UH Digital Library Blog - University of Houston

A Stranger In Your Own Home

noreply@blogger.com (Cef) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:12:00 +0000

Though the University of Houston Digital Library's collections are mostly comprised of images and documents, not all of the collections are pictorial. The Jagdish Mehra Audio Collection is a set of lectures from the annual humanities series presented at the Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute (now the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) taped by Dr. Jagdish Mehra. Most of the lectures are on topics related to math and physics, though some of the lectures relate to social matters.

In February of 1966, Dr. Oscar Handlin, then a professor of American History at Harvard, gave a lecture about alienation in the college community. He notes that several changes in the college structure are responsible for this phenomenon.

Dr. Handlin claims in this lecture that the main cause of alienation occurs from the fact that college has not adapted to the rapid unplanned growth of attending students. Though colleges today have been fairly accustomed to having large, diverse student bodies, this was not the case five decades ago.

In the early 20th century, college students were mostly in the range of 14- to 19-year olds, ages when college kids were still expected to be a bit immature and play around. However, in the 1960s, the age of college students ranged from 18 to 22, an age when most people at that time period traditionally were self-supported, marrying, and raising families. Due to their student status, there was always a sense of tension between college students and society since they were old enough and mature enough to be considered adults, but they were still viewed as dependent.

Dr. Handlin also discusses why this age group, though old enough to be self-supportive, is choosing to go to college instead. In addition to the obvious reason of higher income, the simple yet less rational reason for this group to be in school is that society has no use for them. Though they may be qualified for several jobs, the economy at that time was not in a state to provide jobs to them, and college acted as a sort of holding area for these individuals until jobs were available (a situation that can still be applied to today).

In addition to the change in the age range of the typical college student, the nature of the faculty changed as well. Back in Dr. Handlin's day, when a professor was hired by an institution they usually remained there for the remainder of his life. Nowadays (in the 1960s, though still applicable today) it is not uncommon for the faculty body to be with an institution for less than two years. With this trend continuing to progress, the college community becomes less of a community and more like a company.

Along the same lines, students are developing a less personal relationship with their professors as they did in years past. Students in the early 20th century often had a favorite professor which they claimed was the most influential in their life. This type of relationship deteriorated with the increasing mobility of the faculty.

Dr. Handlin continues on to discuss several other changing aspects of college which have added to this alienation phenomenon, but to read about the rest of them in detail it would be best to check out the rest of the lecture here. Be sure to check out the original audio recording as well!

Houston, Once a Winter Wonderland.

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Segura) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:58:00 +0000

As we reach the end of February, we as Houstonians feel robbed with another short winter. Winter left just as soon as it arrived, leaving us with closets full of unworn winter-wear, packets of hot-cocoa mix unopened, and frizzy hair given to us from a returning humidity. One would have the impression that Houston never has a winter, but just a cooler fall, certainly compared to the blizzard-boasting cities of the north, whose ivory-coated buildings and streets are the subject of envy for Houstonians at least once every winter.

But here at the Digital Library, we find this gem; proof that Houston was once a winter wonderland.

This picture was taken in 1925 by photographer Harry Walker, and is a part of our Harry Walker Photographs Digital Collection, which is one in a series of collections found in the Burdette Keeland Architecture Papers, 1926-2000. Our collection of Harry Walker's photographs cover the period from the turn of the twentieth century to the 1940s and record Walker’s life growing up in Beaumont, Texas and his adult life after his move to Houston in the late 1910s.

Here we see a shot of east downtown Houston, with rooftops and cars covered in white powdery snow. Wouldn't it have been nice to have gotten some snow this year? While most cities in the country complain of shoveling snow off of driveways, I'm sure us Houstonians would have a ball! Until then, you can always relive your Houston-snow fantasies, as well as enjoy other great photographs of Houston from nearly a century ago by checking out the Harry Walker Photographs Digital Collection.

A Tribute to the Prince of Pop

noreply@blogger.com (Priscilla) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:59:00 +0000

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the end of "The Prince of Pop." Now, pop, in this instance, is not in reference to the musical genre but actually a form of art. On February 22, 1987, Andy Warhol, known for his extensive involvement with the pop art visual movement, passed away due to cardiac arrhythmia.

Growing up, Andy Warhol always had an affinity for drawing and painting. He studied commercial art after high school during his time at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg. After graduating, Warhol worked as an illustrator for magazines such as Vogue and Harpar's Bazaar. He generally created pieces for the purpose of commercial advertising and was soon one of the most sought after commercial illustrators in New York.

Eventually, Warhol started to expand beyond commercial advertising and began exhibiting his work to the masses. It was then that marked his debut into the world of pop art. The philosophy behind his art was to remove the difference between fine art and commercial art such as those in magazine illustrations, comic books, record albums, and advertising campaigns.

"When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums."

