Saturday, 21 July 2007
Upcoming Week July 22 to 28
OFF TO THE 'ATHENS OF THE NORTH'
Well, we're halfway through our program and tomorrow (Sunday, July 22) classes disperse to far-flung spots in Europe to continue their studies! Our group will leave on a coach (bus) at 9 a.m. for Edinburgh. We'll stay in university dorms and our professors aren't sure about computer access. Hmmm... guess we may have to find some Internet cafés. That's one thing that's sure changed since I was last in the ''Athens of the North'' at age 18!
A BUSY WEEK AHEAD!
On Monday, July 23, we'll visit the National Library of Scotland and then the National Archives. Tuesday is a research day and I may go to the Natural History Museum. On Wednesday, the Writers' Museum is on the agenda. Then it's our mini-break, and four of us bought cheap RyanAir tickets to Dublin for Thursday, July 26. I'll just stay a day and a night, because on Friday, July 27, I'm flying to Bristol, England. My friends, part-time Sanibel Island snowbird neighbors Pat and Bert Gough, are going to meet me at the airport. I'll finally get to see their town of Chipping Sodbury, which I've heard so much about! (Including the fact that it's the birthplace of J.K.Rowling!) Speaking of births ... my birthday is Saturday the 28th, and I know I'm awfully fortunate to be able to celebrate it on ''This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle ... This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England''!
Odds 'n' Ends on July 20 & 21
HURRAH FOR THE HARRY HOOPLA
Friday, July 20 was a day for catching up!! -- On sleep, reading, studying, and doing this blog! Of course lots of my classmates went out Friday evening to see the ''Harry Hoopla'' at Waterstone's bookshop in Piccadilly. About 7,000 people stood in a half-mile long queue to wait until one minute past midnight for their copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And many of the fans had been waiting there with sleeping bags for two days! (But that wasn't for me -- I was perfectly happy to see the spectacle vicariously on my friends' cameras, on TV, and in the newspapers.) This morning (Saturday, July 21), I went into W. H. Smith's at Waterloo Station and it is selling two versions of the book -- a colorfully illustrated cover for children and a mostly black cover for adults!
WENDING OUR WAY TO WIMBLEDON
This afternoon (Saturday, July 21) Edie and I took the tube to Wimbldon. (We actually had to walk for about 20 minutes from the nearest tube stop, and most of it was in the rain! Pretty fitting for Wimbledon, I thought.) It's another place I can cross off my list that I have always wanted to see. We didn't have much time to go through the whole museum but we got the gist of the place. It was renovated in November 2006, and also has a snazzy store. Visitors can pay extra to take a tour although we just sort of peeked around the fences, etc... The whole place is pretty gigantic.
(http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/index.html)Oxford on My Own
On Thursday afternoon, July 19, after finishing our guided tour of the Bodleian Library, we had Oxford on our own. Several of us first had lunch at the Eagle and Child pub, which was the favorite pub of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and the other ''Inklings.'' Then I set out to walk around the city, passing by several of the colleges, including Christ Church (the Cathedral and House). Most of my time was spent at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the next-door Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology and World Archaeology.
(http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/) and (http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/)
(http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/) and (http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/)
MOST 'FAMILY-FRIENDLY' MUSEUMS IN THE U.K.
The Victorian Gothic-style Museum of Natural History opened to the public in 1860 and was ''designed as a cathedral to science.'' Last year, a newspaper chose it and the Pitt Rivers as the most ''family friendly'' museums in the U.K., and I can see why! Hundreds of children were running around enjoying well-designed exhibits on fossils, animals, rocks and minerals, and insects. I was a bit disappointed in the mollusk exhibit upstairs. Museum education specialist Chris Jarvis said it hadn't been updated. (Dad, you'd like this huge chunk of pyrite that lots of kids were running by, yelling: ''Fool's Gold! Fool's Gold!'' Photo above shows me by the museum's inevitable statue of Linnaeus.)
'KISSING PIGS OFTEN....'
Chris kindly gave me a copy of the little paperback he recently wrote and illustrated, titled The Life and Times of Carl Linnaeus. The museum gave them out during its fun-filled Linnaeus celebration this past May 31 and June 1. I love the ''Mnemonic for Remembering our System of Classification'' that Chris uses in his book (for Kingdom - Phylum - Order- Family - Genus - and Species): Kissing Pigs Often Feels Gooey (and) Slimey!!!
The Pitt Rivers Museum was founded in 1884 and it now contains more than half a million artefacts. Favorites include Bast, the Egyptian cat god; an Egyptian mummy, and shrunken heads. (Photo at right shows a Pacific Islander chieftain dress of abalone shell.) After the Pitt Rivers, I fast-walked to the Ashmolean Museum, which is the world's first university museum. It opened in 1683 and the current building is now undergoing a major renovation. Before heading to the train station in the early evening, I just had time to see the ground floor, which includes classical Rome and Greece; ancient Egypt; English pottery, and European porcelain.
