"Fanciful Fairies!" is the title of an exhibit running December 1-31, 2008 at the Lilly Library, Indiana University - Bloomington. Current Master of Library Science (MLS) student, Rebecca Klusman curated the exhibit as a part of her Fall 2008 SLIS Internship. She is shown in the photo here with the exhibit catalog and a portion of the exhibit.
When interviewed about the exhibit, Klusman stated some of her favorite items were children's book illustrations like those by Cicely Mary Barker. "Barker's active imagination and ability were products of a childhood spent confined to her bed with epilespy. Her elder sister ran a school, bringing Barker into contact with children and sparking her affinity for drawing and painting with them as her subjects... Still in print today, the Flower Fairy books were originally released in a set of eight books, seven of which can be seen here... Barker wrote poems to accompany each of her illustrations and later set them to music." [exhibit catalog - Case 7]
Even more intriguing are the stories surrounding the Cottingly Photographs. The story goes that two sisters who lived near Cottingley, England took photographs of themselves playing with fairies. People believed the photos were real. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle even wrote a book in "support of the validity of the images, The Coming of the Fairies." But, in their 80s, the women explained that while they had seen fairies, they had faked the photos. [exhibit catalog - Case 5]
Klusman came to SLIS with a dual major Bachelor's degree (English and Classical Languages and Literature) from Valparaiso University. Her studies included a semester at Cambridge - England, and a summer at the University of Notre Dame Medieval Institute (where she studied Medieval Latin).
At SLIS, she has been the recipient of a SLIS Merit Scholar package that included a work component as the SLIS Design Analyst. Her internship is a part of a Rare Books and Manuscripts Specialization she is completing within the MLS degree. Rebecca Cape, Head of Reference and Public Services at the Lilly Library, is the internship project supervisor. Joel Silver, Curator of Books at the Lilly Library is the Director of the Specialization.
Posted December 17, 2008