Welcoming the New Year with the 2008 Calendars

A college of the 2008 calendar covers

Wishes for a peaceful and prosperous 2008 were visually communicated through the five calendars produced by AUB this year. Though the contents vary in theme, they all convey a fervent message of hope for the future-a window on Lebanon's scenic beauty that will remain constant in our lives.

Now filling AUB's offices and departments and many AUBite homes as well, are the University's five new calendars. According to theme, they include the AUB Calendar 2008, Bonfils: The Region through 19th Century Photographs; the President's Calendar; the AUBMC Calendar; the Initiative for Biodiversity Studies in Arid Regions (IBSAR) Calendar; and the Lebanese Landscapes Calendar.

The Bonfils calendar features photos which make part of the Blatchford photographic collection housed at AUB's Jafet Library, consisting of images shot between 1800 and 1900 by important photographers in the Middle East such as Bonfils, Dumas, Sarrafian, and Dupre. The calendar highlights 13 of the Bonfils photos of scenes, landscapes, and portraits from Europe and the Middle East, namely Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

The President's Calendar consists of 13 vivid shots of scenery in various parts of Lebanon taken by AUB President John Waterbury, who accompanied his photographs with "more modest" prayers: "less violence, more normalcy, and a few days in which we indulge in the joys of family, friends, and the great outdoors." Indeed, perhaps the sunny skies and shades of pink, green, and blue, and even the shot of colored umbrellas fighting a rain storm on Beirut's Manara, will communicate this prayer for resurgence.

The AUBMC table calendar celebrates 140 years of medicine at AUB and 100 years of the medical center. Through the photos of the old medical school building and other breakthroughs at AUB highlighted in the calendar, AUB remembers "our firsts" as we revive a 50-year-old tradition-accreditation of AUBMC by the Joint Commission attesting to the two pillars of health care at AUBMC.

While the above three calendars were produced by the Office of University Publications, the two additional calendars were produced independently by IBSAR and the AUB Museum of Natural History.

More of Lebanon's hills and valleys are featured in the calendar issued by IBSAR -AUB's center for nature conservation and sustainable futures-which chose to concentrate on some of the country's most scenic landscapes and informative quotes on nature.

The Natural History Museum's calendar focuses on the four variations of the Anemone Coronaria flower found in Lebanon and along the Mediterranean and the insects that are drawn to this flower. The close-ups of the colorful anemones and the common insects found on them, such as bees, beetles, and grasshoppers, are captivating.