Greg’s First Blog Post
October 3, 2023
I’m in and able to post…………thanks for the patience!!!!!!
It was a pleasant experience visiting the Wesleyan Special Collections Library. I sent an email to the library to inquire about a time to view my pet book and within minutes had a response from one of the employees Maggie. Upon my arrival at the library I wanted to comply with the strict requirements to view the book so I ditched my pens, and went to the bathroom to wash my hands as orange Dorito fingers were not a good idea for viewing the precious materials. Maggie was there to let me in and was extremely kind and helpful. I took out my pencils to take notes and went to work studying my pet.
The first thing I noticed had nothing to do with the book itself. It was the peace and calm that surrounded me. Other than the occasional rumble from my stomach, I was immersed in a setting in which I felt so privileged and made every effort to treat the book I was viewing with extreme care. I ended spending more than an hour there studying the details of my pet book, it was actually a pleasant and calming experience when compared to some of my everyday life with work, home, family, kids, you get the idea.
Ok now about the actual book. I asked Maggie if she had a magnifying and glass measuring tape to get me started. Right away appeared two magnifying glasses, the measuring tape, and book weights.
The book looked heavily worn to me, like it had been in and out of a back pack hundreds of times, the edges had some cloth covering missing, however it is remarkable how well intact it is given its age, 119 years old.
The book itself measures 18.5”x 14.5” or 36cm x 47cm. After review of the page numbers, I learned that they stop at page 23 even though there are over 100. Another interesting observation I had was that the numbers are not on all of the pages up to 23.
The front and back covers are hard paper board or cardboard like material made up of many layers pressed together as can be seen on the worn exposed corner missing the cloth covering.
The hard paper board is then covered with a grey cloth material glued around the inside edges, and the front cover is stamped with gold and black.
The book has been repaired as the end paper and paste down in the front and back of the book is glued on Wesleyan branded paper with a card slot used when checking the book out from a library. This also is a clue to me as to why the book is so heavily worn, it was likely in general circulation at the library before placement in special reserves.
Close examination of the pages reveals what appears to be machine made paper, they are cleanly cut and no imperfections or irregularities upon examining of the paper edges with the high magnification lens.
The edges of the paper are of beautiful gold gilt.
Interesting observation to note is that the pages alternate between a thin stock and thick stock of paper. The text pages are the thin paper followed by the illustration page on a thicker paper. The thin text paper almost acts like the tissue page to protect the illustration page. The text was likely printed using some sort of press as evidenced by the raised letters on the back side of the page that it was printed on that pressed or stamped through the page. A few pages in the book have become creased, the creased pages are only the thin sheets of paper with text not the thicker paper used for the illustrations. This would make sense as the thicker illustration pages are sturdier and less likely to bend of fold. The pages alternate with a one-sided page of text followed by a one-sided illustration. The illustrations are likely made from a carved metal plate press process as the detail shown in the illustrations is extremely fine and would not be able to be produced with any other material.
The illustrations are also pressed onto a thicker paper that can withstand the ink and pressure of the press and hold the ink. The first illustration page has become detached from the book, I let Maggie know, she made a note to have it repaired.
It is hard to tell but the text block pages do not appear to be folded which makes sense with the alternating thickness of the paper. The pages are glued into the spine with backing material.
I flipped through all of the pages, this totaled 132 pages including the front and back sides, the cover and back of the book.
The most interesting thing I found was a full set of fingerprints on one of the pages. They appear to be made in black ink, who knows, maybe this is the work one of the persons at the book company that put it together in 1884.
Physical Description: 128 pages, 18.5”x 14.5” or 36cm x 47cm
Material Description: Hardcover Gray cloth full cover angel illustration stamped in gold and black. Edges of paper gilt