Teaching collection
The Teaching Collection includes tools and materials, old and new. Professors may inquire about our hands-on instruction where students can experiment with these collections to learn traditional and innovative techniques to bind a book, to form a sheet of papyrus, or lock a letter.
The collection includes:
Simulacra models
Students can explore and learn how to make simulacra (models) or “likenesses” of unique books and letters found in our Distinctive Collections. The models are available to view side-by-side the originals.
Models include:
- our Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
- Class of 1932 Sequentiary Choir Book
- locked letters written by William Barton Rogers
Historic & modern materials maker collection
- soft circuitry – papyrus sheets, handmade paper, artists’ decorative papers, sewing threads, inks.
- tools – quills, seals, and stamps.
Historical locked letters collection
- this collection is helping our international team of experts develop the resources for Letterlocking, a new field of study that combines conservation, history, literature, origami, imaging, and computation.
Distinctive Collections welcomes classroom visits to facilitate interaction with our collections – please use our form to request a class session. Instructors are encouraged to submit their requests several weeks in advance to ensure availability.