New digital collections preserve, examine Cornell history

Newly published digital collections at Cornell University Library explore areas of Cornell history - from the papers of a nationally renowned, independent poetry press that started as an English professor's pet project in the 1960s; to a collection of historic maps charting Cornell's expansion over the decades; to a trove of glass slides used as visual aids in engineering classes during the 1920s and 1930s.

Freely accessible online, the three new collections were digitized from materials held in Cornell University Library's Rare and Manuscript Collections, as the culmination of projects led by faculty and graduate students supported by the library's Program for Digital Collections.

Marty Cain, Ph.D. '22, explored the publishing files of Ithaca House Press, a small independent poetry imprint helmed from 1969 to 1986 by the late Baxter Hathaway, a professor of English who was instrumental in the founding of Cornell's M.F.A. program in creative writing.

Cain's research on Ithaca House is part of his forthcoming book from Clemson University Press, which investigates DIY poetic communities in rural parts of the U.S. "It was a pretty prolific press in a period in which the infrastructure of small press publishing was emerging," said Cain, who is currently a reference assistant at Olin Library.

Cain said he was also fascinated by the "aesthetic collisions" and tensions embodied by the press: Ithaca House was started by a Cornell professor, but it was not affiliated with the university. It featured traditional work by local and regional poets but also published more experimental work by poets outside of New York, including important first books of Language poetry made famous by writers in California's Bay Area.

Ithaca House's sense of identity in place also resonated with Cain as poet and as a publisher of Garden-Door Press, the independent press he runs with his wife, Kina Viola. "The place where we live affects the way we think about what publishing is and what poetic community looks like," he said.

Jon Parmenter, an associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences, and archaeologist Dusti Bridges, Ph.D. '25, researched old Cornell mapsto examine the history of the university in relation to Indigenous displacement and dispossession.

"These campus maps help situate the growth of Cornell within broader histories, in particular how Cornell's physical and intellectual expansion coincided with the loss and exploitation of Indigenous lands across the United States through the Morrill Act of 1862," said Parmenter, who studies the history of early North America, in particular the history of Indigenous peoples in what became the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada.

Thirty-two maps were digitized as part of the project, and they have been useful for related scholarship at Cornell, Parmenter said, including a recent paper published in the Chicago Reviewby Bridges and Sarah LaVoy-Brunette, a doctoral student in the Medieval Studies Program, examining the emergence of the discipline of Medieval studies in light of the establishment of land-grant universities.

"The maps are also to be used in a forthcoming data visualization to be hosted on the Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project website that will represent in simulated real time the physical growth of the Cornell campus in relation to financial proceeds from the Morrill Act after 1881," Parmenter said.

Now-retired engineering librarian Jill Powell and a team of professors digitized a large collection of lantern slides - transparent glass plates bearing photographic images that were projected with a device called a magic lantern. Cornell professors used these slides in the classroom in the early 20th century to illustrate topics ranging from the development and operation of industrial machines to hiring and managing personnel.

The more than 400 lantern slides were donated to the library by Ronald Kline, the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Professor in History and Ethics of Engineering Emeritus at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Cornell Engineering.

As described in a library guide to the collection, the slides offer a window into the history of early engineering classes at Cornell and are of particular interest to scholars studying the history of industrial and labor relations, gender studies, science and technology studies, and related fields.

The library's digital collections programsupports the creation of enduring digital resources that enhance discovery, access, and use of Cornell's collections for teaching, learning, and research. Projects may involve digitizing Cornell-held materials, supporting interdisciplinary scholarship, and expanding global access to unique collections. More information can be found on the library's website.

Jose Beduya is a staff writer and editor for Cornell University Library.