Blogs

By Kayla Harris, Librarian/Archivist

The theory of six degrees of separation argues that everyone and everything is connected within six steps. This idea became even more popular once turned into a game, “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” where participants try to connect any movie star, living or dead, to the prolific Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon within six steps. For example, Mark Hamill, the actor who plays Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, starred alongside Carrie Fisher, who played Leia. Carrie Fisher was in “The Blues Brothers” with John Belushi, who starred in “Animal House” with Kevin Bacon. The Blessed Virgin Mary may also have that same ability to connect with a wide-variety of people and characters.

Bad Robot, a film and television production company led by J.J. Abrams, is responsible for the recent versions of “Star Trek” in 2009, 2013, and 2016, as well as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” from 2015. The Bad Robot workshop recently contacted the Marian Library to discuss letterpress stamps. The workshop had acquired the contents of the late John (Jack) McKinney, Jr.’s letterpress shop in 2007. McKinney’s printing shop was located in Kettering, Ohio and did a lot of work for local Dayton businesses. Although the Bad Robot workshop uses many pieces from his collection on a regular basis, they indicated that “we’ve realized we won’t ever have a need for the excellent ‘cuts’ from his Dayton-based work.” Workshop employees researched and contacted Dayton businesses and organizations to try and reunite the pieces with those whom they were originally made for.  

One of those Dayton-based organizations was the Marian Library, and Bad Robot was able to send two pieces that were used in the 1950’s. The first cut is an earlier version of the Marian Library seal with the motto, “De Maria numquam satis” or “Of Mary, never enough.” The second, a copper plate etching, features Albert Emanuel Hall, the original location of the Marian Library.  Both pieces were used in the early printing of the Marian Library Newsletter. The May 1960 issue of the newsletter, found online in eCommons shows the original Marian Library seal on the masthead, and the image of Albert Emanuel on the last page.

We’re grateful to those at Bad Robot, including Bad Robot Workshop Manager, Beth Wasiler, for taking the time to send these pieces of Marian Library history to us. We’re even more excited to know that we can now connect the Blessed Virgin Mary with Luke Skywalker.