American Letters: Ernest Hemingway to Ezra Pound, 1931

Posted on May 18, 2010 by

A new podcast from our occasional series, American Letters, is available:

Episode 3: Ernest Hemingway to Ezra Pound, 1931.

Despite a broken arm and several broken fingers, Hemingway writes to his friend Ezra Pound and to Pound’s wife, Dorothy Shakespear.

This podcast is available on our Website, through Yale University on iTunesU, and here.

Ezra Pound, circa 1939

Ernest Hemingway, 1937

American Letters podcasts present individual letters from archival collections read by Beinecke staff members. Past episodes include Episode 1, Mark Twain and Episode 2, Rachel Carson.

American Letters podcasts and other podcasts from the Beinecke Library can be found on iTunesU or the Beinecke website.

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A renovation

Posted on May 13, 2010 by

Well, yes. Thank you for noticing our new look. We’ve gone Modern.

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Romanov Family Albums on Flickr

Posted on May 12, 2010 by

The six Romanov Family Albums held at the Beinecke Library represent a unique survival from the last years of Russian Imperial dynasty. Taken between 1907 and 1915, the hundreds of pictures contained in these albums date from the first flowering of popular photography, when new breakthroughs in technology put cameras into the hands of amateurs, who were able to capture impromptu moments of everyday life on a massive scale. The “snapshots” in the Romanov albums record such moments in the private life not just of any family, but of one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious ruling houses. Rescued by the Tsarina’s friend and intimate confidante, Anna Vyrubova, the albums are indeed a truly remarkable survival. Over the years, scholars have learned much from the photographs, but many of their secrets still await discovery.



Browse a selection of the albums on Flickr and add tags and notes to the photographs and albums pages.

To learn more about the Romanov Collection at the Beinecke, explore our catalog record.

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Stenzel collection of western American art

Posted on May 11, 2010 by

Explore over 100 items of artwork and manuscript material from the Franz R. and Kathryn M. Stenzel collection of western American art, 1728-1966.

Browse the Finding Aid for this collection or the record from Orbis, Yale’s library catalog.

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Beinecke Library architecture podcast

Posted on April 22, 2010 by

In this seven minute podcast, Robert A.M. Stern, J.M. Hoppin Professor and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, discusses the architecture and history of the Beinecke Library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Browse through Construction Photographs of the Beinecke Library, 1961-1963, available in the Beinecke’s Digital Collections database.

And subscribe to the Yale University Library’s podcasts through iTunesU to learn more about Beinecke collections and events.

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A Talk on Women’s Manuscript Poetry

Posted on April 14, 2010 by

Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry in the Beinecke Library


By Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, current Beinecke Visiting Fellow

Monday, April 19, 2010 at 11:00 am

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall Street, Room 39

Free and open to the public

The last four decades of scholarship by feminist critics, literary historians, archivists, and book historians have seen the discovery of many early modern women poets and a major reevaluation of the importance of manuscript writing. The Beinecke Library’s Osborn Collection includes rich holdings in early modern women’s manuscripts, and this talk will provide a brief introduction to some of these, including the sole full copy of Lucy Hutchinson’s biblical epic Order and Disorder, commonplace books including poems by Katherine Philips, and women’s collections of both original and borrowed poetry. Elizabeth Scott-Baumann will suggest some of the research questions these materials might help us ask and answer, and the importance of this collection to our understanding of early modern women poets.

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A. J. Russell Photographs of the Construction of the Union Pacific Railroad

Posted on April 13, 2010 by

In 1868, A.J. Russell began a project to document the construction of the Union Pacific, the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad. Railroad executives, attuned to the way that photographs might enhance support for their work among investors, politicians, and the general public, offered Russell extraordinary cooperation.

Russell made three trips west (one in 1868 and two in 1869) to document this massive project. He carried multiple cameras, a portable darkroom, assorted chemicals, and a supply of glass plates along the way.

Over 200 photographs of the construction of the railroad are available online through the Beinecke Library’s Digital Images database.

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Go, Little Book!

Posted on March 16, 2010 by

Go,  Little Book: Portable Medieval Manuscripts from the Beinecke Library is a new online exhibition from the Beinecke Library highlighting three portable medieval manuscripts, in celebration of the Medieval Academy of America’s meeting in New Haven, Connecticut, March 18-20, 2010 at Yale University.

The Beinecke Library has added digital images of these manuscripts to Flickr, where readers are invited to copy, mark, tag, and annotate the digital manuscripts, as earlier readers might have done the originals.

Explore Go, Little Book

Or visit Flickr and start annotating…

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American Letters: Rachel Carson

Posted on February 25, 2010 by

Now available in iTunes and on our website,  the  newest episode in a podcast series featuring staff of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library reading letters and manuscripts from its American literary collections.

Episode Two: Rachel Carson to Raymond J. Brown, 1946

Learn more about Rachel Carson or explore the Rachel Carson Papers (YCAL MSS 46) at the Beinecke Library.

Listen online or via Yale University in iTunes.

© Rachel Carson Estate

The Beinecke does not hold the copyright to the materials in the Rachel Carson Papers and, hence, cannot grant or deny permission to use them. Accordingly, permission from the Rachel Carson Estate is required to publish materials by Rachel Carson in any format. Contact information for the Estate can be found in the WATCH File. To learn more, contact the appropriate curator. For additional copyright or permissions related to the Rachel Carson Papers, see Permissions and Copyright.

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Carleton Watkins Glass Stereographs

Posted on February 12, 2010 by

Browse a newly digitized collection of rare glass stereographs by Carleton Watkins documenting the Mariposa estate of Col. John C. Frémont and his family.

Jessie Benton Fremont, ca. 1860-1861

Benton Mill, East End, ca. 1860-1861

These 31 stereographs are among the earliest outdoor photographs taken by San Francisco photographer Carleton E. Watkins. For more detail, see a record for this collection in Orbis, Yale University’s online catalog or visit the Beinecke Library’s digital collections directly.

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