The OWU English Department Blog
Did you know that one of Ohio Wesleyan’s founders was a civil rights champion? This week’s feature is especially exciting, because you can go see it for yourself! On display outside of the Special Collections section of Beeghly Library is some of the literature of the Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission (WFAC) and the Freedmen’s Aid Society (FAC).…
George Cruikshank was a 19th century British caricaturist best known for illustrating his friend Charles Dickens’s novels, such as Oliver Twist. One of the more interesting (and amusing) of his works that we have in the library, though, is his Comic Almanack. A little bit like the The Onion today, it contained cartoons and sociopolitical satire.…
Jane Austen is one of the most influential writers of the Western canon. She wrote novels which were, for their time, rather subversive, – depicting women exercising autonomy, highlighting class differences, and generally challenging the status quo. She was also the age of many college students when she wrote Pride and Prejudice, only 20 years old (which makes me feel like I really ought to hurry up and do something important).…
Have you ever wondered what it would have been like had you attended OWU 100 years ago? A peak into the 1918-1919 Ohio Wesleyan University Catalog provides some fascinating insight into this question.
Campus life 100 years ago would certainly have looked different than it does now, for a number of reasons.…
Homer’s Iliad is a work that almost every student of literature is bound to read at some point in their lives. It has been considered required reading literally for millenia. The Rare Books Collection has an edition of the Iliad published in 1660, translated by John Ogilby. It is a beautiful book, filled with annotations which summarize much of the previous scholarship on the Iliad.…
One of the most exciting parts of the Rare Books section in Beeghly is the Bayley/Walt Whitman Collection. This unique trove of materials includes many first or early editions of Whitman’s work, photographs of Whitman, and even a scrapbook put together by Whitman himself! 
One of the most important pieces we have is a first edition of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.…
In Beeghly Library’s Special Collections section, one of the many treasures hidden in the shelves is a first edition of “Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life and Opinions” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. What’s most special about OWU’s copy, though, is that it is from the personal library of William Wordsworth!…
Happy #throwbackThursday everyone! We’re throwing it all the way back to late 1800’s to the writings of Robert and Elizabeth Browning. See their collection, personal books, statues and artifacts, including this bust of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, within our very own #owu #archive! #owu #owuenglish #archivalquality…
Happy #throwbackthursday Scholars of Sturges! Today we’re taking a look at the personal scrapbook of #waltwhitman! Found within this scrapbook are maps, articles, and all things Walt found interesting. If you want to get into the headspace of the iconic American writer stop by the incredible OWU archives!
#owuenglish #rarebooks #sturgesscript…
Happy #throwbackthursday Scholars of Sturges! Today we’re going to throw it all the way back to 1632 at the time when Shakespeare’s second folio was published. Luckily, we have this incredible piece of history stored in our very own archive at OWU!! If you ever have a chance you should go and take a gander at it!…