Friday, October 8, 2010

October in the Jean Outland Chrysler Library




The Library staff loves October at the Chrysler! How about you? This past weekend an impressive crowd of Museum Members attended the exciting opening events for London Calling: Victorian Paintings from the Royal Holloway Collection. This is a world renowned collection has some jaw-dropping examples of amazingly detailed 19th century narrative paintings. I think you’ll find that this exhibition may require a second or even a third look. While you’re in the Museum, stop by the Library - we’ve got so many wonderful events and programs coming up this month. Here are just a few to look forward to:

To celebrate both the Royal Holloway Exhibition and Cheers to Queen Victoria: British Glass from the Chrysler Collection we’ve gathered a selection of 19th Century books from the Library collection that exemplify the beauty and detailed craftsmanship of binding during the Victorian era. We’ve given them a place of honor on the top shelves of the Reading room. Stop by between now and December for a look at our Top Shelf Books from the Age of Queen Victoria 1837 – 1901.


October is Archives month! This year Virginia is celebrating with the theme of Imagination in the Archives. Our collections are certainly not lacking in this department – look forward to blog posts throughout the month featuring some of the more creative aspects of Hampton Roads history from our archival collections.


When you visit London Calling you may find yourself thinking about some of the great literature of the 19th century – Dickens, Hawthorne, Gaskell, and many others. If you’d like to learn more about what 19th century readers were actually reading, join me on October 23 at 2 pm in the Library for Reading with a 19th Century Family - The Myers Library. We’ll be looking at actual books from the Myers Family Library.

If that doesn’t get you reading than our Book Club Selection for this month will. On October 20 at 6:30 pm in the Gifford Room we’ll be discussing Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida – which is sure to encourage a visit to our new photography exhibition Portraying A Nation. Copies of Camera Lucida are available in the Library. Also, get ready for November’s discussion of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.


Finally, anyone who’s visited the Library previously at the end of October will know that Halloween is a holiday that inspires the Library staff, perhaps a little too much. Drop by the reading room or the blog during the last week of October (25 – 29) as we lose our heads a little over the Library’s fantastic collection of illustrated versions American author Washington Irving’s classic tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
I hope to see you this month in the Library!


- Laura

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