“I wrote eight intensely related poems for the series. Certain poems were more visibly influenced by what I read in the private press collection than others. Some of the collection is incredibly old, ballads about the sea from the 18th century, and some is relatively modern, such as a series of Dylan Thomas poems in block print. I spent a third of my time looking at the texts, another third writing and trying to capture how the different books relate to each other thematically, and the rest of the time physically producing the series. I used block linoleum letters and Velcro to recreate a printing press, which I used to print the poems. I wanted to find a way to make the presentation special. Simply printing the poems in Times Roman wouldn’t do the texts that I referenced justice. These books are masterpieces, even the relatively recent ones. Before books were mass-produced they were artfully bound and displayed, and I tried to honor this in my work.”

Leslie Ahlstrand ’12
Nancy & Rob Grover Fellow
Majors: Public policy and law, English—creative writing
Project: A series of poems—“On Love and Madness”— inspired by works in the Watkinson

“I wrote semi-fictionalized accounts of travel to various locations, using quotes and pictures from various books, maps, and journals from the Watkinson to jump-start my account. The blog was accompanied by a visual aid—a scrapbook/travel journal that included snippets of each post—along with pictures and ‘mementos’ from each location. I used QR codes to link a page in the scrapbook directly to the blog post about that location. One specific work was a playbill from a Broadway play called The New Yorkers from 1930. I used the program, the advertisements, and the articles in the playbill to imagine an evening at the theater in Prohibition-era New York City. I read specific chapters of books that piqued my interest, and flipped through pictures and accounts to get a true sense of specific travelers from history The library has so much material on exploration and travel. I learned to embrace the freedom the Watkinson Fellowship allows.”

Chloe Miller ’14
Watkinson Anonymous
Alumna Fellow
Majors: English Literature and economics; Minor: Urban studies
Project: An online, interactive “travelogue” to places and times around the world, along with a large, stylized map tracking progress through time and space, using sources in the Watkinson.

“Though initially fascinated by the Watkinson’s medieval illuminated chant manuscripts, I ended up using a French manuscript from 1833 to create a song cycle. Three songs were inspired by drawings in the manuscript and are my creations, and three are based on melodies found in the manuscript. Since it was informal, I assumed the music I found in the manuscript was like a notebook with folksy melodic lines. Someone with a guitar or piano might have improvised harmonies underneath the melodies as someone else sang them. I wanted to bring the melodies alive, arranging and harmonizing them and revealing the full capacity of the manuscript. I created a book of the printed music along with pictures of the pages from the manuscript. I also recorded the songs with other student performers, the CD of which is in the Watkinson.”

Francis Russo ’13
Watkinson Anonymous Alumna Fellow
Major: History and music
Project: Compose and perform (either live or recorded) one or more pieces of music based on the Watkinson holdings (sheet music, songsters, etc.)

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