Pop art generally encompasses aspects of mass culture. For Andy Warhol, that included coke bottles and Campbell's tomato soup cans to famous celebrity icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. His work is known worldwide and recognizable to many. It brought attention to the idea of "pop art" and has inspired artists then and even now, 25 years after his death. Cheers to the Prince of Pop: Andy Warhol.

Today's entry presents artwork with pop elements created by students displayed in MD Anderson Library in 2010 and 2011. These and others can be found in the Student Art Exhibit Collection at the UH Digital Library.

The 1890-1935 Home Retail Pamphlet Collection is now available in the UH Digital Library!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Johnson) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:27:00 +0000

The 1890-1935 Home Retail Pamphlet Collection is now available in the UH Digital Library!

The UH Libraries’ Retail Pamphlet Collection is comprised of a diverse array of historic retail brochures, pamphlets and catalogs from the William R. Jenkins Architecture & Art Library’s Rare Books Room. The collection spans 45 years, from a Jap-A-Lac Varnish pamphlet published by Glidden in 1890,

to a 1935 Homestead Fires catalog of “truly appropriate fireplace heaters.”

In addition to these, the collection also features various other paint and varnish pamphlets as well as brochures from companies dealing in plumbing fixtures, fireplace heaters, lace curtains, cedar shingles, furniture and more. Beyond product illustration, the images herein capture descriptive text, specifications and price lists.

The collection includes: Jap-A-Lac, The Home Beautifier (1890), A.W. Faber's Price-List of Superior Lead and Colored Pencils: Writing and Copying Inks, Slate Manufactures, Rulers, Penholders and Erasive Rubber (1897), three volumes from Red Cedar Shingles (1910-1912), How to Paint, from Sears, Roebuck & Co. (unknown), Slumber Davenports (1911), Sectional Come-Pakt Furniture (1912), Modern Plumbing #10 from J. L. Mott Iron Works (1921), Scranton Laces’ New Outlooks for Every Home (1923), Peerless Built-In Furniture (1926), Architectural Varnish List from C. Schrack & Co. (ca1930) and Homestead Fires “Truly Appropriate Fireplace Heaters” (1935).

Thanks so much to all of those who worked hard to create this collection!

Happy birthday USPS!

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Peña) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:58:00 +0000

Today not only should we celebrate Presidents Day or George Washington’s birthday. On February 20th 1792, President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act, which established the United States Post Office Department. From 1792 to 1971, the Post Office Department was the name of the United States Postal Service.

However, the postal system in the American colonies had been functioning for many years before that, frequently with great chaos and inefficiency. The joint efforts of William Goddard, a printer and publisher from New England, and Benjamin Franklin, would create the postal system we have today. They both are known for the innovations made to the postal system that came to be used between the colonies prior to the advent of the American Revolution.

Goddard, frustrated that the royal postal service, controlled and censored by the British Crown, was unable to reliably deliver his Pennsylvania Chronicle to its readers, laid out a plan for the "Constitutional Post" before the Continental Congress in October, 1774. The Constitutional Post would provide mail service to the colonies between New York and Philadelphia now that the independence ideas started to take force. This new postal service gained so much acceptance and support throughout the colonies, that by December of 1775, the royal postal service was out of business. Franklin streamlined postal delivery with properly surveyed and marked routes from Maine to Florida (the origins of Route 1), instituted overnight postal travel between the critical cities of New York and Philadelphia and created a standardized rate chart based upon weight and distance.

The Postmaster General became part of the President’s Cabinet with President Andrew Jackson in 1829. The Postal Reorganization Act was signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970 and it replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent Postal Service on July 1, 1971.

The first image is an illustration of the Post Office in Houston from 1891 that is included in the Souvenir album of Houston Texas, which featured illustrations of 35 notable buildings in the city. The second image is a postcard from 1907 of the Post Office also. To see more images of Houston buildings visit the UH Digital Library. And for more images and history of the U.S. Postal Service visit its official photo gallery.

Sneak Peek at the DJ Screw Collection in the UH Digital Library

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Johnson) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:07:00 +0000

Select items from the DJ Screw Photographs and Memorabilia collection are now available in the UH Digital Library. The full collection will be available after the close of the exhibit: DJ Screw and the Rise of Houston Hip Hop.

This collection includes photographs, handwritten rap lyrics and song lists for “screw tapes,” and flyers related to the late DJ Screw and his rap collective the Screwed Up Click. These materials document how DJ Screw developed the production technique known as “chopped and screwed,” which is closely associated with Houston hip hop.

Of special note is a book of rap lyrics by Screwed Up Click (S.U.C.) member HAWK. In metallic ink on its black pages, he worked out the sixteen bars that make up a typical rap verse. Some pages of the notebook show sets of rhyming words that he was considering for a verse. Others capture the activities of HAWK’s everyday life, from phone numbers to scores for dominoes games.

