Friends of the UNCG Libraries

A new exhibit in Jackson Library's Hodges Reading Room,  Portable Likeness: Selected Portrait Miniatures and their Literary Context, explores the role played by portrait miniatures both in and out of the book arts. The art of miniature portraits has several early forms: Roman coins, Renaissance commemorative medals, and images within medieval manuscripts. It is this last form that is the connection in this exhibit. Medieval religious texts, such as a Book of Hours, offered an opportunity to record a patron and a patron’s family members in the portraiture found in the illustrations. By 1460, the hand-written books were competing with the printed books. The ability to include personalized portraits within the book added to both the desirability and value of the manuscript works. However, during the sixteenth century fashion shifted to the less expensive and more accessible printed works. Portrait artists shifted also, offering their services to wealthy patrons. Most portraits were ...

In this season of Thanksgiving, we take a moment to appreciate one of the many special donors to our University Libraries and say thank you to all. Carolyn Weill LeBauer, a 1936 graduate of Woman’s College, cherished her alma mater.   She was a Greensboro native who contributed greatly to the community through her association with civic, cultural and medical auxiliary activities over many years.   She died in March 2012, and we are pleased to announce that her estate has now established the Carolyn Weill LeBauer Fund to support the book arts collection housed in the Special Collections of Jackson Library at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro..   “This is an appropriate way to honor Carolyn’s memory and interests,” says Dean Rosann Bazirjian of the University Libraries.   “She was a member the Friends of the UNCG Libraries for many years, and she and her husband Maurice gave a special volume to the book arts collection back in 1975, one which re...