{"id":64753,"date":"2010-10-29T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=64753"},"modified":"2019-05-31T14:57:36","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T18:57:36","slug":"why-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2010\/10\/why-books\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Why Books?’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"

In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d features a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection. The exhibit is just one part of a two-day conference titled "Why Books?".<\/p>

Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\t‘Why Books?’\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tCorydon Ireland\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard is field of battle for print\u2019s fate in a digital age\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

Why books?<\/p>\n

In a two-day conference of the same name, experts from Harvard and elsewhere are investigating the fate of print in a digital age. The field of battle, Thursday and today (Oct. 28-29), is the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>, the home of a prestigious fellowship program and one of Harvard\u2019s most durable crossroads for interdisciplinary discourse.<\/p>\n

After a decade of debate, the consensus is that books are not going away \u2014 and that at best electronic communication will align powerfully with the tradition of ink and paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Books?<\/a>,\u201d two years in the making, was organized by a faculty committee headed by Leah Price \u201991, RI \u201907, and Ann Blair \u201984, BI \u201999. Price is a professor of English, Harvard College Professor, and the Radcliffe Institute\u2019s senior adviser in the humanities. Blair, also a Harvard College Professor, is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s (Oct. 29) conference at the Radcliffe Gymnasium consists of a series of four panels \u2014 on future text formats; storage and retrieval; circulation and transmission; and reception and use. There is a conference hashtag for Twitter: #whybooks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Books?\u201d started Thursday (Oct. 28), logically, with explorations of both digital and print resources at Harvard. Conference attendees took in 13 workshops \u2014 visits to University facilities that make, store, conserve, distribute, and (yes) digitize books and other printed matter.<\/p>\n

At the Radcliffe Gymnasium, Marilyn Dunn<\/a>, executive director of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America<\/a>, demonstrated Harvard\u2019s Web Archive Collection Service (WAX), a mechanism for harvesting and preserving Web content.<\/p>\n

At Harvard Law School<\/a>, experts from the Special Collections staff made one presentation on 16th century law books and another on books that illuminated the pedagogy of Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906), the Law School\u2019s first dean and a pioneer in case-method teaching.<\/p>\n

At Harvard University Press<\/a>, Art Director Timothy Jones outlined the challenges of book and editorial design as the world moves into a digital environment.<\/p>\n

At Harvard\u2019s Weissman Preservation Center<\/a>, those on tour observed conservators at work and learned about the art and science of preserving fragile books, maps, drawings, and other printed materials. (Some are so delicate they can\u2019t be exposed to direct light.)<\/p>\n

At Bow and Arrow Press, visitors went back to the future, getting a hands-on history of a vintage letterpress operation from Zachary Sifuentes \u201999, resident tutor in poetry and arts at Adams House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were other workshops on e-books, preserving digital materials, printing before the industrial age, and how original manuscripts illuminate an artist\u2019s creative methods and even the business environment they operated in. (That was at the Houghton Library<\/a>, where visitors looked at written pages from William James, Samuel Johnson, and Emily Dickinson.)<\/p>\n

In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, visitors roamed through a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection.<\/p>\n

There was a 1679 edition of a cookbook by German author Anna Wecker, the world\u2019s first female food writer. Its title in English reads \u201cNew, delightful, and useful cookbook,\u201d and it was first published in 1596. In the back is an appendix on Parisian cooking \u2014 an early sign of the dominant French cuisine that would soon sweep Europe.<\/p>\n

Also on display was \u201cWhat Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking\u201d (1881), the first cookbook by a freed slave; a 1943 wartime version of Irma S. Rombauer\u2019s \u201cThe Joy of Cooking,\u201d including what she called \u201cemergency chapters\u201d on meatless and sugar-free dishes; Julia Child\u2019s copy of M.F.K. Fisher\u2019s \u201cHow to Cook a Wolf\u201d; and a tiny cookbook printed in 1601 in Venice, Italy, the Schlesinger\u2019s oldest cookbook volume.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are my babies,\u201d said Barbara Wheaton, whose 1982 \u201cSavoring the Past\u201d legitimized culinary arts as a window onto history. The longtime Harvard food scholar, now honorary curator of the Schlesinger\u2019s Culinary Collection, delivered a loving pr\u00e9cis of a few of the volumes.<\/p>\n

