Long guns, slippers with President John F. Kennedy’s face on them, and a lump of coal may seem completely unconnected. But they all find a home within the depths of Michael Alex Mossey Library’s Archives and Special Collections.
The archives, first founded in the 19th century, house rare and antique books, as well as Hillsdale College memorabilia and assorted artifacts. The long guns are from the Revolutionary War, and the lump of coal was recovered from the wreck of the Titanic.
“You would not expect a lot of these archival materials to be here in Hillsdale,” Natalie Spaulding, sophomore and archives employee, said.
The archives contain two main collections that include national and international history works that support the college’s curriculum, according to Mossey Library Director Maurine McCourry.
The library’s archives include complete collections, such as the Ludwig von Mises collection and Sir Martin Gilbert’s documents, as well as more isolated pieces, like an original copy of Jacques Necker’s publication of Louis XVI’s finances.
“I found an amazing group of items from the French Revolution sitting in the Dow Room, including a document from Jacques Necker, the Minister of Finance for Louis XVI, after he had asked to publish the finances of France,” library archivist Lori Curtis said. “He was told not to, and Necker said, ‘Hold my beer,’ and published it.”
A rare copy of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” illustrated by Henri Mattise and signed by both men, a German Bible from 1661, and an early copy of the Augsburg Confessions sit among the collected books.
The library houses most of the archival material in the Heritage Room, the Dow Room, the Ludwig von Mises Room, Dow A & B, and a storage warehouse behind Simpson dormitory.
“We have random doodles from congressmen and house managers that were serving during Clinton’s impeachment,” Spaulding said. “They’re just doodles that congressmen did while they were listening to the case.”
Students and professors have access to all the materials, and professors occasionally bring their classes to the archives.
“A class was studying the 1964 presidential election campaign, and so I covered every available surface of the Heritage Room with political memorabilia, a lot of which was focused on 1964,” Curtis said. “The professor had both his undergraduate and graduate classes meet in the Heritage Room, and they absolutely loved it.”
Curtis also has done presentations on the Byzantine coins in the archives for economics classes, and presentations on French publications and literature for Assistant Professor of French Anna Navrotskaya. Associate Professor of English Kelly Franklin stops in just to see a copy of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
“All of the fliers that get posted on campus and every campus publication end up in archives,” Spaulding said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”