The collection also includes obituaries (memorial service programs) for DJ Screw and rappers Fat Pat and HAWK.

DJ Screw was born Robert Earl Davis, Jr. in 1971. As a teenager on the South side of Houston, he began DJ-ing and making mixtapes of his favorite rap songs for friends. By the early nineties, he had begun slowing down the music on his tapes to a hypnotic crawl and emphasizing certain words and phrases by repeating them manually. Screw sold these “chopped and screwed” mixtapes directly to eager fans.

Friends and local rappers began ordering personal tapes from Screw, and he invited the rappers to freestyle, or improvise, over beats at the beginning and end of the tapes. Over time, the rappers themselves developed followings and many released successful independent solo albums. Prominent members of the Screwed Up Click included the Botany Boys, Fat Pat, HAWK, Lil’ Keke, E.S.G., Big Pokey, Big Moe, Lil’ O, Al-D, Yungstar, and Lil’ Flip.

It is estimated that DJ Screw sold hundreds of thousands of mixtapes throughout Houston and the South. He also released four studio albums on Bigtyme Recordz: “All Screwed Up,” “3 'N The Mornin' (Part One),” “3 'N The Mornin' (Part Two),” and “I Wanna Get High with Da Blanksta.” As a member of Dead End Alliance (D.E.A.) with Fat Pat, HAWK and Kay-K, he appeared on the album “Screwed for Life.” In 1998, he opened Screwed Up Records and Tapes, a shop that sold only his mixtapes.

On November 16, 2000, DJ Screw was found dead in his recording studio at the age of 29, his death ruled an overdose of codeine and other drugs. His legacy continues to be honored by Houston rappers and fans from around the world.

Thanks so much to all of those who worked hard to publish these initial materials!

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

noreply@blogger.com (Theo W) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Rain has been frequent on the University of Houston campus this week with even more to be expected this weekend. Although making it a little harder to get around campus or even out of bed, the rain has been a welcome sight as relief from the current Texas drought. The Texas Forest Service estimates the drought has already claimed approximately 5.6 million trees in Texas with that number still rising.

The cause of this drought is a period of La Niña, a climate pattern associated with the El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation. While there is no set time table for a La Niña period, an episode of La Niña is defined as a period of at least 5 months of sequential conditions. Some effects La Niña plays upon the U.S. are marked by the mild wet summers in Northern America and drought in the southeastern United States.

While we can only hope this period of La Niña is coming to an end soon, the effects of this drought will be long lived in both the damage it caused and the loss of farmers' harvests throughout the past year. Until then, let's keep the umbrellas handy and enjoy the rain while we still can. If you would like to see more past photos of the University of Houston campus you can visit the University of Houston Digital Library. In the Houstonian Yearbook Collection, you can find various images of student life here at UH.

Making Your Own Woodcuts

noreply@blogger.com (Cef) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:25:00 +0000

The UH Digital Library has two collections of woodcuts in its archives, and many of their pictures have been featured in this blog. Though we usually write about the artwork and the collection itself, a lot of you might be wondering: "What exactly is woodcut?" Woodcut is a relief printing technique that involves carving a design into a block of wood and inking the design in order to stamp prints onto paper.

The materials required to make a woodcut are few and easy to obtain. You will need a block of wood, a pencil or pen (preferably pencil), a carving tool, a roller, and ink. Ideal blocks of wood are fine-grained and are cut across the grain. To help prepare the wood, it is good to sand and dust the block to remove some of the irregularities it might have. As for the carving tool, a hobby knife is ideal since it can make fine cuts, though it depends on your designs. Chisels or small screwdrivers will work well too.

First, you will want to plan out the design of your woodcut using a pencil. During this stage, you are simply marking which parts are "black" and which parts are "white". The "white" parts will be the places in the wood that you carved, and the "black" parts are the parts of the wood that will remain untouched.

Next comes the carving part. To make the block easier to handle, place the block on a soft surface like a mat so that the wood does not slip as you are trying to carve into it. For large areas of blank space like in this design from the Ship of Fools Woodcuts collection, use a chisel to quickly carve out these large areas.

If your design has small details like fur or scales, a hobby knife would be preferable to carve out these features. Improvised tools , such as a metal comb or any tool with teeth, would also be good since they can shorten your task, as well as add a unique texture or pattern to the woodcut.

For the last step, gently roll the ink on your design with a flat roller. Be careful not to squeeze the roller onto the wood too hard, otherwise you will get ink in your blank spaces. You may need to roll your wood several times with ink since fresh wood tends to soak the ink up. When the wood is sufficiently inked, lay a sheet of paper across the woodcut and firmly press it with a solid surface such as a wooden spoon or another wooden block. Now, peel back the sheet of paper and enjoy your handiwork.