Summing up the books with her was Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri, the Schlesinger\u2019s curator of Books and Printed Materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat any of the tradition gets written down is miraculous,\u201d said Wheaton of books about cooking \u2014 volumes that often capture the voices of women and male artisans who otherwise would be lost to history. These were \u201cpeople who didn\u2019t expect that what they said would matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Any conference on the fate of books would do worse than to start with books about cooking, said Wheaton.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first things our ancestors did \u2026 was to talk about food\u201d \u2014 a topic so vital to survival that it helped shaped language millennia before print arrived, she said. \u201cTo talk about getting it, to talk about preparing it, to talk about the sensations of eating it \u2014 with all the moral and sensual and practical questions that arise from getting enough stuff \u2026 to keep the organism going.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for broader question of the fate of print that will come up in today\u2019s \u201cWhy Books?\u201d conference \u2014 \u201cI think about it every day,\u201d said Wheaton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely nuts about computers and the Internet. I\u2019m building a database that is better than having an expensive car because I can do such wonderful things with it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut nothing replaces books. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wheaton reached in front of her and touched the edges of Abby Buchanan Longstreet\u2019s \u201cDinners, Ceremonious and Unceremonious,\u201d an 1890 volume on table etiquette.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing itself,\u201d she said of the volume. \u201cThis book is small and dainty and civilized. It has gold letters and a nice tasteful green (cover).\u201d<\/p>\n

By holding it, and reading it, said Wheaton, \u201cyou\u2019re going to have a decorous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

