It’s #ColorOurCollections week!

We’ll be sharing gems from our archives allll week, so start planning your coloring breaks. To kick off Monday morning, here is a drawing by Octavia E. Butler from one of the first stories she ever wrote, Silver Star (see the original story and drawings here); a page from a 16th century book (on display now in “The Reformation: The Word to The World”); and an illustration of The Monster Serpent of Silver Lake (while the serpent is indeed magnificent, please note the dog using a telescope in the bottom right corner. We are naming him Carl).

Coloring Page: Drawing of horses by Octavia E. Butler as a child for the short story Silver Star, ca. 1958. Octavia E. Butler papers. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. 

Coloring Page: Henry VIII (1491–1547), Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum (Defense of the seven sacraments against Martin Luther) London, Aedibus Pynsonianis, 1521. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Coloring Page: Richard J. Compton, The Monster Serpent of Silver Lake, ca. 1853-1855, Buffalo (N.Y.), lithograph, 13 7/8 x 20 7/8 in. Jay T. Last Collection, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. 

Jan 3rd: The Birth of the Reformation

“Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, and biblical scholar, wrote against the church’s use of indulgences and insisted that salvation is a free gift from God, not achieved through good works. Luther refused to recant his criticism of the church, saying, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.” He was excommunicated by Pope Leo X on January 3, 1521, unwittingly becoming the leader of a movement that…