This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, one of English literature’s most beloved authors. No other writer has had so great an impact on our perception of Victorian England, and few can claim to have created so many characters (by one count, Dickens created 989). Several of these characters are now better known than many of the real-life celebrities of their day. Who, for example, has never heard of Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim, Ebenezer Scrooge, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future?

A small exhibition celebrating Dickens’ 200th birthday will be on display in the Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall from January 23 to April 28, 2012. Visitors will learn about the author’s tragic life and lasting legacy by exploring materials drawn from the library’s collection of rare books and manuscripts.

First editions of several Dickens novels, including Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and Little Dorrit, will be among the items featured. A focus of the exhibit is Dickens’ method of writing and publishing. The library is fortunate to own examples of all the forms in which his stories first appeared. “When most people think of Dickens, they think of fancy leather-bound, gold-tooled books,” said exhibition curator Michael Taylor. “What they don’t realize is that his stories were usually first published in cheap monthly magazines or parts so that working-class readers (the subject of so many of his novels) could afford to buy them.”

It has always been popular to adapt Dickens’ novels for the stage and screen. Selected items from the library’s extensive collection of Dickensian ephemera reveal how Dickens’ characters have enjoyed a second life in the theater. Also displayed in this section of the exhibit are programs from charity performances of Dickens’ works. Dickens Bazaars, for example, were often held to raise funds for schools and churches, and in 1914, London’s Royal Court Theatre hosted a reading of A Christmas Carol to raise money for World War I relief funds.

The exhibit is being produced in conjunction with Baton Rouge’s “One Book One Community” program, which has chosen Dickens’ classic Oliver Twist for its 2012 “Big Read.” For more information on the exhibit, contact Michael Taylor, Assistant Curator of Books, at (225) 578-6547.

In recognition of the 50^th anniversary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, the LSU Libraries Special Collections presents “Practicing Catholics: Finding Faith in Family Papers,” a display that features letters, documents, photographs, and ephemera drawn from the papers of Baton Rouge area Catholic families from the early 1800s through the 20^th century.    The exhibition opens October 31^st and continues through December 17^th.

The selected items illustrate family members’ religious practice, efforts to continue to observe the faith during the Civil War, and participation in their church communities and involvement in Catholic schools.  In addition, the exhibition includes materials related to St. Joseph’s Church (later St. Joseph’s Cathedral) and clergy who served there.

“Our collections document the history and culture of Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley.  Certainly the Catholic Church and the role it has played in lives of people in this region are an important part of that history, so it seemed fitting that we highlight these holdings as the diocese commemorates its founding,” said Interim Head of Special Collections Tara Zachary Laver, who curated the exhibit.

The earliest document displayed is an 1804 certificate of baptism for Theresa Allemand, who was baptized in Donaldsonville.  Prayer books and prayer cards from the Raphael Hebert family of Plaquemine and Brusly, some in French and dating from 1835 to 1934, are included.  An 1861 letter records the determination of a young woman to practice the Catholic faith despite her family’s opposition.  In another Civil War era letter, a Baton Rouge soldier describes his unit’s efforts to construct a make-shift chapel in Virginia, where he was encamped.  Several photographs of children dressed for their first communion or confirmation are shown, including three generations of the related Gebelin, Walsh, Hynes, and Frenzel families, and two members of the Dudley Turnbull family, who descended from a Baton Rouge family of free persons of color.  Service to the Church and Catholic schools and the involvement of the laity, particularly women, in the mid-20^th century is represented by selected papers of Ann Wilbert Arbour and by artifacts found in the papers of Rowena Sceroler Flynn and Loretta Sceroler Meaney.  The latter include miniature versions of vestments, which members of the Council of Catholic Women used to educate parishioners in rural and missionary churches throughout the diocese about traditions and symbolism related to the liturgy and other practices.

In addition to the focus on families and individuals, the exhibition features materials related to the parish of St. Joseph’s in Baton Rouge.  Among these are accounts with a Baton Rouge craftsman for painting and graining architectural features of the church in the 1850s, receipts for pew rent in the 1860s and 1870s, a 1905 photograph of the building, photographs of and ephemera related to past rectors and bishops, and drawings by John Desmond, the architect who oversaw the 1970s renovation of the cathedral.