library

Happy National Library Week, y’all!

I am this close to being a degreed librarian and I’d be remiss to not highlight the damn excellent work done by libraries and librarians all over the world. And so a series on digital collections is in order, don’t you think? Digital collections offer a way to share rare knowledge and primary resources to anybody with Internet access. What used to only be available to scholars who could get to the physical space is now freely accessible on the Web. It is, when done correctly and ethically, a beautiful democracy of information. Unfortunately for my lazy ass, there are so many fantastic digital library collections available on the Web that it’s hard to know where to start. Instead of focusing on one or two collections this week, I’ve chosen for our inaugural digital collections post to highlight a few great things from several collections that are related in theme and based on this week in history. (Though don’t depend on me to stick to this format ‘cuz I do what I want.)

This week’s theme is fallen leaders. On April 11, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to Elba–his second-to-last exile; how many people can you say that about? And on April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a mentally unstable actor (is there any other kind?). Let’s start with the great bearded one, shall we?

Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination

It’s hard not to get excited by the assassination of one of our greatest presidents, especially one surrounded by whispers of homosexuality and such fantastic facial hair. Alas! The Library of Congress (which is, contrary to common “knowledge,” not the national library of the United States) has several digital collections dedicated to our great emancipator.

Here we have a photograph taken on April 27, 1865 of Abraham Lincoln’s railroad funeral car. I implore you to go to the website and look at the full-size pdf. It’s quite beautiful.

The Railroad car photo is just a small part of a large and interactive collection available on the Library of Congress’ website that follows the journey of this train car from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Lincoln’s hometown. You can check it in flash or HTML, which, if I may go on a bit of a tangent, is part of librarianship’s devotion to access. Not everyone has high-speed Internet, you snob.

Next we have a short video that showcases what Lincoln was carrying in his pockets on the night of his assassination. Kind of spooky, when you think about it. If I were assassinated, people would find Burt’s Bees lip balm and extra bobby pins in my pockets. So very memorable, hmm?

Finally, we have a hand-written draft of Frederick Douglass’ eulogy for Abraham Lincoln. He writes, “Abraham Lincoln, while unsurpassed in his devotion to the welfare of the white race, was also in a sense hitherto without example, emphatically, the black mans President: the first to show any respect to their rights as men.” Frederick Douglass: Master of the Backhanded Eulogy Compliment.

There are a wealth of digital collections and individual digital artifacts to be found on this specific topic (including the weird photo “Dramatization of Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and His Conspirators“–the precursor to 48 Hours?), and of broader concern to Abraham Lincoln, but who has time for that? LC’s Civil War and Reconstruction page is a good place to start if you’re interested in some more sexy Abe resources.

Napoleon’s Exile to Elba

Brown University has a fantastic collection of Napoleonic satire. I mean, look at this one of Napoleon and president Madison looking angrily at one another while sitting on their “pots” (*giggle*):

I’m also fond of Départ pour L’Isle D’Elbe and An Imperial Vomit. Please be sure when you click through to read the full descriptions that if you don’t view the images in full size and zoom in, you’re a damn fool. Be sure of that.

We have the e-book Napoleon: King of Elba translated from Paul Gruyer’s French (thanks, Hathi Trust), Horace Vernet’s The Departure of Napoleon for Elba painted in 1831 (made available by VADS), and a drawing of a foot soldier of Napoleon’s army in full dress uniform (courtesy of Claremont Colleges).

There are, of course, library collections that are sad-making, like McGill University’s Napoleon Collection. A pretty site that boasts the collection’s thousands of materials is surprisingly difficult to navigate. I did a basic, unrestricted search of “Elba” and came up with nothing. But when I went through the subject headings, I was able to come up with several resources with this heading (like this one, with the hilarious frontispiece). Weird, right? I shake my fist that their Technical Services Department.

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If you have any ideas, suggestions, questions, or topic requests about future posts in my library series, feel free to email me at cntinglinguist [at] gmail [dot] com. It is my not-so-humble opinion that everyone should have a librarian in their life.

_{Header image source: Brown University Library}