E pur si muove...

It's June 22nd, the 377th anniversary of Galileo's forced abjuration of heliocentrism.  Obviously neither Galileo nor the inquisitors were correct: the Earth and the Sun are consubstantial!  Proof?  Here in Charleston, it's 95+ degrees all week, with 70%+ humidity.  Earth=Sun, Q.E.D.

Still, we're used to it, right?  And warm weather will be no excuse come next Monday, as we march in the Carolina Day parade.  3 PM, Washington Park... be there!

ALSO HOT: our Fall events schedule!  Programs with Nic Butler, Jack Weatherford, Patrick McMillan, and more!  The return of our Lifelong Learning series, with Nan Morrison and Bret Lott!  Concerts galore!  Dates, times, and more info as it becomes available...

 

Also, I'm fairly sure the universe revolves

around Scottish actress Karen Gilian.

Prove me wrong, "science"!

Love letters from Mountain View

You like us, you really like us!

Okay, sorry for (mis)quoting Sally Field and her Places In the Heart Oscar speech.  [Besides, everyone knows her career peaked with Smokey and the Bandit.]  No, your loyal blogger is gushing because we're now a Favorite Place on Google.   During recent testing period, the CLS was one of the most popular local businesses on the ubiquitous search engine/knowledge repository/future artificially intelligent Emperor of Earth (all hail Google!).  And we've now received our official "You're a Favorite Place" kit from the Googleplex.  Now you can come in with your smartphone, scan our "Favorite Place on Google" sticker, and read reviews about us or access special coupons.

Of course, we don't have any special coupons, and and it doesn't look like anyone's written a review of us (hint, hint).  But it's still nice to be liked, and even better when people codify exactly how much they like you, whether it's being voted President of the US, or becoming Miss Boiling Springs, SC, to merely being top 1% of businesses searched in the US (that's us!).



ALSO NICE: We're less than two weeks away from Carolina Day!  Join us June 28th, at Washington Park, at 3PM for the march on to White Point Gardens.  And don't forget the seersucker!

It worked for Joakim Noah!

Heat index: 103. Inside the library: 74. Where should you be right now?

The Piccolo Spoleto Literary Festival was a terrific success.  A big thanks to our sponsors, Duvall Catering and Wachovia/Wells Fargo; to our Programs Committee, especially the indefatigable Dr. Jane Tyler; and, of course, to the six speakers -John McCardell, Louis Rubin, James Kibler, Farrell O'Gorman, Dacre Stoker, and Bob Anderson- who were the stars of the event.  And, of course, one last huge "thank you" to all of y'all who came and paid your fifteen-dollars-for-the-event-plus-one-dollar-processing-fee and enjoyed the Festival.  We can't wait for next year's series.

 Are you in the photo above?  If so, thanks!

But, with our part of Piccolo Spoleto over, it is officially summer around here.  We've no events; no speakers; Toddler Tuesday is on hiatus... other than marching in the Carolina Day parade(seventeen days to go!), there's not much doing around here.

So stop by and grab a DVD or some light summer reading!  We're all still here, and happy to help (except on the mornings of June 18th and 23rd, when the USA has World Cup games... then you can check out your own bloody books.)  And don't forget, we're hard at work planning a great fall schedule, and we'll be announcing Autumn's events as we finalize them...  Exciting speakers?  Extended hours?  Washed-up D-list celebrity guest librarians?  A small green alien only Fred, Barney and Pebbles can see?  Tune in next time to find out!!!

Only a few more months 'till we get Bernard back...

For those of you who missed his excellent speech at this year's Annual Meeting of the Library Society, here's part-time Charleston resident, full time friend of the Library Society, and all-around awesome guy Bernard Cornwell, delivering the commencement speech for Emerson College. Not many commencement speakers manage to keep their audience awake... Bernard got them on their feet, earning a standing ovation by the end of his address. If you've got ten minutes, spend it watching this:

Off, to the land of cheesesteaks and Tastycakes!