As her visitors filed out, she added: \u201cCome back and read a book. Read 10.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"\"
Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri (left), curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Schlesinger Library, introduces Barbara Wheaton (right), honorary curator of the Culinary Collection.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The exhibit is just one part of a two-day conference titled \"Why Books?\".","mediaId":64771,"mediaSize":"full","mediaType":"image","mediaUrl":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/book_rooster605.jpg","poster":"","title":"‘Why Books?’","subheading":"Harvard is field of battle for print\u2019s fate in a digital age","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":403,"mediaWidth":605,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/book_rooster605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d features a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection. The exhibit is just one part of a two-day conference titled "Why Books?".<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/book_rooster605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d features a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection. The exhibit is just one part of a two-day conference titled "Why Books?".<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/book_rooster605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d features a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection. The exhibit is just one part of a two-day conference titled "Why Books?".<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photos by Jon Chase\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tArts & Culture\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\t‘Why Books?’\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tCorydon Ireland\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2010-10-29\">\n\t\t\tOctober 29, 2010\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t6 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tHarvard is field of battle for print\u2019s fate in a digital age\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>Why books?<\/p>\n<p>In a two-day conference of the same name, experts from Harvard and elsewhere are investigating the fate of print in a digital age. The field of battle, Thursday and today (Oct. 28-29), is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/\">Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>, the home of a prestigious fellowship program and one of Harvard\u2019s most durable crossroads for interdisciplinary discourse.<\/p>\n<p>After a decade of debate, the consensus is that books are not going away \u2014 and that at best electronic communication will align powerfully with the tradition of ink and paper.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/events\/calendar_2010books.aspx\">\u201cWhy Books?<\/a>,\u201d two years in the making, was organized by a faculty committee headed by Leah Price \u201991, RI \u201907, and Ann Blair \u201984, BI \u201999. Price is a professor of English, Harvard College Professor, and the Radcliffe Institute\u2019s senior adviser in the humanities. Blair, also a Harvard College Professor, is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s (Oct. 29) conference at the Radcliffe Gymnasium consists of a series of four panels \u2014 on future text formats; storage and retrieval; circulation and transmission; and reception and use. There is a conference hashtag for Twitter: #whybooks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy Books?\u201d started Thursday (Oct. 28), logically, with explorations of both digital and print resources at Harvard. Conference attendees took in 13 workshops \u2014 visits to University facilities that make, store, conserve, distribute, and (yes) digitize books and other printed matter.<\/p>\n<p>At the Radcliffe Gymnasium, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/about\/leaders_dunn.aspx\">Marilyn Dunn<\/a>, executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/schlesinger_library.aspx\">Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America<\/a>, demonstrated Harvard\u2019s Web Archive Collection Service (WAX), a mechanism for harvesting and preserving Web content.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.harvard.edu\/index.html\">Harvard Law School<\/a>, experts from the Special Collections staff made one presentation on 16th century law books and another on books that illuminated the pedagogy of Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906), the Law School\u2019s first dean and a pioneer in case-method teaching.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard University Press<\/a>, Art Director Timothy Jones outlined the challenges of book and editorial design as the world moves into a digital environment.<\/p>\n<p>At Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/preserve.harvard.edu\/wpc.html\">Weissman Preservation Center<\/a>, those on tour observed conservators at work and learned about the art and science of preserving fragile books, maps, drawings, and other printed materials. (Some are so delicate they can\u2019t be exposed to direct light.)<\/p>\n<p>At Bow and Arrow Press, visitors went back to the future, getting a hands-on history of a vintage letterpress operation from Zachary Sifuentes \u201999, resident tutor in poetry and arts at <a href=\"https:\/\/adamshouse.harvard.edu\">Adams House<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There were other workshops on e-books, preserving digital materials, printing before the industrial age, and how original manuscripts illuminate an artist\u2019s creative methods and even the business environment they operated in. (That was at the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, where visitors looked at written pages from William James, Samuel Johnson, and Emily Dickinson.)<\/p>\n<p>In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, visitors roamed through a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection.