The leaf of a late eighteenth-century folding fan held at the Clark Library titled General Idea of Sciences lists, as its final item, “Economy: Informs us how to regulate our expences & is always commendable.” “Architecture,” meanwhile, “Is the Art of Building with Taste and Solidity.” Delegating only two branches of the Vitruvian triad to…

May 17, 2024 One-day conference May 18, 2024 Public lecture on science Workshop on flora and fauna on the Clark grounds Organized by: Rebecca Fenning Marschall; rfenning@humnet.ucla.edu Anna Chen; achen@humnet.ucla.edu Summary: The early modern period was a hothouse for the study of physical things in the natural world, and for the collection and assembly of…

It is with a mixture of sadness and gratitude that we extend our best wishes and a fond farewell to Candis Snoddy, who retired in June 2023 after an impressive 35 years of employment at UCLA. For the last 29 years, Candis ably served the Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies and Clark Library. All…

On Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 20, I attended a variety of panels at the “From Bodies to Things” conference organized at the Clark Library by Tawny Paul and Andrew Apter of UCLA. The conference was organized in order to study the commodification of the body in the early modern period, a topic, the…

It was an honor hosting Augustin Hadelich on April 23 as our penultimate concert in the 2022-23 season of Chamber Music at the Clark.  William Andrews Clark Jr. was an accomplished violinist and founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and one can be certain that Mr. Clark would’ve been delighted to have one of the…

We are very happy to announce fellowships to support research at the Clark Library during the 2023–24 academic year. The Center offers fellowships each year to graduate and post-doctoral researchers as well as support for senior researchers and independent scholars. Applications for fellowships are taken in the late fall and winter each year. 2023–2024 Fellowships…

Jessica Li is the recipient of the 2023 UCLA Library Prize for Undergraduate Research in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The Library Prize for Undergraduate Research recognizes and honors excellence in undergraduate research at UCLA. Jessica’s study, “How Paul Landacre’s Wood Engravings of the Coachella Valley Region Reflect the Erasure of Indigenous Populations in…

On April 14-15, 2023, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library hosted the third and final session of the 2022-2023 Center & Clark Core.   This session’s theme was “Imperialism,” and speakers explored histories of ephemeral architecture in the Americas as forms of Indigenous and African Diasporic survival and resistance. Continuing from the Core Program’s previous two…

The Center and Clark thank the following for their generous support during 2022–2023: Major Supporters Dr. Paul Chrzanowski Colburn Foundation Dr. Patricia Bates Simun and Mr. Richard V. Simun Memorial Fund Professor Emeritus Nathaniel Grossman J. Paul Getty Trust Penny and Ed Kanner* Stephen A. Kanter, M.D.* Kenneth Karmiole Virginia F. and Dr. Lawrence Kruger…

On February 3–4, 2023, 13 scholars of music, literature and history convened at the Clark Library to discuss the sounds of the early Atlantic world in broad disciplinary and geographic contexts. Presentations spanned several regions, including Haiti, Mexico (or New Spain), Jamaica, Brazil, Spain, Pennsylvania, Algiers and more. While some presentations directly addressed musical exchange…

Held on February 10-11, 2023, this event was the second of a three-part conference series that comprises the 2022-23 Center & Clark Core Program. The theme of this second installation was “Ephemeral Architecture,” and speakers examined the creation, roles, and histories of impermanent structures in diverse contexts across the Americas. With sessions in the William…

In 1931, wood engraver Paul Landacre published his first major work, California Hills. A transplanted Midwesterner, Landacre had encountered various of the sites depicted—Monterey, Big Sur, Coachella Valley—on a road trip with friends (Landacre did not own an automobile). They followed touring itineraries suggested by the popular Sunset Magazine, a publication sponsored by the Southern…

The Western Ottomanists’ Workshop (WOW) 2022 took place on November 18–19, 2022, with assistance from The Center and Clark Library. This happened to coincide with the sudden graduate student strike, requiring us to make some dramatic last-minute changes to our program and venues. On Day 1 we moved outside Bunche to an outdoor location (outside YRL)….

Welcome to Short Takes, where we take a couple of minutes to show you something interesting we found in the stacks! In this episode, we will show you some books with a hidden feature: painted fore-edges. Script & narration by Ikumi Crocoll. Video by David Eng. Books featured in this video: Letters on the Improvement…

After many months of work behind the scenes from faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and staff, on November 4th and 5th the first conference of the three-part series that constitutes the 2022–2023 Center for 17th– & 18th-Century Studies core program was held at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and the Mildred. E. Mathias Botanical…

At the end of October, the Center & Clark were thrilled to host award-winning theater company Box Tale Soup for a week-long residency. The quirky name comes from their signature style, packing whole handmade worlds into a vintage trunk with a delicious mix of puppetry, movement, theater, and music. Antonia Christophers, Noel Byrne, and Adam Boyle delighted…

Box Tale Soup’s theatrical performance at the Clark Library of its original adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels included a week of workshops at the library to share their creative process with visiting classes. As part of these workshops, Erin Severson, Ikumi Crocoll, and Anna Chen collaborated with Box Tale Soup and with instructors Helen Deutsch, and Leigh-Michil…

In the annexes of the Clark Library, UCLA, safely catalogued and shelved, sits the one of the most important books in history of medicine, Orang-outang sive Homo Sylvestris: or the Anatomy of a Pygmie.  It tells the story of a young doctor and his foray into what we now refer to as comparative anatomy. This…