Dr. Stauffer visited Stevenson, with books in hand, ready to discuss not only the 19th century texts, but also the various former owners as well. He explained how many books during that time period weren’t just used for reading alone. According to Dr. Stauffer, while books were considered valuable, they weren’t seen as precious heirlooms or artifacts yet. So, many people would annotate within the margins, doodle on the pages, etc. There were even books that would be passed back and forth between multiple people and they would write out conversations on the pages like a primitive form of text messaging. But, people didn’t stop there when it came to utilizing a book.
Many owners would leave personal objects in their books such as flowers, photographs, paper doll clothes, and locks of hair. There was even a book that Dr. Stauffer brought in that contained a sewing needle with a bit of thread that had been “stuck” in one of the pages (I’d love to know how they were able to do that without ripping the paper). During his presentation, Dr. Stauffer went into greater detail about the botanicals that were discovered within those books. Apparently, it was a very common practice within the 19th century to press flowers and leaves between the pages of a book. It was usually for sentimental reasons or for a decorative purpose, particularly if the book contained poetry or some flowery type of language. The poets of the day soon caught on to the idea and would write with the flower-pressers in mind. Publishers and editors reflected the practice by having flowers already printed on the page. But, I wonder if people appreciated that initiative?
The main idea behind Book Traces is to not only manage books from the 19th century, but to recognize that these physical copies have a historical purpose. They are artifacts from that time period. They don’t just reveal what was popular to read at the time, but what the personal histories were of the people who held those books. Dr. Stauffer’s project holds great evidence of how people would communicate not only with the text they were reading, but also with the other people in their daily lives.