An existential question for you on this Flag Day: Is a flag pole still a flag pole if it’s no longer flying a flag? (Short answer: yes, it’s just not living up to its potential.) Here’s another, related, question: What’s up with the 50-foot flag pole currently hidden by a giant oak tree on the…
Category: Armstrong Browning Library
Battle Hymns and Passion Flowers: Julia Ward Howe And the 19th Century Women Poets Collection
A recently-released biography of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter titled The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe paints an intriguing picture of an early American abolitionist and feminist whose unhappy marriage bred two works of creative genius: The Battle Hymn of the Republic (1861-1862) and a less-well-known book of poetry called Passion-Flowers (1853). You…
Jax and EBB Sitting ‘Neath A Tree / R-H-Y-M-I-N-G: On Sesame Street’s “Sons of Poetry” and the Brownings
What do fictional Northern California biker gangs, a beloved television institution and two Victorian poets have in common? According to this video from Sesame Street’s amazing line of pop culture parody skits, they share a love of rhyming couplets, of course. In typical Sesame Street fashion, they’ve taken something decidedly adult – the hit FX…
Small But Mighty: Introducing the Armstrong Browning Library Photographic Archive
Boy howdy, it’s been a few days since we last blogged! [Checks calendar, sees it’s been almost two months, feels regret.] Let’s make up for that today, shall we? We’re excited to announce the launch of a new collection based on holdings of the Armstrong Browning Library. The new Photographic Archive will feature items digitized…
Browning Day 2014
Several members of the DPG team were privileged to present at the Armstrong Browning Library’s annual Browning Day celebration this week. The event, held on Robert Browning’s birthday every year, celebrates the life, legacy and impact of the poet’s work and features receptions, guest speakers and more. Assistant Director Darryl Stuhr and Curator of Digital…
“Unquestionably the Most Elaborate and Complete, of Any Which I Have Seen” – An Update on the Browning Letters Project
If it’s Valentine’s Day, it must be time for another update on our most love-centric undertaking, the Browning Letters Project! Two years ago, we announced the unveiling of the first phase of the project, wherein 1,400 letters digitized from the collections of Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library and Wellesley College were placed online for the…
The [Un]Surprisingly Consistent Vein of Sorrow in the Works of the Armstrong Browning Library’s Women Poets Collection
You could be forgiven for assuming that a collection of 400 works written by 19th century poetesses would encompass a mostly positive worldview. It would even be safe to assume, for example, that the kinds of women who had the educational backgrounds, available leisure time and access to commercial (and private) printers would tend to…
Baylor Faculty Members Secure Grant Funding for Digital Collections-Based Research Project
In a year filled with firsts for the Digital Projects Group, we’re excited to announce another. Two Baylor University faculty members – Dr. Greg Hamerly (Associate Professor, Computer Science) and Dr. William Weaver (Assistant Professor, Great Texts Program – Honors College) – shared the news with this week that they had received a URC grant…
If You Scan Something, Set It Free: The Surprising Places We Find Our Digital Objects Online
For the parents among our readership, you well know that stepping back and letting your child experience life on their own – from their first unaided steps to the day they walk the stage at graduation – is one of the toughest things you have to master. And even though you know it’s part of…
A Post for the Statisticians in the Audience (Or, Who’s Been Looking at Our Stuff?)
The phenomenal success of the Browning Letters Project did more than just expose the world to the first digitized images of more than 1,400 pieces of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s correspondence. It also exposed the server that hosts the collection to more than 1,000,000 page views in just three days! In fact, over the…
“How do I love thee?” Let Us Digitize the Ways!
They were written between two of the most famous names in Victorian poetry, spanning a famous courtship, an elopement to Italy, and a widower’s final years. They were preserved by two institutions of higher education in the United States, one a private liberal arts college in the Northeast, the other a private Baptist university in…
Christmas Poetry, from 19th Century Poetess Adelaide Procter
Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas from all of us at the Digitization Projects Group! If you’re looking for some inspiring readings for the day, check out the 19th Century Women Poets Collection. Drawn from the holdings of the Armstrong Browning Library, these works contain dozens of poems related to Christmas and its iconic…