UW–Milwaukee Showcases Oscar Tie

Walk in the Golda Meir Library at UW-Milwaukee and the obvious things are coffee, computers, and studying. But take the elevator to the 4th floor and walk down a hallway full of books, pamphlets and posters, all of which are older than the majority of the students. There’s also a link to the 86th Academy Awards, a first edition of 12 Years A Slave.

12 Years A Slave was written by Solomon Northrup and published in 1853. It goes into great detail about Northrup’s life with being forced into slavery. The Special Collections department acquired this novel, along with many others from the from the Philip J. Hohlweck collection. Although there is no acquisition record for the book, it was acquired by UWM in the early 1980s and is part of one of the largest Civil War collections in Wisconsin.

Max Yela is the Head of Special Collections and has worked for the department for over 20 years. Yela has been working with preserving old text material for over 30 years. Even he didn’t figure it out that the book that UWM had was the same story as the soon-to-be award winning film.

“I didn’t put it together for months,” Yela said. “Wait a minute this is the story of Solomon Northrup. This is the story of the book we have.”

The Special Collections department has been an intricate piece of the UW-Milwaukee Library for over 40 years. It has been on the 4th floor of The Golda Meir library since 1987. The department has over 60,000 literature items spanning over 22 categories in fields from humanities to social sciences. The largest collections are labor and radical movements, Native American literature, and comic books.

The novel has great historical significance. It was released one year after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and provided credibility for her novel.

“Beecher Stowe was criticized and was told that she was making this up,” Yela said. “People believed this couldn’t possibly be true.”

Although Uncle Tom’s Cabin is fiction, Stowe took parts of it from real slave’s stories including Northrup. Both novels take place in the same place, Red River in Louisiana and both became instant best sellers, Yela said.

“Part of Northrup’s story is told by Beecher Stowe in The Key and that is most likely why he dedicated his book to Beecher Stowe in 1853,” Yela said.

Since the film came out Northrup’s story has seen a sudden revival and has possibly finally become more popular than Beecher Stowe’s novel. Although 12 Years A Slave sold 30,000 copies in its first year, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold ten times more copies in the same time. It is unknown how many copies are still in existence, but they are quite valuable, with copies selling for $1,175 on eBay.

“Our job is to identify and then acquire in some way these original texts,” Yela said. “Then preserve in as close to it’s original form as possible. This is for original printed sources that support teaching in research.”

Yela earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in history with minors in art history and classical civilizations at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Yela then went on to Simmons College where he earned his Master’s degree in information and library sciences. His current research topic is how books are used as media devices.

Yela emphasized that these collections are fundamental to certain academic programs. Students often have projects or assignments that require visiting and researching in the Special Collections.

“I had to work in the Special Collections last semester for a history class,” Joey Miller said. “There was just so much interesting and incredible stuff up there to look through.”

Miller graduated last semester and said that he wish he’d known about the department before his final semester because of the vast material that is available to students.

Yela admits that it’s just not students that can take advantage of the Special Collections.

“We are funded by the taxpayers, meaning that anybody can walk up here and find something that interests them,” Yela said. “If they come up here and ask for something cool, then I’ve got to engage them and figure out what they think is cool.”

Yela confesses that even he finds the collections to be cool and enjoys everything the department has. He enjoys perusing the collection of artist’s books. He argues that these are primary sources and the copies of the material when on the Internet should be viewed as secondary source because it is a digital version.

The Special Collections department has public walk in hours during the week and can also schedule visits with a class or to meet with a research consultant. Students can find out more about the department by visiting the UWM libraries website.

“We are here to preserve these books,” Yela said. “I’m privileged to be around these books and any really good book makes you go back to these primary sources.”