{"id":228,"date":"2015-02-23T10:53:28","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T15:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/?page_id=228"},"modified":"2015-07-24T15:52:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T19:52:03","slug":"rare-book-section","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/chronology-and-context\/what-happened\/rare-book-section\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Rare Book” Section (early 1930s)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Reading<\/a>
The reading room in Colby’s first library (old campus) served as an exhibit space in the late 1930s-early 1940s. The librarians used the space to highlight notable items in the library collection as well as traveling exhibits and photographs from Colby’s Camera Club.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Small-to-significant donations to the Library\u2019s holdings continued into the 1920s and 1930s, received from alumni\/ae, faculty and other supporters. However, identification and special care for particular items was not a priority until the arrival of Robert Bingham Downs<\/a>, the first professionally-trained librarian at Colby (1929-1931). He effected many improvements including attention to the Library’s rare books.<\/p>\n

Downs began transfer of rare and valuable books, especially Americana, from the circulating collection. This practice was continued by Downs\u2019 successors, Joseph Selwyn Ibbotson<\/a> (1931-1935) and J. Periam Danton<\/a> (1935-1936), who denoted a formal \u201crare book\u201d section.<\/p>\n

English Professor Carl Weber<\/a>‘s academic interest in the works of Thomas Hardy resulted in more Hardy acquisitions by the library. They would become the nucleus of Colby’s renowned Thomas Hardy Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small-to-significant donations to the Library\u2019s holdings continued into the 1920s and 1930s, received from alumni\/ae, faculty and other supporters. However, identification and special care for particular items was not a priority until the arrival of Robert Bingham Downs, the first professionally-trained librarian at Colby (1929-1931). He effected many improvements including attention to the Library’s rare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"parent":88,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1835,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions\/1835"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-history-of\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}