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Archive: February 2022 (5 Posts)

Handwritten copy (with deletions crossed out and additions added) of the first few sentence of Jefferson

Finding Rats in the Barry Commoner Papers

Posted by: Josh Levy

In the late 1960s, Barry Commoner and the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems became involved in an ambitious, federally funded effort to understand the ecology of the sewer rat, and then kill it. That project’s failure at a moment of heightened political radicalism reveals how the rat-human relationship can highlight histories of economic injustice. With a major reprocessing of the Barry Commoner Papers now complete, those stories, and more, emerge with far greater clarity.

Side 1 of canvas back of director's chair with Mr. Mamoulian printed on it, signed by members of cast and crew

Of Note: Lessons from a Director’s Chair

Posted by: Laura Kells

This is the first in an occasional series in which we share items that have caught our eye. This unusual item from the papers of stage and film director Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987) is a memento from the first movie he ever directed, Applause (1929). Mamoulian saved the back of his director’s chair that had been …