Peek in the Stacks

While the letters we use to write English often roughly correspond to spoken sounds, two letters sometimes make the same sound in different words, like the "c" in "circus" and the "s" in "sir." The letters themselves have changed over time, as well. One lower-case letter we no longer use, called the "long s," developed in the 8th century. The long s, which ...

This week's blog post explores several cookbooks from our Culinary Collection, focusing on one main ingredient—cranberries. The cranberry is an indigenous fruit to North America growing in the colder northern regions.  In 1815, American commercial cranberry harvesting began in Massachusetts.  At present...

Rampant antisemitism in Europe in the years prior to World War II caused many Jews to seek refuge in countries outside of Europe, including in China. Once settled, Jews were deemed "stateless" because of antisemitism in their countries of origin, like Germany and Russia. As a result...

Chapbooks are small books that were sold on the street for a penny or less from the 17th century to the 19th century. Publishers created the books with cheap materials and with woodcut illustrations that often didn't relate to the subject matter. People of the lower socioeconomic classes could afford to read literature printed in them...