Special Collections at PPL

The Lois and Dan Show

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:45:35 +0000

Over the past few decades we’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate frequently with DWRI Letterpress. In 2021 we received the shop’s archival collection, which includes thousands of job files documenting their work in the 21st century.

Collections like this one can be difficult for researchers to navigate, so we sat down with Dan Wood and Lois Harada to film them talking about the history of the shop and what researchers will discover in the files. We also recorded Dan as he created that day’s issue of The Linotype Daily by setting text on the Linotype machine and then printing it on a Heidelberg Windmill press. Watch the short version here (the full version also includes their discussion of the files).

Unsurprisingly to anyone who knows Dan and Lois, it was a fun time.

Updike Award Time!

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:33:40 +0000

UPDATE: Congratulations to this year’s Prize Winner, Ryan Brandon Hsiao, for his typeface Mackerel! Make an appointment to visit Special Collections to view specimens of Mackerel as well as specimens created by our runners-up, Deborah Khodanovich and AnneMarie Torresen.

The biennial Updike Prize for Student Type Design is our big typographic event of the season, held this year on Saturday, October 4th at 1:30 PM. This year’s guest speaker is Providence’s own Cyrus Highsmith, and we have so much exciting content around the event and the exhibition of Cyrus’s sketchbooks, mentioned in the previous post.

First, as teased previously, the full video of Cyrus in conversation with Lois Harada and Michael Russem is now available for viewing. It’s a wonderfully rambling conversation that veers in a lot of directions: graphic design, family life, particularities of pens, paper, and other equipment, travel around the world, and more.

We also have a special treat for the early arrivals at Saturday’s event: Take home your own copy of this year’s event poster, featuring silkscreen printing by Cyrus. Limited supplies, so don’t be late arriving, and we may even have some posters from previous years available as well.

And the exhibition catalog, designed by Michael Russem, is best seen in person, so don’t miss your chance to pick up a copy.

Most important of all, we’ll have a chance to see the work of some amazing young type designers, so join us this Saturday afternoon at the library! (RSVPs are appreciated for this free event.)

Teaser for October: Cyrus Highsmith Sketchbooks

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 18:00:17 +0000

We’re getting excited for our next Updike Prize Award Ceremony on Saturday, October 4th, where our guest speaker will be Cyrus Highsmith. Cyrus recently donated to the library his extensive collection (~300 volumes) of the sketchbooks he’s been keeping for the past 30 or so years, which he writes journal entries, sketches, and pastes in ephemera. He is in the process of curating an exhibition of the collection, which will be on view in the library’s Boghossian Gallery October through the end of the year. Cyrus was also kind enough to let us film him discussing the collection along with two guests, Lois Harada and Michael Russem. The full video will be coming soon (-ish), but for now we can give you a taste with this short clip.

2025-26 Creative Fellowship

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 19:33:55 +0000

Our call for proposals is now open for this year’s Creative Fellowship. More info is available via the library website.

The Creative Fellowship is one of the highlights of the year for us, and this year we’re making it a little easier to put together a good proposal. We’ll be holding an open house in Special Collections on Wednesday, September 24th, from 5:00-6:30 PM. Stop in to get a look at some materials and learn more about the collections available for you to work with.

An image of the Special Collections reading room with a collage by Creative Fellow Keri King.

Letting the Dogs Out 25 Years Later

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:38:07 +0000

It’s been 25 years since the release of the Baha Men’s inescapable hit “Who Let the Dogs Out,” and we’re commemorating it in the best possible way. Ben Sisto has guest-curated an exhibition of the many (many, many) artifacts he collected during the process of researching the question of Who really let Who Let the Dogs Out out? His 2019 documentary set out to answer the rather complicated and utterly fascinating history of the song’s production and release.

We’ll be screening the documentary on Saturday, July 26th, at 3pm in our third floor auditorium. Sisto will be on hand, and we’ll have an opportunity to visit the exhibition before or after the film. You can register for this free event via the library’s website.

Photos of the exhibition by Jay Ruzicka.

A small (shaky) taste of the Joe DeGeorge event

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:42:49 +0000

It’s been three weeks since Joe DeGeorge wowed the audience in our auditorium with an incredible Creative Fellow performance. Joe performed music composed during his fellowship, together with narration by Austin O’Goffa and shadow puppetry by Willow Gianotti-Garlinghouse.

In the coming weeks we’ll be making a full-quality recording of the music available on our digital repository, but in the meantime we can at least offer a few clips (shakily-recorded on a phone, so don’t judge Joe and the performers based on the video quality) to give a sense of what was a truly incredible event.

Joe DeGeorge Creative Fellow Concert

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 14:47:02 +0000

We’re less than a week away from our 2024-25 Creative Fellow Joe DeGeorge’s presentation, a performance of music he composed inspired by one of our most mysterious whaling logbooks. When third mate Marshall Keith recorded the events of the Brewster’s 1863 voyage he didn’t limit his entries to the standard stuff (location, weather, whales encountered, etc.). He also included a record of his dreams. Joe DeGeorge has used them to craft original music that he will perform, accompanied by puppet-artist Willow Gianotti-Garlinghouse and voice actor Austin O’Goffa.

Learn more and register for this free event on the library’s event calendar. The event takes place on Wednesday, June 18th in our 3rd-floor Auditorium, starting at 5 PM.

Updike Prize Reminder

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 17:40:49 +0000

Our first Updike Prize news is that it took a while, but our 2023 prize winner Clara Cayosa is finally in possession of the trophy. Clara was out of town for the award ceremony, but we made the handoff at an unofficial award presentation recently.

If you’d like to be the next person receiving the trophy, now is the time to be working on your typeface. The deadline for submissions is September 5th, which gives you plenty of time to visit us to do some research. Rules for the competition are available on our website, and you can contact us for any more detailed questions. The exhibition and award ceremony are going to be exciting, and we’ll have more details to follow in the coming months, but in the meantime, save the afternoon of Saturday, October 4th.

Joe DeGeorge is our 2025 Creative Fellow

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 19:15:47 +0000

We’re excited to announce that our next Creative Fellow has been chosen, and with this year’s theme of sound and music, Joe DeGeorge is the perfect person to fill that role. Joe will begin working with collections this upcoming January, and we can’t wait to find out what catches his attention and how he transforms our historic artifacts into music. More updates to come…

Photo by Mary Regalado

Providence Printers Panel

Providence Public Library Special Collections — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 15:21:09 +0000

You’re invited to a panel discussion on November 12th with four of the most exciting letterpress printers in Providence. The Pied Type Panel starts at 5:30 PM in the library’s 3rd floor Seminar Room. We’ll have a chance to hear from, and ask questions of: Andre Lee Bassuet, Jacques Bidon, Lois Harada, and Dan Wood.

The panel accompanies the “Pied Type: Letterpress Printing in Providence, 1762-Today” exhibition, curated by Lois Harada. The exhibition will be open and accessible next door to the Seminar Room.

Visit the library’s event page to register for this free event.