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Alphabets @ Alden, Spring 2025
By Sarah McDowell, Typography Instructor & Art Director at Ohio University Alphabets@Alden is a poster series of personal alphabets created by ART 2520 typography students and instructed by Tabitha Asiedu-Gyamfi and Sarah McDowell over the course of 9 weeks during the spring 2025 semester. Inspired in part by a hands-on engagement session with historic and…
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Processing the Gilbert and Ursula Farfel Collection of Incunable and Manuscript Leaves
By Zoe Duncan, Honors Tutorial College Art History with a certificate in Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, ’26, Rare Book Intern, Spring ’25 As an Art History major, I often find myself working with materials as a researcher. My familiarity with the Mahn Center began over the summer of 2024, when I spent a few…
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Art & the Alphabet, Spring 2024
By Miriam Intrator, Special Collections Librarian Colorful and whimsical, realistic and fantastical, serious and playful. These are just some of the themes depicted in the creative and inspiring alphabets designed by students in ART 2520 Typography, taught by Sarah McDowell, during the spring 2024 semester. Inspired in part by a visit to view typographical specimen…
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Handmade Narratives: Creativity, Expression, and Personal Stories within the Student Artist Books Collection
By Lindi M. Harden, Communication Studies ’25, Spring 2025 Intern Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent most of my time as an intern in Rare Books working with the Student Artist Books Collection, and it has quickly become a body of work to which I feel deeply connected. Because of the time I’ve spent…
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How Music Reinforces Gender/Race Stereotypes Through Language
By Tess Murphy, Marketing ’25, for JOUR 4130 Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass Media with Victoria Lapoe, Spring 2025 During the spring 2025 semester, the staff of the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections worked intensively with Victoria La Poe’s JOUR 4130 class, Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass…
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Examining “American Breeding Standards” and Unhealthy Expectations for Women Throughout History
By Molly Griffiths, Communication Studies ‘26 and Zoe Kirsch, Communication Studies ‘26, for JOUR 4130 Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass Media with Victoria LaPoe, Spring 2025. During the spring 2025 semester, the staff of the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections worked intensively with Victoria La Poe’s JOUR 4130 class, Gender,…
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Americana in Manuscript and Type: Piecing Together the Edward C. Fales Collection
By Alex Rienerth, ’25, MA in Literary History, 2024-2025 Graduate Assistant in Rare Books The Edward C. Fales collection was a bit of a mystery to me when I started working with it last semester. Many of the collections in rare books are extensively documented, including records from collectors that express their motivations and intentions…
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Making 20th Century Patterns with 21st Century Materials: A Semester of Following Patterns Designed by Maud Churchill Nicoll
By Jessica Licker, Digital Literacy Librarian, Athens County Public Libraries, Master’s in Literary History, ’24, Rare Books Graduate Assistant, 2023-2024 At the end of the fall 2023 semester I began searching the Mahn Center rare book collection for anything related to fiber crafting. I was interested in experimenting with historic knitting or sewing patterns through…
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Dissecting Anatomical Structures: Curating an Exhibit on Books & Bodies
By Alex Rienerth, ’25, MA in Literary History, 2024-2025 Graduate Assistant in Rare Books At the beginning of my graduate assistantship in the rare books department, part of my training included watching “The Anatomy of a Book,” a wonderful instructional video captured from an early 1990s VHS tape. Though the video is a bit peculiar,…
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Indigenous People’s History Told through the Folds of Historic Ohio Newspapers
By Jack Slemenda, Journalism ‘25, for JOUR 4130 Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass Media with Victoria LaPoe, Fall 2024 During the fall 2024 semester, the staff of the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections worked intensively with Victoria La Poe’s JOUR 4130 class, Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass…