Hill Collection Research Articles

Extraterrestrials in the Stacks: An Archivist’s Journey with Alien Abduction, A Stained Blue Dress, and the Betty and Barney Hill Collection

Extraterrestrials in the Stacks: An Archivist’s Journey with Alien Abduction, A Stained Blue Dress, and the Betty and Barney Hill Collection

A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Court: Letters from Grace King's New England Sojourns ed. by Miki Pfeffer

Reviewed by: A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Court: Letters from Grace King's New England Sojournsed. by Miki Pfeffer Jane Turner Censer A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Court: Letters from Grace King's New England Sojourns. Edited by Miki Pfeffer. The Hill Collection: Holdings of the LSU Libraries. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2019. Pp. xxiv, 304. $55.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-6973-5.) Although this volume's title, A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Court, mentions an important focus, its subtitle, Letters from Grace King's New England Sojourns, gives a fuller indication of its contents. These letters by Grace King, a New Orleans author renowned for her portrayals of Louisiana creole culture in novels and short stories, show her long friendship with the Clemens family, including Samuel (who wrote as Mark Twain), his wife, Olivia, and daughters. The letters go beyond that friendship to an excellent account of King's important relationships with northern intellectuals; they also detail well her entry into the publishing world. In 1885 Grace King was an unmarried but well-educated thirty-three-year-old woman of good family with few prospects when, through the World's Industrial and Cotton Exposition in New Orleans, she first met famous Boston poet Julia Ward Howe and northern editors Charles Dudley Warner and Richard Watson Gilder. In revitalizing a New Orleans literary society that King joined, Howe provided an important initial support group. More important, through Howe, King was able to catch the interest of Warner, editor of the Hartford, Connecticut, Courantand part of the editorial staff at Harper's Monthly Magazine. Warner, then in his fifties, very much enjoyed the attentions of King, who was flattering, flirtatious, and witty. He helped shepherd her stories to publication in Harper's; even more important, Warner and his wife, Susan, encouraged King to visit them in Hartford. Through them she met his neighbors, the Clemenses, as well as Frederic E. Church, the celebrated landscape painter, and his wife. King's long sojourns in the North in 1887, 1888, and 1891, as well her European visits in 1892 with the Clemens family, form the bulk of the letters presented. Even though Grace King undoubtedly enjoyed her northern trips, she, as one who had lived through the Civil War and still believed in the superior virtues of white southerners, cast a wary eye at the northerners she encountered. During the 1888 elections, when she was in Hartford as a guest in a Republican family, she wrote her sister, "How I loathe, despise and hate the Republicans!" (p. 135). Over time, after a disagreement with the Warners, King resorted to sectional explanations as she described her relationship with Susan Warner: "She is rather trying as I found, but Northern people are so queer" (p. 102). Certainly King in her visits to the North was at first expecting her acquaintances there to provide material or career advantages, as is apparent in a letter to her sister: "I feel that I may be put in the way of doing some well paid work, by frequenting these masters of literature" (p. 95). Over time, however, King came to care deeply for the Clemens family, especially Olivia Clemens. [End Page 928] The letters in this book are drawn primarily from either the voluminous collections of King family papers at Louisiana State University or the Mark Twain Papers at the University of California at Berkeley. Editor Miki Pfeffer presents them well, with minimal editorial changes and helpful introductions and annotations. Pfeffer often uses partial letters and even excerpts, a practice decried by some historical editors, but made necessary in this case by the number and length of the letters with which she is dealing. A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Courtis fascinating reading. While adding to our understanding of Grace King's entry into publishing and her career, this edition of letters also provides many useful insights into the cultural, intellectual, and literary life of late-nineteenth-century America. Jane Turner Censer George Mason University Copyright © 2020 Southern Historical Association

Extreme variation in the atrial septation of caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona).

Caecilians (order Gymnophiona) are elongate, limbless, snake-like amphibians that are the sister-group (closest relatives) of all other recent amphibians (frogs and salamanders). Little is known of their cardiovascular anatomy and physiology, but one nearly century old study suggests that Hypogeophis (family Indotyphlidae), commonly relied upon as a representative caecilian species, has atrial septation in the frontal plane and more than one septum. In contrast, in other vertebrates there generally is one atrial septum in the sagittal plane. We studied the adult heart of Idiocranium (also Indotyphlidae) using immunohistochemistry and confirm that the interatrial septum is close to the frontal plane. Additionally, a parallel right atrial septum divides three-fourths of the right atrial cavity of this species. Idiocranium embryos in the Hill collection reveal that atrial septation initiates in the sagittal plane as in other tetrapods. Late developmental stages, however, see a left-ward shift of visceral organs and a concordant rotation of the atria that reorients the atrial septa towards the frontal plane. The gross anatomies of species from six other caecilian families reveal that (i) the right atrial septum developed early in caecilian evolution (only absent in Rhinatrematidae) and that (ii) rotation of the atria evolved later and its degree varies between families. In most vertebrates a prominent atrial trabeculation associates with the sinuatrial valve, the so-called septum spurium, and the right atrial septum seems homologous to this trabeculation but much more developed. The right atrial septum does not appear to be a consequence of body elongation because it is absent in some caecilians and in snakes. The interatrial septum of caecilians shares multiple characters with the atrial septum of lungfishes, salamanders and the embryonic septum primum of amniotes. In conclusion, atrial septation in caecilians is based on evolutionarily conserved structures but possibly exhibits greater variation than in any other vertebrate order.

Lorenzo G. Buonanno. Review of "Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection" by Patricia Wengraf.

Lorenzo G. Buonanno. Review of "Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection" by Patricia Wengraf.

Ernestine Hill and the North: reading race and indigeneity in The Great Australian Loneliness and The Territory

This article examines the work of Ernestine Hill (1899–1972), an Australian journalist, travel writer, and broadcaster. It begins by elaborating some of the ways in which Hill's life and work have been given scholarly treatment previously, and then it proposes a reading of her work in terms of the themes of race and belonging—in particular, the relationship between whiteness and indigeneity in her written depictions of Australia's far north. The article draws upon the conceptual framework developed by Terry Goldie and Penelope Ingram to read Hill's collection of travel pieces, The Great Australian Loneliness (1937), and her historical writing in The Territory (1951).

The College has teeth!

As part of the modernisation of dental research arrangements that it is leading in the College, the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) has funded the cataloguing and display of its world-famous odontological collection. This comprises a unique range of dental and related specimens from all corners of the globe, some of them very impressive indeed, which will enhance the attractiveness and impact of the renowned College museum. A further proposal is to recruit a case PhD student to carry out original research on the primate specimens, known as the Hill collection.

In memoriamHelen Hill

This article memorializes the tragic death of filmmaker, teacher, writer, community builder and activist Helen Hill (1970–2007). A New Orleans-based artist, Hill had much of her life's work damaged or destroyed in the floods following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The article reports on the recent preservation and restoration of her films and the creation of the Helen Hill Collection at the Harvard Film Archive. A filmography of her known works is appended.

Oregon Voices: They Also Served: A Soldier's Pacific Theater Album, World War II

OREGON VOICES They Also Served A SoldiersPacificTheater Album,WorldWar II byFrederick H. Hill withGeorgeVenn and Jan Boles BORN IN 1920 INELGIN,Oregon, photographer Fred Hill grew up in a family that loved cameras, darkrooms, and black-and-white prints. His grandfather had worked with glass plate negatives, and he had taught Fred's mother how to develop and print her own pictures. By the time Fred turned eleven, his father Lynn, who ran the local hardware store, and his mother Etha, a teacher and homemaker, had cleared a space in their cellar, and theirboy was making contact prints.Down in thatdarkroom one day, Fredmustered the courage to develop his first roll of personal film, and thatprocess launched his seventy year quest for memorable, useful, and beautiful images.1 Attending Eastern Oregon Uni versity in La Grande between 1938 and 1940, the novice photographer carried his camera everywhere. Dur ing the summer of 1940,Hill met and befriendedMinor White?later an in ternationally famous fine-art photog rapher ? who was then teaching his firstphotography classes at the Works Progress Administration Art Center in La Grande. Using the Hill fam ily car, White and Hill photographed northeast Oregon together ? more as fellow freelance photographers than as teacher and student. AfterWhite leftLa Grande inNovember 1941,he continued to correspond with Etha Hill, Fred's mother, and in February 1945, the two young photographers met again onMindoro, thePhilippine islandwhere now SargeantWhite was serving inArmy 24th Infantry Intel ligence and Sargeant Hill was working in 5th Air Force Photo Reconnaissance. At their February 1945meeting, they discussed photography, took photo graphs of orchids, and talked about enrolling in a California art school after thewar.2 In July 1940, Hill joined the 41st Division National Guard unit in La 294 OHQ vol. 108, no. 2 ? 2007 Oregon Historical Society s i g &^^^Mfc^?,-^.._I without the filmmagazine attached. these official imagesmake up another part ofHill's Pacific Theater album. Sometimes, other soldiers or pho tographers askedHill's darkroom crew to develop personal film for them. IfHill saw an intriguing or poten tially compelling image, he saved an extra print or two for his collection. Sometimes, he asked other photo lab workers, visitors, or Filipinos to take pictures with his camera ? pictures of groups, of individuals, and of Fred himself. In his published work, Hill refers to all these photographs as the "Fred Hill Collection:' Throughout his two-year deploy ment with the 17thTactical Recon naissance Squadron, Hill also regularly sent Martha another part of thePacific Theater album ? his own black-and white photographs. While stationed on New Guinea foreightmonths, Hill and his fellow soldiers frequently used theirdays off tomake personal photo expeditions: on bases, in local towns and villages, around the countryside. From Japanese wreckage to beautiful ammunition, from native dancers to army fishermen, Hill recorded both military and civilian life. Moving to the island of Biak, he photographed warplanes, drilling wells, blasting la trines, Bob Hope, Frances Langford, darkroom set-up and tear-down, beautifulWACS, Queen Wilhelmina's birthday dancers. Arriving on Leyte in October 1944,he shot photographs of Philippine carabao, cockfights,outrig gers, native women, folk art. Bywar's end, Hill had accumulated over six hundred black-and-white photos.7 Many of those images were made possible by an unlikely source ? aerial reconnaissance film for theK-17 cam era.This film came in rolls ten inches wide by up to two hundred feet long. After a mission, Hill's crew brought themagazine of exposed film to the Hill Venn, and Boles,A Soldier's Pacific Theater Album 297 ??gfc? .50calibermachine guns were mounted in thebombadiers compartment in this B-25J. With twopacket guns mounted on sides of the fuselage and thetop turret gun locked inforwardposition, this photo reconnaissanceplane could also engage in effective strafing attacks. photo lab, and in total darkness, they cut off the exposed portion of thefilm to be developed, printed, annotated, and delivered to commanders. When therewere only ten exposures lefton a roll, theydiscarded that tag end and installed a new two-hundred-foot roll to be loaded in the plane for the next mission. Wasting that end of unex posed film? perhaps ten feet long by ten incheswide ? "tore our...

Grant Hill, Postmodern Blackness,and Art: A Cultural Critique

This analysis argues that Grant Hill advances a critique of internal contradictions within Black communities; offers rival epistemologies of how to be Black, male, and an athlete; as well as connects concrete Black experience within an abstract museum setting. This examination grounds Hill's public statements of what he hopes to accomplish with the exhibition "Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art" within a rubric featuring theme, function, and quantity. Under examination are Hill's messages to understand the ways in which he seeks to demonstrate his multidimensionality and ability to transcend the one-dimensional identity position of Black male athlete.

Blood parasite prevalence and abundance in the bird communities of several forested locations in Southeast Asia

Parasites were studied qualitatively and quantitatively from the blood of 859 birds mist-netted between 1998 and 2003 in Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia (Cameron Highland, Fraser's Hill, Pasoh and Johor), East Malaysia (Sarawak) and Indonesia (Java). The total prevalence and relative abundance of haemoparasitic infection in the birds were evaluated by location (study area) and habitat type (e.g. primary forest). Over 50% of the examined bird species were parasitized by more than one species, in some up to five. The greater research effort was invested in Fraser and Cameron, yielding the largest numbers of birds (340) and species (55), and contributing the largest share of the recovered haemoparasites. The Fraser's Hill collection yielded the highest prevalence. The prevalence in Cameron Highlands's birds varied annually. In the latter area, Leucocytozoon infection was consistently more prevalent than Haemoproteus. In the remaining study areas, the overall prevalence was considerably lower, usually not exceeding 20% and predominated by Haemoproteus. The overall infection in Pasoh and Singapore did not exceed 6%. In the rest of the study areas Leucocytozoon prevalence was 0–3%. Our prevalence data seemed to fluctuate between years, but their magnitude could be evaluated without multi-annual studies. No particular preference in the efficacy of transmission could be demonstrated for either primary or secondary forests.

The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages at the University of California San Diego

The Hill Pacific book collection was a gift by Kenneth and Dorothy Hill in 1974 to the then recently formed University of California Library at San Diego. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages, do...

The Fetal Membranes of the Otter Shrews and a Synapomorphy for Afrotheria

The otter shrews of mainland Africa are the closest relatives of the Madagascar tenrecs. We sought for similarities in placentation between the two groups and, in a wider context, with other mammals of the Afrotheria clade. Specimens of the Nimba otter shrew (Micropotamogale lamottei) were obtained from the Ivory Coast and examples of the giant otter shrew (Potamogale velox) from the Hill Collection. The Nimba otter shrew has a central haemophagous organ similar to that in tenrecs. The labyrinth of the Nimba otter shrew, however, is endotheliochorial with syncytial trophoblast enclosing the maternal vessels. On the other hand tenrecs have cellular haemomonochorial placentae and an associated spongy zone, which is not present in the Nimba otter shrew. The placenta of the giant otter shrew is also endotheliochorial. The central region of its placenta is particularly interesting, since the juxtafetal portion is clearly a haemophagous region whereas the labyrinth feeding this region is endotheliochorial. Thus there is considerable variation in placental morphology within Tenrecidae. Importantly, however, both otter shrews have a large allantoic sac divided into four intercommunicating lobes by two pairs of septal folds. A similar arrangement has been described for representatives of each of the remaining five orders within Afrotheria. This is significant because previous anatomical studies have failed to establish a single synapomorphy in support of Afrotheria.

Book Review: The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages, at the University of California, San Diego

Book Review: The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages, at the University of California, San Diego

Something all our own: the Grant Hill collection of African American art

Something all our own: the Grant Hill collection of African American art

A Dendrochronological Survey of Musical Instruments from the Hill Collection at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

A Dendrochronological Survey of Musical Instruments from the Hill Collection at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

Holidays at Home in the Second World War

The way of looking at British civilian life during the second world war, characterized by Angus Calder's 1991 book, The Myth of the Blitz, has little to say about wartime holidays. Paul Addison who, like Calder, helped to implant the 'myth' of wartime solidarity, in later editions of his The Road to 1945 argues for a much more restricted 'Whitehall consensus';' attitudes to wartime holidays seem not to have informed his argument. Mark Donnelly's general study Britain in the Second World War (1999), is equally silent on the subject, as is Arthur Marwick: the broad sweep of the latter's History of the Modern British Isles (2000) contains only the briefest reference to the 1930s holidays with pay legislation, without going on to look at its wartime legacy. Even collections of essays about 'cultural' or recreational activity on the home front, like Kirkham and Thom's War Culture (1995) and Hayes and Hill's Millions Like Us? British Culture in the Second World War (1999) generally disregard holidays. Colin Griffin's essay, 'Not Just a Case of Baths, Canteens and Rehabilitation Centres', however, in the Hayes and Hill collection, usefully confirms that the family leisure activities organized by the Miners' Welfare Commission complemented arguably outshone the official 'Holidays at Home' programmes in mining areas during the war. Most recent works on the history of holidays, too, say little about the detail of wartime holidays, whether 'at home' or in conventional resorts. Lencek and Bosker's The Beach (1999) has rather more to say about restrictions on pleasure travel in the USA than in Britain. J.K. Walton's The British Seaside (2000), like James Walvin's earlier Beside the Seaside (1978), makes the important point that some British resorts, notably Blackpool, did well out of the war, thanks to a combination of military 'occupation', the influx of government and private employment from London, and the concentration of such holiday traffic as existed on Britain's northern and western coasts. Walton also links wartime 'myth' with the postwar explosion of the holiday trade: 'The Second World War interrupted the process of democratisation of

Structure of the female reproductive tract of an adult parous Tasmanian tiger, Thylacinus cynocephalus

The present observations on the now-extinct Thylacinus are based on the reproductive system of an adult thylacine discovered among the specimens of the Hill collection at the Hubrecht Laboratory in the Netherlands. As in other marsupials, the reproductive tract was characterised by the presence of a uterus duplex and a vaginal complex where the ureters passed dorsally over each lateral vaginal canal to enter the bladder. The lateral vaginal canals each entered a urogenital sinus that terminated in a shallow cloaca. The gross dimensions of the reproductive tract of the thylacine were greater than those of any extant dasyurid marsupial. The distance from the rostral pole of the ovaries to the most caudal extremity of the urogenital sinus measured 25 cm. The distinctive aspects of the reproductive tract included a disproportionate enlargement of the corpus uteri that is without parallel in any other marsupial species. The bodies of the right and left uteri measured 10.4 cm 1.2 cm 0.9 cm and 9.1 cm 0.8 cm 0.7 cm respectively. The rostro-caudal length of the right and left cervices measured 2.7 cm and 1.7 cm respectively. The cervical canals entered the vaginal complex by way of a thick median vaginal septum. The elongated caudal component of the vaginal culs-de-sac lacked a median vaginal septum. As in other dasyurid marsupials, the lateral vaginae and associated vaginal complex were of diminutive proportions in relation to the typical marsupial pattern. The histology of the tract was remarkably good for tissue preserved since 1902 and indicated that the tissues were free of pathological changes. A characteristic marsupial pattern of ovarian folliculogenesis was evident where all but a thin peripheral zone of the cytoplasm of the primary oocyte became vacuolated during the pre-antral stage of ovarian follicle development.

Early development and embryology of the platypus.

Information on the pre-hatching development of the platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, is reliant on a small number of specimens, whose precise age is unknown. Material collected for J. P. Hill and now housed in the Hubrecht International Embryological Laboratory, Utrecht, contributes a major source of specimens. This paper presents new observations on developmental stages from the Hill collection, which allow for a more complete description of pre-hatching development. A feature of the pre-embryonic development of the platypus is the incomplete meroblastic cleavage. A column of fine yolk spheres extends from beneath the embryonic blastodisc towards the centre of a yolky vitellus, as seen in birds. The major expansion of extra-embryonic membranes occurs after the formation of the primitive streak. The primitive streak develops within an embryonal area as part of the superficial wall of the yolk-sac, a feature also shared with marsupials, birds and reptiles. The full-term, subspheroidal, intrauterine egg of the platypus has a major axis of about 17 mm and contains a flat, 19-20 somite, neurula-stage embryo which has prominent trigeminal ganglion primordia. The embryo at this stage is in a period of rapid modelling of the major early organ primordia of the nervous system, cardiovascular system, excretory system, and somite-derived components of the body wall. Soon after laying, five primary brain vesicles are present, the trigeminal ganglia CN5 as well as CN7, CN8, CN9, CN10, CN11 and CN12 are well developed. The alimentary system has an expanded stomach, pancreatic primordia and a gall bladder. Mesonephric tubules are associated with patent mesonephric ducts, which empty laterally into the cloaca. Extra-embryonic membranes at this stage show an extensive chorioamniotic connection that extends through the greater part of the caudal half of fused amniotic folds. The vascularized yolk-sac consists of a superficial yolk-sac omphalopleura and a deep yolk-sac splanchnopleure. The non-vascularized yolk-sac comprises one-quarter of the ahembryonal pole. Some distinctive monotreme features have developed by the mid-incubation period. The head is bent at an acute angle to the main body axis. The blunt upturned snout marks the site of the future oscaruncle and on the maxilla there is a median primordial papilla representing the egg tooth. The eye is open with a partly pigmented retinal ring. The forelimbs have partly separated digits, and the hindfeet are paddles. Just before hatching the upturned snout contains an oscaruncle and a sharp recurved median egg tooth. Forelimbs are pronated with separate digits possessing claw primordia. Portions of the highly vascularized extra-embryonic membranes are attached to the umbilical region and the flattened vesicular allantois has a distal region fused with the chorion. Prominent features of the hatchling are the presence of a bluntly conical oscaruncle and a translucent, horn-like egg tooth. These structures are though to enable the hatchling to extricate itself from the egg shell. At hatching, the forelimbs exhibit clawed digits and are capable of digitopalmar prehension. Hindlimbs are still paddles with digital rays. A prominent yolk-sac navel is present. The newly hatched platypus has an external form similar to that of a new-born marsupial. The early development of the platypus has many major differences to the developmental sequence for humans, which has been categorized by the use of Carnegie Stages. The rate of somitogenesis of the platypus is faster in relation to the central nervous system morphogenesis than seen in humans, and the size of the early platypus embryonal area is massive in relation to that of humans. The unique morphology and function of extra-embryonic membranes in the platypus defies comparative staging with human development. Structures adapted for altricial survival of the platypus hatchling require the acquisition of functional competence at an earlier stage of organogenesis than seen in eutherians, although they are reminiscent of those found in new-born marsupials.