<\/p>\n<p>There was a 1679 edition of a cookbook by German author Anna Wecker, the world\u2019s first female food writer. Its title in English reads \u201cNew, delightful, and useful cookbook,\u201d and it was first published in 1596. In the back is an appendix on Parisian cooking \u2014 an early sign of the dominant French cuisine that would soon sweep Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Also on display was \u201cWhat Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking\u201d (1881), the first cookbook by a freed slave; a 1943 wartime version of Irma S. Rombauer\u2019s \u201cThe Joy of Cooking,\u201d including what she called \u201cemergency chapters\u201d on meatless and sugar-free dishes; Julia Child\u2019s copy of M.F.K. Fisher\u2019s \u201cHow to Cook a Wolf\u201d; and a tiny cookbook printed in 1601 in Venice, Italy, the Schlesinger\u2019s oldest cookbook volume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are my babies,\u201d said Barbara Wheaton, whose 1982 \u201cSavoring the Past\u201d legitimized culinary arts as a window onto history. The longtime Harvard food scholar, now honorary curator of the Schlesinger\u2019s Culinary Collection, delivered a loving pr\u00e9cis of a few of the volumes.<\/p>\n<p>Summing up the books with her was Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri, the Schlesinger\u2019s curator of Books and Printed Materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat any of the tradition gets written down is miraculous,\u201d said Wheaton of books about cooking \u2014 volumes that often capture the voices of women and male artisans who otherwise would be lost to history. These were \u201cpeople who didn\u2019t expect that what they said would matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Any conference on the fate of books would do worse than to start with books about cooking, said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the first things our ancestors did \u2026 was to talk about food\u201d \u2014 a topic so vital to survival that it helped shaped language millennia before print arrived, she said. \u201cTo talk about getting it, to talk about preparing it, to talk about the sensations of eating it \u2014 with all the moral and sensual and practical questions that arise from getting enough stuff \u2026 to keep the organism going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for broader question of the fate of print that will come up in today\u2019s \u201cWhy Books?\u201d conference \u2014 \u201cI think about it every day,\u201d said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m absolutely nuts about computers and the Internet. I\u2019m building a database that is better than having an expensive car because I can do such wonderful things with it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut nothing replaces books. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wheaton reached in front of her and touched the edges of Abby Buchanan Longstreet\u2019s \u201cDinners, Ceremonious and Unceremonious,\u201d an 1890 volume on table etiquette.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing itself,\u201d she said of the volume. \u201cThis book is small and dainty and civilized. It has gold letters and a nice tasteful green (cover).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By holding it, and reading it, said Wheaton, \u201cyou\u2019re going to have a decorous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As her visitors filed out, she added: \u201cCome back and read a book. Read 10.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>Why books?<\/p>\n<p>In a two-day conference of the same name, experts from Harvard and elsewhere are investigating the fate of print in a digital age. The field of battle, Thursday and today (Oct. 28-29), is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/\">Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>, the home of a prestigious fellowship program and one of Harvard\u2019s most durable crossroads for interdisciplinary discourse.<\/p>\n<p>After a decade of debate, the consensus is that books are not going away \u2014 and that at best electronic communication will align powerfully with the tradition of ink and paper.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/events\/calendar_2010books.aspx\">\u201cWhy Books?<\/a>,\u201d two years in the making, was organized by a faculty committee headed by Leah Price \u201991, RI \u201907, and Ann Blair \u201984, BI \u201999. Price is a professor of English, Harvard College Professor, and the Radcliffe Institute\u2019s senior adviser in the humanities. Blair, also a Harvard College Professor, is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s (Oct. 29) conference at the Radcliffe Gymnasium consists of a series of four panels \u2014 on future text formats; storage and retrieval; circulation and transmission; and reception and use. There is a conference hashtag for Twitter: #whybooks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy Books?\u201d started Thursday (Oct. 28), logically, with explorations of both digital and print resources at Harvard. Conference attendees took in 13 workshops \u2014 visits to University facilities that make, store, conserve, distribute, and (yes) digitize books and other printed matter.<\/p>\n<p>At the Radcliffe Gymnasium, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/about\/leaders_dunn.aspx\">Marilyn Dunn<\/a>, executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/schlesinger_library.aspx\">Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America<\/a>, demonstrated Harvard\u2019s Web Archive Collection Service (WAX), a mechanism for harvesting and preserving Web content.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.harvard.edu\/index.html\">Harvard Law School<\/a>, experts from the Special Collections staff made one presentation on 16th century law books and another on books that illuminated the pedagogy of Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906), the Law School\u2019s first dean and a pioneer in case-method teaching.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard University Press<\/a>, Art Director Timothy Jones outlined the challenges of book and editorial design as the world moves into a digital environment.<\/p>\n<p>At Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/preserve.harvard.edu\/wpc.html\">Weissman Preservation Center<\/a>, those on tour observed conservators at work and learned about the art and science of preserving fragile books, maps, drawings, and other printed materials. (Some are so delicate they can\u2019t be exposed to direct light.)