I’ve been busy
cataloging a large donation of medical books for the museum. Cataloging is an essential part of keeping
proper records of the museum’s artifacts.
Cataloging can also be a rather tedious task! However, I’ve been kept entertained by some
of the things I’ve found in these books.
Today I thought I’d share a few of these finds with you.
Even without the
“surprise” finds, there are plenty of interesting features to old books.
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| Some old books have beautifully embossed
leather covers. |
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| Even the book spines can be pretty. Many times older books have very long titles
such as this. |
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| There are sometimes bookplates inside
the books as well. They often list the
former owner’s name, and sometimes give clues about his or her interests. I thought the design of this one was a bit
strange, until I looked up the doctor’s name and discovered that he had been a
pediatrician! |
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| Of course, at my museum it’s always
exciting to find a book which belonged to a Civil War Surgeon! |
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| Many times in older books there is an
illustration or photograph of the author or subject of the book, along with a
reproduction of their signature. |
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| This book photo highlights the uniform as
well as the doctor. |
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| Some images are more flattering than others! | | |
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| You can occasionally find messages left by previous readers. |
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| Little sketches on the end pages are common finds as well! |
Leafing further
through the books you can find interesting things such as:
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| A battle map |
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| Class notes in a medical textbook |
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| A cartoon |
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| A photo of a plane crash |
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| A poem about a gas mask! |
With medical
books, you also have to be prepared to find images such as:
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| Nude bodies |
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| A surgical diagram |
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| A diseased ileum |
Sometimes there
are advertisements included as well. The
old ones can give a peek into the items and stereotypes from the past.
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| Once upon a time, this was a state-of-the-art
vehicle. |
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| For obvious reasons, this prosthetic
leg ad caught my eye! |
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| Some of the old ads simply make you shake
your head. |
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| And some ads are shameless
self-promotions by the author of the book! |
Not all of my
book discoveries are pleasant.
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| This is what happens when a piece of
acidic newspaper is left inside a book. |
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| This was not meant to be a sketch
book! At least these scribbles are in
pencil though. |
I have also found
some items which have been left inside of books.
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| I’ve
found pressed flowers, leaves, and even this four-leaf clover. They
tend to discolor the pages and to attract insects, so I take them out of
the books. |
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| Letters and notes are fairly common
finds. A doctor left this list of
itemized hospital admissions inside one of his books. |
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| I even found this knotted lock of hair inside a book. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any sort of identification with it. |
I will leave you
with the most bizarre image I found inside a book:
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| I’m not sure if they were trying to
promote their product, or to scare people with this image! |
Now I'd better get back to cataloging!
Photos
courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