The Marsupial Blastocyst - a Study of the Blastocysts in the Hill Collection

Blastocysts in the Hill Collection from Trichosurus vulpecula, Pefrogale penicillata, Macropus ruficollis (= M. rufogriseus), Macropus parma, Onychogalea fraenata, Bettongia gaimardi, Perameles obesula (=lsoodon obesulus), Perameles nasuta, Dasyurus viverrinus, Didelphis aurita (=D. marsupialis) and Didelphis virginiana were examined. They ranged from incomplete unilaminar blastocysts to late bilaminar blastocysts. The mode of formation of the unilaminar blastocyst appeared to be influenced by the presence or absence of the yolk mass. A unilaminar blastocyst lined by uniform protoderm cells occurred in a wide variety of marsupials. Differentiation of the unilaminar blastocyst into embryonic and extra-embryonic areas occurred at different stages of development. In macropodids and Didelphis it was found in small blastocysts soon after blastocyst completion. In dasyurids, Perameles and some other groups it was found in larger blastocysts, at least four cell generations after blastocyst completion. The first histological signs of differentiation of the unilaminar blastocyst into embryonic and extra-embryonic areas varied between different marsupials. In Didelphis, enlarged endoderm mother cells developed from the protoderm cells of one hemisphere. The protoderm cells of this hemisphere later differentiated as embryonic ectoderm and the endoderm mother cells gave rise to the primary endoderm. In D. viverrinus, bandicoots and T. vulpecula, the protoderm cells of one hemisphere differentiated simultaneously into cuboidal embryonic ectoderm and endoderm mother cells. In P. penicillata, M. ruficollis and M. parma the protoderm cells of one hemisphere proliferated to form a multilayered embryonic area which later differentiated into embryonic ectoderm and primary endoderm.

Notes from the Mitchell Library, Sydney: The Alfred Hill collection

Abstract The Mitchell Library,1 a department of the State Library of New South Wales, was opened in 1910 to house the Australiana collection of its benefactor, David Scott Mitchell. This collection, which has grown to comprise hundreds of thousands of individual manuscripts, contains many valuable single items and collections relating to all aspects of the history and development of Australia and other cultures of the Southwest Pacific. Manuscripts in the Mitchell Library cover the period of the earliest exploration in the Pacific up to the present day. Of particular interest to musical scholars are the diaries and notebooks of European travellers to the Pacific region which will be surveyed in future issues of Musicology for their observations on music and musical life. As an introduction to the important collections of musical interest deposited in the Library, our first report will focus on the collection of papers of Alfred Hill (1870–1960).2 Born in Melbourne, Hill studied in Leipzig and worked in bo...