'Historic Heart of the University of Oxford'
Early in the morning of Thursday, July 19, our class took the tube from Waterloo to Paddington Station to get an express train to Oxford. (It was fun to see the statue of Paddington Bear in the station. A nearby vendors sells -- what else -- the famous books, and also stuffed Paddington toys! He reminded us that next year is the 50th anniversary of Michael Bond's beloved series and said the author plans to come out with a 12th Paddington book.) Carrie Willis, a cyber classmate of mine from Florida State, is shown in the photo at right next to the Paddington statue!
THE BEAUTIFUL BODLEIAN!
Within an hour we were at the Oxford Station, and then all walked to the Bodleian Library, ''the historic heart of the university.'' It is the main research library of Oxford and has nearly 8 million items and its combined buildings have 2,482 seats. We divided into two groups and ours had a very knowledgable young tour leader named Matthew. The tour began in the Divinity School, which was built from 1472-1488 and used as the university's first exam school. It is also where the infirmary scenes were filmed in the Harry Potter films! (Shown in photo at left.)
We then toured the Proscholium, which was built in 1610-1612 below Sir Thomas Bodley's first extension of his library, according to http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/. Next was the much-photographed (no pun intended!) Radcliffe Camera, called ''camera'' because it is the Latin word for ''room.'' It became integrated with the Bodleian in the 1860s. The Clarendon Building (1712-1715) is used for administrative offices. We did tour the stacks underneath the New Bodleian Library, which was built from 1936 to 1940, with the lion's share of funding coming from the Rockefeller Foundation.
BODLEIAN RUNNING OUT OF SPACE!
The average time to deliver book orders from the New Library stacks to a Reading Room is three hours. But the Bodleian is running out of space and the library's new director, American Sarah Thomas, is planning to move much of the colleciton off site. Ms. Thomas, who had been at Cornell University, started at the Bodleian this past February, and is its first woman director.
Friday, 20 July 2007
We Walked for Miles and Miles!
Wednesday, July 16, was a ''research day'' and my classmate Kathy Watson, who is from Kentucky, and I decided to take the train from nearby Waterloo station to Windsor and Eton. Kathy particularly wanted to go because the tiny hamlet of Dorney is near Windsor, and Dorney is where author Susan Cooper grew up. (Kathy is doing her project on Cooper's award-winning Dark Is Rising series.) We were thinking of renting bikes in Windsor to ride to Dorney...
FINALLY GETTING TO SEE WINDSOR CASTLE AND ETON COLLEGE
Windsor Castle and Eton College are both places that I have wanted to see for ages and ages, but somehow did not make it there during my other visits to England. So once again I have such a good feeling of accomplishment about this trip! It was well worth the long queue especially to see Queen Mary's dollhouse, of course, as all the guidebooks will attest. It was a gorgeous day and we spent more time at the castle than we planned. Eton features prominently in so many English books; I am glad that I can now picture it!
(http://www.windsor.gov.uk/attractions/castle.htm) and (www.etoncollege.com)
THE OLYMPICS AND BOTANICAL MISADVENTURES
When we got to the bike rental place about 4 p.m, we found out it closes at 6 p.m. and decided that wasn't enough time to get to keep the bikes. So we walked about four or five miles through fields to see Dorney (not much to see, must admit!). On the way back, we took the Thames footpath and saw the Eton College rowing lake where Olympic rowing will take place in 2012! (Photo above shows the rowing centre.) I also got stabbed in the fingers by stinging nettles and poor Kathy, who wore shorts, got an allergic reaction on her legs from walking through straw! (Photo at top shows Kathy in the field of straw!) But it still was a fabulous day and we felt that ''good kind'' of exhaustion on the hourlong train ride back ''home.''
FINALLY GETTING TO SEE WINDSOR CASTLE AND ETON COLLEGE
Windsor Castle and Eton College are both places that I have wanted to see for ages and ages, but somehow did not make it there during my other visits to England. So once again I have such a good feeling of accomplishment about this trip! It was well worth the long queue especially to see Queen Mary's dollhouse, of course, as all the guidebooks will attest. It was a gorgeous day and we spent more time at the castle than we planned. Eton features prominently in so many English books; I am glad that I can now picture it!