To see more examples of woodcuts and get some ideas on designs, check out the Ship of Fools Woodcuts collection and Topsell's The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents collection in the UH Digital Library. They are filled with examples of intricate images that were made using the woodcut technique.

The Writer's Club and The Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Segura) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:12:00 +0000

If you happened to catch last night's Honors College poetry and prose reading, you were in for a real treat. University of Houston professors Antonya Nelson and Robert Boswell shared some of their works with students and the community, and even chose the night to debut some new pieces. This is one of a series of events coordinated by the creative writing program and and the library in an effort to provide University of Houston faculty and students, graduate and undergraduate, a chance to share their writing with each other as well as Houston. This isn't the first time the University of Houston has used literature to bring about such a sense of creativity and community for our student body and city.

Pictured above is the Writer's Club of 1966 looking over The Harvest, an anthology comprised of literature composed by University of Houston students. While the Writer's Club and The Harvest may not be around anymore, the spirit of art and community is very much still alive in the work of our students and faculty today, 46 years later. This photo came from the 1966 Houstonian Yearbook, and you can check out many more yearbooks from our Houstonian Yearbook Collection.

Remember the Maine

noreply@blogger.com (Priscilla) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Let us take a second to look back in history and remember a certain tragedy that happened in 1898.

Back in the mid-late 1800s, there was building tension between Spain and the United States as Cubans were trying to liberate themselves from Spanish control. The U.S. sympathies were with the Cuban revolutionaries. On a fateful evening today in 1898, the USS Maine, sent out to protect U.S. interests in Cuba, mysteriously exploded in a harbor in Havana, Cuba. 266 men lost their lives while there were only 89 survivors of the disaster.

The U.S. Navy Department soon conducted an investigation for the cause of the explosion. It was concluded that a mine was detonated under the ship. Americans were publicly outraged and blamed Spain for the explosion. This unified more supporters for a war as more national attention focused on Cuba. Though the explosion of the USS Maine was not a cause, it was definitely a catalyst, accelerating the declaration of war on Spain (a.k.a. The Spanish-American War).

Years later, there is still a dispute among historians about the cause of the explosion. Some argue that the damage on the ship was inconsistent with the explosion of a mine. They, instead, deduct that it was caused by the spontaneous combustion of coal in a bunker. Of course, there are arguments against too. The point is, the explosion of the USS Maine had a significant impact on the lives of Americans and has left its mark in the history books ever since.

"Remember the Maine!"

Today's photo is from the Havana, Cuba: The Summer Land of the World Collection which consists of images taken from an early 20th century promotional pamphlet encouraging Americans to visit Havana, Cuba.To find these and other collections visit the UH Digital Library.

1895 Valentine's Day still most cold-hearted one yet.

noreply@blogger.com (Jacob Dalton Patterson) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:21:00 +0000

Love is in the air as today. If you look closely during your trek across campus, you’ll see people with candy, balloons, and flowers from a significant other or an admirer. It’s a day of remembering that special someone if you are in a relationship or married, and a day of possible new romance if you are single. For most of Texas, though, this day holds another historical significance, for on Valentine’s Day in 1895, the Gulf Coast Snowstorm covered most of Texas and Louisiana in nearly three feet of snow in the biggest blizzard to ever be recorded in the gulf coast.

According to an article by W.T. Block in the 1979 (http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/ice.htm) , and as you could expect when a blizzard hits the gulf coast, everything shut down. In Orange, locomotives couldn’t plow their way through the snow to do their jobs, and traffic was backed up due to snow being as much as six feet deep. In Beaumont, two men walked down a street wearing possibly the first Texas-made snowshoes in the state’s history. In Galveston, snow was occasionally so thick that visibility was at zero. Frozen point in East Galveston Bay, as told by columnist Shannon Tompkins (http://blog.chron.com/shannontompkins/2010/01/more-from-1895-blizzard-that-triggered-naming-of-frozen-point/), got its name from the harshness of the conditions during those two days. It got so cold, that cattleman Forrest McNeir wrote in his autobiography of snow almost three feet deep. So many wild cattle had died from freezing to death that McNeir and his brother spent two weeks skinning cattle, and amassed 250 hides, selling them at 1.25 apiece.

The above picture is Market Square, once located at Travis Street and Prairie Avenue in Houston, on Valentine’s Day, 1895. As you can see, they were dealing with their own problems, as 20 inches of snow fell on the bayou city.

Today, it is about 64 degrees Fahrenheit according to the news this morning with clear skies. If you are going to have a great Valentine’s Day today or are going out somewhere nice with someone special, consider yourself luckier than the lovers back 117 years ago that cupid wasn’t so kind to.

For more interesting pictures, check out the digital library’s Historic Houston Photographs Collection, or take a gander at other fun pictures at the university’s Digital Library .

