Week Two-Shepherd Project

This past week Meaghan and I have been doing separate aspects of the project. After adding our own “About the Author” information to our site, we have done more work with the individual programs. I have been working on the Juxtapose JS by KnightLab software. So far it has been a little tricky getting everything to line up. My plan is to compare the previous photos of our campus buildings to the current buildings. So far I am still searching for viable social interaction clubs or organization photos to utilize as well. This is a challenge however because a lot of the organizations have changed over the years and some are nonexistent today.  I have however, imbedded a Juxtapose of McMurran Hall to portray the changes over the years.

Week One-Shepherd Project

In the first week Meaghan and I have managed to nail down the specifics that we want to learn from our project. First, we want to know more about previous student experiences at Shepherd University. We will learn this through reading the yearbook collection housed in our library. Second, we will use the yearbooks to make comparisons about the past in relation to current student life. We have also begun to organize our site pages. We intend to use Juxtapose JS by KnightLab as well as Timeline JS by KnightLab as well. Using the two we will learn more about changes over time. We will also make comparisons using Juxtapose. Finally, we have established a schedule of events that we will follow to stay on track. I am excited to see what results we find. Stay tuned for more updates and sneak peeks.

 

Social Map

Social Mapping:

The tool I utilized for this project was called Kumu. I found it very difficult to use and the most in depth so far out of all the tools. The most challenging thing is the data scraping and then input into kumu.  All of the data collected is from Dissenting Academies.

Work In Progress

So after many attempts at the social map I will embed a sample of what I have. Unfortunately something went wrong somewhere in my process and there are still no names attached which is very disappointing. However, it at least does look like I have some connections at least. It will be interesting to get to see WHO the connections are with. In the meantime, I will post what I have and continue to work on the issue. I will update the map as soon as I have it figured out.

 

Map of Publication

The Child’s Instructor

I found a few publications on a text called “The Child’s Instructor” by John Ely. It was published at various locations between the years of 1758-1847. The map below provides an excellent visual as to the distance of which the book was published. Mainly, in the northern states is where it was found as you can see below.


Process:

It was at first difficult to create this map. There were many steps involved. The most difficult being able to download Zotero. This is a data scraping tool that allows multiple inputs to be applied later to a spreadsheet or a given work. There are many uses for Zotero, however I used it to scrap all the publications and locations associated with “The Child’s Instructor.” Everything after downloading Zotero was relatively straightforward using Dr.Pauley’s tutorial. I encourage you to view that here. Overall, it was a long process, however, I was very proud of the end result. This was by far my favorite project. Now I can say I know how to create a Google map!

Life of The Notes on the State of Virginia

The Birth

The Notes on the State of Virginia was published in Philadelphia in 1784. It was brought to life by Thomas Jefferson.

First Marks

Ownership

The book was first written in by Anderson J Henshaw. He marked that he purchased the book on July 24th of 1901. It is clearly shown here that Anderson wanted to claim possession to the text because he wrote his name directly above the title. Below, the word “Book” forming another mark of possession as if to say “Anderson J Henshaw’s Book.” Since he was claiming possession of the book I believe that it was seen more as an item of value. Generally when a person writes their name in something it is because they do not want anyone else to claim it.

Hand-Me-Down

Mabel Henshaw Gardiner Donation

After Anderson J Henshaw was finished with the book (possibly dead) it fell into the hands of Mabel Henshaw (Later to be known as Mabel Henshaw Gardiner). Mabel Henshaw Gardiner was a teacher and a prominent member of Shepherd College after having attended there herself. Being as the two have the same last name, I assumed they are related in some way. I looked for records of Anderson Henshaw in the genealogy but could not find any type of relation between the two. Although it would be an odd coincidence if they were not related in any way. Therefore it leaves me to believe Mabel obtained the text directly from Anderson in some way.  Unfortunately, there is no known date of which she obtained the book, however there is a library sticker claiming her donation of the book. Sadly, there is also no date of this donation in any of our records. I do assume however, that it was during her time as a teacher at Shepherd University because she was so dedicated to the history education of the students.

