Scares in the Stacks

The Raven, University Art Collection.

“Not incredibly scary” or even “not scary at all” is probably how many would describe the features that make up Special Collections’ October exhibit “Scares in Special Collections.”  Honestly, if you want to be scared or unsettled or irked, there is no shortage of archival caches at Langsdale to sift through--  you can find out about discrimination (ACLU of Maryland for one, and many, many others), challenges to reproductive freedom (Planned Parenthood of Maryland Collection), LGBTQ-bashing, injustice, and the AIDS crisis (The GLCCB collection), or deadly workplace hazards and unfair labor practices (The White Lung Association collection). But since October is one of the most lovely months on the calendar, I thought I’d keep it light. You can view the display in the hallway on the 2nd Floor of Learning Commons, but let me post a few images here for your seasonal amusement.

Time to Ragnarok and Roll

Hold onto your hats, Ragnarok is upon us! When designing its case display for February, Langsdale wanted to tip its hat to this catastrophic event foretold in Norse mythology, hence the Scandinavian theme we’ve got going on behind the glass. Ragnarok is the Viking apocalypse according to modern-day Viking scholars, and they have pinpointed February 22, 2014 as the day when certain doom will commence. The wolf Fenrir kills the god Odin to kick things off. Other happenings prognosticated: all other Norse gods (like Thor, Loki and the like) will fall; Ragnarok will be preceded by three consecutive winters (does the really snowy weather we’re having count as three winters worth? Doubtful.); and, the “Midgard Serpent” will emerge from the sea and wrap itself around earth. Yikes!

Well, if all that is true, time is running out for you to enjoy our colorful celebratory case display, featuring reads and flicks about and from Scandinavia. Also on exhibit are decorative items on loan from the personal collection of Circulation staffer Adele Marley (yours truly), such as vintage, teak Viking figures from Denmark; Dala horses from Sweden; Cathrineholm enamelware from Norway; Finel enamelware from Finland; textiles from Finland, Denmark, and that distant realm known as Ikea; and, Thor and Loki toys. Hopefully Ragnarok won't put too much of a damper on your weekend.

JFK 50 Years Later

I wasn't quite three-months old when John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. I’m not exactly sure where I was when the news was shared, but my mother always told about a neighbor seeing her hanging out clothes to dry, knowing if she was doing something so mundane that she must not have heard the news. This hearkens back to a time when not everyone had TV, and very few had the TV on during the day. Soap operas and game shows were just taking a hold on daytime. Our neighbor came out, tears running down her face, and told my mother the news. I can safely say that this was the one and only time freshly cleaned laundry meet the grass of our backyard. They both sat on the ground and cried until another neighbor beckoned them to join her in front of her 10-inch, black-and-white TV.

Fall '13 Issue of Langsdale Link is Live!

New Library Display, World War I Photographs

Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums are rum-tumming everywhere

World War I, 1914-1918

The Langsdale Library invites everyone to see authentic photographs from World War I. Staff member Brian Chetelat has shared items from his great-uncle Pat (Patrick Murphy) who served in the US Army from 1914-1919. He was exposed to gas in France and only lived into his early forties, dying from tuberculosis. Here is an account from my father, John D. Chetelat, Sr.'s, journal where he talks about his uncle Pat:

Tomes About Toys

Feeling playful?  To dovetail our February case display theme—vintage toys—Langsdale has some particularly juicy reads in its collection about invention and the business of playthings. The books Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber, and Toy Monster by Jerry Oppenheimer are specifically about Mattel, Inc., the California-based powerhouse responsible for such iconic toys as the Barbie doll and Hot Wheels miniature cars.  

Barbie and Ruth is a biography focusing on the life of Ruth Mosko Handler, who, along with her husband Elliott Handler, founded Mattel in the late 1940s. She is most famous worldwide for her creation of Barbie, a perennially popular fashion doll that debuted on the market in 1959. While Elliott Handler was a gifted artist, designer, and toy developer, business-savvy, hard-charging Ruth provided the impetus that got Mattel—the entire company, mind you, not just Barbie—off the ground. Mattel stepped into the toy biz at just the right time, as baby boomers became Mattel’s primary demographic, and children and their parents were clamoring for a never-ending supply of new and novel playthings. Eventually Ruth took a gamble on buying year-round advertising (unheard of at the time—previously, most toy advertising was confined to the holiday season only) on the Mickey Mouse Club, which debuted in 1955. Genius move: Mattel’s sales skyrocketed.

A few years later, despite a nearly unanimous chorus of (mostly male) colleagues and experts advising Handler against marketing the busty Barbie doll (most dolls on the market were baby dolls, encouraging girls in traditional wife-and-mother role-play), Ruth forged ahead with Barbie. She was convinced that the tiny “teen fashion model” reflected the aspirations of little girls everywhere, and that the doll provided a blank screen upon which they could project their fantasies of adulthood. 

Gerber’s book doesn’t shy away from discussing the competitively-charged ruthlessness of the toy business and even of Ruth Handler herself, but Oppenheimer’s Toy Monster goes one step further, pitting Handler against Barbie’s other alleged creator, eccentric engineer and inventor Jack Ryan, in a high-stakes game of corporate one-upmanship.  Ryan, the designer of the Sparrow and Hawk missiles for his former employer Raytheon, was hired by Mattel for his design savvy and facility with space-age materials. He retooled the German Bild-Lilli doll into Barbie (Bild-Lilli was the blueprint on which Barbie was based, which resulted in some litigation between the doll’s German makers and Mattel), made revolutionary talking mechanisms for dolls such as Chatty Cathy, and improved upon the designs of Mattel’s largest toy car competitor with the invention of the Hot Wheels line of miniature cars.  Mattel was so reliant on Ryan’s many patents that Ruth became uncomfortable with the power he wielded, as well as and the vast sums that Mattel had to pay him.  Eventually Handler found a way to make Ryan’s patents obsolete so that the company wouldn’t have to compensate him. Handler’s reign at Mattel ended in 1974, after she was charged with securities fraud and nearly bankrupted the company.

Both of these books are a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the toy biz. Even if you aren’t a fan of Barbie, it’s fun to read about the art and business of invention—particularly when the protagonists have a reputation for playing dirty.