{"id":118346,"date":"2023-11-07T16:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T22:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=118346"},"modified":"2023-11-08T13:06:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T19:06:57","slug":"original-library-collection-provides-insights-into-ums-early-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/original-library-collection-provides-insights-into-ums-early-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Original Library Collection Provides Insights Into UM’s Early Days"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A ledger from 1868 is helping archivists identify which books are part of the university’s original library collection, 1849-1858. Photo courtesy Archives and Special Collections<\/p><\/div>\n

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 A celebration of the University of Mississippi<\/a>‘s 175th anniversary this month would be incomplete without a nod to its academic underpinnings: the library and its original books.<\/p>\n

The original collection of the library, dating from 1849 to 1858, reflects the classical curriculum of the era with a large number of Latin, Greek and rhetoric volumes. However, the collection includes a number of surprising topics such as Napoleon, ship navigation, fossils and travels in places such as Burma that had little to do with the landlocked university in Oxford.<\/p>\n

Leigh McWhite, the libraries’ political papers archivist and professor, is searching for, researching and taking these books out of main circulation to curate a permanent display in the Baxter Room of the J.D. Williams Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>“As a set, these books represent an important aspect of our university’s history because they showcase the curriculum and what was studied,” McWhite said. The books also offer insight into the faculty’s interests at the time, she said.<\/p>\n

Until recently, library patrons could check out many of the books in the original collection. These books will still be available for reading and research, but only upon request, she said. Extremely rare books, such as a Royal Octavo<\/a> second edition of “Birds of America” by John James Audubon, published in 1856, will continue to be housed in Archives and Special Collections, and an eGrove page also will be devoted to the collection.<\/p>\n

Before the university’s collection of books moved to Ventress Hall in 1889, the third floor of the Lyceum housed a small library. It began in July 1849 when UM founder and trustee Jacob Thompson donated books to the university. The board also appropriated $500 \u2013 which would be almost $20,000 today \u2013 for the purchase of additional tomes.<\/p>\n

By 1858-59, the libraries \u2013 university, law and two literary societies \u2013 housed about 6,000 volumes. Bryant Hall followed Ventress as the university’s library in 1911 before the J.D. Williams Library was built in 1951.<\/p>\n

Today, the University Libraries hold more than 1 million physical volumes, as well as more than 1.5 million e-books.<\/p>\n

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Ventress Hall housed the university’s library for many years. This photo is from the 1898 yearbook. Photo courtesy Archives and Special Collections<\/p><\/div>\n

Few university records exist from the university’s early years, but an 1868 ledger provides crucial information to help determine which books were part of the original collection.<\/p>\n

Giles M. Hillyer, a university graduate who served on the board of trustees, cut and pasted two copies of the 1858 printed catalog into the 1868 ledger and hand-wrote notations and additions.<\/p>\n

It is “one of the most complete documents focusing on the institutional library in any southern college or university following the Civil War, because few original resources are extant,” according to Boyd Childress in his article “The 1868 Catalog of the University of Mississippi,” published in the journal Libraries & Culture in 1991.<\/p>\n

A few highlights from the original library collection include:<\/p>\n

Scribbles<\/strong><\/p>\n

These days, writing in library books is frowned upon. However, many books in the original library collection include elegant, erudite inscriptions and commentary. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n