Category Archives: collection highlights

New Zines Collection and Collaboratory Event

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A sample of some of the zines in Vassar College Libraries

A sample of some of the zines in Vassar College Libraries

When we tell people we are staring a zine collection in the Vassar Library, we usually see one of two reactions, excitement or confusion: excitement over the potential this amazing format has to offer our community, but confusion, because many don’t really know what a zine is. Learn more about our zine collection and how you can help contribute to it!

What is a zine?

Zines are a DIY, self-published medium, incorporating voices and narratives frequently absent from more traditional publishing venues, with “zine” pronounced like “magazine” (without the “maga” part, as Alex Wrekk succinctly instructs us in Stolen Sharpie Revolution).

Why are you starting a collection at the library?

We feel that zines are one venue through which our community can express itself. With the college having opened up many lines of dialogue on campus in the past few years, the library thought that zines might offer another way for some to voice their thoughts and feelings. Not everyone wants to speak in front of a crowd; many prefer or simply enjoy the medium of writing and drawing and creating.

How can I contribute?

Right now, we are in the early stages of planning the space and the collection, but we always welcome donations from the community! Please contact zines@vassar.edu if you have a zine you would like us to add to our zine library. Currently the collection resides in a librarian’s office, but we are working on developing a public home for the zines in the main library. In the meantime, if you want to help us get our collection started, please join us in the Collaboratory from April 21-26.

What will you do with the zines?

Well, we’d love to preserve and share them just like we do other materials (books, periodicals, video, etc.)! We plan to share them with the public in a cozy new zines area, where they can be read and shared ad infinitum. Additionally, we are looking into the idea of digitally preserving the zines which we receive from the Vassar community, in hopes that they can be viewed and used by future generations of Vassar students who want to learn more about everyday Vassar life and culture in the 2010s. (Much like how we can use the Vassar diaries collection today!)

So what’s up with the Collaboratory?

The Collaboratory is Vassar’s Creative Arts Across Disciplines trailer, which is currently parked on the quad outside of Rocky. (You can learn more about the program in this Misc article, and check out their inspirational student-curated page here.) During the week of April 21-26, the Zine Library team will be hosting a zine-creating event which will open its doors to the public daily, inviting everyone and anyone to drop in and create. Your zine can be one page or many, small or large, singular or the beginning of a collection! Come draw, write, design, or do a little bit of everything. Ask us if you’d like ideas and inspiration. We would love to help you get started!

Where can I learn more?

Glad you asked! Please look to libguides.vassar.edu/zines as we continue to update the space with information and connections. In the spirit of zines, we welcome collaboration and input.

Sutematsu Yamakawa Oyama: First Japanese Woman to Earn a College Degree

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Sutematsu Yamakawa was born February 23, 1860, in northeastern Honshu, the largest of the four main islands of Japan. Twelve years later, Sutematsu (sometimes referred to by the Anglicized and more phonetical “Stematz”) became one of five young women to arrive in the United States with the Iwakura Mission, a diplomatic group from Japan’s

Oyama while a student at Vassar College

Oyama while a student at Vassar College, ca 1878-1882

new Meiji government sent abroad to strengthen political ties and educate Japan’s leaders regarding western modernization. The five girls, aged 6-14, were to spend ten years in the United States then return to their country to become exemplary mothers in a modern Japan.

Shortly after her arrival in the United States in 1872, Yamakawa was placed with the family of Rev. Leonard Bacon in New Haven, Connecticut. Yamakawa spent the remainder of her childhood with the Bacons, becoming a cherished member of the family and best friend to youngest daughter Alice. After graduating from Hillhouse High School, Yamakawa was accepted at Vassar College, as was Shige Nagai, another student from the Iwakura Mission. Both were popular and did well academically. Nagai, who later became the Baroness Uriu, studied for three years as a Special Student in music. Yamakawa was president of her class, an active member of many clubs, and graduated with honors in 1882. She was the first Japanese woman to receive a college degree.

Oyama together

Two images of Oyama after her return to Japan, n.d.

After Vassar, Yamakawa briefly attended nursing school in New Haven, but soon returned to Japan. She searched for teaching or government work, but because she could speak Japanese but had never learned to read or write the language, her job prospects were dim. Marriage seemed her only option. In 1883, she married Iwao Oyama, a 42 year old widower, father of three, and the Japanese Minister of War.  After her marriage and a series of promotions for her husband, Sutematsu Yamakawa became Countess Oyama, and later, Princess Oyama. She took on roles common to government officials’ wives, but also met with the Empress to give advice on western style and customs, encouraged upperclass women to volunteer as nurses (previously considered a menial occupation), and furthered the cause of women’s education as a trustee of the Peeresses’ School in Tokyo and co-founder of the Girl’s English Institute (Joshi Eigakujuku). In 1919, Sutematsu Oyama fell victim to the influenza epidemic that swept Tokyo. She died just five days short of her sixtieth birthday.

This biography was taken from the Guide to the Sutematsu Yamakawa Oyama Papers in the Archives & Special Collections Library.

Romance? Yes? No? Either way: Criterion!

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Plough and the Stars

To Valentine or not to Valentine? Either way it’s freakin’ cold! Just in time for these freezing days and nights when watching a great movie indoors sounds like a fine plan, the Vassar Library is taking two streaming platforms for the Criterion Collection of films out for a test drive.  Criterion offers many of the greatest films from around the world and remains committed to publishing the defining moments of cinema by building a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films including the work of such masters as Renoir, Godard, Kurosawa, Cocteau, Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Fuller, Lean, Lang, Dreyer, Eisenstein, Ozu, Buñuel and Powell.  Recently, they have begun to offer their collection of films on streaming platforms, including HuluPlus for individuals, and Alexander Street and Kanopy for colleges and other institutions.  We’re running a simultaneous trial of the two platforms so that we can compare their features and decide which one we like best.  So watch a great movie this weekend – with a loved one, a pal, your dog, just you… whatever! Did we mention it’s freakin’ cold??

http://library.vassar.edu/search/databases/databasetrials.html

 

Yay for Valentine’s Day!

love

Not so much…

no love

If you have comments or questions, or a platform opinion, please get in touch with Gretchen Lieb, Film and Video Librarian.