A few days ago we were told to go nuts on the PR, PS or any call section that could contain books that have marginalia in them.  I must say I had a blast looking through these books since you have no idea what you can find.  No, I did not find unicorns or pixie dust, but I did find a cool story behind this collection.  This book, as well as the whole collection, was signed to an “M.R Fisher” for Christmas 1849.  I feel as this person was a big fan of Maria Edgeworth, as she passed away several months earlier and has received the collection in memory of her.  This was most likely written in fountain pen due its appearance.

Now, I cannot find the whole story behind the collection as M.R. Fisher lived two centuries ago, and a google search leaves me empty handed.  There are also several signs that this book has seen better days long ago.  First off look at it, I’m scared to put it in a backpack because it looks like it it will tear apart! This has caused confusion within the library as it kept setting the alarms off when I tried to exit.

Also, there are many stains of all sorts throughout the book; I’ve found stains from coffee, water, tea and even makeup? I was shocked when I saw whatever it might be smeared across the worn out pages.  Speaking of this stain does anyone know what this could be?

Fragile pages and odd odors aside I thoroughly enjoyed looking for marginalia as it’s almost like a treasure hunt, I swear I may go to the library just to look for more.  I will say that I was lucky that I was able to stumble across this collection since I knew it contained something from the moment I first laid eyes on it.  These books seem to have character oozing from their bindings, with all that they’ve been through.  I’m glad that the Sojourner Truth Library still contains a healthy amount of books that contain marginalia.  So maybe the next time you finish all your work and have nothing better to do, why not look for some marginalia?