November 9, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Amy Kimball
(410) 516-7782

VIEWS FROM A VILLA: THE SPELMAN LEGACY
Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries exhibit showcases the Spelman Archive of the University's Center for Italian Studies in Florence

The Villa Razzolini and the lives of its owners, the American composer Timothy Mather Spelman (1891-1970) and his poet wife Leolyn Louise Everett Spelman (1888-1971), are at the center of this exhibition, which is drawn from materials kept in the Spelman Archive in Special Collections of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. The Spelman biographies are only a part of the historical wealth of this archive, whose holdings range from the 18th-century papers of the Beales, Timothy's mother's family, to a series of photographs taken in Egypt during the 1920s, but their life together provides a particular and interesting perspective of Europe and America before World War II.

Because the Spelmans placed so much emphasis on their work and that of other artists and intellectuals, this exhibition combines examples of Timothy's music and Leolyn's writing with a selection of recent publications generated by Hopkins faculty at the Villa Spelman and works, or photographs of works, by three artists closely associated with the Spelmans and their villa. Though not well known today, Gardner Hale, Ernest C. Peixotto, and Wilbur A. (Monte) Reaser were successful artists who traveled in the same social circles as the Spelmans. Like the Spelmans, their love and knowledge of Italy informed their work, and the examples exhibited here all share an interest in the Italian landscape.

In keeping with their dedication to culture and the life of the intellect, the Spelmans decided to give the Villa and its surrounding olive groves to Johns Hopkins University as a center for the humanities. Building on the strength of Hopkins in European History, Art History, and Romance Languages, graduate seminars at the Villa, which are part of the graduate programs at the Homewood campus, have a distinguished reputation in Italy. Undergraduates participating in the Art History Intersession course on Renaissance Florence benefit from this. A full undergraduate program is now a possibility, following the development of the master plan for the property, whose early history from the 15th to the 19th century is the subject of a recent book by Richard Goldthwaite.

Views from a Villa will be on display on M-Level at the Eisenhower Library through January 2001.

The Sheridan Libraries encompass the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and its collections at the Hutzler Reading Room, Garrett Library and the George Peabody Library.

###

Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at Headlines @ Hopkins