Discover Special Collections

One of a handful of surviving copies of Shadows from the walls of death; facts and inferences prefacing a book of specimens of arsenical wall papers (Lansing, 1874) by Professor Robert C. Kedzie, a physician turned chemistry professor who for many years taught at Michigan Agricultural College is held in Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections. Appointed to the first State Board of Health for Michigan, Kedzie wrote of the deaths that resulted from wallpaper tinted with arsenic (Paris green). Kedzie cut up 80 rolls of wallpaper containing the deadly arsenic-green and produced 100 copies for distribution to state libraries along with his scientific conclusions. The copy in Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections has been conserved and the wallpaper specimens encapsulated to protect staff and patrons.

Originally started in 1962 as a Catholic literary quarterly by Edward Keating, Ramparts soon became associated with the New Left of the 1960's under the influence of such editors as Warren Hinkle, Robert Scheer, and James F. Colaianni. Ramparts was an early critic of the Vietnam War publishing the first national article denouncing the use of napalm and exposed the CIA use of American universities including Michigan State for training Vietnamese security forces. Indeed, one of the most famous Ramparts covers pictures then Vietnamese First Lady Madame Nhu as an MSU cheerleader as part of an expose regarding the cooperation between MSU and the CIA that occurred during the 1960's. Ramparts also provided a venue for discussion of the arts and culture including contributions from poet Allen Ginsberg, reporter Hunter S. Thompson, and John Lennon.

When MSU Libraries formally created its Special Collections department in 1962, the initial collection of books was formed largely by transferring the oldest books from the circulating collection—anything published before 1800—into a protected area. Half a century later, we’re undertaking a similar transfer, only this time with a younger cut-off date. With few exceptions, all books published before 1866 are being moved into Special Collections. When completed, the library will have safeguarded roughly 15,000 books, many of which are fragile, valuable, and often both.

Robert Coles, the eminent child psychiatrist and author of over 80 books, has donated his papers to Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections. The Robert Coles Papers consists of working drafts and manuscripts of Coles' books, articles, and essays, and over 90,000 pages of correspondences spanning five decades. In addition to many other awards, Coles is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship; the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor; and the Pulitzer Prize for his five volume "Children of Crisis" series. Coles also donated the literary and business files of DoubleTake, an award winning magazine of documentary photography, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.