Tag Archives: Pop Culture

The Loch Ness Monster: Exploitation of Myth or Happy Coincidence? And Does It Matter?

by Jeff Flanagan Posted on January 9, 2020

Not quite a year ago, I took a call at the SCUA reference desk from Dr. Henry H. Bauer, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Science Studies and Emeritus Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences here at Virginia Tech. Dr. Bauer had been contacted not lo… Continue reading →

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Altered Images and Words: A Call for Creative Submissions

by rfitz12 Posted on September 30, 2018

Make an animation. Make a gif. Make a collage. Write some microfiction. Write a poem. Get out your digital black-out marker to create some redacted poetry. Make something entirely unique that was inspired by an image or string of text. Remix and stretc… Continue reading →

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American Song: A Sign of the (War)Times

by marc9 Posted on October 29, 2016

Did you hear? (Of course, you did.) Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature a few weeks ago. As the Nobel committee wrote, it awarded the prize to Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” That is a mighty step up for an already valued and valuable tradition […] Continue reading →

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The Fugitive Author

by jojacks2 Posted on October 20, 2016

Robert Burns Escaped from the Georgia Chain Gangs, Then Strove to Abolish Them Here in Special Collections, we hold a number of books that have altered the course of history. Such works as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Communist Manifesto, Common Sense, and Walden have all profoundly shaped human thought and history, and all have places […] Continue reading →

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Who’s who in the cast

by roganwright Posted on May 12, 2016

Over the past few months, I’ve been processing a collection of performing arts programs, advertisements, and clippings gathered by Virginia English teacher John Barnes (1905-1979). Barnes held both a Bachelor of Philosophy and a Master of Education and taught English at Lane High School in Charlottesville, VA from 1949-1958 when he became Guidance Director. Over […] Continue reading →

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Stars in the Nebula

by roganwright Posted on January 21, 2016

The last post to this blog about the William J. Heron Speculative Fiction Collection was in October 2013. As a fan of science fiction, I think that’s too long to go without exploring the treasure trove of early science fiction contained in the collection. The Heron Collection includes thousands of classic science fiction magazine issues […] Continue reading →

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The Amazing Guy Who Smiled

by jojacks2 Posted on May 21, 2015

Here in Special Collections we have any number of items easily recognized as rare or unique: a letter from Charles Lindbergh to Apollo XI astronaut Michael Collins; a diary written by former slave Jeffrey Wilson; a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses. These items are among those that even a casual visitor would see as […] Continue reading →

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