Ann Scholfield Banfield, ca. 1913

In early 2009, Special Collections acquired an album of photographs of Ann Scholfield Banfield, sister of Helen Hunt Jackson. Colorado College has the single largest collection of papers of HHJ, 19th century writer and activist for the rights of American Indians. This album, dated 1913, includes photographs of HHJ’s northeastern relatives, including Banfield’s grandchildren, born to HHJ’s widow William S. Jackson and his second wife, HHJ’s niece (and ASB’s daughter) Helen Banfield Jackson.

The Jackson family had close ties with CC from its beginning: William S. Jackson donated money to establish the first dormitory on campus, and five of his children attended Colorado College. The album contains never-before-available photographs of those children, including several photographs of a college-age Edith Banfield Jackson, who later trained with Freud and became a noted pediatrician and psychoanalyst. Special Collections purchased this album with funds from the Archer Butler Hulbert fund.

In April of 2008, Special Collections received three books published by the Yolla Bolly Press: Andre Gide’s Theseus (translated by John Russell, drawings by Sidney Goodman, 85 copies printed); Robinson Jeffers’s Roan Stallion (woodcuts by Karin Wikstrom, 135 copies printed) and Samuel Beckett’s translation of Bread of Days: Eleven Mexican Poets (notes on the poets by Octavio Paz, commentary by Paz and Eliot Weinberger, etchings by Enrique Chagoya, 141 copies printed, sample illustrations with this post). The donor, a CC graduate, wishes to remain anonymous.

The Yolla Bolly Press, a letterpress in Covelo, California, has been in business since 1974. Their books are sumptuous and beautifully made. We invite you to visit Special Collections and see these books and other fine press and limited edition artists’ books in person.

In February of 2007, Special Collections received a generous gift from an anonymous donor: a subscription to the Arion Press. The Arion Press, founded in 1974 by Andrew Hoyem, is a fine press in San Francisco. It produces two or three books a year, often printed by letterpress (that is, with hand-set type) and lavishly illustrated.

One of the first books to arrive is William T. Wiley’s pictorial staging of Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot,” done in honor of Beckett’s hundredth birthday. It has unusual, cartoonlike illustrations in black, blue, and yellow, representing characters as hourglasses.

We welcome visitors to Special Collections to view this and other examples of modern-day fine press work.

In 2005, inspired by Barnard College, Colorado College Special Collections began collecting zines from all over the world, paying special attention to Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Visit our zine page for more information!

In the spring of 2005, Carky Rubens (CC class of 1952) and his family donated a single leaf from the Gutenberg Bible to Colorado College: A Noble Fragment: Being a Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455. With a bibliographical essay by A. Edward Newton. New York: Gabriel Wells, 1921.

The Gutenberg Bible is the first book printed with movable type in the western world. In the mid-15th century, Johann Gutenberg printed about 180 copies in Mainz, Germany. 48 copies have survived and are preserved in libraries. In the early 20th century, a bookdealer bought a damaged copy of the Gutenberg Bible, dismantled it, and sold the leaves individually as “noble fragments.” CC’s leaf contains chapters VIII-X of Kings III. (In modern bibles, Kings I-IV are Samuel I-II and Kings I-II.) For a good overview of Gutenberg and movable type, see Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press.

photo from 1968 CC yearbook

On October 21, 1967, the Doors played at Colorado College’s homecoming dance at the Broadmoor Hotel. CC alumnus Tom Reynolds donated his tape of the concert to Tutt Library in 2005. It contains four Doors songs: “Break on Through (to the Other Side),” “People Are Strange,” “Back Door Man,” and “Light My Fire.” It also contains two songs by the Broadway Shell and Muse Band (formerly the Ceeds).

We cannot make copies of the recording, but visitors are welcome to listen to it here in Special Collections. Just request recording 285 from our collection of CC Audio Recordings.