The Bentley
2011
Rare Book Gallery
Stories From the Vault • Collaborative Writing • Controversial Collection • Conversations with Creator
Conversation with curator
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TWAIN’S MARGINALIA
On the cover is Mark Twain’s margin notes in his copy of “The Pen and the Book” by Walter Besant. Mark Twain wrote: I published Huck fin - success, royalty - poor job. A New York Times article explains that this volume can only be studied under security This rare book shows that collaboration is not only a progressive pedagogy.
The Bentley Rare Book Gallery
The mission of the Bentley Rare Book Gallery is to acquire, preserve, make accessible and promote the use and appreciation of the rare collection in order to enhance and support the research and teaching mission of Kennesaw State university and to share this rich resource with the citizens of Georgia. The collection is named in honor of Fred and Sarah Bentley, who were instrumental in the inception of the gallery. Mr. Bentley continues to generously donate to the collection and provide support for its growth and advancement. The collection is a reflection of the history and development of the book and the impact the written and printed word has had and continues to have on human progress. There is a first edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the Bentley Rare Book Gallery. Twain’s first edition was published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. The Bentley Rare Book Room has an first edition of this classic American book. http://www.nytimes. com/2011/02/21/books/21margin. html
The Bentley Rare Book Gallery regularly serves as a classroom. Presentations are given for a wide range of campus classes. Faculty and students appreciate the opportunity to examine first-hand the influential books, newspapers, and artifacts from the eras they study. Adapted from The Bentley Rare Book Gallery Home Page
CONTROVERSIAL COLLECTION: The Book The other day in an interview, an undergraduate student asked me to name my favorite book. I wanted to give her the quick and easy answer – I like nonfiction. My mind went beyond the simple answer and looked at my own truth. My favorite book is collaboration, an anthology. Though it is very old, every reading brings fresh thoughts. My favorite book has been translated and revised and updated as languages change. The very fact that the book has been a best seller from the first printing speaks to its evergreen content. My favorite book has my favorite authors who speak to me even when I do not read it. The book has become part of me and the marginalia in my leather-bound copy is part of the text. This book has not only expanded my mind, but it changed my heart. My favorite book made a trip to the moon when I was 9-years-old. On February 5, 1971 Lunar Model Pilot Edgar D. Mitchell carried a small piece of microfilm in his space suit. The tiny film contained all 1245 pages and 773,746 words of the Bible. Mitchell carried 100 microfilm Bibles and one special “multi-
version” known as the “First Lunar Bible.” This version had both the Revised Standard Version and the King James Version and was supposed to remain on the moon in honor of the Apollo 1 astronauts who lost their lives. Due to time constraints and a heavy lunar schedule, Mitchell brought the “First Lunar Bible” back to earth. Following his quarantine, Mitchell returned this Lunar Bible to Reverend
Stout along with the 300 microfilm Bibles. Due to a lawsuit, the fact that these tiny Bibles made it to moon was a NASA secret until recently. In a book released in December 2010, The Apostles of Apollo, Carol Mersch exposes this buried truth. In cooperation with Apollo 14 astronaut Navy Captain Dr. Edgar D. Mitchell and Reverend John M. Stout, NASA industrial chaplain and director for the Apollo Prayer League Mersch details the story of “The Lunar
Bible.” In Mersch’s book, we learn that Atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hair filed a lawsuit in 1969 against NASA for performing a religious acts in the Apollo Program. The suit named Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and everyone at NASA including administrative chief Thomas Paine. In O’Hair vs. Paine, referring to Apollo 8, O’Hair said “the astronauts had been ordered to pray by NASA. Moreover, they had done it out loud, as she put it, and on ‘company time.’” Later when O’Hair heard of the Apollo Prayer League’s work to send the Bible’s to the moon, she wrote a letter to Reverend John Stout, saying in part, “I read with absolute disgust your plans to take your [expletive] so-called Bibles to the moon . . .[expletive]. If you persists in contaminating the Space Program with your foul, disgusting [expletive] Christianity, we must take steps.” The Apollo Prayer League did not back down. Many petitions were signed and overpowered the Atheist and her followers. Still after gaining national support, the Apollo Prayer League decided to honor the authority of NASA and the new policy of separation of
CONTROVERSIAL (Continued to p. 5)
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EARLY COLLABORATIVE WRITING Collaborative writing as we know it today may not be as “new” as we think. Robert Williams, curator emeritus of the Bentley Rare Book Gallery at Kennesaw State University explains that old manuscripts that have marginalia (margin notes) are often more valuable than text with no scribbles on the page. He explains that the marginalia starts a conversation that continues today to anyone who reads that book with the margin notes. The writer and the note taker work collaboaratively to add to the text. Popular in the 1800s as evidenced by the markings in Mark Twain’s extensive book collection. Twain would have loved the collaborative writing pedaggogy so prevelent in writing classrooms today. I am sure he would have had a Facebook account. He wrote “dude” in one of his margin notes. One Twain blogger wrote: “Mark Twain used the word ‘dude’? You wouldn’t think that Mark Twain would have been the dude type, but he did use the term. In his marginalia in “More Tramps Abroad” he writes, “Oh throw this dude out.” Elizabeth Clark in “The Digital Imperative: Making the Case for a 21st –Century Pedagogy” compared the digital age to the way “Gutenberg’s invention interrupted the rich tradition of interaction with a text.” The old manuscripts had margin notes that made the book a collaborative piece, but the printing press changed that by putting the book into the hands of many. We have come back to collaboration because of digital writing. The collaboration among students produces valuable resources that add to the original. As in the old manuscripts, Clark observes, “sometimes the marginalia becomes as important as the original text.” The strength of adding a collaborative element to a course design to a traditional framework is a valuable and available final product students will refer to