<\/p>\n<p>At Bow and Arrow Press, visitors went back to the future, getting a hands-on history of a vintage letterpress operation from Zachary Sifuentes \u201999, resident tutor in poetry and arts at <a href=\"https:\/\/adamshouse.harvard.edu\">Adams House<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There were other workshops on e-books, preserving digital materials, printing before the industrial age, and how original manuscripts illuminate an artist\u2019s creative methods and even the business environment they operated in. (That was at the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, where visitors looked at written pages from William James, Samuel Johnson, and Emily Dickinson.)<\/p>\n<p>In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, visitors roamed through a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection.<\/p>\n<p>There was a 1679 edition of a cookbook by German author Anna Wecker, the world\u2019s first female food writer. Its title in English reads \u201cNew, delightful, and useful cookbook,\u201d and it was first published in 1596. In the back is an appendix on Parisian cooking \u2014 an early sign of the dominant French cuisine that would soon sweep Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Also on display was \u201cWhat Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking\u201d (1881), the first cookbook by a freed slave; a 1943 wartime version of Irma S. Rombauer\u2019s \u201cThe Joy of Cooking,\u201d including what she called \u201cemergency chapters\u201d on meatless and sugar-free dishes; Julia Child\u2019s copy of M.F.K. Fisher\u2019s \u201cHow to Cook a Wolf\u201d; and a tiny cookbook printed in 1601 in Venice, Italy, the Schlesinger\u2019s oldest cookbook volume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are my babies,\u201d said Barbara Wheaton, whose 1982 \u201cSavoring the Past\u201d legitimized culinary arts as a window onto history. The longtime Harvard food scholar, now honorary curator of the Schlesinger\u2019s Culinary Collection, delivered a loving pr\u00e9cis of a few of the volumes.<\/p>\n<p>Summing up the books with her was Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri, the Schlesinger\u2019s curator of Books and Printed Materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat any of the tradition gets written down is miraculous,\u201d said Wheaton of books about cooking \u2014 volumes that often capture the voices of women and male artisans who otherwise would be lost to history. These were \u201cpeople who didn\u2019t expect that what they said would matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Any conference on the fate of books would do worse than to start with books about cooking, said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the first things our ancestors did \u2026 was to talk about food\u201d \u2014 a topic so vital to survival that it helped shaped language millennia before print arrived, she said. \u201cTo talk about getting it, to talk about preparing it, to talk about the sensations of eating it \u2014 with all the moral and sensual and practical questions that arise from getting enough stuff \u2026 to keep the organism going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for broader question of the fate of print that will come up in today\u2019s \u201cWhy Books?\u201d conference \u2014 \u201cI think about it every day,\u201d said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m absolutely nuts about computers and the Internet. I\u2019m building a database that is better than having an expensive car because I can do such wonderful things with it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut nothing replaces books. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wheaton reached in front of her and touched the edges of Abby Buchanan Longstreet\u2019s \u201cDinners, Ceremonious and Unceremonious,\u201d an 1890 volume on table etiquette.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing itself,\u201d she said of the volume. \u201cThis book is small and dainty and civilized. It has gold letters and a nice tasteful green (cover).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By holding it, and reading it, said Wheaton, \u201cyou\u2019re going to have a decorous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As her visitors filed out, she added: \u201cCome back and read a book. Read 10.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>Why books?<\/p>\n<p>In a two-day conference of the same name, experts from Harvard and elsewhere are investigating the fate of print in a digital age. The field of battle, Thursday and today (Oct. 28-29), is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/\">Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>, the home of a prestigious fellowship program and one of Harvard\u2019s most durable crossroads for interdisciplinary discourse.<\/p>\n<p>After a decade of debate, the consensus is that books are not going away \u2014 and that at best electronic communication will align powerfully with the tradition of ink and paper.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/events\/calendar_2010books.aspx\">\u201cWhy Books?<\/a>,\u201d two years in the making, was organized by a faculty committee headed by Leah Price \u201991, RI \u201907, and Ann Blair \u201984, BI \u201999. Price is a professor of English, Harvard College Professor, and the Radcliffe Institute\u2019s senior adviser in the humanities. Blair, also a Harvard College Professor, is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s (Oct. 29) conference at the Radcliffe Gymnasium consists of a series of four panels \u2014 on future text formats; storage and retrieval; circulation and transmission; and reception and use. There is a conference hashtag for Twitter: #whybooks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy Books?\u201d started Thursday (Oct. 28), logically, with explorations of both digital and print resources at Harvard. Conference attendees took in 13 workshops \u2014 visits to University facilities that make, store, conserve, distribute, and (yes) digitize books and other printed matter.<\/p>\n<p>At the Radcliffe Gymnasium, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/about\/leaders_dunn.aspx\">Marilyn Dunn<\/a>, executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/schlesinger_library.aspx\">Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America<\/a>, demonstrated Harvard\u2019s Web Archive Collection Service (WAX), a mechanism for harvesting and preserving Web content.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.harvard.edu\/index.html\">Harvard Law School<\/a>, experts from the Special Collections staff made one presentation on 16th century law books and another on books that illuminated the pedagogy of Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906), the Law School\u2019s first dean and a pioneer in case-method teaching.