Friends of the UNCG Libraries

University Libraries’ held its Fourth Annual Members’ Choice event on April 10, allowing Jackson Society members to vote on their preferred selection of books to be added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives . The additions twill help grow the collection as it strives to meet the needs of current and future faculty and students, as well as the broader community. Jennifer Motszko, Manuscripts Archivist, gave a short presentation on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . This first edition, first issue, second state, with red and blue title page and green end papers with illustrations by John Leech and published by Chapman & Hall in 1843 was an instant success, reportedly selling all 6,000 copies of the first edition on the first day of publication. Chapman & Hall, a British publishing house founded in the first half of the 19th century, also published William Thackeray and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. After A Christmas Carol , Dickens woul...

On September 13, Abraham Lincoln's  Political Debates Between the Honorable Abraham Lincoln and the Honorable Stephen A. Douglas was presented to Chancellor Gilliam to commemorate the 125th anniversary of UNC Greensboro. The book was chosen by the members of the Walter Clinton Jackson Society at the Third Annual Members Choice event in April along with the other volumes that were added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives. When published as a presidential campaign tool in April 1860, the collected speeches became a best-seller, and by the time of Lincoln’s official nomination, some 30,000 copies were in circulation. The book is a first edition and was published in 1860. The debates were Lincoln's springboard to fame and feature the publisher's original embossed cloth and gilt engraved spine. The Lincoln–Douglas debates are unquestionably the most famous, and most important, of such confrontations to have been staged in the hi...

University Libraries’ held its Third Annual Members’ Choice Event on April 20. This exclusive event for the Jackson Society, allows members to vote on their preferred selection of books to be added to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives . These additions, many of which are first editions, will commemorate the 125 th anniversary of UNCG and help grow the collection as it strives to meet the needs of current and future faculty and students, as well as the broader community. The items recently added to UNCG’s Special Collections and University Archives are listed below: •          Isaac Johnson, Slavery Days in Old Kentucky                                 •          Thomas H. Jones, The Experience of Thomas H. J...

Group I: British Victorian Literature Collection (click to enlarge) The Jackson Society's Members Choice Event was held recently, and members again chose some rare titles to add to the collections of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives.  In thanking the members for their support, Assistant Dean for Special Collections and University Archives Keith Gorman wrote: "The event was held on Thursday, May 19 at 5:30.  Attendees examined 28 British and American literary works from the 19th century.  All of these rare works were first editions.  Attendees were presented with three groupings of works...Selection #1--British Victorian Literature, Selection #2--Works of Thoreau and Longfellow, and Selection #3--Assorted British and American 19th Century Literature.   Attendees were asked to cast their votes for the three groupings.  They placed poker chips in assigned ballot boxes.  Votes were than tabulated. Jackso...

Clint Jackson IV and Terri Jackson The Jackson family’s legacy at UNCG extends for yet another generation, supporting the Special Collections and University Archives in Jackson Library, named for the first generation of Jacksons associated with the University.  The family’s connection to UNCG goes back more than a century, to 1909. Walter Clinton Jackson, IV (Clint) and Terri Jackson have committed to establish the Walter Clinton Jackson Family Acquisition and Preservation Endowment with a testamentary gift.  Clint and Terri’s intention in making this gift is to honor the generations of Jackson family involvement with UNCG and to support the work of the University Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives. Walter Clinton Jackson (June 28, 1879 – August 12, 1959) served as the Chancellor of the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (currently the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) from 1934-1950.  His father was a farmer who h...

Wrapping up a year of focus on Shakespeare and Galileo at UNCG, the University Libraries’ Jackson Society made a purchase of a rare quarto edition of Shakespeare’s Othello for the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives.  As a result, UNCG will now be the only university in the UNC system owning one of the 30 known copies in existence of Shakespeare’s Othello in the seventh and final Quarto edition, published in 1705. Here is a description of the new acquisition: Othello. William Shakespeare.  London: Printed for R. Wellington, 1705. Seventh and final quarto edition. Lightly browned with some spotting and marginal dampstaining, small stain to title affecting advertisement at foot. Modern speckled tan three-quarter calf and marbled boards, gold-stamped red morocco spine label. Housed in a brown cloth folding box. Othello was first published in quarto format in 1622 and was then included in the First Folio edition of collected plays. It is o...

Shakespeare's Othello , 1705 quarto Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy's The Trumpet Major Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde and William Shakespeare did battle in UNCG’s Jackson Library last week. Some odds-makers were expecting Dickens to triumph, but Hardy won in a runoff, and Shakespeare had such a fan following that within a day he won too, helping Jackson Library acquire not one but three rare selections for the University Libraries’ Special Collections. The format of the battle was a first for the University Libraries.  Representatives of the Special Collections and University Archives each made short presentations to members of the Jackson Society to persuade them to cast their vote to purchase a book or selection of books by each of the four authors. The presentations focused not only on the history of the book and its importance, but also on the ways in which acquiring it would help the Library connect better to...

Members of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries Board of Directors and the Jackson Society , made up of those who support the University Libraries at UNCG with gifts of $1000 or more during the past year, enjoyed a wine and cheese reception with UNCG author Michael Parker at the Scuppernong Bookstore on March 3. 

On September 24, several members of the Jackson Society visited the new James B. Hunt Library N.C. State University.  Here are some photos.

John May, a member of the Jackson Society, has been a long-time supporter of the University Libraries at UNCG.   He knows their value first-hand.   Using and working in Jackson Library on a daily basis, he wrote a novel, Poe and Fanny , published to excellent reviews by Algonquin Books in 2004. Shannon Ravenel, the legendary editor at Algonquin, mentored John in the preparation of his book for publication. John later said of his experience, “I spent many happy days writing Poe and Fanny , and I did it all in the UNCG Library.   For two years, I spent my mornings reading and researching, and my afternoons writing.   I loved it.   Those were vital years.”   He continues, “I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the Jackson Library.   I was always welcomed.   I was always at home there.   I was always at my most creative there.” John, who founded Bonaventure Company, also served as Chair of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries from 200...

Begun in 2010 with 22 members, the Jackson Society supporting the University Libraries at UNCG continues to grow and now has 41 members.   The group recently gathered for a reception at the home of Jane and Richard Levy to celebrate the group’s accomplishments and review its short history as the premier giving level for those supporting the University Libraries. Jackson Society members have enjoyed past December events at the home of bookbinders and conservators Monique Lallier and Don Etherington, and at the Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room.   Throughout the year, they’ve enjoyed intimate wine and cheese receptions with such visiting authors as novelists Jill McCorkle and Matthew Pearl, poets Kathryn Stripling Byer and Joseph Bathanti, storyteller/musical artist Peter Yarrow and John McCutcheon, and writer Tony Horwitz. During 2013, Jackson Society donors supported such projects as the African American Institutional Memory Projec...

Pam Sprinkle is a person who makes things happen. During her term on the Friends of the UNCG Libraries Board of Directors, financial cutbacks threatened the continuation of the Children’s Book Author and Storyteller Series that brings prominent author/storytellers to the UNCG campus each fall.  The Series has three components: 1) to perform at UNCG for nearly 1000 fourth graders in area schools; 2) to conduct a master storyteller Q&A session with UNCG students studying to become elementary school teachers; and 3) to appear at both UNCG and the area Bookmarks Festival under UNCG sponsorship.  Without even being asked for her support, Pam determined that she wanted to see the series continue, and worked out a plan with husband David to do so, committing to fund it for five years.  The Sprinkles’ generosity not only saved the series, it allowed it to thrive, and with their ongoing commitment top author/storytellers could be booked a year or more in advance, som...