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Legacy Online and Flash Exhibits in Library Special Collections

This guide aggregates legacy online exhibits. It also features flash exhibits of in-house exhibits that were typically on display for less than two weeks.

Art

Art

A Letter from the Renaissance: The Double Soul, Ariel Soulé/Simon Toparovsky, a contemporary art installation for UCLA Library Special Collections, August - December 2010

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Autograph letter fragment in the hand of Michelangelo, 1533.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Autograph letter fragment in the hand of Michelangelo, 1533. UCLA Library Special Collections | Used by permission

"In one thousand five hundred thirty-three I record that today 22 September I went to Santo Miniato al Tedesco to talk to Pope Clement who was going to Nice and on the same day Brother Sebastiano del Piombo left a horse of his for me."

Michelangelo's string of words kept at the UCLA Library as a fragment of DNA rekindles the spirit of the time, the late Italian Renaissance, bringing to light historical figures and events, works of art, feats of arms and power. Faced with a thousand ex­amples of the duality of the Renaissance soul, two artists, Ariel Soulé and Simon Toparovsky, who have for years represented the double soul of art, combining painting and sculpture, interpret well-considered themes with contemporary works representing a logical connection between the idea of the world of the Renaissance and the contemporary world.

Soulé and Toparovsky, who each live and work in Milan and Los Angeles, have created installations in major public spaces. This is their first public collaboration in the United States.

Europe

Europe

International Relations

International Relations

A Centenary Celebration of Ralph J. Bunche, January-March 2004

One of UCLA's most distinguished alumni, Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971) fought poverty and racism on his way to becoming one of the twentieth century’s leading peacemakers. The world honored him in 1950 with the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a settlement between the Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East, but that was only one exceptional accomplishment in an extraordinary life dedicated to achieving harmony and equality among all people, regardless of nationality or race.

Part of an international celebration of the centenary of Bunche’s birth, this slideshow, based on the in-house physical exhibit that was on view January-March 2004, celebrates his remarkable legacy by focusing on his accomplishments in three main areas: as a student, a scholar, and a diplomat.

Latin America

Latin America

Rio de Janeiro: Two Centuries of Urban Change. 1808-2008.

Rio de Janeiro is a magical place, a city of fabled beauty and dramatic contrasts, where nature and the human hand have joined to create a landscape of panoramic views and iconic images—Guanabara Bay, the peaks of Sugarloaf and Corcovado, the rows of royal palms, Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, the arcos of the eighteenth-century aqueduct, the Avenidas Rio Branco and Beira-Mar, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, historic churches, and hilltop shantytowns known as favelas.

This exhibit shows how, over the past two hundred years, artists and photographers have repeatedly been drawn to these images in a process of icon building within a dynamic context of urban growth and modernization. Such visual presentations reflect not only the changing times through which the cariocas—people of Rio—have lived, but are tied to their indomitable spirit as manifested in Carnival, popular music, beach culture, and daily life. Transcending persistent problems of poverty and crime, Rio is internationally acclaimed for its fun-loving atmosphere and its people, who call it the "marvelous city."

Materials selected for this exhibit, principally from UCLA Library Special Collections, illustrate the depth and variety of UCLA’s collections on Rio de Janeiro. Printed books, periodicals, and photographs are featured, as are, to a lesser extent, manuscripts, maps, films, original artworks, lantern slides, stereocards, chapbooks, and ephemera.

 

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Hotel Somerville owners John Somerville and Vada Watson Somerville, along with investors, at the hotel groundbreaking, 1928

Hotel Somerville owners John Somerville and Vada Watson Somerville, along with investors, at the hotel groundbreaking, 1928

The UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research (COHR) has released the website, “Community and Commerce: Oral Histories of African American Businesses in Los Angeles,” which features a series of eighteen oral histories conducted by COHR that document long-term African American business ownership in the Los Angeles area. The site uses excerpts from the oral histories and contemporary and historic photos to explore the financial and psychological challenges involved in starting up a business, the difficulties of weathering change over decades, and the sometimes challenging task of finding a successor. It also situates the narrators’ lives and businesses in the larger story of black Los Angeles, offering perspectives on the changing realities of historically black neighborhoods, the Great Migration, and the role businesses have played in African American political and social life.