Well, your loyal blogger is about to take his first vacation day of the year.  The US men's national soccer team has their last home match before the World Cup in Philly this weekend, and that's where I shall be.  I couldn't be more excited about my first visit to a city that's been so well depicted in art and culture- Philadelphia, thirtysomething, Boy Meets World, Dawn of the Dead, 12 Monkeys, the opening credits to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, One Life to Live, Always Sunny... okay, most screen depictions of Philadelphia have been kinda terrifying, or at least kinda depressing.  Still, great art museum, great music and sculpture, and I get to watch us whip Turkey's keister... pretty great.


But what I'm missing is going to be pretty great, too: the CSO Spirituals Ensemble is performing here at the Library Society this Saturday (May 29th) at 7:00 PM.  Tickets are $21, and are available through Piccolo Spoleto.  The concert, Circa 1748: Bridging Oral and Literary Traditions, is a joint project of the Ensemble and the Library Society, and will explore traditional historical connections between vocal and written arts.  Mostly, it's going to be the CSO Spirituals Ensemble doing what they do best, which is being awesome.  I might be missing Saturday's performance, but I was able to make it to their rehearsal last night: they're going to rock the roof off.  Also great, Literary Festival next week.  See you there!

Ed il vostro uccello può cantare

Monday night's Dixie, Denim, and Drinks was a smashing success, and if you missed it, you really missed out.  We would like to give a big thanks to all of the performers- Laura Ball, Peter Kiral, Courtney Sharp, Edoardo Carpenedo, and Erica Carpenedo- and hope that they'll be back to perform for us again.  While we're big fans of "quiet in the library", this concert certainly showcased the joy of a little occasional noise around here!

So we are now officially "warmed up" for Spoleto; on to Piccolo proper.  First up is another great concert called Circa 1748.  This is a joint project of the CLS and the CSO Spiritual Ensemble, incorporating our historical written materials with the vocal talents of the Spiritual Ensemble.  May 29th, 7PM, here at the CLS.

June 3-5 is the Piccolo Spoleto Literary Festival, kindly sponsored by Wachovia and Duvall Catering.  Starting at 10 AM on the 3rd, John McCardell will discuss The Civil War and Historical Memory; at 3 PM Louis Rubin will talk about his new book, Uptown/Downtown in Old Charleston.  June 4th at 10 AM we'll have James Kibler present Getting Reacquainted with William Gillmore Simms, Poet; at 3 PM Farrell O'Gorman will give Writing Faith and Doubt in the Contemporary South: Walker Percy's Legacy.  At 10 AM on the 5th, former 60 Minutes producer Robert G. Anderson will tell us What NOT to Say to Mike Wallace; and at 3PM Dacre Stoker will discuss Unlocking Some of the Mysteries of Dracula, from the Stoker Family Perspective.

Event tickets for Circa 1748 and the Festival are available wherever Piccolo Spoleto tickets are sold.  The concert is $21, and the literary lectures $16.

Immediately following the will be our annual Literary Soiree, at 7 PM on the 5th.  Join some of our speakers and your fellow festival goers, and have a nosh courtesy of Duvall Catering.  Tickets are $15, and are available directly though the Library Society, 843.723.9912.

They're so old, we're thinking about naming them "Strom" and "Thurmond"...

The Library Society is now about 260 years old.  That makes us the oldest cultural institution in the South; it impresses the heck out of visitors from out West who seem to think anything predating the Carter administration is ancient; and it secures us a spot near the front of the Carolina Day Parade line.  Being 260 years old is kinda cool.

But our collections include a few manuscripts from as far back as the 15th century, and some Indic statuary from as far back as the 10th.  Absorbing that level of historicity is always amazing- to pick up a document and think, "This book was written the year Lorenzo de' Medici died", or "That little statue was around before the Normans conquered England".  Everyday, you're gobsmacked by the elastic nature of time on a grand scale: how can I call George Washington's letters as "old" when something created eight centuries prior sits a few yards away?

