Dickinson family library digitization update
Jun 22nd, 2012 by houghtonmodern
The “Bookplate of the Week” series is on hiatus this week; for a bookplate related to this post, click here.
Work continues apace on our project to digitize the Dickinson family library. 59 books are now available to view through the Dickinson family library finding aid (click on the “Digital Content” tab at the top of the screen) and HOLLIS. On average, eight books are digitized each month.
Books containing marks of use have been prioritized; Dickinson family library books often contain pencil marks, dog-eared corners, and botanical specimens pressed between pages. Some examples of recently digitized volumes include:
Elegant extracts : a copious selection of instructive, moral, and entertaining passages, from the most eminent prose writers. Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1826. EDR 507.
The four extant volumes of this set are heavily marked, and include many dog-eared pages:
H.G. Ollendorf. Ollendorf’s new method of learning to read, write, and speak the German language… New York: Appleton, 1846. EDR 23.
Emily Dickinson’s German textbook, signed on the title page, with a note in German in her handwriting inserted, and some marks throughout:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Golden Legend. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1852 [i.e. 1851]. EDR 286.
This volume of Longfellow’s poetry is heavily marked with vertical pencil lines in the margins.
While many books in the Dickinson family library contain marks of use, few contain actual annotations. In the volume of Longfellow one reader (most likely Susan Huntington Dickinson, the poet’s sister-in-law, with whom she often shared books) wrote, “I don’t like this”.
For more information on the Dickinson collection at Houghton, see our website, and continue to follow this blog for updates.
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