Exhibition in library until Monday: St Helena material from Rhodes House

To coincide with the meeting of the Friends of St Helena, which is taking place in Oxford this weekend, Rhodes House Library have set up a display of some material relating to St Helena from their collections in our exhibition cases. The material will only be on display until Monday, so if you are curious to see then be sure to come in before then.

US Elections Campaigns Archive exhibition

To tie in with the annual Congress to Campus event being held at the Rothermere American Institute on Monday 6th February, we are displaying a selection of items from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive until next Friday. 

This archive, donated to the VHL by Professor Philip Davies (Eccles Centre, British Library), contains campaign materials collected from US elections at all levels. The majority of the material dates from the later 20th century, but there are many examples of older items, some of which we have included in this exhibition, such as 19th and early 20th century campaign buttons and ballots from the Civil War era. As well as buttons, posters, bumper stickers, flyers and leaflets, the collection contains many other examples of campaign ephemera – t-shirts, caps, dolls, rain bonnets, jewellry, bars of soap, rain bonnets, playing cards and commemorative plates. Professor Davies continues to add to the archive with each election, and an archivist is currently in the process of cataloguing it in full so that it can be made available to researchers.

Congress to Campus runs throughout the US and UK and brings bipartisan pairs of former Congressmen to colleges and universities to talk to students and impart their insights into the inner workings of US politics. The RAI has hosted the Oxford event for the past few years, offering the opportunity to local sixth form students as well as those studying at the University.

American Literature exhibition: Marilynne Robinson and the American Family Home

To accompany the Esmond Harmsworth Annual Lecture, which will be given by Marilynne Robinson at the Rothermere American Institute on Monday 23rd May, we have set up a small exhibition in the library. The exhibition places Robinson’s work in the context of the American literary and artistic tradition, and includes works by John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Erskine Caldwell, Edward Hopper and Dorothea Lange, as well as Robinson’s major novels.

The exhibition will remain in place until the end of next week (27th May). Thanks to Dr. Sally Bayley for her help in selecting material and writing the text.

US Elections Campaigns Archive exhibition – today only

To tie in with the conference taking place at the RAI today, we have put out a display of some materials from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive in the library. This archive, donated to the VHL by Professor Philip Davies (Eccles Centre, British Library) contains campaign materials collected from US elections at all levels. Much of the material dates from the later 20th century, but there are many examples of older material, such as a glass plate dating from 1880 and campaign buttons from 1840 onwards. As well as buttons, posters, bumper stickers, flyers and leaflets, the collection contains many less-traditional examples of campaign ephemera, such as rain bonnets from 1964 and a bar of soap from 1952.

Professor Davies continues to add to the archive with each election, and we recently received a substantial amount of material relating to the 2008 elections, including an Obama doll.

We’ll be dismantling the exhibition tomorrow, so if you’re around today, do come in and take a look!

Exhibition for Oxford University Alumni Weekend

We are offering tours of the VHL on Friday 24th September as part of the Oxford University Alumni Weekend.   To accompany the Alumni tours, we have set up a small exhibition of various interesting things in the library, including some books from our stacks, a few items from our e-resources, and a selection of items from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Elections Campaigns Archive.   Feel free to drop in and have a look – the exhibition will be dismantled early next week.

US Elections Campaigns Archive: Exhibition and Event


Starting today, there is an exhibition in the library of selected material from the Philip & Rosamund Davies US Election Campaigns Archive. This archive has been donated to the library over many years by Professor Philip Davies, and includes all sorts of ephemera and memorabilia from American election campaigns of all levels. Material on display now includes buttons from the 19th century to the present, leaflets, bumper stickers, commemorative plates, and some more unusal items like a Reagan cigar, a book of matches, rain bonnets, a cap, mug, Obama doll, a 1976 edition of Playboy and a 1952 bar of soap!

The exhibition has been set up to accompany the forthcoming visit of Professor Davies to the RAI. He will be speaking about the archive, and what campaign material can tell us about elections in the US and the wider political climate, this Thursday at 4.30pm. All welcome to come along to hear about this fascinating collection.

Exhibition: Global Lincoln 1 July – 25 September 2009

To accompany the Global Lincoln conference at the Rothermere American Institute, an exhibition at the Vere Harmsworth Library will display rare publications illustrating how Lincoln was perceived abroad and influenced views of individuals as well as nations. Drawing on the rich historical collections of the Bodleian Library and Vere Harmsworth Library, the selection of materials will include examples from Britain, Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Japan and more.

Happy Birthday, Abe!

To celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial on 12 February 2009, the VHL is running a small exhibition. Exhibits include an account of the day of his birth (in a blizzard as well as a log cabin), two early 20th century treatises questioning his lineage and parentage (no, he does not descend from the Linkhorns), an illustration of a patent he was given for “A contrivance for Lifting a Boat over Shoals” and a reproduction of the earliest known photograph of Lincoln (a 37-year old Congressman).


Some Lincoln curiosities:
1. Lincoln was the first president to be born outside the original thirteen colonies.
2. Lincoln shares his birthday with a certain Mr Charles Darwin.
3. He is the tallest president at 6 feet 4 inches. Obama is believed to be 6 feet 2 inches.
4. Lincoln is the only president to be issued with a patent. On 22 May 1849, he received Patent 6469 (“A Contrivance for Lifting a Boat over Shoals”). In the end, his invention was never manufactured.

Some Lincoln soundbites:
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
“Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

The Exhibition will run until 31 July 2009.