Current Status

Currently the book is being held in the Rare Books Collection at the Shepherd University’s Library. There, it waits for visits from those who are interested in the second oldest book in our library. Or, those who seek to read the Second American Edition of the Notes on the State of Virginia.

Timeline Document Link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e_PQ6JLUFugfwt0dQBn3aJOsDsGuyNSU5-FtN2-lshU/edit?usp=sharing

Genealogy of Mabel Hensaw Gardiner and Family:

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=149178670

 

 

Rare Book Examination

 

The Notes on The State of Virginia-Thomas Jefferson

The book I examined was The Notes on the State of Virginia written by Thomas Jefferson. It was published in November 12, 1794 in Philadelphia.

Binding

This book was bound using string. The front and back covers seem to be made of a leather material covering a type of cardboard-like material. Unfortunately as you can see in the photo the cover edges and spine are wearing away. This is a sign of regular library use as well as general aging. Below you will see an example of the aging as well as the type of binding twine utilized on this particular text.

 

3-D text

I noticed that the print in the book was definitely from a printing press. I noticed 3-D imprint on either side to show evidence of this printing press use. I found this to be very interesting as I never have encountered this type of material before. Also, it is to be noted that the pages are made of thicker paper than books today.  Also, it is easy to note the horizontal chain lines across the page. Clearly these pages were also trimmed it was nice and neat on the edges. As you can see below the 3-D text is visible on the page above.

 

Unfortunately because this book was donated by a prominent woman at our college, librarians pasted a donation label inside the cover. Although it was a good thought to know where it came from, in a way it detracts from the nature of the book. However, it does tell us a good bit about the life of this book. We know it came from the Mabel Gardiners collection.

Close Up

 

Probably my most favorite aspect of this book is the notation on the cover page. The inscription reads “Anderson J Henshaw” there is also some crossed out inscription

Inscription

written in brown ink that I couldn’t decode. However I could make out the brown ink “Bought this 24 July, 1901 price 15/-“

 

 

 

Text Variation

 

I also noted the variation in text. In some places a regular “s” was used. Then oddly enough, in the next line it was an “f” used instead. I am not quite sure why this may have been done, however, it is  quite a unique aspect to this rare book.

Finally the last interesting aspect of this book was a foldout chart. It was placed about the middle of the book. It was also made of notably lighter material than the rest of the pages.

All of this information was collected from a book in the rare books collection at Shepherd University’s Scarborough Library.

Meeting With Christy Toms at Shepherd University

After discussing the various collections in the Scarborough Library at Shepherd University with Christy Toms (The Coordinator of Archives and Special Collections) I discovered some interesting facts about the collection.

Ancient Artifacts

First, the oldest book in the collection was the “Memoirs of the Life of the Late Charles Lee Esquire”. It was published in 1792 in London by J.S Jordan. It is not known who owned the book previously because unfortunately Shepherd University has no record and there were no notations inside the book to tell me otherwise. The book discusses his military career as well as his radical Whig republicanism reputation. Anyone who owned this book would have an interest in the life of a soldier and somewhat of an extremist during this time.

Fingerprints of the Past

Some evidence I found of a book with notations in our collection was in “A History of Shepherd College”. It was published in 1967 in West Virginia. The author was Arthur Gordon Slonaker. Inside was an inscription to the owner of the book, Martha Campbell, from a professor. Unfortunately I could not find much about her due to the lack of middle name ok the inscription. What I do know is that students aren’t much different from that time as there are today. She used this book to learn more about the university she was attending and had possibly a favorite professor sign it.

Collections of History

When speaking with Christy Toms, I learned a little bit about a collection of yearbooks. What was interesting is there were gaps in years of the collection. For example, during World War I as well as the Great Depression and World War II. This would have represented the idea that a yearbook was less of a necessity in their life due to financial problems. The unifying theme in this collection is that they all are from Shepherd University. The collection came from members of the community donating their yearbooks in order for others to learn about past. This is a great example of a book as an artifact. Although they are not necessarily a literary work, they still can tell us a lot about the past and the owners of these books. To see more on the Shepherd University yearbook collection, click here.