The library is more than just books. Every month, the Milwaukee Public Library joins Lake Effect to share resources, book recommendations and cool stuff you might not know about.
This month is about books, but not just anything you can check out from the stacks. There's so much history in the materials that are "behind the glass" in the Richard E. & Lucile Krug Rare Books Room (Rare Books Room) at Central Library in downtown Milwaukee.
Rebecca Dougherty is the Library Services Manager in the Rare Books Room, and she notes that in order for something to be considered "rare" to be included in their collection, there are a few factors. These include: the age of the material or item, such as pioneer imprints, which is anything that's printed before 1600; anything printed by an American press before 1801; anything printed by a Wisconsin press before 1869; plus things are more specific to certain collections such as cookbooks, travel, children's literature and more. Other factors considered for transfer or inclusion in the Rare Books Department is if they're already related to the existing scope of subjects collected, aesthetic importance, and especially is the item associated with prominent people or events related to Milwaukee or Wisconsin.
The Rare Books Room itself is named after Richard E. Krug who was the city librarian from 1947-1975, and established the first Rare Books Room at MPL. That collection was first housed in the Wehr McGlennigan Room on the first floor of Central Library in 1953. After Krug's passing, his wife Lucille donated additional funding to MPL to build and construct the current Rare Books Room space in 2001.
"So what we refer to as ‘behind the glass’ is where all the rare materials are housed and that space is climate controlled for optimal preservation conditions," explains Dougherty. "It is always kept at a temperature of between 68 & 70 degrees, and always at the relative humidity of 40-50%."
She also notes that the collection is under tight security, and the spaces behind the glass is accessible only by a select number of staff on the Rare Books team. Although the room isn't open daily to the public, it doesn't mean it's not accessible to anyone interested in seeing it. You can set up an appointment with the staff Monday - Friday from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. or visit the Rare Books Room for public programs — like the upcoming Art Book Club: Rare Books Edition on May 6 or the Krug Lecture Series on May 19.
"So the public, any public, you do not have to be Milwaukee Public Library cardholder, you can come from anywhere," Dougherty notes. "We've had international visitors [come for] research, just for fun — whatever purpose you have we are happy to have you!"
While there are thousands of materials in the rarities collection, there are certain topics that have been built out more thoroughly such as: Milwaukee and Wisconsin history, local historical publications from the 1960s & 70s, an emphasis on natural history and ornithology (which includes a complete set of John James Audubon's The Birds of America), Native Americans with a focus on tribes native to Wisconsin, religious materials, advertising and a complete run of the Settlement Cookbooks.
"The Settlement Cookbooks are of important local historical significance as well because they were initially published and edited by a Jewish-American woman here in Milwaukee," Dougherty explains.
In addition to books, there's multiple collections of posters (including a Milwaukee concert poster collection), zines, plus unique one-of-a-kind items including A Book of Autographs and The Voices of John Plankinton. The oldest piece of material in the rarities collection is a page from a Vulgate Bible, which dates back to 1240.
When it comes to the collection process for the Rare Books Room, Dougherty says most often materials are added through transfers from other MPL departments. "As time goes on, things become more rare or perhaps they're conditioned, they start needing some extra tender love and care and they may be moved to our climate-controlled area," she explains. "Or we may discover them, that they do supplement some of the collections that are already in the Rare Books collection."
The Rare Books Room also accepts donations if they fulfill some of the evaluation criteria, and anything purchased for the collection is bought with donated funds through a foundation - not public funding.
"Items that were are intentionally purchasing with foundation funds are adding to our growing zine collection and artists books," says Doughtery. "These allow us to represent some historically marginalized and underrepresented voices and perspectives, and allows us to fill some gaps representing some of those points of views and lived experiences in our collections."
A Book of Autographs
A Book of Autographs weighs over 50 pounds, and was collected and edited by Milwaukee philanthropist Lydia Ely. In the late 1800s, Ely and her philanthropic committee sent out slips of watermarked paper out to thousands of prominent people throughout the country and the world to request their autographs. The money raised from selling the autograph book was to secure funds for The Victorious Charge, the war monument sculpted by John Severino Conway that sits outside near the Central Library.
"The understanding was Frederick Pabst would purchase this book of autographs, and then that would help partially fund The Victorious Charge statue. And then [Pabst's] family and estate donated this back to Milwaukee Public Library, and that's how it is here now," says Dougherty.
The massive pages include autographs from politicians, educators, writers, musicians, artists and more. "They fully indexed and alphabetized this entire book, so it's really just amazing to see all of the autographs and additional notes and artwork and music written that were included in the slips that were sent out," she adds.
The Voices of Friends Concerning John Plankinton, Milwaukee's Foremost Citizen, Father of the West Side
John Plankinton was a local meatpacker, and his daughter Elizabeth Plankinton commissioned this book upon her father's death. It includes tributes from 12 of Plankinton's friends, including other prominent local figures such as Patrick Cudahy.
"It was all hand illuminated, lettered, and illustrated by Susan Frackelton and her daughter Gladys over a two-year period from 1911 to 1913," explains Dougherty. "We affectionally refer to this item ... as 'The Frackelton,' the artist, because Susan Frackelton was a very prominent local artist of the time. She's known for her ceramic work and she went on to write books about artwork and how women could earn a living creating art.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
This book is one of Dougherty's personal favorites in the rarities collection, published in 1499 by Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius. While she notes the authorship is still a bit of a mystery, many historians believe that it was written by a Dominican monk named Francesco Colonna.
"They think this because the amazing, beautiful lettering at the beginning of each chapter — if you take the first letter of each of those it spells out an acrostic including that monk's name," Doughtery explains.
The monk was a bit controversial during his lifetime, with the book not only including racy subject manner, but Colonna had several instances of publicly going against church teachings. "So that to me is all quite interesting and exciting," says Dougherty. "But in addition to that this is a really seminal work because it's one of the first times that text and illustrations were married together on the same page or across the spread of multiple pages."
"There's also typeface that were invented or created at this time for this specific item that are still used and influence typefaces used today," she adds.