long after they sold the books back to the bookstore. In a climate controlled vault in the Newberry Library in Chicago there is an old publishing book titled “The Pen and the Book.” The Margin has a penciledin note: “nothing could be stupider.” The scribbler was Mark Twain having a one-way conversation with the author. Twain made this book interactive for future readers. Edgar Allan Poe had marginalia in his books. He even wrote a chapter in a book about the subject. He explained marginalia: The marginalia are deliberately pencilled, because the mind of the reader wishes to unburden itself of a thought. (E. A. Poe in U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. 15 484/1)
CONTROVERSIAL (Continued from p.3) Church and State. Reverend Stout decided to try another (The Apostles of Apollo, Mersch) approach to land the Bible on the moon. Lunar Model Pilot Edgar D. Mitchell donated one of those BiNASA agreed that the astronauts could carry the Bibles as bles that landed on the moon to the Bentley Rare Book Gallery. The encased sliver of microfilm is one of the many cherished part ofof their Personal Preference Kit (PPK), but they were to keep treasures on display in the Rare Book Gallery in Sturgis Library it private. There could be no press release. It was to remain a on the campus of Kennesaw State University. secret. The Department of Rare Books and Archives in the College The Personal Preference Kits (PPK) would only allow items of Humanities and Social Sciences is planning a Fall 2011 exweighing 18 ounces and 4 by 6 inches. A new technology in- hibition of the 400-year history of the King James Version of troduced by the National Cash Register Company (NCR) at the Bible. Displays are likely to include an early copy of the the 1964 World’s Fair could photo reduce documents to a mi- first printed Bible as well as the first version that landed on the crofilm sheet smaller than a two-inch photo slide and weigh moon. a fraction of a gram. On one microfilm, the entire Bible was After the politically correct answer to the undergraduate I said, stored. Mersch writes: “Wait. My favorite book is the Bible.” As Stout and the Apollo Prayer League began to glimpse its full religious and historical significance, the project took on an ever-greater meaning. The endeavor was a modern-day extension of a tradition harnessed with technology in the interest of Works Cited spreading Christianity, a tradition stemming from the time of Emperor Constantine tin the fourth century when a small army Impey-Imes, Rita. “The Rare Book Gallery Open House.” Bentley Rare Book Gallery Open House. Kennesaw State University, of scribes painstakingly produced a small number of Bibles in Kennesaw. 17 Mar. 2011. Lecture. Greek. The first Christians took Scripture with them as they ventured into the known and unknown realms of the world, Mersch, C. L. Apostles of Apollo: the Journey of the Bible to the Moon and the spreading their faith as they went. Now, centuries later, Rev- Untold Stories of America’s Race into Space. Bloomington: erend Stout and the Apollo Prayer League wanted that tradi- IUniverse, 2010. tion carried forward as mankind set out to explore the universe. Indeed, a Bible on the moon would represent man’s most elo- “Robert Williams.” Personal interview. 24 Feb. 2011. quent symbol of God’s omnipresence throughout the heavens.”
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Conversation with curator around the world and has experienced sights, many educators can only read about in books. He has a treasure trove of acquisition stories that are as interesting as the items in the Gallery. One of the best is how the collection began with eight boxes guarded by his first secretary.
Robert Williams talks!
Conversation with Creator/ Curator “The heart of an academic world is the history of learning. You have to know what came before.”
There was a reason for my nervousness. The people around Mr. Williams made me feel like if I could just talk to him, I would be interviewing greatness. Mr. Williams who had recently retired at Curator of the Bentley Rare Book Gallery and was now Mr. working part time as the Curator Emeritus, agreed to meet with me one afternoon. I was expecting a bow-tie, he was wearing a casual sweater. I expected a stiff tired interview. Afterall, he had talked about the Bentley Rare Book Gallery for over 20 years. I was sure he was tired of telling the story. None of my expectations were met.
Mr. Williams describes his first day of work at Sturgis Library finding a locked closet. He asked his secretary for the key. She refused to open the door. She said, “No, it’s locked.” Williams persisted, “Let’s call plant ops and get a key.” “No, I have the key “We have a key, you cannot open it. They were given to the libary and you cannot look at them.” Williams tried to explain to his protective secretary that he was trained to evaluate books, so he relented. Fred Bentley, Sr. for whom the Gallery is named donated much of his collection. Mr. Williams and Mr. Bentley hit the road trying to build the collection with the small start of eight boxes, that Williams had yet to see. They raised several millions of dollars in books with the promise of what was in the closet. Williams explains that no one will donate unless you have a nucleus of a collection started.
