A book exhibit as a project

Abstract

The mere looking upon books can never make us know them; one must handle a volume to become at all acquainted with it. This thought was in our minds when, after a friend's offering to lend us some fine old volumes, we began to plan a book exhibit at Rockford College. And it was the idea here expressed that gave to our project, at least for the class that worked on it, an educational value which far excelled, we believe, that of the rare book rooms of wealthier institutions. The exhibit as first conceived was to have been a matter of three or four tables of books kept in a locked classroom, which might be opened when those who cared to came to see them. But as we planned, and people offered to lend, and students became interested, it promised to assume such proportions that we gave it over to a class as a project and watched it grow into an exhibit of three hundred items spread on tables covering the gymnasium and guarded at night by an imposing officer of the law. The American Literature class staged it, not because the exhibit was confined to Americana, but because that class, a group of twenty-two, most of them seniors majoring in English, were interested and could take the time. It was surprising what we were able to turn up with comparatively little effort, drawing from the community--a city of seventy thousand, from the students' homes, and from several friendly libraries and two booksellers. Our manner of was simple. About two months ahead of the time we set for the exhibit, we began borrowing the books that had been offered, working them, and returning them until we should need them for the exhibit. Before the college went home for its spring holiday, we advertised the exhibit well, so that students might search at home for volumes rare enough or interesting enough to be included. One talk to the student body and a little careful educating through the college weekly were enough to enable them to determine fairly well whether a volume were old enough, had enough associative value, or were of enough interest in local history to be worth while. Of course we had some students bringing us autographed copies of inferior contemporary poets, but we counted our refusal to