Music in Houston

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Peña) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Students at UH are devoted to getting the most out of their education, and to enjoy the time they spend in college, too. Proof of this are the over 400 student organizations registered at the University of Houston. The Houstonian Yearbook Collection at the UH Digital Library shows the involvement of students in every aspect of campus life.

One example is the Student Program Board, whose mission is to provide high-quality educational, enrichment, and entertainment programs that enhance student life at the University of Houston and contribute to overall student development. For years the SPB has focused on bringing bands, comedians and movie premieres for UH students.

Here we see local bands presenting for fans in an event in 2006. The music scene in Houston is not as arid as most of us think.

But now, SPB has organized an event like possibly no other. On Feb. 23, UH will receive Gym Class Heroes on campus. This special event will be the first of its kind to be organized and hosted by a student organization. For more info on that, click here.

Come Explore Folkloric Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (Gnome) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:51:00 +0000

This beautiful hand colored photograph is from the Governor James V. Allred Collection located in Special Collections in the University of Houston Library. It was taken by Luis Marquez. In 1937, Luis Marquez presented Governor James Allred with a collection of his hand colored photographs. Luis Marquez would go on to become the official photographer for and art adviser of the Mexican Pavilion at the 1939-40 World’s Fair. His photography focused on a portrayal of a folkloric Mexico. The University of Houston has one of the two most prominent collections of photographs by Luis Marquez. The other major collection of his works is housed at The National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. For more information about Luiz Marquez, see this article about an exhibition of his work at the Queens Museum of Art. For information about hand colored photographs, check out this Wikipedia article.

Jazz in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Theo W) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:24:00 +0000

The University of Houston Digital Library's newest exhibit, The SEM Collection, contains many fascinating and often comical caricatures drawn by the famous french artist Georges Goursat. Included in this collection is a special book by the name of White Bottoms, in which Georges, widely known as Sem, depicts some of the popular dances of the 1920's.

One of the easily recognizable depictions Sem drew in this book was that of the Charleston. The Charleston, named after the city of Charleston, South Carolina, was a dance made popular by the 1923 song "The Charleston" by James P. Johnson. The music for the Charleston is ragtime jazz, which is most characterized by its syncopated and upbeat rhythm. While both the Charleston and Ragtime jazz are distinctly American forms of art, the dance craze had taken off internationally by the mid-1920's.

Although Sem was across the ocean in France, you can still see traces of American life and culture through his artwork. If you're interested to see more depictions of the dances Sem rendered, The University of Houston Digital Library displays drawings of the complete White Bottoms book. If you'd like to see the complete Sem Collection you can click here.

Bird's Eye View

noreply@blogger.com (Cef) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Ever since the advent of aerial photography, maps have become increasingly accurate and more widespread in usage. The ability to have a sky eye view enables us to see the landscape how it actually is without the distortion obtained when using older mapping techniques.

Prior to the development of human flight and modern photography, maps were made with the use of tools like the sextant and the quadrant. These tools measured the angles of selected landmarks in relation to other landmarks and celestial features, allowing early cartographers to make fairly precise depictions of their surroundings. As you can see in the images below, the drawings that were made using these techniques enabled them to make maps that were pretty close to those of today.

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This map of Houston was drawn during the early 1900s, just before the use of aerial photography.

Here is an aerial photograph of the area depicted in the map. This was taken in 1927, roughly a decade after the map was drawn.

View Larger Map

As you can see from a current map and the older map, the earlier depictions weren't too far off. The only distortions were around the river bends where the terrain made it difficult for people to obtain accurate measurements.

Nowadays, with the addition of satellite and computer assistance, we can now make very accurate maps as well as three-dimensional depictions.

View Larger Map

As technology keeps improving, maps will become more even more useful and integrated into our daily lives.

To see more maps and images of old Houston, check out the Historic Maps collection and the Historic Houston Photographs collection at the University of Houston Digital Library website.

Food for Thought: the Ship of Theseus

noreply@blogger.com (Priscilla) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:54:00 +0000

Contrary to initial thought, the Ship of Theseus is not an actual ship, but is actually one of the various situations to an infamous paradox. The question is whether an object is still considered the same object if all of its parts have been taken away and replaced.

So how does this relate to a ship of all things? The question is elaborated and detailed in a scenario with a ship. Suppose that there is a slightly damaged ship with a broken plank; the workers would soon replace the damaged plank with a new piece of wood. After the repair the ship is still the same ship, right? It was a minor repair, after all. Now, if the ship continues to become damaged and its parts are always replaced to the point where all the component parts of the old ship has been replaced...is it still the same ship?

"The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned [from Crete] had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same."
—Plutarch, Theseus"

This paradox was first raised by Plutarch in the Greek legend, Theseus and has been further speculated throughout the years; such is with the case when the philosopher Thomas Hobbes questioned if the original planks and parts were used to make a second ship, which would be the original Ship of Theseus? It can even be applied to the university, when Robertson Stadium is rebuilt, is it essentially still the same "Robertson Stadium"?

