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[PADG:452] RE: FW: [EXLIBRIS:30009] Fwd: A Harvard man uses the l ibrary, ca. 1840
- To: "'padg@xxxxxxx'" <padg@xxxxxxx>
- Subject: [PADG:452] RE: FW: [EXLIBRIS:30009] Fwd: A Harvard man uses the l ibrary, ca. 1840
- From: "Cybulski, Walter (NIH/NLM)" <Cybulskw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 14:59:31 -0400
- Message-id: <C761DBF11F04AE4CB11521B0DF7F653605652534@nihexchange28.nih.gov>
- Reply-to: padg@xxxxxxx
If there was any evidence that the pages had gotten wet, I would have to say
this story warms the cockles by the hearth. Have a great weekend everyone.
Walter
-----Original Message-----
From: Paulson, Barbara [mailto:BPaulson@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 2:37 PM
To: Padg@xxxxxxx
Subject: [PADG:451] FW: [EXLIBRIS:30009] Fwd: A Harvard man uses the
library, ca. 1840
I'm surprised that no one has yet posted this to Padg. It's certainly
appropriate to Friday afternoon.
Barbara
-----Original Message-----
From: exlibris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:exlibris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of tinman
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 6:47 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [EXLIBRIS:30009] Fwd: A Harvard man uses the library, ca. 1840
--- david warrington <warringt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 10:44:44 -0400
> From: david warrington
> <warringt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: A Harvard man uses the library, ca. 1840
> To: SHARP-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
Gleaned from George Frisbie Hoar's AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SEVENTY YEARS.
(NY:
Charles Scribners, 1903, 2 vols); Hoar received his A.B. from Harvard
in 1846:
> "An anecdote came down from a class before my time which I think ought
> not to be lost. One of the boys when the cold weather came on in the
> first term of his freshman year took out from the college library a
> book which was nearly the largest and thickest volume it contained.
> It was the works of Bishop Williams, who I think was one of the seven
> bishops persecuted by James II. The book contained an exceedingly
> dull treatise on theology. The youth had no special literary tastes,
> of which anybody knew, and that was the only book he was ever known to
> take out. He kept it out the six weeks which were allowed, and then
> renewed it, not taking it back to the library until the hot weather of
> the following summer. He repeated this in his sophomore and junior
> and senior years.
> Dr. [Thaddeus William]
> Harris, the librarian, was very much puzzled and asked some of the
> boys if they could tell him why this young man kept Bishop Williams's
> works so constantly. None of the boys knew. They used to see it
> lying on his table, but never saw any signs of his reading it.
> At last one winter night
> late in the senior year something happened which caused a good deal of
> excitement. Several of the boys who were down in the yard rushed up
> in great haste to this classmate's room. It happened to be unlocked.
> They got in without knocking and found him undressed with nothing on
> but his nightgown. His bed happened to be near the fire, and standing
> up on the edge in front of the fire was Bishop Williams's works. It
> turned out that he was in the habit of thoroughly warming the book and
> then of putting it in the bed before he got in himself, so that it
> would serve the function of a warming-pan. The young gentleman turned
> out in after life to be a very distinguished Bishop himself, an
> eminent champion of the doctrines of the Episcopal Church, which he
> had doubtless acquired by absorption." (i, 125-126)
>
> It would be wonderful to find the volume today and to see if it
> contained evidence of its unusual use, but, alas, I find no
> appropriate record in Harvard's on-line catalogue, HOLLIS.
> David Warrington
> Librarian for Special Collections
> Harvard Law School Library
> Cambridge, MA 02138
>
> telephone: (617) 496-2115
> email: warringt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx