Tag: Marginalia

Book Traces with Dr. Andrew Stauffer

The presentation both in class and in the library by Dr. Stauffer was pretty incredible. The amount of history that can be extracted from notes within the marginalia of Victorian-era books is very deep and thanks to modern technologies like google, able to be explored. He estimated that 12.5% of Victorian-era books contain significant historical marginalia. Dr. Stauffer’s process of looking up who people were and their relationships based on their marginalia so many years later almost seems like science-fiction.

The frequency of physical artifacts found within the books was also something really unusual that caught my attention. Sewing needles, locks of hair, and dolls as well as botanical insertions are all common within these older books. The botanical insertion portion was especially interesting as we were able to follow how a habit or action by people (inserting a flower into a book) became practice by publisher’s incorporating printed flowers and other botanical designs into the margins and illustrations where people normally would press one in. This practice evolved into layers of images being incorporated into the works of writer’s like Wordsworth. Images in works like that were connected to other images that sprawled over pages in a psychedelic style. I guess they could be considered meta-illustrations.

The social-historical aspect of the event was immense as well. The social function and form of annotation as a type of communication similar to a modern day email was very cool. Notes to lovers and friends were scrawled on pages or passages that reminded people of each other. Following the Victorian-era books also came pre-annotated in a sense as a result of the practice. Life stages (specifically those of women) were included in books with parts left blank for a mother to fill out for a daughter as she grew up.

The major role of books within peoples lives during the Victorian-era was put into perspective as a result of Stauffer’s work. Books were not just educational, religious or recreational, they were major social tools as well.  Book traces open-source accessibility is a wonderful layout for a really intriguing project.

Book Traces event with Andrew Stauffer

The Book Traces event was enlightening. Andrew Stauffer brought a handful of books to our class from the time period of 1800-1923. These books, which he gave to each of us, were special because they contained authentic marginalia from that time period. In my book–a book of poetry from the 1800s–someone had underlined various lines of sad content. There was only one written marginalia in the book–a date, which Professor Stauffer explained was most likely the date things went wrong with the writer’s relationship.

Professor Stauffer explained the marginalia in the other books as well. For example, Ryan’s book had marginalia which effectively tried to alter the story printed in the book. So funny and extensive were the alterations that the class joked the writer must’ve been an SNL writer before SNL existed. Another book, called Reveries of a Bachelor, had written in it notes from the reader who clearly found the book relatable.

Next, Professor Stauffer pulled up a slideshow of images of books with marginalia. He read the marginalia to us and subsequently told us the stories of the writers based on his and his students’ research. We learned that a lot of the books that had been donated to UVA were sent from homes of Confederate families. The most touching marginalia recounted how the writer, drunk and feeling sentimental, purchased a book which reminded him of the past with his friend. This marginalia was in letter form and was gifted to the recipient with the book.

At the actual Book Traces speech, Professor Stauffer covered much of the same content, since more students and staff were present. However he also included new information. For example, he talked about why books older than 1800 weren’t included in his research (because they were stored away in vaults due to their fragility and rarity). He also talked about flowers as marginalia–often left in books to commemorate loved ones or to illustrate excerpts dealing with flora.

This all deals a lot with the content of our course because we have been learning about how ancient, or simply old, practices are carried over in today’s publishing/technology. Professor Stauffer made a profound statement about how the marginalia between two lovers in the same book was much like how we may text each other today.