December 15, 2009, Filed Under: Exhibitions + EventsCurator’s Choice: Among 200 Poe objects, this one stands out The Ransom Center’s Koester Poe collection contains 72 letters written by Edgar Allan Poe, 16 of which appear in the bicentennial exhibition, From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe. One of these letters has become my favorite item to share with visitors during tours through… read more
December 8, 2009, Filed Under: Research + TeachingFellows Find: Fannie Hurst and Diets Before the Atkins, South Beach, and Cabbage Soup diets was the Hollywood Eighteen Day Diet from the 1920s, which demanded fewer than 600 calories per day. One of its earliest practitioners was American novelist Fannie Hurst, who wrote extensively about her weight loss struggles in the early 20th century, when… read more
December 3, 2009, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Exhibitions + EventsFrom the Galleries: Tycho Brahe’s "Astronomiae instauratae mechanica" Before the telescope was invented, 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe built his own instruments to measure star and planetary positions with accuracy up to one arcminute. Brahe described these home-made instruments in his 1602 book, Astronomiae instauratae mechanica, the first edition of which is on display in the Ransom Center’s… read more