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard University Press<\/a>, Art Director Timothy Jones outlined the challenges of book and editorial design as the world moves into a digital environment.<\/p>\n<p>At Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/preserve.harvard.edu\/wpc.html\">Weissman Preservation Center<\/a>, those on tour observed conservators at work and learned about the art and science of preserving fragile books, maps, drawings, and other printed materials. (Some are so delicate they can\u2019t be exposed to direct light.)<\/p>\n<p>At Bow and Arrow Press, visitors went back to the future, getting a hands-on history of a vintage letterpress operation from Zachary Sifuentes \u201999, resident tutor in poetry and arts at <a href=\"https:\/\/adamshouse.harvard.edu\">Adams House<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There were other workshops on e-books, preserving digital materials, printing before the industrial age, and how original manuscripts illuminate an artist\u2019s creative methods and even the business environment they operated in. (That was at the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, where visitors looked at written pages from William James, Samuel Johnson, and Emily Dickinson.)<\/p>\n<p>In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, visitors roamed through a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection.<\/p>\n<p>There was a 1679 edition of a cookbook by German author Anna Wecker, the world\u2019s first female food writer. Its title in English reads \u201cNew, delightful, and useful cookbook,\u201d and it was first published in 1596. In the back is an appendix on Parisian cooking \u2014 an early sign of the dominant French cuisine that would soon sweep Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Also on display was \u201cWhat Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking\u201d (1881), the first cookbook by a freed slave; a 1943 wartime version of Irma S. Rombauer\u2019s \u201cThe Joy of Cooking,\u201d including what she called \u201cemergency chapters\u201d on meatless and sugar-free dishes; Julia Child\u2019s copy of M.F.K. Fisher\u2019s \u201cHow to Cook a Wolf\u201d; and a tiny cookbook printed in 1601 in Venice, Italy, the Schlesinger\u2019s oldest cookbook volume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are my babies,\u201d said Barbara Wheaton, whose 1982 \u201cSavoring the Past\u201d legitimized culinary arts as a window onto history. The longtime Harvard food scholar, now honorary curator of the Schlesinger\u2019s Culinary Collection, delivered a loving pr\u00e9cis of a few of the volumes.<\/p>\n<p>Summing up the books with her was Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri, the Schlesinger\u2019s curator of Books and Printed Materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat any of the tradition gets written down is miraculous,\u201d said Wheaton of books about cooking \u2014 volumes that often capture the voices of women and male artisans who otherwise would be lost to history. These were \u201cpeople who didn\u2019t expect that what they said would matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Any conference on the fate of books would do worse than to start with books about cooking, said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the first things our ancestors did \u2026 was to talk about food\u201d \u2014 a topic so vital to survival that it helped shaped language millennia before print arrived, she said. \u201cTo talk about getting it, to talk about preparing it, to talk about the sensations of eating it \u2014 with all the moral and sensual and practical questions that arise from getting enough stuff \u2026 to keep the organism going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for broader question of the fate of print that will come up in today\u2019s \u201cWhy Books?\u201d conference \u2014 \u201cI think about it every day,\u201d said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m absolutely nuts about computers and the Internet. I\u2019m building a database that is better than having an expensive car because I can do such wonderful things with it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut nothing replaces books. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wheaton reached in front of her and touched the edges of Abby Buchanan Longstreet\u2019s \u201cDinners, Ceremonious and Unceremonious,\u201d an 1890 volume on table etiquette.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing itself,\u201d she said of the volume. \u201cThis book is small and dainty and civilized. It has gold letters and a nice tasteful green (cover).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By holding it, and reading it, said Wheaton, \u201cyou\u2019re going to have a decorous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As her visitors filed out, she added: \u201cCome back and read a book. Read 10.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"center","id":64773,"caption":"Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri (left), curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Schlesinger Library, introduces Barbara Wheaton (right), honorary curator of the Culinary Collection.","blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/102810_books_0331.jpg","alt":"","lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/102810_books_0331.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64773\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri (left), curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Schlesinger Library, introduces Barbara Wheaton (right), honorary curator of the Culinary Collection.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/102810_books_0331.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64773\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri (left), curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Schlesinger Library, introduces Barbara Wheaton (right), honorary curator of the Culinary Collection.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/102810_books_0331.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64773\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri (left), curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Schlesinger Library, introduces Barbara Wheaton (right), honorary curator of the Culinary Collection.