Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: Wales, Ohio and library poems

Wales, Ohio and library poems

The National Library of Wales is celebrating its centenary with a series of events and exhibitions, and with a new website.

I discovered this as I stumbled across the Wales-Ohio project, no less. As a resident of Columbus, Ohio, I need to watch how this develops!

The experiences of the Welsh settlers in Ohio are about to be made available to audiences throughout the world.

The goal of the Wales-Ohio Project is to digitise a selection of Welsh Americana relating to the state of Ohio held at The National Library of Wales and to make them available on an innovative bilingual website.

The website will display digital images of:

archive and manuscript material

printed material

photographs

maps

prints and paintings

giving us a feel of what life was like for the Welsh settlers in the nineteenth century from hardship and tragedy to prosperity and happiness. The site will also document the contribution the Welsh have made to the history and culture of Ohio. [National Library of Wales - Wales-Ohio Project]

There is a specially written poem by Gwyneth Lewis for the centenary.

The hardest place to be is here,

we need to imagine it and require

a library’s wormholes, its infinite doors.

Which reminds of the poem that Ted Hughes wrote some years ago to accompany New Library: the People's Network.

Even the most misfitting child

Who's chanced upon the library's worth,

Sits with the genius of the Earth

And turns the key to the whole world.

Placing names

Bookmark:

4 comments so far

Posted by Annette Strauch on July 11, 2007

Very interesting to read your comment. I live in Machynlleth and once worked in the National Library. The centenary is not exciting; the project about Ohio is a good one. Have you been to Wales? Do you know about Wales??

Posted by Lorcan Dempsey on July 12, 2007

I lived in Bristol for many years, and am from Ireland. We used to get ferries from time to time from Pembroke, Fishguard and Hollyhead. I was also a visiting research fellow at Aberystwyth and visited from time to time. Work and holiday also took us there.

Posted by Jeanne Jones Jindra on August 8, 2007

How thrilling that you discovered the Wales/Ohio project! We are beginning work on phase II in the fall and the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at the University of Rio Grande in southern Ohio is the liason for the National Library of Wales. We are seeking material held in private hands concerning immigration to Ohio. Please help us get the word out.

Diolch yn fawr

Posted by Angelique Nikki Rose D. Aying on March 11, 2008

That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers
And sometimes for variety I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels calling their victories, if unjustly got
Unto a strict account, and in my fancy
Deface their ill-placed statues