Feb. 10 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Victorian writer Eliza Lynn Linton. Lynn Linton is considered the first female salaried journalist in England. Her writing career was profitable but not without controversy. Elizabeth (Eliza) Lynn was largely self-taught, the youngest child of a widowed clergyman who had free rein to peruse her …
Christmas Day 2021 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of writer Dorothy Wordsworth, younger sister of poet William Wordsworth. Dorothy’s reputation as a writer was long overshadowed by her brother, but with the publication of her diaries and letters in the mid-twentieth century, scholars and critics have re-evaluated the importance of her writing and …
March is Women’s History Month, and today we examine three recent acquisitions of travel narratives written by women. A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince (1853). Nancy Gardner Prince was a free-born African-American woman from Massachusetts. She traveled to Russia with her husband, Nero Prince, who worked for several years as …
March is Women’s History Month, and Special Collections is celebrating with a small case exhibit entitled “Remembering Dorothy Wordsworth.” Curated by Dr. Paul Westover of the BYU English Department, the exhibit features original material from the library’s Rowe Collection of William Wordsworth, including editions of Dorothy’s poems, journals, and travel writing (such as her account …
January 17, 2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of poet and novelist Anne Brontë. Anne, the youngest child in the Brontë family, was particularly close to her sister Emily, who was two years older. Anne was too young to attend the Cowan Bridge school where the eldest Brontë girls died (immortalized as Lowood …
Special Collections is featuring the work of eminent Victorian novelist George Eliot (Marian/Mary Anne Evans) in a small case exhibit celebrating the 200th anniversary of her birth on Nov. 22, 1819. “The World of George Eliot” showcases first editions of her major novels, like Middlemarch, Silas Marner, and The Mill on the Floss. The exhibit …
The new Special Collections reference room exhibit, “Women of Devotion,” features early editions of works by European women writers. Between 1500 and 1800 religious study was an important part of literate women’s education and piety was a well-respected feminine attribute. Thus, many of the published works written by European women at this time were religious. …
Special Collections’ newest acquisition — just in time for Women’s History Month — is a facsimile of the Rupertsberg copy of Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias. Hildegard was a German abbess, one of the most famous and prolific women authors of the medieval period. Besides authoring religious, mystical, scientific, and philosophic texts, she was also a …
Today marks the birth in 1347 of St. Catherine of Siena, one of Italy’s two patron saints. Catherine is remembered both for her influence in Italian religion and politics as well as for her mystical writings. Nearly 400 of Catherine’s letters have survived. Two partial editions of her works were printed in the 1490s, but …