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n","innerContent":["\n"],"rendered":"\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n\t","\n\t\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>Why books?<\/p>\n<p>In a two-day conference of the same name, experts from Harvard and elsewhere are investigating the fate of print in a digital age. The field of battle, Thursday and today (Oct. 28-29), is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/\">Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>, the home of a prestigious fellowship program and one of Harvard\u2019s most durable crossroads for interdisciplinary discourse.<\/p>\n<p>After a decade of debate, the consensus is that books are not going away \u2014 and that at best electronic communication will align powerfully with the tradition of ink and paper.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/events\/calendar_2010books.aspx\">\u201cWhy Books?<\/a>,\u201d two years in the making, was organized by a faculty committee headed by Leah Price \u201991, RI \u201907, and Ann Blair \u201984, BI \u201999. Price is a professor of English, Harvard College Professor, and the Radcliffe Institute\u2019s senior adviser in the humanities. Blair, also a Harvard College Professor, is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s (Oct. 29) conference at the Radcliffe Gymnasium consists of a series of four panels \u2014 on future text formats; storage and retrieval; circulation and transmission; and reception and use. There is a conference hashtag for Twitter: #whybooks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy Books?\u201d started Thursday (Oct. 28), logically, with explorations of both digital and print resources at Harvard. Conference attendees took in 13 workshops \u2014 visits to University facilities that make, store, conserve, distribute, and (yes) digitize books and other printed matter.<\/p>\n<p>At the Radcliffe Gymnasium, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/about\/leaders_dunn.aspx\">Marilyn Dunn<\/a>, executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radcliffe.edu\/schlesinger_library.aspx\">Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America<\/a>, demonstrated Harvard\u2019s Web Archive Collection Service (WAX), a mechanism for harvesting and preserving Web content.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.harvard.edu\/index.html\">Harvard Law School<\/a>, experts from the Special Collections staff made one presentation on 16th century law books and another on books that illuminated the pedagogy of Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906), the Law School\u2019s first dean and a pioneer in case-method teaching.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/\">Harvard University Press<\/a>, Art Director Timothy Jones outlined the challenges of book and editorial design as the world moves into a digital environment.<\/p>\n<p>At Harvard\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/preserve.harvard.edu\/wpc.html\">Weissman Preservation Center<\/a>, those on tour observed conservators at work and learned about the art and science of preserving fragile books, maps, drawings, and other printed materials. (Some are so delicate they can\u2019t be exposed to direct light.)<\/p>\n<p>At Bow and Arrow Press, visitors went back to the future, getting a hands-on history of a vintage letterpress operation from Zachary Sifuentes \u201999, resident tutor in poetry and arts at <a href=\"https:\/\/adamshouse.harvard.edu\">Adams House<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There were other workshops on e-books, preserving digital materials, printing before the industrial age, and how original manuscripts illuminate an artist\u2019s creative methods and even the business environment they operated in. (That was at the <a href=\"https:\/\/library.harvard.edu\/libraries\/houghton\">Houghton Library<\/a>, where visitors looked at written pages from William James, Samuel Johnson, and Emily Dickinson.)<\/p>\n<p>In a first-floor conference room at the Schlesinger, visitors roamed through a temporary exhibit called \u201cA Taste of History,\u201d a selection of cookbooks from the library\u2019s famous collection.<\/p>\n<p>There was a 1679 edition of a cookbook by German author Anna Wecker, the world\u2019s first female food writer. Its title in English reads \u201cNew, delightful, and useful cookbook,\u201d and it was first published in 1596. In the back is an appendix on Parisian cooking \u2014 an early sign of the dominant French cuisine that would soon sweep Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Also on display was \u201cWhat Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking\u201d (1881), the first cookbook by a freed slave; a 1943 wartime version of Irma S. Rombauer\u2019s \u201cThe Joy of Cooking,\u201d including what she called \u201cemergency chapters\u201d on meatless and sugar-free dishes; Julia Child\u2019s copy of M.F.K. Fisher\u2019s \u201cHow to Cook a Wolf\u201d; and a tiny cookbook printed in 1601 in Venice, Italy, the Schlesinger\u2019s oldest cookbook volume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are my babies,\u201d said Barbara Wheaton, whose 1982 \u201cSavoring the Past\u201d legitimized culinary arts as a window onto history. The longtime Harvard food scholar, now honorary curator of the Schlesinger\u2019s Culinary Collection, delivered a loving pr\u00e9cis of a few of the volumes.<\/p>\n<p>Summing up the books with her was Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri, the Schlesinger\u2019s curator of Books and Printed Materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat any of the tradition gets written down is miraculous,\u201d said Wheaton of books about cooking \u2014 volumes that often capture the voices of women and male artisans who otherwise would be lost to history. These were \u201cpeople who didn\u2019t expect that what they said would matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Any conference on the fate of books would do worse than to start with books about cooking, said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the first things our ancestors did \u2026 was to talk about food\u201d \u2014 a topic so vital to survival that it helped shaped language millennia before print arrived, she said. \u201cTo talk about getting it, to talk about preparing it, to talk about the sensations of eating it \u2014 with all the moral and sensual and practical questions that arise from getting enough stuff \u2026 to keep the organism going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for broader question of the fate of print that will come up in today\u2019s \u201cWhy Books?