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The People In The Papers: The Seaman Identification Card Of Joseph Sofka, Elizabeth D. James May 2019

The People In The Papers: The Seaman Identification Card Of Joseph Sofka, Elizabeth D. James

Elizabeth D. James

According to the enclosed documents, at the age of eighteen, Joseph Sofka enlisted as a Merchant Marine in Pittsburgh after traveling there from his hometown of Wheeling. A frequently little known branch of the armed forces, Merchant Marines were responsible for ferrying cargo from the United States to the front lines in Europe and the Pacific, and were instrumental in maintaining supply lines to sustain the troops overseas. Merchant Marine ships had to avoid submarines, ships, and mines from the enemy, making a seemingly simple task into a deadly effort. As a result, the Merchant Marines had the highest casualty …


Heritage And Identity: The Cockayne Family Bible, Elizabeth James May 2019

Heritage And Identity: The Cockayne Family Bible, Elizabeth James

Elizabeth D. James

The collection at the Cockayne Farmstead is eclectic, to say the least. Ranging in age from Adena arrowheads to a 2001 calendar, it is difficult to characterize the nature of the home’s archival holdings. However, amidst a plethora of nineteenth century correspondence, books, and printed ephemera, one item stands out as being particularly special. Within the collection is a Bible printed in 1775 on the Cambridge University Press in England, complete with a hurriedly scrawled listing of family birth and death dates on the back of the title page. This brief listing demonstrates how books were used for purposes far …


The True University: Yale's Library From 1843 To 1931, Elizabeth D. James May 2019

The True University: Yale's Library From 1843 To 1931, Elizabeth D. James

Elizabeth D. James

By the summer of 1930, Sterling Memorial Library was nearing completion, lacking only the university’s 1.6 million books. At 6:00 AM on July 7, with a ceremonial parade of the library’s earliest accessions, the two-month project of moving the books commenced. Leading the trail of librarians was the head librarian, Andrew Keogh, and the head of the serials cataloguing department, Grace Pierpont Fuller. Fuller was the descendant of James Pierpont, one of the principal founders of Yale, and was carrying the Latin Bible given by her ancestor during the fabled 1701 donation of books that signaled the foundation of the …