Mr. Robert Williams was generous and lucky for me, extremely conversational. I sat back and let him tell his One day, the faithful secretary decided story. The only thing needed from me to retire. She placed the keys on Mr. Williams’ desk and drove out of the was a brief question and we were off. parking lot. He grabbed a box cutter The most unexpected thing about and started unpacking. He explains Mr. Williams was his humility that “I have seen the british library. I have betrayed his scholarship. He has been seen Harvard’s Libary, and I have seen Yale’s Libary and Princeton’s. I have
seen the Bibliotecha Nationale. I am one of the few people who was been allowed inside the Vatican Archives. I have seen the best there is. And these boxes on my office floor, the nucleus of the Bentley Rare Book Room are the best there was of The Reader’s Digest Condensed. editions.”
teaching laboratory that was now the Bentlely Rare Book Room. He got the usual bored looks and comments about how long it was going to take. By the end of the class period, he had to push them out of the room. Williams says, “They were experiencing learning at the root.” These students put on their white gloves and touched the He further says how grateful they were not eight boxes of past. It leaves an impression. the National Geographic Magazine. Williams concludes that the moral of that story is that people sometimes do not After nearly two hours, Mr. Williams apologized for talkknow the value of what they have. ing too much. I was amazed that so much time had gone by. I felt like I was in the presence of someone very special. Another lesson that can be learned is the irony. of how the I began to understand what everyone had told me about Bentley Rare Book Gallery began and how it is used today. Mr. Williams. I understood that the greatest treasure was A protective secretary would not let the curator touch the not the Chaucer or the Shakespeare portfolio. It was Robbooks. They were to be locked and sealed - like many muse- ert Williams and his generous gift of teaching. ums and collections are today. Williams decided early that this room would be a teaching laboratory. That students would learn from touching history. Williams feels that people of all ages do not have a sence of history beyond 50 years. Some young pepole today think that before 1991 is the olden days and 1965 is ancient history. The Bentley Rare Book Room puts history in your hands. Imagine holding a book that was around during the days of Shakespeare. Williams says, “The heart of an academic world is the history of learning. You have to know what came before.” Event the construction of the room was focused on the learning laboratory concept. Originally, the glass wall the covers the front of the room was to be removed and a fireplace was to be installed. As the building progressed and people watched the construction, Williams changed the plans. The glass wall was in a sence a way for students to see in the past. When they walk by and look in that glass window, they are looking back into history. You are standing in the 21st Century world and looking back into the history of the book from before the printing press.Mr. Williams concludes, “The book is the cultural cement from all generations.” It all comes back teaching. Mr. Williams is the consumate professor. He shares the first time aHERE class came into the NAME
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testimonials
HANDS ON HISTORY “My visit to the Bentley Rare Book Gallery was different from any other museum I have visited in several striking ways: The atmosphere with the beautifully lit chandelier and wood paneling felt more like going into someone’s private home versus a typically sterile institutional gallery. Beautifully arranged bookshelves, paintings and antique furnishings also added to the warmth of my visit. The visit then proceeded with the presentation of the “white gloves” which allowed me to personally handle some of the materials, which was a thrill to be able to do. The warm welcome I received from Rita Impey-Imes and her breath of knowledge, which she enthusiastically shared with our group, was simply wonderful. I left the gallery with a renewed appreciation of the printed word, in all its evolutionary forms, and a firm desire to return soon for another visit and bring along a friend to share the treasure we have at the Bentley Rare Book Gallery.”
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“There is something very special about that room.” “The Rare Book Gallery is different because we got to hold the books and look through them. Most museums have things roped off or behind glass and you can’t touch them or even get close enough to see the real details. It was very interesting to
get that close to books hundreds of years old.”
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REFLECTIONS “Upon entering the Rare Book Gallery, I was blown away to see that KSU had such an impressive collection, and that it was so accessible to the student body.” “” “It would definitely have to be excited! I’ve never seen books that old or even been in a library of that caliber. It was also a mystery, not knowing exactly what we would be allowed to do.” “” “That this would have to be one of the most fascinating and accessible libraries anywhere here in Georgia or possibly the US.” “” “Very different. I have never been able to go into one and be able to hold some of their most priceless pieces; for instance, a book worth around one million dollars. Also just the diversity of the different kinds of pieces they had was amazing and to have almost everything in there donated in the name of education.” “” After hearing the history of the gallery I was overwhelmed. It was a great experience. I have never visited a rare book museum.” “” “I didn’t seem like a museum at all because I was able to use the books. They were not just on display. They were there for me to use.” “” “I thought all the books on the wall were fake. But now that I’ve been there and know what the Rare Book Room actually is, I think it’s a great room and tool for learning. I was amazed at the time periods the books came from. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!” “” “My first impression of the Rare Book Gallery was one of solemn reverence. I know from the moment that I arrived that great things awaited me. And then the show began, I felt like an explorer discovering the Holy Grail!!! I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT I GOT TO TOUCH CHAUCER” “” Not only did it let students experience something that they may have never seen before but it also let them touch and interact with the pieces of history, rather than looking at them behind a slate of glass.”
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