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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 …