But then, then!, there are the twinned doyen of our collections: the ginkgos that flank our Main Entrance.  While ours were planted Garden Club in 1922 - practically yesterday, right? - the ginkgo is a survivor from the Permian Era - 270 million years ago.  Our Society might predate the United States; but ginkgos were around before flowering plants.  Before birds.  Before mammals.


That is old.  That is awesome.

And now, best of all?  That awesomeness has been formally recognized!  Our ginkgos are not just living fossils, they are the Charleston Horticultural Society's 2010 Outstanding Trees Award in the "Nonprofit" category.  We've even got a nifty trophy to boot.  There are a lot of great trees in the Lowcountry, and we're in really good company with our sister organizations that have won this award before: we really couldn't be prouder that the great organic members of our collections have been recognized in this manner.





Other reasons to stop by soon: "Dixie", Denim, and Drinks is this Monday night, it's going to be terrific, and tickets are going fast.  Call us and buy yours today.  Circa 1748 is just over a fortnight away (May 29).  The Piccolo Spoleto Literary Festival is the weekend after that (June 3-5).  Tickets for 1748 and the Festival are all available through Piccolo Spoleto.  Also, Toddler Tuesday is going on summer break, as of June 1.  It'll be back this fall, having failed to do its summer reading but sporting a wicked tan.

Next year I'll talk about something pleasant... like Bohemia or Dos Equis...

Having written about Cinco de Mayo last year, your loyal blogger thought he might preface this post with some alternative May the fifth trivia.  Originally, this paragraph was to be about the death of Galerius (May 5th, 311 AD), the Roman emperor who was a major architect of the Diocletianic Persecution.  Then I realized the only interesting thing about Galerius was his death:as St. Luke said of Herod Agrippa, he was eaten by worms.  Thanks to Google, I learned that "worms" probably indicates Fournier gangrene.  And thanks to Google Image Search, I've learned exactly what Fournier gangrene is... and I shan't be able to eat for days.  Not cool.

What is cool is the Lifelong Learning Series classes slated for this fall.  Following on the tremendous success of the winter salon, Bret Lott will be back to guide a ten week course on fiction writing.  Across the hall, the Shakespeare scholar, former department chair, and CofC legend Nan Morrison will be teaching a six-week course on the tragedies of Shakespeare.  Also cool (for us) is how fast these classes are filling up: they don't start until September 7th, we've barely advertised them, and they're already three quarters full.  If you want in on either of these great programs, contact the Library Society ASAP.

Also, next Thursday, May the 13th the CLS will host Jennie Stephens of the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation to discuss the Center's work in providing free legal, educational, and other services to people attempting to clear title to Heirs' Property.  The free event runs from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

Don't forget for more info on any CLS event (like "Dixie", Denim and Drinks; Circa 1748; and the whole bleeding Piccolo Spoleto Literary Festival), check our website, give us a call at 723.9912, or send us an email.  'Cause missing our great events would be terrible... terrible like Fournier gangrene!

Monday night's alright for singing...

"Spoleto's winged chariot is hurrying near, and yonder all before us lie artistic and cultural events." 

Andrew Marvell never said it, but it's still true: May is next week, and that means it's Piccolo Spoleto time.  Of course, the Library Society will once again host the Piccolo Spoleto Literary Festival: full details here.

But that's not all!

But that's not all!

We've also got Circa 1748: Bridging Oral and Literary Traditions.  This Piccolo event will be a unique and engaging evening illustrating connections between written and oral art traditions.  We'll be using the written materials of the Library Society, and the vocal talents of the CSO's Spiritual Ensemble. Circa 1748 will be Saturday, 29th at 7:00 PM, at the Library Society.  Tickets are $20, available wherever Piccolo Spoleto tickets are sold.


And finally (because I'm announcing events in the reverse order they will occur), on Monday, May 17th, we're having a "warm-up for Spoleto", entitled "Dixie", Denim, and Drinks.  DDD is going to be a fun, light (about 50 minute) program, featuring musical glimpses of the American folk tradition from Dvorak, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, and Carlisle Floyd.  Laura Ball, Peter Kiral, Courtney Sharp, Edoardo Carpenedo, and Erica Carpenedo will be performing.  Tickets are $15, available through the Library Society, 843 723.9912.  As the title suggests, the dress code is informal, and there will be drinks.  Sounds like a good way to spend a Monday to me.