Various resolutions have been proposed, each with slightly differing reasons. One first defines the phrase "the same" before answering the question while another asks what exactly defines an object? Food for thought...does the object remain the same or does it not remain the same? You decide!

Find more similar images of ships, sins, vices, and more from the Ship of Fools Woodcuts Collection at the UH Digital Library!

Out with the old, and in with the new

noreply@blogger.com (Jacob Dalton Patterson) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:44:00 +0000

At one point, before their loss to Southern Mississippi in the game that would determine who would go to the Sugar Bowl, the Houston Cougars were ranked the 6th best college football team in the nation. They were undefeated in the regular season, Case Keenum set records for many offensive categories (including a 9 touchdown pass shellacking of rivals Rice University), and they were covered by ESPN in their game against Southern Methodist University. To say that last season was successful would be an understatement. 2011 was arguably the best season that Cougar football has ever seen. They also accepted a move into the Big East, a considerably harder division, but with that comes an opportunity. If a team plays well in a prestigious conference such as that, being undefeated (or even having 1 or 2 losses) holds a lot more weight. Capitalizing on their new found success and popularity, and with the backing of nearly three-fourths of voting students, the university and it's student body will be ponying up some money for a new stadium. With that comes the moving out and tearing down of a stadium that has been a university relic in 71-year old Robertson Stadium.

Robertson Stadium, originally named Houston Public School Stadium according to uhcougars.com, was built in 1941 as a venue that would host high-school football games, the first one being in 1942 when Lamar High School played (and defeated) Adamson High School. University of Houston played it's first game there in 1945 against Southwestern Louisiana. In 1950, the team left the stadium to play at the new Rice Stadium, and then switched to the newly built Astrodome 15 years later. During the cougars' absence, the stadium hosted various high school football games, and even was the home to an NFL franchise, the Houston Oilers, from 1960 to 1964. During it's years as an NFL stadium, it's seating capacity was upgraded to 36000 and various improvements were made. Interestingly, even as an NFL stadium, it was still being used by high school football teams, with an average of ten games being played in the stadium a week. In 1970, the stadium was bought by the University of Houston from HISD and renamed from Jeppeson Stadium to it's current name, named after Corbin J. Robertson who was a Board of Regents member and Athletic Committee Chairman. In 1998, the Cougars finally moved back into Robertson Stadium full time. To prepare for this, the university had a 2 million dollar overhaul in 1983, erected a scoreboard in 1995 and 1996, and hoisted another state of the art scoreboard with a replay screen and an advanced sound system in 1999. Fourteen seasons later, the Houston Chronicle announced that Athletic Director Mack Rhoads said that the stadium will be torn down at the conclusion of the 2012 season.

Robertson Stadium (Jeppeson Stadium at the time) in it's younger days

It's sad to see a stadium with so much history go, but a friend reminded me that part of new found fame and success is being able to capitalize on it. Robertson Stadium is outdated, and when your school is in a conference that the NFL recruits heavily from, the chances that top talent from high schools want to play for your university increases. You have to be able to sell the school to them, and a new stadium would definitely help. Plus, the students of the university, or at least the ones who voted, are again mostly in favor of it.

For more photos of university buildings, check out the University of Houston Digital Library building's page here, or for interesting relics from the university, Houston, or surrounding areas, visit the University of Houston Digital Library's main page here.

Rockin' It Out At The Hofheinz

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Segura) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:44:00 +0000

If you were to ask a fellow UH student what came to mind when they thought of the Hofheinz Pavilion, some would probably say "basketball", or perhaps even recall their own high school graduations which the pavilion hosted. If you happened to ask someone of an earlier generation, say a student of the 1970s, they might say "arena rock." Hofheinz Pavilion did at one point serve as a venue for some of the world's greatest musical acts, such as Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The Who, and Led Zeppelin to name a few. And to think that such a peacefully looking place once had "Black Dog" resonating at ear-piercing decibel levels. The picture above is drawn from the University of Houston Buildings Collection, where you can search for other interesting buildings within our campus.

UH Photographs Collection, 1948-2000 http://archon.lib.uh.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=58

A glimpse of French fashion and humor

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Peña) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:14:00 +0000

Georges Marie Goursat known for his caricatures was a French artist devoted to understanding the essence and personality of a person and representing it in a comic way. He signed his designs as SEM, possibly in honor of another French artist and caricaturist, Amédée de Noé , who titled his work as Cham. He published many successful albums or collections of these caricatures featuring the prominent French socialites, actors and writers, as well as political figures. He takes a notorious distinctive characteristic in the personality or physical appearance of his character and emphasizes it on his drawings.

