January 2016

Evgeniia Ginzburg and Antonina Axenova Collection

Ginzburg and Axenova in Magadan, 1953.

MSE/REE 0021-87

The Evgeniia Ginzburg and Antonina Axenova Collection is now open to students and researchers. The collection consists of several parts. The most important part revolves around Evgeniia Ginzburg (1904-1977), who spent 18 years in the Stalin GULAG and who chronicled those years in her memoir translated into English as: Journey into the Whirlwind and Within the Whirlwind. Ginzburg’s classic work is one of the earliest revelations of the Stalin camps and remains one of the most significant. The collection contains arrest documents, letters, some manuscript material, and many original photographs.

MSE-REE_0021-192 — Antonina Axenova with Evgenii Karelskikh in the movie *I Serve on the Frontier* (Lenfilm, 1974).

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Another part of the collection revolves around Antonina Axenova, who was born in the Kolyma camps and who was adopted by Ginzburg in 1949. Axenova became a film and stage actress, and the archive includes her documents, letters, photographs, scripts, programs, playbills, broadsides, and advertisements. Beisdes her career Axenova has also dedicated herself to preserving the legacy of her mother. She visited former KGB archives, made several trips back to the sites of the camps in the Kolyma region, and gathered together all of the material in the archive.

For a description of the collection’s over 700 items, see the finding aid. The collection also includes almost 100 books from the libraries of Ginzburg and Axenova. These books have been cataloged and can be located through the online catalog.

“Fighting Words” digital exhibit

Notre Dame’s Rare Books and Special Collections is home to perhaps the strongest institutional collection of boxing-related books and periodicals in the United States. A selection of these wonderful materials may now be experienced virtually, via the digital exhibit Fighting Words: English and American Boxing Literature from the Joyce Sports Collection.

Modern prizefighting is of English origin, and had developed a distinctive culture with a rich and abundant literature by the turn of the nineteenth century. Fighting Words includes many scarce items from this so-called golden age of English pugilism (ca. 1790-1830). It then carries the story forward to the United States, which by the second half of the 19th century had become the fight game’s new center of gravity. Publishers like Richard Kyle Fox (The National Police Gazette) and Nathaniel “Nat” Fleischer (The Ring) were central to prizefighting’s emergence from illegality into the American sporting mainstream. The exhibit concludes with materials from the 1950s, hearkening the erosion of U.S. boxing culture in the second half of the 20th century.

Questions and comments should be directed to George Rugg, the Joyce Collection’s curator.

Spotlight Exhibit: Constructing Shakespeare

The posthumous First Folio printing of William Shakespeare’s plays in 1623 represents a landmark development in the history of English drama, rescuing some of the bard’s works that would have been lost forever. The earlier editions that do exist, however, differ markedly from the First Folio, and there is little evidence that Shakespeare oversaw their publication. What, then, is the “real” text?

The Shakespeare we know emerges from hundreds of years of this debate. Current holdings and recent acquisitions in Rare Books and Special Collections shed light on the discussion as it developed into the nineteenth century. Selections from the Second and Third Folio accompany printings by some of Shakespeare’s earliest critical editors, including the famous poet Alexander Pope and the moral censor Thomas Bowdler.

This month’s spotlight exhibit is curated by Daniel Johnson, English Literature and Digital Humanities Librarian, and accompanies the special traveling exhibit “First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library.” The exhibit is open to the public 9:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Friday and noon to 5:00pm on weekends, through January 29, 2016 (extended hours due to the “First Folio!” exhibit).

Upcoming Events: January

“First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare” on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library will arrive at Rare Books and Special Collections in the Hesburgh Library during the first days of 2016 as one of the first stops of the exhibit’s yearlong nationwide tour. The exhibit will open on Wednesday, January 6 with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony (read more below).

On-Going Exhibits

First Folio Exhibit

January 6th – January 29th
Rare Books & Special Collections (102 Hesburgh Library)

9:00am – 7:00pm Mondays through Fridays
noon – 5:00pm Saturdays and Sundays

Guided tours of the First Folio exhibit will be offered daily by Hesburgh librarians and curators — Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3:30pm; Tuesday and Thursday at NOON; and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm.

Tours will meet by the entrance to Rare Books and Special Collections (102 Hesburgh Library, first floor). Reservations are not necessary. If you are planning to bring a group, please feel free to alert Rare Books and Special Collections directly about your visit: rarebook@nd.edu or 574-631-0290. Times are subject to change.

First Folio Banner, Costume Display and “Selfie Station”

January 3rd – end of January
1st Floor North Entrance Gallery, Hesburgh Library

View this self-guided exhibit whenever the library is open.

“Constructing Shakespeare” — a Spotlight Exhibit of RBSC Shakespeare Books

January 6th – January 29th
Rare Books & Special Collections (102 Hesburgh Library)

9:00am – 7:00pm Mondays through Fridays
noon – 5:00pm Saturdays and Sundays

Special Events

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Wednesday, January 6 at 4:16pm
1st Floor North Entrance Gallery, Hesburgh Library

In January, Shakespeare at Notre Dame kicks off “SHAKESPEARE: 1616-2016,” a yearlong series of performances, conferences and special events commemorating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and his legacy. The First Folio exhibit and Notre Dame’s year-long celebration officially launch at 16:16 (4:16 p.m.) Jan. 6 with the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Hesburgh Library’s new North Entrance Gallery.

Formal remarks will precede the official ribbon cutting beginning with Scott Jackson (Executive Director of Shakespeare at Notre Dame), followed by Diane Walker (Edward H. Arnold University Librarian), Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. (President of the University of Notre Dame), Pete Buttigieg (Mayor of South Bend), and John T. McGreevy (I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters).

“Folio Fridays” Lecture Series

January 8 at 4:00pm | Printed Shakespeare: Quartos, Folios, and the History of Books by Jesse Lander (Chair, Department of English)
Rare Books & Special Collections, Hesburgh Library

January 15 at 4:00pm | Mobile Shakespeare by Elliott Visconsi (Chief Academic Digital Officer)
Rare Books & Special Collections, Hesburgh Library

January 22 at 4:00pm | Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies by Peter Holland (McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies)
Rare Books & Special Collections, Hesburgh Library

January 29 at 4:00pm |Centuries of Shakespeare by Michael Witmore (Director, Folger Shakespeare Library)
Carey Auditorium, Hesburgh Library

All four 90-minute lectures are free, open to the public, and located within the Hesburgh Library.

Shakespeare Week: January 18–22

During the third week of the First Folio exhibit – Monday, January 18 through Friday, January 22 – there will be increased traffic from 9am–3pm. Shakespeare at Notre Dame will be leading 90-minute encounters with over 1000 students from throughout Indiana and Southern Michigan.

Please be aware that access to the First Folio exhibit and to Rare Books and Special Collections resources will be limited during this time.