"He turned to me as if to say, Hurry boy, It's waiting there for you."

Since there are no more events left at the Library Society this month (other than standing events like Toddler Tuesdays), your loyal blogger is going to make a book endorsement, preceeded by a brief story.  Because today, April 20th, is the 182nd anniversary of René Caillié's entrance into Timbuktu.

In the late 1700s, European soldiers left unemployed by the end of the Seven Years War, lined up in the search for the fabled lands of the African interior.  Legend held it to be the home of the great river Niger, which flowed into the Nile, and drained a valley filled with rich kingdoms and cities.  The greatest of these -and the rumour that kept European explorers awake at night- was a city of solid gold, known as Timbuktu.

A Scot named Mungo Park became the first white man to reach the Niger River (1795), but was forced by bandits and ill health to return home before reaching Timbuktu.  Soon after, another Scot, Alexander Gordon Laing, crossed the Sahara and became the first European to visit Timbuktu: he received twenty four wounds fighting with desert raiders on the way there, and lost his life shortly after leaving, leaving the "golden city" as distant and mysterious to Europeans as it ever was.

It took René Caillié to get there and get back.  Caillié was a sickly orphan, born in the west of France in 1799.  A voracious reader, the young Caillié's favourite book was Robinson Crusoe, and at age sixteen he set off for adventures that would impress even Defoe's fictional hero.  He worked in West Africa- even helping to resupply a failed British mission to Timbuktu- and became familiar with the string of elaborate expeditions that, one after another, could not manage the trip to Timbuktu.  Caillié decided that he, individually, could succeed where great collective effort had failed.

To do this Caillié went native.  He moved to Mauritania, living with Senegalese Moors, absorbing their language and culture.  Having done this, he moved down the coast to a British indigo plantation, where he worked to save up money for his trip.  One day he put on his best Moorish garb and declared he was an Arab from Egypt, abducted by the French on the way to Mecca, and joined a native caravan headed east.

Caillié blended in well enough.  His ostentatious show of Muslim prayer probably aroused more suspicion than it allayed, but was certainly received better than the bombastic shows of Christian religiosity performed by prior British travellers.  Largely he was ignored because he was too poor to steal from.  Arriving safely at Timbuktu, he spent a few weeks wandering the ancient city, noting that it was made not of gold, but "...a mass of ill-looking houses, built of earth."  While it was once an important city during the Mali and Songhai empires, its glory days were long gone.  He caught a caravan headed north, trekked across the Sahara, and arrived safely back in France.  He became a national hero: he was awarded many francs, the Légion d'honneur, and the state even underwrote the publishing of his book Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo; and across the Great Desert, to Morocco.

The other half of this story- and my endorsement- is what France later did in pursuit of Caillié's legacy: thirty years of failed expedition after failed expedition in an attempt to tame the Sahara and open a north-south route from Algiers to the Niger.  This (perhaps surprisingly) interesting story is covered in Douglas Porch's The Conquest of the Sahara.  It's at the Library Society... upstairs, to the right, fourth isle down, number F78 P82.  And don't forget, reading 300 pages describing the Sahara makes good preparation for the upcoming Charleston summer...

Celebrating Thomas Jefferson's birthday with a little paper chasin'...

Event news: Gordon Rhea will be here Thursday evening at 6:00 PM for a lecture on Charles Whilden, an unsung hero of the War Between the States, and about whom Rhea chronicled in Carrying the Flag. The lecture is free; copies of the book will be available for $17.

Non-"events" event news: the Library Society has recently received an anonymous pledge to match up to $25,000 worth of giving!

The aim of the gift is to both increase membership, and to increase the giving of existing membership levels. Any giving above the normal $75 Friend of the Library membership level counts towards the matching pledge. So, if you're currently a Friend of the Library, consider throwing in an extra $25 bucks and upgrading to the Beatrice Witte Ravenel Circle.

