The Armstrong Browning Library’s 2022 Baylor Book Society Acquisitions

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by Rachel Jacob, Armstrong Browning Library Graduate Research Assistant

As the Armstrong Browning Library continues to build the largest collection of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning works, it is also building its collection of academic works about the Brownings and the long nineteenth century. Below are the Armstrong Browning Library’s newly acquired works courtesy of the Baylor Book Society, some of which can be seen on display in the Easter Day Alcove which connects the Entrance Foyer to the Leddy-Jones Research Hall.

The Baylor Book Society, established in 1970 as the Moody Memorial Library Book Fund, provides a way for donors to strengthen the book purchases of Baylor Libraries and create a lasting tribute. The contribution of an individual or group creates a legacy as the Libraries place a special plate with the name of the donor and the honoree in the first volume which the funds help acquire.

 

In memory of Hannah McKay Crofts by Frances McKay Andrews and Ellen Andrews Gage.

Beverly Seaton’s The Language of Flowers: A History. [ABL Non-Rare 398.368 S441l 1995]

 

In memory of Jean Withers McIver by Martha A. and Roger L. Brooks.

Tessa Bridal’s Effective Exhibit Interpretation and Design. [ABL Non-Rare 069.4 B851e 2013]

In memory of Dr. Cornelia Marschall Smith by Martha and Roger Brooks.

The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Volume V: 1866-1874. [ABL Non-Rare]

In honor of Joy and Herbert H. Reynolds by Martha and Roger Brooks.

The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Volume VI: 1875-1882. [ABL Non-Rare]

In memory of Etta and Robert Withers by Martha Withers Brooks.

Catherine Addison’s A Genealogy of the Verse Novel. [ABL Non-Rare 821.009 A225g 2017]

In loving memory of My Parents Mr. and Mrs. Ben Skrabanek by Rita S. Patteson.

Fiona Samson’s Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. [ABL Non-Rare 821.82 B S192t 2021b]

 

In honor of Jeanne Wood Nowlin by Kay and Mike Brown.

Elizabeth Ludlow’s The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century. [ABL Non-Rare 809.93351 L945f 2020]

By Charlotte and Robert Lloyd.

Fiona Samson’s Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. [ABL Non-Rare 821.82 B S192t 2021b]

In honor of Dr. Rynell Stiff Novak by Joseph R. Novak.

Fiona Samson’s Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. [ABL Non-Rare 821.82 B S192t 2021b]

In honor of Rebekah Novak Proctor by Her Parents Rynell and Joseph Novak.

Heather Bozant Witcher and Amy Kahrmann Huseby’s Defining Pre-Raphaelite Poetics. [ABL Non-Rare 820.9008 W819d 2020]

In memory of Celia Dilworth Morgan, Class of 1938, by Nancy and Phil Wedemeyer.

Isobel Armstrong’s Victorian Poetry: Poetry Poetics and Politics. [ABL Non-Rare 821.809 A735v 2019]

In honor of the Anna and Bob Wright Family by Mike and Kay Brown.

Clare Pettitt’s Serial Forms: The Unfinished Project of Modernity, 1815-1848. [ABL Non-Rare 070.5 P511s 2020]

In memory of Rev. Al Novak, 1929, by Rynell and Joseph Novak.

Krista Lysack’s Chronometres: Devotional Literature, Duration, and Victorian Reading. [ABL Non-Rare 028.9 L993c 2019]

In honor of Joseph R. Novak, BU 1951, by Dr. Rynell S. Novak.

Karen Swann’s Lives of the Dead Poets: Keats, Shelley, Coleridge. [ABL Non-Rare 821.709 S972l 2019]

In memory of Dr. Margaret Jones Chanin by Gretchen Peterson Thomas.

Fiona Samson’s Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. [ABL Non-Rare 821.82 B S192t 2021b]

In memory of Celia Dilworth Morgan, Class of 1938, by Nancy and Phil Wedemeyer. 

John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking’s Learning from Museums. [ABL Non-Rare 069.1 F191l 2018]

In memory of Dorothy Cunningham Lamberth by many Tyler friends who love her.

Sarah Glendon Lyons’ Algernon Swinburne and Walter Pater: Victorian Aestheticism, Doubt and Secularisation. [ABL Non-Rare 820.9008 L991a 2015]

In memory of Jesmarie Harvey Hurst by libraries board of advisors and library staff.

Joseph Crawford’s Inspiration and Insanity in British Poetry: 1825-1855. [ABL Non-Rare 821.709 C899i 2019]

In memory of Jesmarie Harvey Hurst by loving Tyler friends.

Philipp Erchinger’s Artful Experiments: Ways of Knowing in Victorian Literature and Science. [ABL Non-Rare 820.9356 E65a 2018]

In memory of Jesmarie Harvey Hurst by Martha and John Minton.

John Blades’ Robert Browning: The Poems. [ABL Non-Rare 821.83 D B632r 2018]

In loving memory of Ann Miller, an outstanding English professor, from her friends Nancy and Fred Logan.

