New Exhibit @ Hoole: A Blank Space for Every Day in the Year

Beginning Tuesday, August 26, 2008, a new exhibit at the Hoole Library will be on display in the lobby. A Blank Space for Every Day of the Year: 19th Century Pocket Diaries and their Diarists explores the content, technology and anatomy of selected diaries housed in the W.S. Hoole Library's Manuscript Collections. The impetus for the exhibit began with the work of Larry Lou Foster, a graduate of The University of Alabama's internationally known MFA Program in the Book Arts.

Title page, 1868 Manly diary

As a book artist and fine binder, Larry Lou, working with current MFA graduate student Bridget Elmer and Jessica Lacher-Feldman from the Hoole Library, along with beautiful and detailed photographs by UA photographer Laura Shill, brought together images, ephemera, along with the diaries themselves and other materials that give a true sense of several aspects of these very personal artifacts. The exhibit also includes some of Larry Lou's models and work she has done to replicate these unique structures and to better understand their construction.

Manly diary on left, diary by Larry Lou Foster on the right

The exhibit will be on display in the lobby of the Hoole Library from August 26-December 19, 2008. There will be an opening and short lecture on Tuesday, October 7th at 6 pm. This event and exhibit also marks the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library's contribution to Archives Month in Alabama.

To view some of Laura's incredible photographs of the diaries which will be in the exhibit, visit the brand new cool@hoole flickr page! More images from the exhibit will be added soon. And be sure to stop by Hoole to see the exhibit!

Detail from the witty, charming and beautiful pages of the diary of William Cooper