vulnerable to new social ills and an epidemic of incarceration. Yet African Americans of all backgrounds came together to support Illinois’ Senator Barack Obama in his historic campaign for the presidency of the United States. When he won in 2008, many hoped that America had finally transcended race and racism. By the time of his second victory, it was clear that many issues, including true racial equality, remain to be resolved.

The series airs on PBS between October 22nd and November 26th, with the A More Perfect Union (1968-2013) episode occurring on November 26th from 8-9pm. For more details about the program and to check local listings: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 21, 2013 3:42 PM

October 24, 2013

Achieving Copyright at the Speed of Light

Tom Rubin, Chief of Intellectual Property Strategy Counsel, Microsoft

Monday November 11, 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Room 129, Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street

October 28th marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Tom Rubin will explain how the DMCA's notice-and-takedown regime has provided a workable framework for managing online copyright infringement – and that the biggest upcoming digital copyright issues are not what most people expect. Rubin argues that we need a copyright system that operates at the scale and speed of our networked world, enabling a freer flow of information between people and across devices.

The talk is sponsored by The Information Society Project, The Lillian Goldman Law Library and the Yale Library Associates. It is free and open to the public. A light lunch will be provided.

Tom Rubin
Tom Rubin is Chief Intellectual Property Strategy Counsel at Microsoft, where he leads the copyright, trademark and trade secret group. Tom spearheads complex product development, licensing, marketing, enforcement and global policy strategies across Microsoft’s business divisions. Tom has also led several collaborative efforts with leaders in the technology and content industries, including product partnerships, policy initiatives, amicus briefs and the landmark User Generated Content Principles.

At Microsoft since 1998, Tom has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and addressed innovation and intellectual property issues before many government and industry forums in the U.S. and throughout Asia and Europe. Tom has taught seminars at Stanford Law School and Yale College, and he has guest lectured at Harvard, Berkeley, Seoul National University and elsewhere.

A graduate of Yale College and Stanford Law School, Tom was one of the country’s first prosecutors of computer, electronic and intellectual property crimes as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. At the beginning of his legal career, he clerked for Judge Leonard B. Sand (S.D.N.Y.) and Chief Judge James L. Oakes (2d Cir.) before working at Debevoise & Plimpton, where he represented companies such as Sony and Time Inc. on matters related to new technologies and media law. Prior to law school, Tom worked in the newsroom at The New York Times and was a stringer for the Associated Press.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 24, 2013 2:42 PM

The Prostate – Fact, Fiction, and Folklore

Thursday November 14, 1:00pm
SML International Room

The doctors will present an overview of benign and malignant disease of the prostate and its implications for urination, sexual function, and quality of life in men. They will discuss screening and review non-medical, as well as medical and surgical options, for treatment of benign diseases. The talk will also dispel some common misunderstandings about the relationship between benign disease of the prostate and prostate cancer. In addition, they will provide an overview of prostate cancer including the risk factors, importance of prostate cancer screening, and recent advances in diagnostic techniques.

Presented by:
Dr. Charles Walker, Assistant Professor, Urology Department, Yale
Dr. Preston Sprenkle, Assistant Professor, Urology Department, Yale
Dr. Peter Schulam, Professor & Chair, Urology Department, Yale

Sponsored by Yale University Library and Yale Health.

Dr. Charles Walker is an advocate for men’s health and is committed to a holistic approach to patient care. He specializes in treating conditions and performing surgical procedures related to men’s health, including: sexual and erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and testosterone replacement therapy, implantation of inflatable penile prosthesis, benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlargement of the prostate gland) and minimally invasive surgery to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia. Dr. Walker is a national proctor for Greenlight Laser Vaporization of the prostate. Dr. Walker is Director of Urologic Oncology and Men’s Health at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, Connecticut.

Dr. Preston Sprenkle specializes in urologic cancers including prostate cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, testicular cancer, and sarcoma. He is dedicated to improving the treatment and diagnosis process for patients with urologic cancers. Dr. Sprenkle has implemented the use of the Artemis Device, an MRI-ultrasound 3-D imaging and navigation technology for targeted biopsy of prostate lesions. The goal is to treat prostate cancer lesions rather than the whole prostate, and consequently minimize the many side effects associated with current prostate cancer treatments.

Peter G. Schulam, MD, PhD, is the inaugural chairman of the Department of Urology at the Yale School of Medicine. He is currently developing new clinical and research programs to better identify and treat prostate cancer. Dr. Schulam is enacting the Active Surveillance and Watchful Waiting clinical protocols to better manage patients with suspected prostate cancer. New technologies such as image-guided targeted biopsy and multi-parametric MRI will be used to better identify aggressive cancers and reduce overtreatment of benign lesions.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on October 24, 2013 3:13 PM