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…
Read MoreA Fond Farewell to Candis Snoddy
Published: June 30, 2023It 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…
Read MoreFrom Bodies to Things: The Commodification of Human Life in the Early Modern
Published: May 30, 2023On 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…
Read MoreAugustin Hadelich performs for Chamber Music at the Clark concert series
Published: May 30, 2023It 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…
Read MoreCenter Announces 2023–24 Fellowships
Published: May 23, 2023We 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…
Read MoreCongratulations to Jessica Li!
Published: May 18, 2023Jessica 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…
Read MoreThe Forgotten Canopy: Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture, and Imperialism in the Caribbean, South American, and Transatlantic Worlds, Conference 3: Imperialism
Published: May 17, 2023On 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…
Read MoreFriends and Donors Special Thanks
Published: March 8, 2023The 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…
Read MoreApproaches to Sound in the Early Modern Atlantic World
Published: March 3, 2023On 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…
Read MoreThe Forgotten Canopy: Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture, and Imperialism in the Caribbean, South American, and Transatlantic Worlds, Conference 2: Ephemeral Architecture
Published: February 23, 2023Held 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…
Read MoreEncounters with the Paul Landacre Archives
Published: January 24, 2023In 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…
Read MoreWestern Ottomanist Workshop 2022
Published: January 19, 2023The 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)….
Read MoreThe Latest Video from the Clark’s YouTube: Fore-Edge Paintings
Published: January 13, 2023Welcome 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…
Read MoreCenter & Clark Graduate Student Research Fair: Working with Paul Chrzanowski’s Early Modern Resources
Published: December 8, 2022Photography credits: Reed Hutchinson PhotoGraphics Table of Contents Sarah Bischoff, Doctors Hate Him! A Glimpse into Early Modern Health Culture, as shown in a 1541 “correction” of Thomas Elyot’s The Castell of Helth [Clark Library Rare Book Stacks ; Chrzanowski 1550e] Erin Severson, A Truly ‘Greate’ Herball: An exquisite…
Read MoreCore Program I–The Forgotten Canopy: Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture, and Imperialism in the Caribbean, South American, and Transatlantic Worlds Conference 1: Ecology; Discussing Ecology in the Gardens
Published: November 10, 2022After 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…
Read More“Gulliver” Visits the Clark
Published: November 9, 2022At 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…
Read MoreBox Tale Soup Artists Teach Students
Published: November 9, 2022Box 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…
Read MoreThe Anatomy of a Pygmie, 1699
Published: November 9, 2022In 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…
Read MoreBruman Summer Music Festival
Published: November 9, 2022The Henry J. Bruman Summer Chamber Music Festival is dedicated to introducing chamber music to new audiences by offering performances free of charge. Powell Library’s magnificent rotunda offers live and warm acoustics that inspire performers, and provides an intimate connection between the public and the musicians. This unique stage-less setting is reminiscent of chamber music’s…
Read MorePaintings and Engravings are of Little Use to Me
Published: November 8, 2022Throughout my Karmiole Fellowship at the Clark Library, my project looked at recent scholarship’s great strides in fusing theoretical and historical works in the realm of disability from an early modern archival point of view. Such work focuses on the various systematic implications of authors, characters, dialogic, devices, illustrations, concerning diminishment, the or loss of…
Read More