News and Exhibits

Job Opening : Data Science Librarian

The library seeks an enthusiastic, user-centered educator to join our Research Services team as Data Science Librarian. In this newly-created position, you will design and implement data literacy services for undergraduate students, support data-intensive courses, and contribute to the development of the college's Data Science program. As liaison librarian, you will also guide students and faculty on library research methods, teach instruction sessions and develop library collections. For full role details and to apply, visit https://staff-careers.williams.edu/ Continue reading »

Openings: Exhibit coming soon

Coming in the Fall: When Williams reopens to visitors, the Chapin Library will return to displaying a selection of our material behind protective glass. Few books are created with this kind of interaction in mind, but what can we learn from close looking at a distance? Continue reading »

Fourth of July Readings

Again this year the Chapin Library at Williams College and the Williamstown Theatre Festival are presenting a video program as our annual reading of the Declaration of Independence and related documents. We have also asked members of the… Continue reading »

What does the Declaration of Independence mean to you?

This Juneteenth we are preparing for our annual reading of the Declaration of Independence and Frederick Douglass's speech "What to a Slave is the 4th of July?." We are kicking off this season of critical examination of our Founding Documents on Juneteenth, a day that invites us to reflect on US history and how our "inalienable rights" have been accessible to the populace over time. Continue reading »

Scenes in Civil War Virginia

Burke's Head Quarters drawing Virginia

Two lovely, anonymous graphite drawings in the Chapin Library’s collection, likely done by the same artist, come to us from the earlier years of the American Civil War. Each depicts, with an uncommon degree of skill and subtlety, a Virginian manor, one readily identifiable and still standing, the other… Continue reading »

Powerhouse Cartoonists of the Gilded Age

Udo Keppler Theodore Roosevelt lithograph for Puck

Joseph and Udo Keppler were the father–son powerhouse of satirical cartooning in 19th- and early-20th-century America. Joseph, the elder, was an Austrian immigrant who cut his teeth on mid-century cartooning for mostly German-language publications in St. Louis and New York City. His legacy as one of the 19th century’s… Continue reading »

The Devil and Brother Jonathan

Cartoon by C.J. Grant wood engraving

C.J. Grant was a British satirist with Radical sympathies, whose political engravings saw success in the 1830s. Typically taking a hostile stance against the policies (and often the persons) of more conservative Whig and Tory politicians, Grant’s prints championed working class suffrage and political reform. In a rare wood-engraved… Continue reading »

The Simple Jographer

Geographer or Globe-maker drawing by Oliver Herford

Peter Simple, author of The Simple Jography; or, How to Know the Earth and Why It Spins, was a character created by Oliver Herford, a British-born American humorist whose popularity peaked around the turn of the 20th century, and of whose works the Chapin Library has a substantial collection. Continue reading »

Washington’s Reception

Washington's Reception by the Ladies lithograph Kellogg

In April of 1789, President-elect George Washington made his way from his home in Virginia to the young country’s then-capital, New York City, for his inauguration on the last day of the month. He made frequent stops along the way to greet his numerous supporters. The most represented of… Continue reading »