#thingsfoundinbooks

-entire shoeprints on the end papers

-toilet paper (not used)

-a popsicle stick (used)

-a signed check with a blank amount

-hair

-blood

-flowers

-thank you cards

-an actual tile coaster

-money

-photographs

-sand

-dried grass

These pressed flowers were sewn onto a page and surrounded with lines of verse as a New Years gift to Sarah from her mother in 1843

Found within the pages of an 1849 edition of “A Parting Gift,” this carefully cut and woven bit of paper art offers a hint into the life of this book before it came into our hands. 

This week we highlight the joy of finding the unexpected and the joy of naming our collections in the most literal way. 

Ephemera reveals something about regular people in their historical context, what they wanted to remember, and how they interacted with the visual culture of their daily lives. When we process material and find a photograph or note tucked in between pages of a book, that item could be secret token in a hiding place, or it could be as utilitarian as a bookmark. Either way these are clues of history that many can relate to now. Have you ever hidden something in a book?

Things Left in Books Collection

Anonymous readers left these lovely bits and pieces inside books as place markers or sentimental tokens, but we have no record of where these pieces of ephemera were found. Without the book as context, they lose meaning. It is our policy now to leave these traces of readership in place.

This delicate incire paper-cutting lives inside our copy of Leisure Hours (1844), right where the reader placed it. Come check out this and other items found in books on view now in our main gallery as part of our current exhibition, The Living Book: New Perspective on Form and Function.