Elise Partridge’s The Exiles’ Gallery. [ABL Non-Rare 811.6 P275ex 2015]

In honor of Mary Barton Robinson, BA 1950, by Kathy Robinson Hillman.

Jessica L. Lacher-Feldman’s Exhibits in Archives and Special Collections Libraries. [ABL Non-Rare 021.7 L137e 2013]

In honor of my parents, Mr. and Mrs. William F. Schuetz, by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Michael Wheeler’s The Athenaeum: More Than Just a London Club. [ABL Non-Rare 367 W563a 2020]

In honor of my wife, Carol L. Schuetz, by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Fiona Sampson’s In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein. [ABL Non-Rare B S544s 2018]

In honor of Connie Schuetz Wright by Melvin H. Schuetz

Silvio Bar and Emily Hauser’s Reading Poetry, Writing Genre: English Poetry and Literary Criticism in Dialogue with Classical Scholarship. [ABL Non-Rare 821.009 B223r 2019]

In honor of our granddaughter Natalie Grace Belew for her character, diligence, and dedication, from her grandparents Ruth and John Belew.

Melisa Klimaszewski’s Collaborative Dickens: Authorship and Victorian Christmas Periodicals. [ABL Non-Rare 823.8 K65c 2019]

In memory of Carroll Hague.

Ben Glaser and Jonathan Culler’s Critical Rhythm: The Poetics of a Literary Life Form. [ABL Non-Rare 808.1 G548c 2019]

In honor of Frankie Carson by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Ana Sampson’s Night Feeds and Morning Songs: Honest, Fierce and Beautiful Poems about Motherhood. [ABL Non-Rare 808.81 S192n 2021]

 

In honor of Sue and Wilburn “Dub” Wright by George W. Monroe.

Paul E. Kerry’s Thomas Carlyle and the Idea of Influence. [ABL Non-Rare 828.809 K41t 2018]

In honor of William F. Schuetz, Jr. by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Daniel Karlin’s Street Songs: Writers and Urban Songs and Cries, 1800-1925. [ABL Non-Rare 821.009 K18st 2018]

In memory of Louise H. Schuetz by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Albert D. Pionke’s Teaching Later British Literature: A Thematic Approach. [ABL Non-Rare 820.7 P662t 2019]

In honor of Lumae Cunningham and Roger Spurgeon Brooks by Roger Leon Brooks.

Britta Martens’ The Poetry of Robert Browning. [ABL Non-Rare 821.83 D M377p 2016]

In honor of Lynn Schuetz by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Shane McCorristine’s Spectres of the Self: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-Seeing in England, 1750-1920. [ABL Non-Rare 133.1 M191s 2010]

In memory of Dr. Susan Burrow Colón by Ivy, Greg, and Luke Hamerly.

Andrew Hodgson’s The Poetry of Clare, Hopkins, Thomas, and Gurney: Lyric Individualism. [ABL Non-Rare 821.809 H691p 2019]

In memory of my father, William F. Schuetz, by Melvin H. Schuetz.

David Kerler and Timo Muller’s Poem Unlimited: New Perspectives on Poetry and Genre. [ABL Non-Rare 808.1 K39p 2019]

In honor of Shirley Schuetz by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Brian Rejack and Michael Theune’s Keats’s Negative Capability: New Origins and Afterlives. [ABL Non-Rare]

In honor of my wife, Carol L. Schuetz by Melvin H. Schuetz.

Kevin Klipfel and Dani Cook’s Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles and Practices. [ABL Non-Rare 025.56 K65l 2017]

 

 

 

More information about the Baylor Book Society and other Baylor Library programs can be found at:

https://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=1671

https://www.baylor.edu/library/index.php?id=975620

https://www.baylor.edu/library/index.php?id=975621

Interview with Katrina Gallegos, Curator of “Mythic Women”

Interview Questions by Anna Clark, M.A. Student in History and Armstrong Browning Library Graduate Research Assistant

This fall, the Armstrong Browning Library & Museum is hosting “Mythic Women: Archetypal Symbology in ‘Fifine at the Fair,'” an exhibition exploring the topics of sexual desire, social class, and the male objectification of women in Robert Browning’s 1872 poem “Fifine at the Fair.” This exhibit was curated by Katrina Gallegos, a Master’s student of Museum Studies at Baylor University. Gallegos’ exhibit is on display in honor of the poem’s 150th anniversary from August 17, 2022 – February 15, 2023.

I had the opportunity to ask Katrina Gallegos some questions regarding her exhibit, Mythic Women: Archetypal Symbology in “Fifine at the Fair.” 

Gallegos is a M.A. candidate in the Museum Studies department at Baylor University. This past spring semester, Gallegos partnered with the Armstrong Browning Library and Museum to curate an exhibit exploring the topics of the male gaze, the sexual objectification of women, and Greco-Roman symbols in Robert Browning’s poem “Fifine at the Fair” on its 150th anniversary of publication.

