Assignment One

The oldest book in the collection is a book made in Italy, written in Italian called “Sicuti antiquarum lectionum”.  The book was owned and discarded by Amherst College.  There is a date stamped in the cover which might point to the books time at Amherst in 1946.  The book was donated to the College Archive Collection in 1980 by Dr. Leslie Poste.  A quick google of Dr. Leslie Poste shows that he had an interesting journey to his work with books.  While in an army hospital in England during World War II, he started a war-time library.  Through this work he became recognized for his typist skills and joined the Library Branch of the Special Services in London.  After this work he traveled to rural locations where books had been stored by Nazi Germany. He returned to the states in 1947 and began teaching Library and Information Science at SUNY Geneseo from 1958 to 1978.  One might wonder if Dr. Poste acquired Geneseo’s oldest book in the archives collection during his time in Italy, wouldn’t that be cool! Unfortunately, it appears this isn’t what happened.  It seems that the book ended up at Amherst College where it was discarded and somehow ended up in Dr. Poste’s possession. According to Elizabeth Argentieri, one of SUNY Geneseo’s special collections librarian, our university does not process historic borrower records because it would violate patron confidentiality. “Sicuti antiquarum lectionum”, the oldest book in our library’s collection bears evidence of reader use.  There are handwritten notes in the margin, likely written in Italian while the book was still in Italy.  Additionally, there is underlining in parts of the text which might suggest that the book was used for scholarly purposes. The Wadsworth Family Papers is a specific collection within the archives collection.  Within the collection there are diverse works and artifacts including family and business papers, over 300 maps, information about land ownership, information about settlements, land management, and photographs.  One unifying theme is that they all belonged to or relate to the Wadsworth family in Geneseo.  Additionally, maps and documents about land seem to be a thread through the collection.  This points to the Wadsworth’s involvement in colonial settlements in Western New York and how they impacted the land around them and the people who were displaced as a result.  These works are donated directly from members of the Wadsworth family in order to preserve their family history in the town of Geneseo and their impact on the College according to some correspondence between Mr. William P. Wadsworth and Richard Quick, director of the College Library.