Read a short interview with the project interviewer, Yolanda Hester, about the rationale for the project and the experience of doing the interviews.

Bloodletting Exhibit

Bossche, Willem van den. Historia Medica (Bruxellae, 1639).

For many centuries, blood-letting was considered a tried and true remedy for certain conditions. It was recommended for fevers, inflammations, a variety of disease conditions and, ironically, for hemorrhage. Although it fell in and out of favor, it persisted into the 20th century and was even recommended by Sir William Osler in the 1923 edition his Principles and Practice of Medicine.

Presented here is a brief selection of material, in word and image, on bloodletting. The text is from a mid-19th century proponent of the treatment, Henry Clutterbuck M.D., Member of the Royal College of Physicians. Clutterbuck in his book, On the Proper Administration of Blood-Letting, for the Prevention and Cure of Disease, (London, 1840), gives a brief history and outlines the proper use of the treatment. The images of bloodletting, the recommended sites for letting blood and the instruments or animals used for the procedure are out of books from the collection of the History Division of the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA.

etching of flask full of leeches next to man

Anatomical figures showing points for bloodletting (2 of 2)

Castellani, Giovani Marie (1585-1655). Filactirion della flebotomia et arteriotomia... (Viterbo, 1619). (Call No. WZ 240 M274d 1586a Rare).

sepia toned image of man on bended knee

Instruments used in bloodletting (3 of 3)

George Tiemann & Co. American armamentarium chirurgicum. (San Francisco, 1989). A facsimile of the 1889 edition. (Call No. W 26 G349a 1889f).

Note: Several of the pieces illustrated here are present in the History Division's Museum Artifact Collection: thumb lancet, spring fleam, and scarificators.

instruments used in bloodletting

Leeches

Johnson, James Rawlins. A treatise on the medicinal leech. (London, 1816). (WB 381 J67t 1816).

The medicinal Leech is common throughout the whole of Europe, but more so in the southern than in the northern parts. It is about three inches in length; but in the southern parts of America and India it is often found to be six or seven inches. Formerly this species was very abundant in our island; but from their present scarcity, owing to their being more in request among medical men, and to the rapid improvements which have of late years taken place in agriculture, particularly in the draining and cultivation of waste-lands, we are obliged to recive a supply form the Continent, chiefly from Bourdeaux and Lisbon.

When the application of Leeches is judged expedient, the part on which it is intended they shall fix, should be as clean as possible: it should therefore be first washed with soap and water, and afterwards with water alone; which will be the more necessary, should any liniment or embrocation have been used.

Leeches are commonly affixed by inverting a wine-glass containing as many as may be required, upon the part affected. The great disadvantage of this practice is, that some of them frequently retire to the upper part of the glass and remain at rest, defying all attempts to dislodge them, without incurring the risk of removing those that may have fastened.

...Some little dexterity is requisite to make the Leech attach itself at the first point of contact, or it often happens that it will pass over a great extent of surface, without evincing the least disposition to bite. In this case, puncturing the part with a lancet offers the only chance of success.

The Leech, when filled, contains from half an ounce to an ounce of blood; ...When a Leech quits the part to which it was affixed, and the blood continues to flow longer than is required, the application of a slight compress will usually restrain it; but should this at any time prove ineffectual, we must have recourse to a compress steeped in some styptic, as brandy or spirits of wine.

Find details about the life cycle, history, and medicinal uses of the leech at: https://www.biopharm-leeches.com/

two leeches

Medieval Manuscripts

Medieval Manuscripts

UCLA

UCLA