Call for Papers: Captivity: Assembling Nature’s Histories

Published: August 7, 2023
Photograph of book: Pressed specimens of butterflies and moths (1905), compiled by Yasushi Nawa, courtesy of Clark Library collections

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…

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A Fond Farewell to Candis Snoddy

Published: June 30, 2023

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…

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Augustin Hadelich performs for Chamber Music at the Clark concert series

Published: May 30, 2023

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…

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Center Announces 2023–24 Fellowships

Published: May 23, 2023
Decorative image of the Clark Library

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…

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Congratulations to Jessica Li!

Published: May 18, 2023

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…

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The Forgotten Canopy: Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture, and Imperialism in the Caribbean, South American, and Transatlantic Worlds, Conference 3: Imperialism

Published: May 17, 2023

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…

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Friends and Donors Special Thanks

Published: March 8, 2023

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…

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Approaches to Sound in the Early Modern Atlantic World

Published: March 3, 2023
Decorative photo of participants in the Approaches to Sound conference

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…

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The Forgotten Canopy: Ecology, Ephemeral Architecture, and Imperialism in the Caribbean, South American, and Transatlantic Worlds, Conference 2: Ephemeral Architecture

Published: February 23, 2023
Decorative photo of Bob Ramirez, President of the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation, leads an outdoor discussion of ecological restoration and traditional ephemeral architecture construction at the Kuruvungna Village Springs center.

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…

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Encounters with the Paul Landacre Archives

Published: January 24, 2023
Decorative photo of address book from the Clark Library's Paul Landacre collection.

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…

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Western Ottomanist Workshop 2022

Published: January 19, 2023
Decorative photo of The Western Ottomanists' Workshop 2022

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)….

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The Latest Video from the Clark’s YouTube: Fore-Edge Paintings

Published: January 13, 2023
Decorative image of fore-edge painting

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…

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Core 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, 2022
Welcome by Victoria Sork, Distinguished Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Director of the UCLA Botanical Garden

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…

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“Gulliver” Visits the Clark

Published: November 9, 2022

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…

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Box Tale Soup Artists Teach Students

Published: November 9, 2022

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…

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The Anatomy of a Pygmie, 1699

Published: November 9, 2022

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…

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Bruman Summer Music Festival

Published: November 9, 2022

The 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…

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Paintings and Engravings are of Little Use to Me

Published: November 8, 2022

Throughout 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…

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