Le vrai & le faux chic is a collection published in 1914 that focuses on fashion. SEM includes his caricatures and a brief comment on the shapes and contours of French and specifically, Parisian fashion during the early 20th century. He writes, “Fashion is no longer reserved exclusively for specialists, it made a call for the direct collaboration of painters, artists, and even writers... The major newspapers devote articles every day and entire pages every week. Special (fashion) magazines proliferate and publish exclusive and deluxe editions worthy of inclusion in the libraries of bibliophiles. All this great movement that has emerged around fashion is justified because, in this industry eminently French, Paris dedicates a daily effort on inventive spirit, grace, and even genius.”

In these drawings, the artist interprets the forms and silhouettes of the fashion worn by the French ladies and compares them to the shapes of different insects, mimicking even their postures.

Even today, Paris is a symbol of fashion and elegance, greatly due to famous designer Coco Chanel. Starting out as a hat designer in 1910, she made her way up to creating an empire and becoming a fashion icon. Goursat made a caricature titled “Tangoville sur la Mer” featuring Chanel and her lover, Captain Edward Arthur Capel.

To see more of Goursat’s hilarious work, visit the SEM Collection at the UH Digital Library.

The SEM Collection (1914-1925) is now available in the UH Digital Library.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Johnson) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:03:00 +0000

The SEM Collection (1914-1925) is now available in the UH Digital Library.

SEM (1863–1934), né Georges Goursat, was a French illustrator and caricaturist who rose to fame during the Belle Époque. The Digital Library’s SEM Collection is comprised of four volumes from the UH Architecture and Art Library’s Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room.

Le Vrai & le Faux Chic (1914),

White Bottoms (ca. 1920),

the self-titled SEM (ca. 1920),

and Le Nouveau Monde (1925)

Each volume affectionately and mercilessly documents the Parisian high society of a bygone era, and showcase the wild and whimsical work of SEM.

Special thanks to all those who helped make this collection possible!

Big Win for Cougar Athletics

noreply@blogger.com (Theo W) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:33:00 +0000

You may have noticed students voting around campus earlier this week. If you were able to participate you probably know exactly what the purpose of this vote was for. In case you weren't, there was a proposal of a student paid service fee of $45 dollars a semester to help pay for a new football stadium and a renovated Hofheinz Pavilion. After two days of voting, the result was a strong push in favor of the fee given by the majority of students who voted.

The Associated Press reported a total of 9,923 students voted with 7,334 (73.9%) students in favor and 2,589 (26%) against it. Many feel that these improvements are the next steps for UH becoming a tier one university and in turn receiving greater financial support from the state as well as the recognition of being a top university in the nation.

The University of Houston didn't always have Robertson Stadium and Hofheinz Pavilion to call home. Robertson Stadium was built in 1942, with the University of Houston football team playing their first game inside Robertson in 1946. The stint didn't last long with the Cougars moving to Houston Stadium for 4 years and eventually moving to their home for 30 years of the Astrodome. Similarly with Hofheinz Pavilion, it wasn't until 1969 that it was built with the Cougars previously playing in various venues such as the Houston Coliseum in the photo above.

You can find many photos of the Cougars playing in Robertson Stadium and Hofheinz Pavilion in the University of Houston Digital Library. In the Houstonian Yearbook Collection, you can see Cougar's sports throughout it's many years of history.

The Storefront Side of Sears

noreply@blogger.com (Cef) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Far before they managed multilevel department stores, Sears-Roebuck and Co. began as a mail order catalog business that catered to farmers. In that day, consumers had to travel all the way to town in order to buy goods from general stores, often at relatively high prices. They had no choice but to pay these high prices otherwise they would have wasted a trip into town. What the Sears-Roebuck catalog did was provide a list of the company's products with stated prices so that the customers knew what was available and what it cost, enabling them to pick and obtain their purchases conveniently.

It wasn't until this day in 1925 that Sears opened its first retail store in a part of its Merchandise building in Chicago. The store turned out to be such a huge success that it opened 27 stores in Chicago and other cities by 1927. Today it runs 926 full-sized Sears stores in the United States, as well as 301 Sears locations in Canada and 66 locations in Mexico.

Sears Roebuck continued to build urban department stores from the 1920s through the 1950s. Starting in the 1950s, the company started moving into the suburban market with stores like the one pictured above, and later branched out into the malls as well in the 1960s and 1970s.

This particular sketch comes from the UH Digital Library's Kenneth Franzheim Collection, drawn around 1952. In addition to stores, Franzheim also designed other architectural works as well, from lobbies to complete skyscrapers. Be sure to check out more of his works by following the link!

Engravings from Theodore DeBry’s America are now available in the UH Digital Library!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Johnson) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:02:00 +0000

Engravings from Theodore DeBry’s America are now available in the UH Digital Library!

