ENG 470/570: Archive Fever Dashboard
Description
A virtual exhibit of the Sigurd Peterson collection of editions of Edmund Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Created by students in ENG 470/570: Studies in Poetry at Oregon State University.
Galleries, Timelines, and Maps
By taking a close look at an archived gift book of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, I have analyzed how the status and the history of the Rubáiyát as a gift book creates problems in larger conversations such as Orientalism and the ideology it represents. I have done research to better understand this 1929 edition of the Rubáiyát in how it was made, how it contributes to Orientalism, a close reading of the text and an illustration to uncover how unrealistic the thinking is that physical pleasure is the highest good, and even partook in critical fabulation in the form of a letter attached to this Christmas present.
#83 in the Dr. Sigurd H. Peterson Memorial Collection at Oregon State is two items: A 1920 copyright songbook for a quartet rendition of In a Persian Garden, and a programme for the performance of In a Persian Garden from 1905. What do these pieces add to a collection of mostly illustrated gift books? Why are these two items together, and how did they end up here?
This digital archival experience centers on engagement with a 1920 Ronald Balfour-illustrated copy of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám that is housed in Oregon State University's Special Collection & Archives Research Center. Specifically, the curator describes in detail certain physical, artistic, historical, and paratextual features of this book while considering its place in Victorian England gift book culture. The curator also offers a close reading of image and text by comparing one of the Rubáiyát stanzas in this text to its corresponding illustration and partakes in archival speculation (i.e., in the form of a letter) to imagine what circumstances might have predicated the giving of this particular gift book.
This term project examines the 1947 Random House edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. It explains the basic features of the edition, describes the people and organizations that went into the making of this edition, discusses how it plays into or subverts the Orientalism often common with the Rubáiyát, does a close reading of the relationship between one stanza and its neighboring illustration, and finally writes a speculative letter to the owner of the book based on the archival information found in the book.
Written by Lucas Yao
The Rubaiyat as a poem is layered, intense, and occasionally decieving in regards to its meaning. Without knowledge of several different aspects of the particular edition's history, illustrator, and date of publication, we can build a much broader sense of what the edition means in its location in history and our hearts.
Gifted to the “Fair Lady Lucy” by an anonymous “Lover,” Oregon State University’s 1888 edition of Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia offers an interesting look into Victorian courting customs. While this edition first appears as a rather drab gift compared to other, more lavish versions of the coveted rubáiyát, it follows the expectations typical of Victorian gentlemen- to give an expensive gift would be seen as an attempt of bribing their sweetheart, so something simple like a book, flowers, or small chocolates were more acceptable (Meddings.)
Despite its unassuming nature, Lady Lucy most likely did hold on, and treasure, this gift as the book contains another inscription in the back, quoting a play that wouldn’t be released until 1902 from a passage about... more