January is National Tea Month, but there is a tea for every season. Too hot? Iced tea. Feeling chilly? Warm up with a chai! What comes to mind when you hear the word tea? A warm, calming brew sipped at the end of a long day? A strongly steeped morning pick-me-up? A well-traveled, world-renowned part of your pantry? England? China? India? Nepal?
Continue reading “Treasuring Tea: the World’s oldest Wonder”
The Rand Daily Mail was a South African, English language newspaper that became famous in the 1960s for its editorial opposition to apartheid.
It began publication in 1902 as a conservative sheet serving English-speaking whites in “the Rand”—local parlance for the Witwatersrand goldfields near Johannesburg (“rand” is a geological term for an escarpment, so its metonymic use here is similar to the way southern Californians often refer to the San Fernando Valley as simply “the Valley”). South Africa was a country sliced to shreds by conflict: racial, class, and white ethnic conflict. Over five different languages were spoken throughout the nation. Within the Rand, the paper was reliably establishment, though it did occasionally break ranks to support white miners. Continue reading “New Digitized Newspaper: The Rand Daily Mail, 1902-1985″
Starting January 1, some changes to Library public printing will take effect, when students will have to pay for printing in advance through the Illini Cash system, instead of being billed to their university accounts. OBFS will no longer support processing print charges to student bills. This update will slightly change the process of printing and refunds.
Christian-Muslim Relations Volumes 1 and 2 (CMR1 and CMR2) cumulate all eight volumes published so far in Brill’s serial bibliography, Christian Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. CMR1 covers the time period 600-1500. CMR2 claims to cover 1500-1914, but like the four previously-published volumes on which it is based, its coverage seems to extend only as far as 1700.
Continue reading “New Online Resource: Christian-Muslim Relations”
Now through the end of the semester, we have a trial subscription to the Philosophy Documentation Center E-Collection.
Please send feedback to Celestina Savonius-Wroth at cswroth@illinois.edu.
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine: Identifies books, book chapters, and journal articles on all aspects of the history of science, technology, and medicine. It is based on four standard bibliographic tools: the Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science (1913-currrent with expanded retrospective coverage), the Current Bibliography in the History of Technology (1964-current with expanded retrospective coverage), the Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza (1982-2011 with expanded retrospective coverage), and the catalog of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine (1532-current). The Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science began in 1913 as an annual supplement to the journal Isis. The Current Bibliography in the History of Technology began in 1964 as an annual supplement to the journal Technology and Culture. The Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza began in 1982 as part of the Biblioteca di bibliografia italiana. These three bibliographies, along with the catalog of the Wellcome Library, form the core of this database.
Continue reading “New Online Resources: October 2017 Update”
Halloween 2016 netted retail industries approximately $8.6 billion (CNN). Millions more may be factored into the season when cafes and grocers market many items labeled as “pumpkin spice.” It’s impossible to mention Halloween without invoking images of costumes, trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving, pumpkin smashing, witches, black cats, etc. Halloween is such a symbolic and long-standing holiday in American culture that it is worth serious consideration by historians, anthropologists, and students of folk-lore. It is the product of the migration of Western Europeans and a fusion of their traditional practices on this continent. Although it is such a historically rich festival, how is it that one of the longest-standing crafts affiliated with All Hallows Eve is that of pumpkin carving? When all is said and done, it seems a tad silly to carve a scary face into a vegetable. Patterns range from happy to scary, from eccentric to mainstream, the patterns reflecting both the skill and the whims of the carver. Why and how did this tradition of pumpkin carving emerge? That annual pilgrimage to a country-side pumpkin patch in order to select the perfect squash canvas? The answer lies with the development of Halloween as an American holiday.
Continue reading “‘Tis Time! Sharpen the knives and carve the pumpkins!”
We are currently running a trial to the post-1922 issues of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (we currently own 1874-1922). Trial covers the years 1923-2003.
When looking for research paper topics, and examining the available body of primary sources, don’t get too hung up on what any particular source is “about”. Sometimes a source is about much more than it seems. For example, Canary and Cage-Bird Life, a weekly newspaper published in England, would make an excellent source for researchers interested in the history of domestic life, history of leisure, history of collecting, history of natural science, history and ethics of human-nonhuman relationships, rural history, and more. Continue reading “Research Paper Tip”