THE T&S SOCIETY, 1923-2023

The T&S Society is a social and scholarly association for all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows interested in the premodern and early modern periods, and their subsequent historical reception at Johns Hopkins University, and faculty interested in participating in the Society’s events. The Society draws participants from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Institute for the History of Medicine. The T&S Society is a non-exclusive, voluntary academic society. It is a revitalization of one of the oldest organizations at Johns Hopkins, formally known as the “Tudor and Stuart Club.” The revised name “T&S Society” is intended both to point to the longstanding tradition of an organization dedicated to premodern and early modern history and literature around rare books at JHU, while also confirming a break from its former system of formal admission within a private club.

The T&S Society was established in 1923 by Sir William Osler in honor of his late son, Revere Osler, an avid collector of Tudor and Stuart books. In addition to establishing an organization where scholars could informally meet and share their interests in fellowship, Dr. Osler also endowed a rare book acquisitions fund managed by the Sheridan Libraries. Inspired by a similar arrangement at the Elizabethan Club at Yale, the Osler rare book fund has resulted in a strong early modern collection of rare books that serves as a nucleus around which conversation and fellowship may thrive. The Osler fund is spent annually to augment the T&S Collection, which is housed at the Evergreen Museum & Library.

The T&S Society falls administratively under the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance at the Evergreen Museum and Library, where meetings of the Society will be held, in addition to on-campus meetings in the T&S Room in Gilman Hall (#388). Founded with seed funding from the Dean’s office of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Society is also cosponsored by JHU’s Singleton Center for the Study of Premodern Europe and the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute.

John Everett Millais, Isabella, 1848-49, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK; an illustration of the episode “Lisabetta e il testo di bassilico” in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decamerone (1349-53)

REGULAR EVENTS (4)

Regular monthly meetings are held either at the Stern Center or in the Tudor & Stuart Room (Gilman Hall, Room #388) during the months where no Special Event is scheduled. These meetings will normally convene on Fridays between 4 and 6 pm, with attention given to the early book and manuscript collections of the Sheridan Libraries, conducted by volunteers active in the Society’s events. Those responsible for a particular regular meeting will consult with the Stern Center Director and Stern Center Postdoctoral Fellow to select and consult materials in advance of the program in which they will discuss with the rest of the Society. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served at these meetings once the rare book materials have been cleared and secured in the event locations.

Invitations to all Regular Events will be sent out via e-mail several weeks in advance of the scheduled date, time, and location. Interested participants need only RSVP in advance to allow for correct calibration of space capacity and food/drink requirements.

TRANSPORTATION TO EVENTS AT EVERGREEN

Transportation to events at the Stern Center will be facilitated by a round-trip scheduled van service that will pick up all registered attendees of the Society in from the Milton S. Eisenhower (MSEL) semicircular driveway and take them to Evergreen. The walk between MSEL and Evergreen is approximately 25 minutes.

COMMUNICATIONS

All communications about the T&S Society should be sent to the Director of the Stern Center, Earle Havens, ehavens2@jhu.edu, and Stern Center Postdoctoral Fellow, Daniel T. McClurkin, dmcclur9@jhu.edu.

Francesco Podesti, Torquato Tasso reading from his Gerusalemme liberate at the court of Ferrara, Private Collection (Rome), 1841/42.

Jan Cornelis Woudanus, Leiden University Library, after Willem van Swanenburgh and Johannes Cornelisz van’t Woud (Leiden, 1610)