New Finding Aids for July and August 2015

Photograph by Marie Kempton Phillips, circa 1905, from the Phillips Family Papers.

New finding aids include the following:

Rodolfo Alonso Correspondence and Photographs (C1439)

Rodolfo Alonso is an Argentine poet, translator, essayist, and editor. The collection includes Alonso’s correspondence with various Latin American writers including Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Raúl Gustavo Aguirre, Juan Gelman, Augusto Roa Bastos, Juan José Saer, Ernesto Sábato, Lêdo Ivo, Hector Tizón, Edgar Bayley, António Ramos Rosa, Milton de Lima Sousa, and Claudio Magris. In addition, the collection includes photographs of Alonso throughout his career with many Latin American figures as well as a personal collection of his family and travels.

Phillips Family Papers (C1387)

Consists of photographs, manuscripts, diaries, and ephemera relating to Edward H. Phillips (1868-1944), his wife Marie Kempton Phillips (1881-1946), and their daughter Jean Sarah Phillips (1908–1985) that document ranch life in and around Montana around the turn of the 20th century as well as Ed Phillips’ involvement in Wild West shows, including Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and his career as a Hollywood actor. Notably, there are over 550 negatives taken by Marie Kempton Phillips with a hand-held camera dating from circa 1904 to 1938, many of which depict life on a Montana ranch, novelty steer riding and rodeo scenes, horse races and other performances, branding, cattle, wagon trains, horse-breaking, and more.

“The Adventures of Dido Queen of Carthage” Manuscript (C0938 no. 686q)

The author of this manuscript, dated 1804, was likely Rebecca Ricardo Keyser (1778-1838), mother of British financier Charles Keyser (1814-1892). A fictional retelling of the story of Dido of Carthage, it counters Virgil’s depiction of the character in his Aeneid. The narrative is essentially the one told by Pompeius Trogus, which was superseded by Virgil’s portrayal of Dido as the hapless lover of Aeneas. In her preface, the author warns the reader: “The lover of Virgil, accustomed to view Dido only as the bride of Aeneas, may avert his eye with disdain from beholding this illustrious fair one under any other form; and while his mind is impressed with the glowing picture of the mantuan bard delineating the sorrows of a being deserted by the man she loved … he must remember that Aeneas, not Dido, was the hero of this poem.” Explaining her intentions, the author also states “I have endeavoured to prove that a refined love is not incompatible with the higher duties of life; I have endeavoured to free my heroine from those puerile feelings the attendant of little minds, and have shewn that a virtuous passion can be exalted to an intellectual sentiment.”

H. Freeman Matthews, Jr. Papers (MC277)

H. Freeman Matthews, Jr. (1927-2006) was a career Foreign Service officer, serving with the State Department from 1952 to 1991. The collection consists of materials documenting Matthews Jr.’s service with the State Department, in particular, his time as Deputy Chief of Mission in Cairo from 1976 to 1980.

R. W. Apple Papers (MC278)

R. W. Apple, Jr. (1934-2006) was a journalist, correspondent and editor at the New York Times. Apple covered a variety of topics including war, revolution, politics and government, and food and drink. The collection is composed of Apple’s research for his travel writings on various cities, countries, and chefs. The research is comprised of reporter’s notebooks, annotated menus, maps, and news clippings. The accession includes correspondence, personal documents such as baptismal records, marriage licenses, and family photographs.

William Jovanovich Papers (C1505)

William Jovanovich (1920-2001) was an American publisher, author, and businessman, who led the publishing firm Harcourt Brace Jovanovich from 1954 to 1991, as president and later as chief executive officer. The collection consists of Jovanovich’s author and publisher files, including an extensive file on Charles A. Lindbergh, along with correspondence, writings, personal and family papers, memorabilia, and other files documenting his career as a major American publisher in the 20th century, his creative pursuits in fiction and nonfiction, and his interest in Yugoslav literature and textbook publishing. Notable figures represented in the author files include Svetlana Alliluyeva, Hannah Arendt, Matija Bećković, Sylvia Beach, Arthur C. Clarke, Edward Dahlberg, Milovan Djilas, e. e. cummings, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Hiram Haydn, Helen Hayes, Irving Howe, Jerzy Kosiński, Anita Loos, Marshall McLuhan, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Lewis Mumford, V. S. Pritchett, Erich Maria Remarque, Richard Rovere, Carl Sandburg, William Saroyan, Vasilēs Vasilikos, Andy Warhol, and Leonard Woolf.

German Devotional Miscellany, circa 1510-1540 (Princeton MS. 234)

One-volume collection of devotional texts and prayers in German and Latin, which were copied over a period of 30 years by various German scribes on different paper stock. The manuscript, organized into twelve booklets, was probably compiled for Euphemia Pirckheimer (1486-1557), abbess of the Benedictine convent of the Holy Cross at Bergen, in Neuburg an der Donau, Bavaria. She was the sister of the German humanists Caritas Pirckheimer (1467-1532) and Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530).