Word: rare
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...17th century-when John Eliot called it "a large Library with some Bookes to it" - the library has acquired many volumes which have since become scarce. From among the volumes sitting on the stacks of Widener which there is no room for in Houghton, one could put together a rare books library that most universities in the country would be proud of Houghton itself has quadrupled its contents since the library opened...
Hofer, who founded the department of Printing and Graphic Arts, has been with the Houghton Library since its beginning. "Before the Houghton was built." he recalls. "the rare books and manuscripts were being kept in Widener Library in stacks that were on the ground, or even below ground, where the heat was enormous. There wasn't any way to turn it off adequately. Every morning when Bill [William A Jackson, curator or the Houghton from 1942 until his death in 1964] and I arrived at the so-called rare book room of Widener Library the temperature would be a minimum...
...tale. One year, a particular Harvard graduate had written a history of the Supreme Court. He himself was a lawyer. He was particularly well fitted to be long, verbose, tiresome and pompous. When we told him as the new chairman of our committee, that we wanted a rare books library, he became indignant and said he thought it was a very poor use of money. In fact, he thought that rare books were utterly useless, and as far as he was concerned, he would give us no assistance and would do everything he could to restrain us from acquiring such...
...find this logical for big city institutions." Hofer says. "but less logical for a university institution, and still less logical for a rare books library such as ours, where we primarily want to serve scholars. We are essentially here for scholarship work and we allow the public in to the degree that it is scholarly. The real value of this library is that these are source materials for the scholar who wants to get right down to the fundamentals: where did it all come from...
...smacks of a snobbishly genteel Harvard, the incoming freshman can rest assured that his first struggle with the Union's compost-like tapioca will not be interrupted by quick repartee at Katherine Mansfield's expense. In fact, clever, fragmented sentences as well as comfortably postprandial discussions are both pretty rare nowadays. Grunts and arguments are more likely to predominate. The Freshman Union-with its walnut panelling; lifeless, lifesize portraits; and generally thwarted attempts to come off as a mushrooming men's club-can no longer hide the fact that it is just a big, dark, cavernous cafeteria...