These detailed copper plate engravings depict the arrival of the Spaniards in the New World and their encounters with native peoples. They are taken from the sixteenth century book “Americae, volume IV” of Theodor de Bry’s “Grandes Voyages” series, a collection which gave many Europeans their first visual representations of North America.

The engravings highlight not only the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the West Indies, but atrocities perpetrated by the Spanish on the Native Americans. Plates show the Spaniards hanging the Native Americans on board a ship, throwing them to the dogs, and attacking them with swords and muskets. Other plates depict the Native Americans pouring molten gold down the Spaniards’ throats, and drowning one of the Spaniards in the sea. Because De Bry had never seen any Native Americans, he made them resemble idealized Greco-Roman figures.

Theodor de Bry was born in 1528 in Liège, Belgium, where he trained as a goldsmith and engraver. He fled Liège around 1570 to avoid persecution by Catholics, eventually settling in Frankfurt. He began working on the multi-volume “Grandes Voyages” in 1590, and completed the first six volumes before his death in 1598. The books were published in both German and Latin. His wife and son carried on the project, releasing twenty-one more volumes through the year 1634. “Americae, volume IV” was based on Giralamo Benzoni’s eyewitness travel account “Historia del Mondo Nuovo,” and most of its engravings were based on earlier illustrations by Johannes Stradanus.

The University of Houston Libraries’ copy of “Americae, volume IV” is a first edition printed in German, with the exception of the title page which comes from a first edition printed in Latin. This copy is missing plates 2, 3, 19, 21, and 23, as well as its original map of the West Indies and adjacent coasts.

Thank you so much to everyone who worked hard to publish this collection!

A Difference in 85 Years

noreply@blogger.com (Priscilla) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:44:00 +0000

Houston is known for a handful of things across the nation. There is the renowned Texas Medical Center, the NASA Space Center Houston, the abundance of museums, and our sea port. However, in addition to these features, there also exists the Houston skyline, the third tallest skyline in North America and one of the top 10 in the world.

All great things have their modest beginnings, and Houston isn't an exception.

Downtown Houston was the founding point of Houston. Its growth was due to two major factors:

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 - where city investors wanted a location close to the sea ports, yet far enough to be free from damage from hurricanes along the coast.
In 1901, oil was discovered at Spindletop, slightly south of Beaumont, Texas.

From there the rest was history as various industries, such as shipping and oil, moved in and growth consequently flourished. Various complexes and buildings were constructed along with a few skyscrapers that began to add to our skyline.

The picture above features a photograph of the downtown Houston skyline looking east from an unidentified bridge in 1927. The Esperson Building is the tallest building here.

85 years later, downtown Houston looks completely different. The tallest building is no longer the Esperson, but in fact the Exxon building, following by the JPMorgan Chase Tower. Downtown spans across over millions of square feet (40 million just for office spacing alone) divided into a number of wards and districts. There includes the theater district, 17 blocks of performance art venues, the skyline district, which includes most of the skyscrapers in the area, the sports and convention complexes, and more. Nearby there is also the museum district and the renowned Texas Medical Center as well.

Though the city doesn't look quite like how it was imagined in the 1920's and 1930's, Downtown Houston has come a long way from it roots and only continues to change and flourish as generations influence the various aspects of economies and history in the area. Find more historical photos of the city in The Houston Historic Photographs Collection, which contain the George Fuermann's "Texas and Houston" Collection at the University of Houston Digital Library.

Explored the UC lately?

noreply@blogger.com (Jacob Dalton Patterson) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:04:00 +0000

The month of January is almost over, and school has been in session for a little over two weeks now. Even this early in the semester, most have either passed through or spent time at the UC (University Center). Banners hang over the handrails proclaiming student events or causes, various musical and cultural performances ensue on the center of the basement floor, and student organizations sell their wares near the entrances to support their clubs. There are also large conference rooms throughout the building where student organizations regularly host events.

Besides being a haven for student organizations, the UC is also an excellent place to get things done. The triple-decker building hosts many retail spaces, including a discount computer store, a barbershop, several fast-food restaurants, and a large bookstore.

Done for the day and ready to unwind? In the basement, the UC hosts a large arcade room that includes ping pong tables, a refreshment stand, and a bowling alley. If you are a veteran, swing by the VA center and computer lounge on the second floor, where administrative questions can be answered and vets can work, relax, or eat lunch away from the hubbub.

Outwardly, not much has changed in appearance from this picture of the UC taken nearly 40 years ago. The obscure statue and water fountain still remain, and the tradition of hanging banners from the handrail has stayed put. One interesting fact about this picture is that if you zoom in, you can see that the banner in the top center seems to reference the 1976 election. For more great historic pictures that reference the university’s buildings, check out the digital library buildings archive here, or for a plethora of collections of historic pictures of things that have happened in the past several decades around the university and Houston, visit the digital library’s main page here.