(http://www.windsor.gov.uk/attractions/castle.htm) and (www.etoncollege.com)
THE OLYMPICS AND BOTANICAL MISADVENTURES
When we got to the bike rental place about 4 p.m, we found out it closes at 6 p.m. and decided that wasn't enough time to get to keep the bikes. So we walked about four or five miles through fields to see Dorney (not much to see, must admit!). On the way back, we took the Thames footpath and saw the Eton College rowing lake where Olympic rowing will take place in 2012! (Photo above shows the rowing centre.) I also got stabbed in the fingers by stinging nettles and poor Kathy, who wore shorts, got an allergic reaction on her legs from walking through straw! (Photo at top shows Kathy in the field of straw!) But it still was a fabulous day and we felt that ''good kind'' of exhaustion on the hourlong train ride back ''home.''
Spiritual, Special, and Surreal Tuesday, July 17
VISIT TO ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL LIBRARY
On Tuesday morning, July 17, our class was privileged to have a private tour of the library at St. Paul's Cathedral by librarian Joseph Wisdom (yes, that's his real name!) We met at the west door and Joe pointed out a bas relief of an open book atop the doorway, which he said symbolizes that ''the word of God is preached here.'' We then climbed a narrow, enclosed staircase to where the ''BBC camerman stands.'' The first room we entered houses the ''Great Model'' of the cathedral, made of oak and plaster in 1673-74, that was proposed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666. It was rejected as ''looking too much like Rome'' but Wren actually pretty much had his way and the final cathedral looks an awful lot like the original model!
An old, musty smell hit us as soon as we entered the library, which contains liturgies, bibles, and books and manuscripts on theology, canon law, civil law, travel, various Latin and Greek subjects, and even numismatics. The library is now open to ''anyone who can make good use of it'' and Joe works there two and a half days a week, along with a few volunteers. Cathedral archives and diocesan records are held in the Guildhall Library, however. Hundreds of the cathedral's books have tape on the spine, holding it together, yet Joe says the textblock is often sound. He showed us a Bodleian Library (Oxford Univ.) catalogue from 1674, with interleaved pages so notations could be added.
GETTING TO SEE A SPECIAL LINNAEUS DISPLAY
Tuesday at 2:30 p.m., I met a group of people from the Linnean Society, including librarians Gina and Lynda, at the staff entrance to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. The museum library's head of cataloguing, Diane Tough (yes, that's her real name!), took us to the Rare Books Room of the General and Zoology Library. It is the site of ''Linnaeus 300: A Celebration of the Tercentenary of Carl Linnaeus'' from May through July 2007. The display features material owned by the museum. It is open to museum staff, learned societies, librarians, and in the case of this exhibit, invited guests from the fields of biolgoy, botany, and zoology. (The room is not big enough or secure enough to invite the general public.)
Diane and four colleagues worked hard to curate the display, which ''is a celebration of Linnaeus' monumental achievement at 'creating order out of chaos.' '' I saw the museum's own copy of the first edition of Systema Naturae! There was information on Linnaeus' ''apostles,'' rare books resting on foam book ''cradles,'' botanical and malacological illustrations, and a contemporary poster of Linnaeus done in the ''Chuck Close'' style (see photo at top), to names just a few of the special items.
A SURREAL TREAT AT THE V & A!
Months ago, I read that an exhibit titled ''Surreal Things'' would run from March 29 to July 22 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. And since the V & A is next door to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, I popped right over after viewing the Linnaeus display. ''Surreal Things'' is an astonishing show and I am so lucky to have been in London for it! (It next goes to Rotterdam, and then to the Guggenheim in Bilbao in 2008.)
The exhibit features two of Salvador Dali and Edward James's famous Lobster Telephones (in white and orange)! It has a wheelbarrow covered in satin by Oscar Dominguez, many familiar paintings by Joan Miro, a Bed-Cage by Max Ernst, incredible dresses by the legendary Elsa Schiapparelli, and even Dali's Ruby Lips Brooch with pearl teeth!!!! And oh, yes, it also has the famous Mae West Lips Sofa by Dali and James! I just wish the exhibit were staying longer so all of my classmates could have time to see it.
On Tuesday morning, July 17, our class was privileged to have a private tour of the library at St. Paul's Cathedral by librarian Joseph Wisdom (yes, that's his real name!) We met at the west door and Joe pointed out a bas relief of an open book atop the doorway, which he said symbolizes that ''the word of God is preached here.'' We then climbed a narrow, enclosed staircase to where the ''BBC camerman stands.'' The first room we entered houses the ''Great Model'' of the cathedral, made of oak and plaster in 1673-74, that was proposed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666. It was rejected as ''looking too much like Rome'' but Wren actually pretty much had his way and the final cathedral looks an awful lot like the original model!
