The lowest floor of the Milton S. Eisenhower (MSE) Library, a quiet underground enclave known as D-Level, is a place for clandestine love affairs to some and a haven for intense study sessions for others. What many students don't know is that it's also a holding ground for an expensive hidden treasure.
Located across from the freight elevator is an alarm-controlled secret world only accessed by the Special Collections experts at the library.
This windowless room is home to thousands of the rarest books in the country, from medieval manuscripts transcribed on vellum (parched animal skin) to letters of correspondence received by Herbert Baxter Adams, the man who instituted the seminar method of instruction.
Formally known as the "closed stack section," most library employees endearingly refer to this storage space as "the cage."
Previously, this rare book and manuscript collection was located on A-Level. The shelves that are located across from the A-Level offices used to contain all of the rare books.
These shelves had a large chain link fence preventing curious students from wandering through the section.
Once the collection grew in both size and content, it was thought best to move it into the depths of D-Level. The newer location has two entrances - one with two large wooden doors, and a single-door exit. Still, the collection's exact location is not obvious.
"We didn't want to promote curiosity, and lead students to believe weird things are back there," said James Stimpert, an archivist at MSE.
That doesn't mean, however, that students are forbidden from viewing the books. Students can search the contents of the collection on the online catalogue.
If interested, they can go to the Special Collections office on A-Level and request to see an item. The librarian then retrieves the item and students must read it in the office.
"Much of the collection is valuable financially, but also scholarly for research use," said Dr. John Buchtel, Curator of Rare Books at MSE. "There are some great term papers in that collection."
These sources provide students with tons of interesting and useful information. If you are studying 19th-century history, for example, you can directly access the American Anti-Slavery Society's pro-slavery compact published in 1856.
If that doesn't suit your needs, you also have the opportunity to search through the entire Berney Collection of Anti-Slavery packets.
If you are a writing seminars or theatre major, the collection contains shelves of German, French, British and American literature in addition to Lord Byron's entire works and poetry.
If you are taking economics, the MSE houses the Hutzler Collection, containing over fifty editions of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in addition to letters by John Stuart Mill.
Still not satisfied? The collection also has an entire magazine section. Magazines such as The Dial, Universal Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book provide an antiquated Cosmopolitan for the avid magazine reader.
Godey's Lady's Book provides anything from the philosophy of shopping to a detailed article on the embroidery of petticoats.
For those interested in music, there are entire rows of shelves that hold the Levy Collection of Music.
These song sheets are complete with lithographic covers and represent the sentiment at the time they were written. One song called "The Log Cabin Song" specifies on the cover that is was "respectfully dedicated to the Whig Party."
There is also a photography collection with over 14,000 images of Hopkins, people, places, and events.
"The cage" also shelves encyclopedia collections from the 1800s, with information containing facts such as the step-by-step process of making paper.
Another important aspect of the collection is the amount of first editions accumulated, including the original copy of Marianne Moore's Tell me, Tell me.
"We are collecting first editions of writing seminars majors before they became famous and expensive," said Buchtel.
Many of the documents in the collection are annotated. There is a smaller room off to the side of the room that provides students and professors a place to sit and analyze these documents.
According to Buchtel, there is a new branch of study called "History of Reading."
Experts in this field figure out how people interpret these types of antiquated documents.
Sometimes students not only analyze these ancient texts, but also find them upstairs on one of the shelves. Often there are hidden treasure stored in between the books on other levels.
"A few days ago, someone brought me a pamphlet from 1710," said Buchtel.
Many of the books come from rare book dealers, old trustees of the university or donations made to the university by wealthy scholars.
"The collection is constantly growing and acquiring new material," said Stimpert.
The Special Collections Office is open Monday though Friday from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and Thursday until 8 p.m. All you need is to present a J-card and you can have access to the entire collection.
