Audubon's Birthday

On April 26, 1785, John James Audubon was born on the island of Hispaniola in what is now Haiti. You can offer best birthday wishes and enjoy a handful of his works -- including two "elephant folio" prints from Birds of America, plus an original drawing and one print from the octavo edition -- currently on display on the second floor of Hill Memorial Library.

Special Collections Receives Newspaper Preservation Grant

The LSU Libraries has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents for the project, "Louisiana Historical Newspapers: Preservation and Access." Our partners in this project are the libraries at McNeese State University and Louisiana State University -Shreveport. Faye Phillips and Elaine Smyth are the Project Investigators.

In October 1941 the Louisiana Historical Records Survey of the United States Works Projects Administration (WPA) surveyed extant newspapers in Louisiana's libraries, newspaper offices, museums, and courthouses and recommended that the newspapers be microfilmed for preservation purposes. This was the impetus for the LSU Library to begin its Louisiana newspaper microfilming program in 1945, when it started producing archival microfilm of all extant Louisiana newspapers. Today the LSU Libraries continues to create archival microfilm of current Louisiana newspapers, which in 2004 included 94 titles and totaled 69,870 feet of microfilm, thus providing a vital information resource for the study of Louisiana and its history. The funds requested in this proposal will provide the equipment necessary to 1) continue the indispensable archival microfilming work of the Louisiana Newspaper Project; 2) develop enhanced Internet access to Louisiana newspapers via the Louisiana Newspaper Access Program (LaNeAP); and 3) enhance significantly the ability of the LSU Libraries and its partners, McNeese and LSU-S, to provide on-demand, user-driven digital and physical access to existing microfilm of newspapers through the use of both digital and standard microfilm reading technology.

"A Short History of Prints" Exhbition Opens April 20

Exhibition Opening with Talk by the Director of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Thursday, April 20, marks the opening of the student-curated exhibition, "A Short History of Prints." The exhibition is curated by students enrolled in Dr. Darius Spieth's class on the "History of Prints" working in collaboration with Special Collections staff. It features a cross-section of outstanding examples of historical prints from the Renaissance to the present day, ranging from Albrecht Durer to Jim Dine.

Prior to the exhibition opening, Dr. James Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, will present a lecture entitled "Whose Patrimony? Encyclopedic Museums in an Age of Resurgent Nationalism" from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in room 103 of the Design Building. The lecture will be followed by a reception at Hill Memorial Library, where "A Short History of Prints" will be on view.

A distinguished scholar, Cuno is President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago. Previously, he served as Professor and Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London from 2002-2004, and as Professor and Director of the Harvard University Art Museums from 1991-2002. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Cuno has written and lectured widely on topics ranging from French caricature of the 18th and 19th centuries to contemporary American art, as well as on the role of art museums in contemporary American cultural policy. Dr. Cuno recently edited and co-authored Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust (Princeton University Press, 2004).

The lecture at LSU will focus on Dr. Cuno’s concern with ethical issues involving the mission and governance of art museums at the turn of the twenty-first century. Hosted by the Art History program in the School of Art and the College of Art and Design, Dr. Cuno’s visit is part of the Edwin N. Weisl, Jr. Lectureship in Art History, supported by a grant from Robert Lehman Foundation in New York.

The lecture, reception and exhibition are all free and open to the public.