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Friend Collection Hertzog Highlights

This is the first of four posts highlighting especially notable material from the Llerena B. Friend collection – and the first post is focused on the most significant items from Friend’s collection of Carl Hertzog.

I will freely admit to this being the hardest of these four highlight posts to do – there is just so much Hertzog material in the collection. A rough count tells us that over 100 of the items in her collection are printed by Hertzog, but these five items are the best of those Hertzog items.

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Heteroglossia, Libraries, and the Tower of Babel

In an attempt to describe the essential features of the novel, the Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) selected the enigmatic term “heteroglossia.” The concept of heteroglossia encompasses the novel’s unique tendency to be a “heteroglot, multi-voiced, multi-styled, and often multi-languaged” literary form, as compared to poetry, drama, or the epic.[1] For Bakhtin, the novel stands apart, a distinctive member of the realm of Literature, precisely because it combines such a diverse conglomeration of voices – those of social classes, ethnic groups, generations, political ideologies, etc.[2]

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The Captive Boy

The Captive Boy printed by Carl Hertzog for Somesuch Press, 1979.

Special Collections is currently preparing for an inventory of our holdings produced by Texan printer Carl Hertzog. Hertzog designed and printed a variety of beautiful volumes throughout the twentieth century. Between my personal fondness for miniature books and our recent departmental focus on Hertzog, The Captive Boy seemed a natural choice to share on our blog. Continue reading “The Captive Boy”

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Tower Musket

Today I want to talk about an object that crosses two of our major collecting areas – the musket you see above. Firearms, and realia in general, are not really actively collected by Special Collections, as we lack the facilities to care for more than just a few pieces. The significance of this musket requires an exception to this rule, as it combines two of our collecting areas – Texana/Texas history and the life of Senator Tower. Continue reading “Tower Musket”

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For God and Texas

Emily Higgs, Special Collections Intern

The first exhibit on display in Special Collections for the Fall 2017 semester is entitled For God and Texas: Southwestern and the Methodist Mission for Higher Education. Inspired by a question I had about why Southwestern and so many other Texas schools are affiliated with the Methodist Church, I curated this exhibit to increase my own familiarity with the history of this institution and to situate Southwestern as a Methodist university. Continue reading “For God and Texas”

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Carl Hertzog and The King Ranch

One of the joys of my job has been developing an unabashed love for the work of Carl Hertzog. We have a wide array of his work, and are currently processing a gift that will significantly enhance our holdings of Hertzog’s work.

I want to focus here on what has been described as Hertzog’s Gutenberg Bible: The King Ranch. This book is arguably the magnum opus of Hertzog’s career, and is certainly among the best Texas books of the 20th century.

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Keeping Southwestern University in Georgetown

NB: This post is by The Rev. Milton Jordan, a 1962 graduate of Southwestern. Milton is a good friend of Special Collections, and allowed us to share this essay he wrote for the journal Central Texas Studies: Journal of the Central Texas Historical Association. – Jason

Efforts to remove Southwestern University from Georgetown in Central Texas to a more urban setting in Fort Worth or Dallas gained considerable traction during the academic year 1909-1910. Removal efforts had appeared before, but Southwestern had completed construction of a large Main Building in 1900 that quieted them. In 1909-1910 they reappeared with renewed intensity. Continue reading “Keeping Southwestern University in Georgetown”

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Tom Lea’s Lost Adams Diggings

Special Collections has a large collection of materials associated with J. Frank Dobie, a 1910 graduate of Southwestern. These materials include holograph manuscripts, typescripts, and an almost exhaustive collection of his printed works. These all are expected in a collection of Dobie – but the piece you see above is not. My recent work with my colleague, Joan Parks, on her art and art history lib guide led me to revisit this work, and explore why we have this piece.

The piece above – and the focus of this essay – is Tom Lea’s original pen and ink illustration titled Nat Straw’s Poem. The drawing came to Special Collections amongst the donations of the papers and possessions of Dobie.

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