Once a month, five objects from across Special Collections’ vast holdings will be on display in the lobby of Firestone Library for two hours for anyone to come and see. Here are the objects featured in our April 2024:

Selected by April C. Armstrong *14

The phenomenon of an eclipse has always sparked intrigue and fascination. Many early civilizations saw eclipses as a sign of impending doom. They have inspired medieval mathematicians to calculate the movement of celestial objects and predict future occurrences.

I love books of hours in general and find them so beautiful, just knowing how much painstaking work went into creating a manuscript like the kinds we see from the 1400s-1500s–from making the parchment to doing all of the lettering and detail work and copying to binding the book to adding illustrations and gilt; it always results in a truly special and unique object.

Selected by April C. Armstrong *14

Princeton University hosts a wonderful site entitled “Middle Ages For Educators”, which is designed to bring experts and primary sources to those who teach the Middle Ages in schools and colleges.  It has a lot of video resources, and I was asked to make one about ten minutes long.

Selected by April C. Armstrong *14

Selected by Adrienne Rusinko

In 1776, the Continental Congress moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore under pressure from the British. And it was from Baltimore that the President of the Congress, John Hancock wrote this letter to the Honorable Assembly of the State of Delaware on January 31, 1777. 

Selected by Adrienne Rusinko