Blount Library Blog

Archival Display, January 2024: Assigned Readings of the 1800s

Let's celebrate the start of a new year and a new semester in the best way possible...

With dusty old books!

There are many ways in which old Averett catalogs are useful for research.  But to a cultural historian like myself, by far the most interesting are the detailed readings lists from yesteryear.  Dating from at least 1867 (the earliest known preserved catalog) and lasting until the 1930s, Averett catalogs included descriptions of assigned readings for almost every course.  Thanks to this information, for example, we not only know that J.T. ("Captain Jack) Averett taught Greek in 1883, but that he used Kuhner's Elementary Grammar, Xenophon, Herodotus, and Homer in order to do so.

These details provide us with a window into education history at Averett, giving us a glimpse of the methods and approaches of professors from long ago.

Thanks to the generosity of a few early alumni and their descendants, the Averett archival holdings include original copies of several of these old educational tomes - the very same copies read so long ago in the rooms of the school's original building on Patton Street.  Using the catalogs and the names of the alumni (typically written inside the front covers), we can pinpoint not only the classes for which these books were purchased, but the names of the teachers who assigned them, the names of the students who read them, and can even estimate the very year in which each book was used.

These artifacts bring the history of Averett to life in a way few items can - tying us back to college history not thru sporting events, nor dances, nor clubs, but thru the actual day-to-day work of being a student: studying, reading, and learning.

Several textbooks - in use between the years of 1881 and 1913 - are currently on display in the large archival display case on the main floor of Blount Library.  All are welcome to drop by and see them.

Note also: this display is interactive!  Using your phone to scan QR codes, you can easily read digital copies of the books on display, and several others listed in old catalogues!

So drop by and get yourself some old-timey book-learnin' to start the semester.