March 11, 2021, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Featured1, Research + TeachingSARA COLERIDGE: A life unfolding by JEFFREY W. BARBEAU This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research? Sometimes the scrawled letters on a page slow reading to a halt. Unlike printed words in a bound volume or transcripts that risk sanitizing history, handwriting produces an entirely different reading experience. Words unfold, as… read more
March 4, 2021, Filed Under: Authors, Featured1, Research + TeachingResearching microbiography in Tennessee Williams’s artwork by JOHN S. BAK This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research? Research helps solve mysteries we didn’t even know existed. While most scholars search for answers in an archive, others like me seek out questions. For us, discovering a mystery is as fun as solving… read more
February 26, 2021, Filed Under: Authors, Books + Manuscripts, Featured1Knopf archive reveals details about Lonely Crusade author Chester Himes Many writers and artists through history have developed their craft, and even published, while they were imprisoned. Among them is Chester Himes, an African American author who wrote about racism, prison life, and who is best known for his Harlem Detective series. Records related to Himes are found in the… read more
February 25, 2021, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Featured1, Research + Teaching‘It looks like a garter to me’: Students, slow research, and the long history of young couples’ intimacy by JULIE HARDWICK This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research? What can a pink silk ribbon with a beadwork message JE M’ELOIGNE SANS ME’EN SEPARER (translated, “I’m going away but not leaving you”) tell us about young people’s relationships in eighteenth-century French history? As an historian,… read more
February 22, 2021, Filed Under: Featured1, PhotographyPortfolio of photographs acquired from Dawoud Bey’s Night Coming Tenderly, Black In 2017, renowned portraitist Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953) reflected on his four-decade career by stating simply, “my work has largely been based on representation of the human subject.” He explained that he has used photography to depict “subjects such as the black subject, or young people, who are not always—within the larger… read more
February 18, 2021, Filed Under: Art, Featured1, Research + TeachingThe Ransom Center and NAGPRA: A team effort in research by ESTER HARRISON This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research? Learn about the series and click here to add your voice to the conversation. In 2018, a committee of staff members at the Harry Ransom Center began the process of updating the Center’s deaccession policy and procedures: a standard document… read more