Newly Digitized Special Collections

The BC Libraries continually select material from our collections to digitize for increased use locally and globally. Among the content recently launched online are personal diaries, Japanese prints, and published works from the holdings of John J. Burns Library.

The diaries are unpublished primary sources that reflect the personal experiences of the diarists. These are excellent for research in numerous disciplines, and digital versions could be incorporated into digital humanities projects.

• Thomas Henry Lyon papers includes two diaries (1842 and 1846-1849) of a British naval officer. The travelogues record information about Lyon’s sea voyages from England to Africa, Borneo, China, and Egypt. To learn more, read a blog post describing entries on the first Opium War of 1842, view the catalog record, or consult the collection inventory or “finding aid.” Don’t forget to explore the diaries in their entirety yourself: 1842 and 1846-1849.
• Mary Johanna Rhodes Wild diary, dated 1845-1865, details her daily life in Brookline, Massachusetts. Wild discusses housekeeping, finances, and marital discord, as well as reading, travels, and her friends and family. More information is in the catalog record, and the diary itself.
• Fred Wilton Russell diary covers the young American’s travels in Europe while on the Grand Tour. It includes notes on his stays in Paris and at a school in Plauen, Germany, and his trips to spas in Carlsbad and Franzenbad. Entries date from 1875-1876. The diary is described in the catalog record and fully digitized.
• Thomas D. Craven papers include a single diary covering the spring semester of the BC senior and his induction into the Army Air Corps Medical Corps in 1917. The collection is described in the catalog record and finding aid, and the diary can be found online.

Burns Library’s collection of Japanese prints, described by our 2013-14 Bookbuilders of Boston intern Erin Furlong and featured in a touch table exhibit by 2016-17 ARL/SAA Mosaic fellow Ayoola White, contains artwork from the mid-18th to the mid-20th centuries. Many of these prints have been imaged and posted online. See the description of the whole collection in the catalog and finding aid, but be sure to explore the newly-available images.

Lastly, special collections published materials are being made available online as well. One could look for them in our Internet Archive feed, which is a gathering of digitized publications from both circulating and non-circulating collections. A few recent highlights are these from the Burns Library’s Boston collection related to — and opposing! — women’s right to vote:

• Leonard, Clara T., Lothrop, Thornton Kirkland, and Massachusetts. General Court. Committee on Woman Suffrage. Letter from Mrs. Clara T. Leonard. Boston: Massachusetts Association Opposed to Further Extension of Suffrage to Woman, 1884. See the catalog record and online version.
• The Vote of Massachusetts on Municipal Suffrage for Women at the State Election, November 5, 1895. [publisher Not Identified], 1895. Found in the Library Catalog and online.
• Saunders, Charles R., and Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. Taxpaying Suffrage: Letter from Mr. Charles R. Saunders. Boston: Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women, 1903. Read more in the catalog record and digitized version.
• Of What Benefit to Woman? Boston, Mass.: Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women, 1910. Find it in the Library Catalog and fully online.

The flow of digitized content is steady; consult the catalog or browse BC Libraries Special Collections Online and our Internet Archive feed to see what’s new. Check in with Burns Library staff, your subject librarian, or a Digital Scholarship team member for help with online research and new digital analysis methods.