An old, musty smell hit us as soon as we entered the library, which contains liturgies, bibles, and books and manuscripts on theology, canon law, civil law, travel, various Latin and Greek subjects, and even numismatics. The library is now open to ''anyone who can make good use of it'' and Joe works there two and a half days a week, along with a few volunteers. Cathedral archives and diocesan records are held in the Guildhall Library, however. Hundreds of the cathedral's books have tape on the spine, holding it together, yet Joe says the textblock is often sound. He showed us a Bodleian Library (Oxford Univ.) catalogue from 1674, with interleaved pages so notations could be added.
GETTING TO SEE A SPECIAL LINNAEUS DISPLAY
Tuesday at 2:30 p.m., I met a group of people from the Linnean Society, including librarians Gina and Lynda, at the staff entrance to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. The museum library's head of cataloguing, Diane Tough (yes, that's her real name!), took us to the Rare Books Room of the General and Zoology Library. It is the site of ''Linnaeus 300: A Celebration of the Tercentenary of Carl Linnaeus'' from May through July 2007. The display features material owned by the museum. It is open to museum staff, learned societies, librarians, and in the case of this exhibit, invited guests from the fields of biolgoy, botany, and zoology. (The room is not big enough or secure enough to invite the general public.)
Diane and four colleagues worked hard to curate the display, which ''is a celebration of Linnaeus' monumental achievement at 'creating order out of chaos.' '' I saw the museum's own copy of the first edition of Systema Naturae! There was information on Linnaeus' ''apostles,'' rare books resting on foam book ''cradles,'' botanical and malacological illustrations, and a contemporary poster of Linnaeus done in the ''Chuck Close'' style (see photo at top), to names just a few of the special items.
A SURREAL TREAT AT THE V & A!
Months ago, I read that an exhibit titled ''Surreal Things'' would run from March 29 to July 22 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. And since the V & A is next door to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, I popped right over after viewing the Linnaeus display. ''Surreal Things'' is an astonishing show and I am so lucky to have been in London for it! (It next goes to Rotterdam, and then to the Guggenheim in Bilbao in 2008.)
The exhibit features two of Salvador Dali and Edward James's famous Lobster Telephones (in white and orange)! It has a wheelbarrow covered in satin by Oscar Dominguez, many familiar paintings by Joan Miro, a Bed-Cage by Max Ernst, incredible dresses by the legendary Elsa Schiapparelli, and even Dali's Ruby Lips Brooch with pearl teeth!!!! And oh, yes, it also has the famous Mae West Lips Sofa by Dali and James! I just wish the exhibit were staying longer so all of my classmates could have time to see it.
Lot More Linnaeus on Monday, July 16!
On Monday morning, July 16, our class had a lecture and tour at the Museum of London. However, that was the only time that Linnean Society librarian Gina Douglas and deputy librarian Lynda Brooks (in photo above) had available for me to interview them for my main project. So Dr. Welsh and Miss Wright kindly let me opt out of the class plan, and fortunately Katrina and I had spent quite a bit of time at the Museum of London this past Christmas!
I spent several hours at the Linnean Library, and it was a very worthwhile day as I began to visualize the ''bones'' of my required long paper. Lynda also gave me a tour of the building and I saw the well-known portrait of Darwin, who first announced his theory of evolution at a Linnean Society meeting. (Best of all, Gina and Lynda invited me to meet them at the Natural History Museum the next afternoon, for a private tour of the not-for-the-public Linnean exhibit in the Natural History Museum Library's Rare Books Room.)
VIEWING 'THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD'
After interviewing the librarians, I popped across the doorway of the Linnean Society into one of the other ''learned societies'' at Burlington House -- The Geological Society of London. There, just for me, the receptionist unveiled ''The Map That Changed the World.'' Simon Winchester's best-selling book of the same name was on our class reading list. That's how I learned about William Smith's extraordinary 1815 map of 'England and Wales with part of Scotland.' While doing research, I found out that a full size replica is on display in the Dept. of Earth Sciences at the Univ. of New Hampshire, my alma mater! (Note to my old UNH roommate Andrea Held: I bet you didn't realize how important that map was while you worked in the Earth Sciences Library during the summer of 1977?!)
'GASLIGHT' AT THE OLD VIC ON MONDAY NIGHT
Monday evening, several of my classmates and I walked to the legendary Old Vic Theatre just a short distance from our dorm. We were thrilled to get last-minute tickets to 'Gaslight'! I've been following Kevin Spacey's tenure these past few years as the Old Vic's artistic director, and am rooting for his success. If Monday night's performance is any indication, he is on the right track! 'Gaslight' is a Victorian thriller and the program says it was first staged in 1938, and won Ingrid Bergman an Oscar for her role in the film version. This production starts Rosamund Pike and she was terrific.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)