To better recognize and facilitate this giving, we've split the Beatrice Witte Ravenel Circle of giving (formerly $100-$499) and created the John Bennett Circle for gifts of $250-$499. Not only does this honor a great Charleston novelist and poet, it's a great way to help the Library meet this challenge grant. Call with a credit card, stop by or mail in a check, or you can always donate via Paypal here. We hope you will consider helping the Library take full advantage of this $25,000 opportunity!

Jazz at the Library (and the Girl in the Curls!)

April 8th!  The anniversary of Roman Emperor and notorious bath-designer Caracalla's assassination (the jerk!); President of the United States and notorious balcony-designer Harry Truman's steel seizure (the jerk!); and Canadian starlet and notorious Douglas Fairbanks-designer Mary Pickford's 118th birthday (not a jerk, I suppose).

Rambling, pointless story time: Mary Pickford starred in Kiki with Reginald Denny, who (in addition to designing America's first UAV) starred in the 1966 film Batman, which of course starred Adam West and Burt Ward, who teamed up for the terrible early-2000s TV movie Return to the Batcave, which also starred a young Amy Acker, who played Whiskey/Dr. Saunders on the sadly-short-lived TV show Dollhouse.  Dollhouse starred Albanian-American megababe Eliza Dushku, whom your loyal blogger once sat behind at a Red Sox game (which thoroughly made my Summer of 2007).  So that, kids, is my Mary Pickford story...

And on the topic of the world of entertainments, a LIBRARY EVENT: we've got a brass quintet playing the Library Society this Friday night at 7 PM.  This event was originally scheduled through the CSO; and while the CSO has suspended operations, we are still hosting the same great musicians (including world-renowned jazz drummer Quentin Baxter), and ticket sales ($15) go directly to the musicians.  Tickets are available at the door, or call us at 843.723.9912.  To recap, IT'S NOT CANCELLED.  See you there!

"If it's Truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."

Today is the 414th birthday of Rene Descartes!  Perhaps best known as the cogito ergo sum guy, the works of Descartes were rooted in methodic doubt: grinding one's own beliefs and sensory input up against rigourous skepticism.  Only by pounding away the falsehoods of irrational thought could one attempt to discover Truth.


More importantly (sorry, philosophy majors), the guy kinda invented analytic geometry, laid the foundation for modern calculus, discovered the law of reflection (and first published the law of refraction), and devised exponential notation.  For a guy who spent most of his time thinking his basic senses were lying to him, he was kind of a genius.

That's why the early Library Society picked up a 1664 copy of his Principia Philosophiae.  Before Descartes' Principia Philosophiae, European colleges were teaching physics with the works of Aristotle.   Think about that the next time you see a middle school complaining about thirty-year old civics books (not that I can remember a teacher ever getting past WWII, anyway).

How to get young males interested in physics:

put Wisdom in a tight breastplate and have her show some midriff.

FACTS: The CSO has suspended operations, but the concerts scheduled for the Library Society this spring are still going to happen.  The first one is Friday, April 9th.  Tickets are $15, available though the CLS.  Also, Gordon Rhea is giving a lecture here on April 15th.  There's no cover, and if you like War-Between-the-States history, you should be there.  Call 843.723.9912, or email us at info@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.

This Post, by Clifford Jacobs (with Maxine Paetro)

It's March 22nd!  Happy 63rd birthday James Patterson, and a happy day to the dozens of other babies born on other dates but celebrating "collaboratively" under his name.

Last week was the last week of Bret Lott's Writing Salon here at the Library Society.  It was, by all accounts, a runaway success: if there was a problem, it was only the disappointment of the people who discovered its existence too late to sign up.  To make sure that problem doesn't repeat itself, we are announcing the next two groups for this "Lifelong Learning" series months ahead of time.  This fall, Bret Lott will return for another Writing Salon; and Nan Morrison, former chair of English at The College of Charleston, will host a six-week course on the tragedies of Shakespeare.  We couldn't be more excited about both programs...