Gallegos’ exhibit is on display in the Armstrong Browning Library and Museum Hankamer Treasure Room through February 15, 2023. We invite you to come see the exhibit before it closes this winter.

How did you become interested in creating an exhibit on Robert Browning’s “Fifine at the Fair”? 

“Fifine” was actually my second choice. Originally, I was going to curate an exhibit based on women poets of Texas. However, as I was researching secondary sources in ABL’s closed stacks I came across literature that swayed me to curate an exhibition based on the poem. This poem is one of Robert Browning’s more obscure works and it was published later in his life. 2022 celebrates the poem’s 150th anniversary.

A 1872 first edition of Browning’s “Fifine at the Fair” on display

How did your previous research experiences assist you with this exhibit? 

My background is in Spanish and the culinary arts, but my experience as a graduate student in the Department of Museum Studies aided my research. I have taken an exhibition curation course which taught us how to conduct preliminary research when developing a new exhibit. Additionally, my experience as a McNair Research Scholar at the undergraduate level assisted me in finding the secondary sources to support my thesis of the male gaze. There are published literary works in the Armstrong Browning Library’s periodicals which explore and analyze this theme. 

In your exhibit, you highlight how Browning wrote about the provocative subjects of sexuality, desire, and the male objectification of women in a conservative Victorian society. Why do you think Browning was willing to address such topics that were generally considered taboo in Victorian England?

Robert Browning

After reading the secondary literature and comparing that against contemporary sources one can find many examples of explicit sexuality in Victorian Literature. For example, Charlotte Brontë ‘s novel Wuthering Heights contains a few erotic scenes and sentiments. A specific example is when Heathcliff goes to Catherine’s bedchamber and replaces his rival’s hair with his own. The language of that and the succeeding scenes are erotic. And while not in the same generation, Lord Byron and the Romantics of the proceeding generation were a little scandalous. Also, if one looks to the Pre-Raphaelite movement of painting one can see both the male gaze, desire and sexuality. One famous painter Rossetti who was both a mentee and friend of Robert Browning painted many women who are beautiful and flirtatious. Also, if one considers the date of publication, 1872 one can posit why R. Browning wrote such a poem. By this point Elizabeth Barrett Browning (EBB) had been deceased for 11 years and R. Browning never remarried nor taken a lover, a close friend, nothing. One can only imagine he must have had moments of loneliness and desire, he was after all, a living breathing human just like you and me. However, there are some contemporary and more recent secondary sources that argue that this poem was written as a critique on the Rosetti’s love life. As mentioned before R. Browning and Rosetti were friends, yet Rosetti was not as devoted to his wife as R. Browning was with EBB. After the poem was published, Rosetti was furious and ended his friendship with R. Browning. Browning was astonished, and nothing could persuade Rosetti to reconsider. Rosetti believed it was a personal and public attack on his behavior. From my research I could not find any document written by R. Browning which supports this theory. If I were to be very generous, I’d say both could be true. R. Browning was lonely, still had desires, and also disapproved of his friend’s behavior. The Victorians were and were not conservative. As with any society it is nuanced. The era is named after one individual, Queen Victoria, who was conservative. Queen Victoria’s successor, her son Prince Albert, known as “Bertie” was a scandalously licentious in his behavior. He took many lovers outside of his marriage and was a disappointment to his mother. I believe we, 21st century denizens, attribute much of our beliefs of this time around one person’s values and behavior. This is a disservice because there is much more to this era than one person.    

How do you think Browning’s “Fifine at the Fair” contributed to late 19th century discussions regarding women’s suffrage, the cult of true womanhood, the aesthetic dress movement, and women’s role in both the private and public spheres? 

I do not think the poem contributed much to these discussions. If anything, the poem reinforces the idea of “true womanhood” through its fetishization of a minority woman in direct comparison to a white English woman. As far as women’s suffrage I am only guessing therefore the following is an opinion, Donna Elvire has less than 20 lines of speech in this poem, and it is only at the beginning. If I recall correctly, Fifine has none. Therefore, I’d argue that R. Browning was not appealing to the females in the room. Could a woman have read it and its content affirmed her belief that a woman should have a voice and a right, sure. But I cannot definitively say that it had that effect. I am not entirely familiar with the aesthetic dress movement so I cannot speak to it. However, I do think R. Browning’s wife, EBB, contributed much more to women’s rights. She delicately balanced her public and private roles in a way that was far more unexpected and influential than her husband’s. He did what was expected, she did not. EBB wrote poems about slavery and child labor; she was a poet activist.  

Satirical cartoon on what it means to be “a lady” versus “a woman”

What do you believe is the most enduring legacy of Browning’s “Fifine at the Fair” on its 150th anniversary of publication? 

That people change yet remain the same. Even today, different can be seen as exotic and desirable and a welcome relief from what expected and common. Also, famous people, poets, politicians, etc. are just people, they’re just trying to express themselves and figure it out like the rest of us.  

Read more in this series of blog posts about the exhibit “Mythic Women: Archetypal Symbology in ‘Fifine at the Fair'”: