December 1988: Volume 7, Number 3

Rare Books & Special Collections | Architecture: Upright & Wing | Archival Chronicle Index | CAC Homepage

The Rare Books Division

 The Robert Aickman Collection includes a large amount of material relating to Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, including these issues of The Yellow Book.

The Rare Books Division of the Center for Archival Collections more than tripled in size during its first ten years and as of 2002-2003 numbers nearly 8,000 titles, with an additional 12,000 titles in Special Collections A, B, and Pollock. Although some of this growth was due to purchases and transfers from other collections, most of the increase has been the result of generous gifts from alumni, faculty, and friends. Such gifts are essential if the Rare Books Collection is to continue to expand and remain an important asset to Bowling Green State University.

While the subject matter of the collection ranges from philosophy and religion through the sciences and history, the greatest strengths lie in American and British literature.

The Ockuly FDR Collection (MS 415), a gift of Dr. Eugene Ockuly, consists of books, periodicals, campaign materials, correspondence, photographs, and a comprehensive collection of White House press releases, all documenting the life and times of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Frederick F. and Thomas F. Eckman Memorial Collection, donated by Frederick and Martha Eckman, formerly of the Bowling Green State University English Department, emphasizes American poetry of the late twentieth century. In addition to the books and periodicals of the initial donation, Frederick Eckman's manuscript collection (MS 775) and personal library provide the perspective of a working poet who was a co-founder of the BGSU Creative Writing Program. Taken together with the Stranahan Poetry Collection, given by Virginia Stranahan, it makes an impressive survey of nineteenth and twentieth century poetry. Holdings range from the works of Robert Browning, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Robinson Jeffers, to Lawrence Durrell, Robert Lowell, and Theodore Roethke. The Eckman collection is distinguished by many small press and periodical publications, while one major focus of the Stranahan collection is the poetry of the World War I era.

Poetry holdings have probably been the area of greatest growth in recent years. The Robert Peters Collection (MS 626) and the Carol Berge collection (MS 693) reflect the avant-garde and small press publications of the last quarter of the twentieth century. A more detailed description of the Peters Collection is found in another issue of the Archival Chronicle.

The Robert R. Hubach Whitman Collection was given by another Bowling Green professor of English. With numerous editions of Whitman's works and many critical studies, the collection complements the strong nucleus of the poet's first editions in the general Rare Books Division. The strength of the H. Glendon Steele Collection lies especially in the publications of the Limited Editions Club, the Heritage Press, and the Folio Society. Philip F. O'Connor, co-founder of the Creative Writing Program, donated first and early printings of Pulitzer Prize nominees in fiction for the years in which he was a judge in that category. At his retirement from the University, he donated his papers and professional book collection (MS 724).

The Rare Books Division also has acquired the private library and manuscript collection of Robert Aickman (MS 294), the respected British theater critic and writer of occult fiction. Aickman's holdings include nineteenth and twentieth century literature and history, in addition to manuscripts of many of Aickman's works. A large amount of material relating to Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Aubrey Beardsley, and their contemporaries includes rare informal photographs of Douglas taken shortly before his death. Of special interest is a first, limited and signed edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover.

The noted Toledo children's author, Jan Wahl (MS 69), has given over forty of his manuscripts as well as letters and original illustrations. His new publications have been added regularly since his initial gift. Ellen Wells of the Smithsonian Institution donated prints and other materials by and about American illustrator Maxfield Parrish.

The largest and best-known of the Rare Books Division's holdings is the Ray Bradbury Collection (MS 379). Over one hundred Bradbury manuscripts--including the original Fahrenheit 451--as well as correspondence, tapes, photographs, and memorabilia were acquired from William F. Nolan, author of Logan's Run and a long-time friend of Bradbury. This unique and comprehensive resource includes periodicals, pamphlets, posters, broadsides, autographed books, and many first and limited editions.

The general Rare Books Collection includes illuminated manuscripts and early imprints dating from 1497. In addition, there are works from such important presses as Kelmscott, Hogarth, Merrymount, Shakespeare Head, Black Sparrow, and Golden Cockerel. The book as a work of art may be studied in volumes featuring fore-edge paintings and those editions designed and printed by such craftsmen as Bruce Rogers, W. A. Dwiggins, Eric Gill, D. B. Updike, Valenti Angelo, Cobden-Sanderson, William Morris, Leonard Baskin, Will and Sebastian Carter, and Graham Mackintosh.

Another important segment of the collection is first, limited, and signed editions. Represented are such American authors as Hawthorne, Thoreau, Howells, Twain, Dreiser, O'Neill, Sherwood Anderson, and William Carlos Williams. British authors included in this category are Byron, Shelley, T. S. Elliot, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf and W. B. Yeats. Contemporary writers such as John Updike, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Margaret Atwood, and John Fowles are also represented in the general Rare Books holdings.

Anyone thinking of contributing any rare books or manuscripts is invited to contact Lee McLaird, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections.

--Nancy Steen (1988)
Lee N. McLaird

Feature: Architecture

Upright and Wing: The No-Nonsense House

This upright-and-wing, located in Clyde, Ohio, is a good example of the style after 1850. Here, the upright has two bays, with the main entrance in the kitchen wing. Notice the gabled dormer with fishscale shingles, a later addition in the folk-Victorian tradition. One of the most common house types in northwest Ohio is the upright-and-wing or gable-front-and-wing. This L-shaped house has its origins in the building traditions of New England and the Great Lakes region. This may account for its significant numbers in the northern tier of northwest Ohio counties, whose settlers often came from these areas.

The upright-and-wing house consists of a one-and-a-half to two story wing with a front gable roof and perpendicular orientation, and a side wing set at a right angle to it (sometimes known as the kitchen wing), one-half to one story tall, with a side gable and parallel orientation.

The upright element usually has three bays. Early examples contain a door to one side and can probably be traced to earlier gable-front Greek Revival houses. In later examples, particularly after 1850, the upright shrinks to two bays and the main entry shifts to the kitchen wing. This change may have been due to the growing recognition of the first floor of the upright as formal space and the kitchen wing as the informal, everyday center of family activity. Later examples also include a porch in the space provided by the recessed wing.

Because of their origin, these houses sometimes bear evidence of Greek Revival influence. However, northwest Ohio examples are usually simple Folk Victorian or Vernacular types with little or no stylistic influence. Folk Victorian upright-and-wings may include minor detailing in the porch or cornice line, including turned porch supports and bracketed eaves. Both masonry and frame construction were popular.

No systematic survey of upright-and-wing houses in northwest Ohio has been conducted. However, a recent "windshield" survey in Clyde and Bowling Green revealed numerous examples. In fact, the upright-and-wing was so prevalent in Clyde, that, according to architect and Clyde native, Thad Hurd, local builders referred to the house type as "wing and a upright."

Upright-and-wing houses continued to be built well into the twentieth century. Even some contemporary house plans reveal the influence of this historic house-type.

Look for upright-and-wing houses the next time you travel the country roads or small town streets of northwest Ohio. You may even live in one.

--Glenn A. Harper