Breathing in the sweetly aged scent of old literary treasures in Alderman Library's wood-paneled McGregor Room, one may be suddenly seized by the same inhibitions of being in a museum.
And why not? Here, among heavy blue velvet curtains and low hanging chandeliers, Cotton Mather's accounts of early New England life partially line the floor-to-ceiling bookcases. A room away, first editions of Thomas Wolfe sit patiently on the shelves. And hidden away in a staff-only area are thousands more rare, original books, manuscripts, letters and diaries -- some written by Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
But while researchers must be careful in handling Special Collections items, the "do not touch" mentality does not prevail here.
Open to any University student, Special Collections invites the curious to delve into the pages of literature and history, not merely view it from behind a glass case. For those students and faculty who have worked in and with Special Collections, the historical and literary treasures housed there are more than remote works from the past; they are vibrant links to the people, stories and events that make history come alive.
|
"In many cases, I would be the first person in 100 or 150 years to read a particular letter or diary entry," said English Ph.D. candidate Bethany Nowviskie, who teaches a class called "Text and Book." Nowviskie worked in Special Collections as an undergrad where she preserved, arranged and described collections of manuscripts. "I can't even begin to describe what that feels like -- how opening a faded envelope can bring the dead back to life."
To bring that same sense of fascination to their courses, many University professors introduce students to Special Collections' books and manuscripts, whether by personal visits to Alderman's second floor or through the Web.
"As a teacher, I would always try, when it was appropriate, to set up a time to take classes down to Special Collections. When I would teach a Mark Twain seminar, I would make sure that we went down at least once," English Prof. Stephen Railton said.
History Prof. Ed Ayers has also incorporated a great deal of primary source material into his HIUS 323, The South in the Nineteenth Century class. For one assignment, his class was charged with investigating life as a slaveholder through reading diaries, family letters and account books from the time period.
"They often come back and say that's the most incredible thing I've ever done at U.Va. -- which is to handle the raw materials from which the past is woven and to see what it was like in that place and time," Ayers said.
Tucked into nearly every nook and cranny of Alderman Library's second floor are over 12.5 million manuscripts and 237,000 books. These rare, first and early edition works make up one of the country's leading holdings in special collections.
"The Special Collections essentially is one of the most important depositories in the country of our American heritage-literature and history," said Library Director of Development Jeanne Hammer.
Spurring Special Collections to such heights were the mid-20th century donations of two literary connoisseurs, Tracy W. McGregor and Clifton Waller Barrett. The posthumous donation of McGregor's collection in 1938 consisted of a vast array of rare books, research volumes and various manuscripts steeped in American history.
Similarly, the Barrett donation consisted of an impressive number of works of American literature, focusing primarily on the period between 1775 and 1950. The works of Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Willa Cather and Edgar Allan Poe, to name a few, line the shelves today because of his donation.
Since then, Special Collections has been augmented by numerous gifts and purchases, said Director of Special Collections Michael Plunkett.
And while the works of Jorge Luis Borges and William Faulkner garner international attention, many local researchers are intrigued by the historical papers from Virginia families.
Additionally, the Jackson Davis Collection of African-American Educational Photographs, and the Holsinger Studio Collection of Charlottesville life at the turn of the century provide resplendent visual histories. To stay up to date on rare documents, library officials keep their eyes on auction catalogues such as Sotheby's and Christy's, said Heather Moore, director of public services for Special Collections.
Building the Digital Bridge
Nowadays, bridging the musty gap between our past and present involves all the modern-day trappings of information technology.
Over the past four years, Railton has worked extensively on digitizing the works of Mark Twain, as well as those documents pertaining to Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." In addition to the Web sites he has been creating, he has also, with the assistance of Special Collections, posted many documents on the Web for his ENAM 312 class.
"Of course every time you get out the manuscript of 'The Sun Also Rises' and show it around, you degrade it a little bit; it gets worn," Railton said. "My first goal was simply to bring up from Special Collections in virtual or digital form all this material so that classes could see it without having to go down and get it out."
Ayers' Web site and CD-ROM project, "The Valley of the Shadow," seeks to examine the Civil War experience through the eyes of both Northern and Southern communities. Using newspapers, letters and diaries, among other primary sources from the era, Ayers has relied greatly on Special Collections.
The Special Collections Digital Center (SCDC) is also an important tool for researchers.
For the non-online Special Collections, researchers can delve into the manuscripts firsthand. Protecting these documents while keeping the "hands on" approach requires special measures.
Temperature and humidity control are two of the most important factors in preserving the works. Pens are also forbidden around the documents.
The staff may perform small repairs on books and manuscripts. However, "if there's something that's really badly in need of repair we will send it to a professional," Plunkett said.
All items are kept in an area with access controlled by a security system and video cameras monitor the reading room.
Moving on down?
If there's one thing Special Collections has been looking for the past 40 years in addition to rare books and manuscripts, it's space.
"The initial planning for a new library started back in the 1960s," Hammer said. "Since then there've been other things that have driven the planning."
With an ever-expanding list of acquisitions, an increase in use by undergraduate students and the need for a more prominent and easily accessible exhibit area, the Special Collections soon will be housed in an underground facility in front of where Miller Hall now stands.
"This is a collection that is world renowned not only to students here, but also students from the Commonwealth and people from around the world come to use the collections," Hammer said.
The new facility, projected to open in the spring of 2004, will feature additional classroom and research space as well as a better environmental control system.
Regardless of Special Collections' location, its power to transcend hundreds of years of history with the turn of a single, yellowed page remains unchanged.
"The goal is for people to have more intimate connections with the past," Ayers said. "For them to confront the past, face to face."
For Railton, and hopefully his students, that power is the ability "to get closer to an author who was not sitting on a throne as a famous writer, but sitting alone in a room with an empty piece of paper ... It changes the way you think about art," he added.
The Special Collections offers a means of getting in touch with not only art, but with timeless humanity that pervades almost any course of study.
"Rare books are the very temples of humanism," Nowviskie said. "Too many students spend four years at the University never realizing the wealth of material they could have -- literally -- at their fingertips."
Read More
New Zealand cuisine finds a home away from home at Burger Bach
By Evalina Caruccio | 17 hours agoTheir moderate price range — between $14 and $19 for a burger — and delicious food made it a great dinner for my friend and I after a long week of exams.
Being more than just my body
By Mai Hukuoka | 17 hours agoAs I have traversed the ups and downs of self-esteem and reflected on the "Freshman 15” phenomenon, I’ve discovered how freeing it is to live beyond the confinements of body image.
Minding the gap year experience
By Lindsay Lian | YesterdayMany gap-year students initially have doubts about taking a year off from school, but the experience was worthwhile for these four University students.