\u201d conference \u2014 \u201cI think about it every day,\u201d said Wheaton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m absolutely nuts about computers and the Internet. I\u2019m building a database that is better than having an expensive car because I can do such wonderful things with it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut nothing replaces books. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wheaton reached in front of her and touched the edges of Abby Buchanan Longstreet\u2019s \u201cDinners, Ceremonious and Unceremonious,\u201d an 1890 volume on table etiquette.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing itself,\u201d she said of the volume. \u201cThis book is small and dainty and civilized. It has gold letters and a nice tasteful green (cover).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By holding it, and reading it, said Wheaton, \u201cyou\u2019re going to have a decorous experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As her visitors filed out, she added: \u201cCome back and read a book. Read 10.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/102810_books_0331.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64773\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Maryl\u00e8ne Altieri (left), curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Schlesinger Library, introduces Barbara Wheaton (right), honorary curator of the Culinary Collection.\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":309124,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/07\/havard-libraries-hit-the-books-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":64753,"position":0},"title":"It\u2019s back to the stacks","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"July 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"100 library staff return to Harvard's campus as physical collection access resumes.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Stacks of books.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Restart_WestStacks1_H_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Restart_WestStacks1_H_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Restart_WestStacks1_H_2500.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Restart_WestStacks1_H_2500.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":170706,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/05\/ode-to-a-venerable-library\/","url_meta":{"origin":64753,"position":1},"title":"Ode to a venerable library","author":"harvardgazette","date":"May 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Narrated by John Lithgow \u201967, this visual love letter to libraries celebrates books and those who watch over them while marking the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Harvard\u2019s flagship library.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/widener605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/widener605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/widener605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":169082,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/04\/celebrating-widener\/","url_meta":{"origin":64753,"position":2},"title":"Celebrating Widener","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Two lectures launched a yearlong celebration of Widener Library, which turns 100 this June.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/widener_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/widener_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/widener_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":182670,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/04\/guarding-the-dazzle-of-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":64753,"position":3},"title":"Guarding the dazzle of the past","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Gazette visited the Weissman Preservation Center to see how conservators preserve Harvard\u2019s rare and unique collections.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/042116_weissman_065_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/042116_weissman_065_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/042116_weissman_065_605_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":157349,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/08\/of-books-trees-and-knowledge\/","url_meta":{"origin":64753,"position":4},"title":"Of books, trees, and knowledge","author":"harvardgazette","date":"August 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Hunnewell Building is the Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library, whose books, papers, and photographs \u2015 stored near living collections of many of the same plants they describe \u2015 draw scholars from around the world.","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/042414_pearson_lisa_142_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/042414_pearson_lisa_142_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/042414_pearson_lisa_142_605_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":361315,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2023\/06\/lgbtq-book-challenges-are-on-the-rise-heres-why\/","url_meta":{"origin":64753,"position":5},"title":"Who\u2019s getting hurt most by soaring LGBTQ book bans? Librarians say kids.","author":"harvardgazette","date":"June 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Book bans targeting LGBTQ content reached record level highs in 2022. Transgender activists and experts on gender and identity share their thoughts on what\u2019s happening both politically and socially to drive this change.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Stack of banned books.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/APshotbannedbooks.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/APshotbannedbooks.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/APshotbannedbooks.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/APshotbannedbooks.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64753"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277329,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64753\/revisions\/277329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64753"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=64753"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=64753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}