 Keanu Reeves as Don Juan: actual Shakespearean tragedy, dude.

When the seersuckers come back to St. Phillip's...

"When the swallows come back to Capistrano,
That's the day I pray that you'll come back to me"
                             -"When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano", Leon René

It's St. Joseph's Day, the day the cliff swallows (in theory) return to San Juan Capistrano.  Charleston might not have petrochelidon pyrrhonota punctually popping in, but we do have our own sure signs of the season... Mr. Michaux's camellias start to bloom; tourists clot every crosswalk; CofC coeds treat Marion Square like a beach teach Wendell Gilliard about the first amendment...

Leon René might never have written a song about the onset of spring here in the Holy City, but it is very nice nonetheless.  Also nice?  Upcoming Library Society Events!

NEXT WEEKEND: Book Sale!

NEXT MONTH:  CSO Brass Ensemble, evening of the 9th.  Later, on April 15th, we're hosting a talk by attorney, author, and guy-who-knows-more-about-Grant-and-Lee's-Overland Campaign-than-anyone-else-on-the-planet, Gordon Rhea.  Mr. Rhea will be sharing the story of Charles Whildon.  An unsung hero during the American Civil War, Whilden grew up on Magazine Street, and his father was editor of the Carolina Gazette, begun in about 1820. Whilden fought in Virginia and his story was movingly told in Rhea's book, Carrying the Flag.  More info soon.

Bestriding the narrow world...

Happy Ides of March!  It's been 2054 years since Julius Caesar took a trip to the theatre, and 24 hours since your loyal blogger took a (pre-)St. Pat's trip to Savannah...  Happily (for me, if not for Republican Rome), I made it through my trip in better shape than Caesar did his.  Sorry, Julius, the fault wasn't in your stars, but in yourself.

Last Thursday's lecture and book signing for Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America was a massive success.   A big thanks both to John Avlon for lecturing, and to all of our members who attended for attending.  And not to preach, but last Thursday should also be a reminder of the increasing importance of RSVPing early: I think the days of having empty chairs at lectures are now long gone!

This week: the NEGHS event is this Thursday: more info here. 

Next week: Steve White, director of the Karpeles Manuscript Museum and founder of the Charleston Historical Society, amongst other things, will be giving a talk on March 25th at 7:00 PM up at the Karpeles (68 Spring Street) on Irish president Eamon DeValera's 1920 visit to Charleston.  Steve's been doing a good bit of the research for this stuff down here at the Library Society, and has kindly treated your loyal blogger to some early insights from his work... lemme say now, this is going to be a great lecture.

Week after that: Spring Book Sale...  see you at the Barnwell Annex, Saturday the 27th!

Next thirty days: Charleston Symphony Orchestra's Brass Quintet will be here, the Charleston Bible Society will have a big anniversary bash, and a lecture from noted American Civil War historian Gordon Rhea.

From the collections: Happy 264th, Andre! edition

While I should plunge right into reminders of this month's full event's schedule, I'll put that off for tomorrow.  More importantly, it's the 264th birthday of French botanist Andre Michaux.  While Michaux had some formal education early in life, his great botanical skills were developed working on his father's farm near Versailles.  This proximity to the royal palace, coupled with Michaux's ability to grow almost anything, brought him to the attention of the French court.  He was sent to learn under the best botanists in the country, and soon sent to work as a botanist in the field.

It's this field work that brought Michaux into contact with the Library Society.  After a three-year trip through the Middle East, he was named the Royal Botanist, and sent to North America.  He spent some time in Philadelphia: hanging out with Ben Franklin, establishing a research garden.  After about a year, he sailed south for Charleston.  He grew his experimental plants- crepe myrtles, mimosas, camellias- at Middleton Place; and he met with the foremost scientific minds in Charleston - the intellectual heirs to Alexander Garden and John Lining- here at the Library Society.


