Special collections prepares exhibit

By Lakaii Jones

For the Daily

Hidden on the seventh floor of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, the Special Collections Library is not one of the libraries included on the University's campus tours.

But a new exhibit may increase the amount of traffic through the normally quiet rooms that hold such rarities as James Audubon's original paintings and the Unabomber's letters when it opens in Feb.

The exhibit, called, "Costuming and Shakespeare's History," will be held from Feb. 7 to April 14. The purpose of the exhibit is to show different costumes that people wore in Shakespearean plays.

"The exhibit will feature prints, photographs and materials from Stratford (Ontario) and England," said Wanda Monroe, the spokeswoman for the graduate library.

Kathryn Beam, curator of the library's Humanities Collection, said that not only the costumes are important to her.

"We'd also like to emphasize the changing philosophy toward costuming from the time of Shakespeare's first productions to the year 2000," she said.

The exhibit will also give students a chance to explore everything the Special Collections Library has to offer.

"We have one of the top 10 collections in the country," said Peggy Duab, head of the library and curator for the History of Math collection.

One of the library's most recent acquisitions is a collection of the letters of Theodore Kaczynski, commonly known as the Unabomber.

Kaczynski was a graduate student who lived in East Quad Residence Hall in the 1960s. He left the University with two degrees in mathematics and was convicted of creating and sending mail bombs in the late 1990s.

The library does not only have letters, but also has a wide variety of rare books.

"We have the book, 'Birds of America" by John Audobon. The regents of the University bought the book for $970 in 1838...Today the book is worth $7 million. It's the most valuable book in the collection," Duab said.

The museum also houses a pepyrology collection, which contains the Bible, other religious works, letters and documents. Pepyrology refers to the use of the papyrus plant used to make the paper.

"We have the largest collection (of pepyrology) in the Western Hemisphere," Monroe said.

Other collections in the library include the Social Science Collection, which contains historical books, the Labadie Collection, which contains materials on anarchy and social protest and the Science and Technology Collection, which has books on math and science.

Like the upcoming Shakespeare exhibit, the library sponsors many special events including an annual Bible exhibit which is well known outside of Ann Arbor.

"Eight hundred to 1,000 churches come to see the exhibit," Duab said. The exhibit displays ancient Biblical works and tells of the many transformations the Bible has made, from the type of paper used to which versions are now in circulation.

"One of our goals is to take care of the very expensive things of the collection, protect them while they're here for future generations," Duab said.

The Special Collections Library is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.