Exhibit, lecture feature local role in American history

  Tuesday, September 27, 2016 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

An upcoming lecture and an exhibit in the Pittsburg State University Special Collections and University Archives highlight the role this region played in an important chapter of American history.

“The Evolution of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle: From Girard, Kansas, to American Classic” runs throughout the fall semester in PSU’s Axe Library. In conjunction with the exhibit, Kathy DeGrave, an English professor at PSU, will deliver a talk on “Taming the Jungle: How Upton Sinclair’s Fiery Novel Lost Some of Its Heat,” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 6, in the Special Collections area of the library. DeGrave’s talk is part of the annual Gene DeGruson Lecture Series.

Steve Cox, curator of special collections and university archives, said the exhibit shows the development of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” from its commissioning and serialization in 1905 by the Girard, Kan., socialist newspaper, Appeal to Reason, to publication of the shorter first edition in book form in New York in 1906, to subsequent and later printings.

“It was Sinclair’s intent to write a book exposing the exploitation of immigrant workers in the meat-packing industry, but in so doing, he exposed unhealthy and unsanitary meat and food processing practices resulting in the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906,” Cox said.

The exhibit uses books and items drawn from the PSU Archives, including the collections of the Appeal to Reason press, and material from the papers of J. A. Wayland, editor of the Appeal to Reason, as well as items from the collection of Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, who purchased the Appeal to Reason in 1919 and turned it into his own publishing empire.

For more information, call PSU Special Collections and University Archives at 620-235-4883 or visit the Leonard H. Axe Library website at http://axe.pittstate.edu.