Though further travel led him all across North America, he kept a home base here in Charleston until his return to France in 1796.  From the time of his arrival here, until his death in 1802, Michaux would send books and manuscripts back to Charleston.  One of these, the Ikhtiyarat-i Badi'i, is pictured here:

 The leg-bone's connected to the thigh bone...

The Ikhtiyarat-i Badi'i, written in 1492, is one of the oldest manuscripts the Society possesses.  It is a medical textbook from Isfahan, Persia, written at what, in the 15th century, was the world's most advanced hospital.  Today it's available for viewing here at the Society (and available for reading if you can read middle Farsi...), so come by soon and ask for the Ikhtiyarat-i Badi'i by Haji Zayn al-Attar, Zayn al-Din 'Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Ansari (but be sure to pronounce it right so we know what you're talking about).

"Thanks to Heinz Baked Beans, every day is a super day!"

John Avlon has sold out.

Not "sold out" like the Stones during the Windows 95 launch, or Dennis Hopper with those blasted Ameriprise commercials, or Led Zeppelin selling Cadillacs, mind you.  There are just no longer tickets available for his event here at the CLS on the 11th.  Sorry, Charlie, should have RSVP'ed sooner.

"Sorry, Charlie" copyright StarKist Co.  

Mmm... StarKist Tuna, the official tuna of the Charleston Library Society.  Buy some, today!

"Pass before my eyes with curiosity..."

Last week, you were warned our Dubose Heyward display was on its way out.  This week, FYI, George Washington is in!  So, as the tourist season slowly begins to warm up, and Betty and Jim from East Nowhere, Kansas wander in, looking resplendent in their KU sweatpants (and a little winded from their trip up the steps), your loyal blogger (happily) has this conversation dozens of times:

"Yes, this is a real library."
"Yes, 'normal' people are allowed in here."
"Yes, that is a card catalog."
"Yes, we have movies, and John Grisham novels, and computers and all that."

At this point, Betty and Jim become visibly more comfortable, realizing that this is just like the Nowhere County Library back home, just a little bigger and older, and with marble floors instead of commercial-grade carpet... and then:

"Oh, and over there are our George Washington letters."

Suffice it to say, Betty and Jim are impressed.  This is slightly cooler than, say Carrie Nation's hatchet or George Custer's boots (they're at the Kansas Museum of History, check them out next time you're in Topeka!), if for no other reason than Nation and Custer were jerks, and ol' George was awesome.

Yep.  George Washington was AWESOME.

Anyhow, the good President G.W.'s stuff is now on display here at the Society.  Don't forget, John Avlon, a guy who has a thing or two to say about presidents and politicians himself, is here March 11th.  Tickets are 10 bucks for members, 15 for non-members: RSVP today, 843.723.9912.




P.S.  Sorry, Jayhawkers.  And yes, I know you're the state of Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Clyde Tombaugh, Hattie McDaniel, William S. Burroughs, Dust in the Wind, Dennis the Menace, John Outland, Dean Smith, the Koch brothers, Superman, Buster Keaton, Bill Kurtis, Miss America 1997, and the (almost-as-good-as-a-Krystal) White Castle burger... so, thanks, Kansans, no harm, no foul!

From the collections: clandestine plug edition.

After spending half of last fall, and the whole of January on display, we're returning DuBose Heyward's original handwritten manuscript for "Porgy" to the vault this week.  If you haven't seen it, look at the image directly above... not as satisfying as coming in to see the real thing, is it?  Well, it's still out today, so hurry by.

Other things to come and see: John Avlon (more of a person than a thing, really) will be here to discuss his new book on political wingnuts (more things than persons, really), memorably entitled Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America.  7 PM, March 11th: tickets are selling briskly, so RSVP now.  A week later on March 18th, we'll be hosting the New England Genealogical and Historical Society for a day of conferences.  Registration is $30 (if postmarked before March 1, 2010); $40 (if postmarked after March 1, 2010).  Contact NEHGS's Joshua Taylor, Director of Education and Programs by phone, 617-227-1226, or e-mail, jtaylor@nehgs.org, for more info.