Hillsdale's heritage: John Locke to James Joyce
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
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The most rare and valuable books in the collection are kept in undisturbed cases in the Heritage Room. The library's collection comprises about 500 to 600 rare books, with an average price of $5,000 to $7,000 per book or volume. Books not behind glass are worth a couple hundred dollars.
Librarians say few students ask to look at rare books. Library Director Dan Knoch recently showed a group of honors' students some of the Heritage Room's rare books and coins. "Students probably just see the books as a background to the Heritage Room and don't pay much attention to what is there," Knoch said.
According to Linda Moore, public services librarian, patrons often consult the library for rare material if they're writing theses or dissertations.
"If a student wants to see a book, it is treated as reserved material," Moore said. "A librarian must pull it off the shelf."
In the case of some of the more valuable books, a librarian may supervise a patron viewing the book.
Often the library keeps an archival copy of a book on the locked shelves and a public use copy on the stacks. That way the archival copy stays in better condition. When determining which books qualify as rare, Moore said they consider much more than the book's age.
"A book could be rare by association, scarcity, monetary value or its importance to the local community," Moore said.
Often when individuals or organizations donate books to the college, they have the books professionally appraised in order to receive tax write-offs. Knoch stores these appraisal records in his office.
To find appraisals for some of the Heritage Room's most valuable books, Knoch bent down to the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet. The price tags were astounding. Some of the Heritage Room's most valuable items include John Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," appraised for $42,000, and Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," appraised for $85,000.
On a far wall of the Heritage Room is a scarce copy of "Ulysses," written by James Joyce and illustrated by Henri Matisse. An identical copy was sold to Bono, frontman of rock band U2, for $20,000. Both Matisse and Joyce signed the back of the book, although Matisse signed in pencil. As the story goes, Matisse intended to sign 1,500 copies of the book. After signing a couple hundred copies, Matisse realized he had illustrated a modern-day novel instead of a great piece of literature. He stopped signing promptly.
This makes the Mossey library copy especially rare. In some cases, standard material on the open shelves has also become rare. When the librarians realize this, they put the book in the Heritage Room.
"The problem is that we can't pull everything off and put it behind glass," Knoch said. "Many of the eagles in the Heritage Room are worth more money, but people don't walk off with those kinds of things."
"These materials should probably be handled with gloves," Knoch said. "We don't use gloves, but we are very careful and don't get the books out often."
Maurine McCourry handles cataloging, collection development and several other library departments.
She said a large amount of the library's material has yet to be cataloged. Every book needs to be cataloged so the public knows what the library has to offer, she said.
McCourry said she's currently cataloging the Free Will Baptist material, the group that founded the college. But the process is endless.
"It took me all day to catalog one stack of books," she said.
McCourry said the Bible collections in the Dow Room are the most interesting to see and hold. She said the college has some Bibles from the 16th and 17th centuries.
"Our library is not unique in the sense that it has a rare books collection," McCourry said. "It is unique because the collection is specific to Hillsdale's history."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
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