Hirshland Exhibition Gallery, Carl A. Kroch Library

The Lincoln Presidency: Last Full Measure of Devotion

In October 2009 Cornell University Library will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth with an exhibition of its significant collections on Lincoln and the Civil War era.  On display will be Cornell's manuscript of the Gettysburg Address, one of only five copies in the handwriting of Lincoln, along with original manuscripts of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution signed by Lincoln and members of Congress.

Reference Room, Carl A. Kroch Library

“Make Every Word Tell” : Fifty Years of The Elements of Style

William Strunk, Jr. could not have foreseen the impact his “little book” would have on the English-writing world. Originally self-published for his English 8 class in 1918, it gained national attention when E. B. White (Cornell class of 1921) fondly reminisced about Strunk in an essay for The New Yorker in 1957. An editor at Macmillan persuaded White to update and publish Elements, and it soon became the first writing guide to make the New York Times Best Seller List. After four editions, several reprintings, and an illustrated version published in 2005, it remains one of the most popular style guides ever written.

The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections features several collections relating to the book’s long history, including the papers of both William Strunk and E. B. White. Please visit us on the 2B level of Kroch Library, where the originals of some of these materials are currently on display. The exhibition is continued in the display cases outside the Current Periodicals room (101 Olin Library).