At the beginning of this semester, I had very little knowledge about Saint Mary’s Rare Book Room and even less about the items waiting inside. To say I was shocked by the sheer volume of books and artifacts would be an understatement; after the many hours spent in the Rare Book Room, I still feel as if I have only scratched the surface of all the materials in there. I believe that this opportunity to spend time in the Rare Book Room has added a new sense of appreciation for the history that is being preserved in a room that many may not know exists. My initial interactions within the Rare Book Room were quite intimidating. Having the ability to hold things that are over 100 years older than I am created fears I never thought I would experience--like dropping a book, somehow pulling out a page just by touching it, or somehow completely destroying the whole book with a single touch. While I knew that most of these concerns were irrational, it took a few trips in there to find a comfortable rhythm among these items; once that initial anxiety went away, I was able to enjoy the history and stories that were waiting to be found within these books. One of the most impactful things I found were not the books themselves but the marks that were left in them. Whether it be a child’s scribbles, the tracing of letters, or a name written in the front or back cover, these marks hold the memory of a person who handled the books before me. Being told a year of when a book was published is one thing, but having the ability to see that this book was actually used in other people’s lives takes what was once just a really old book and turns it into something real. 

My area of focus in this project was children’s literature which was derived from my passion of working with children. For the past six years, I have held some sort of job that involved caring for children, whether it be as a teacher or a caregiver, so having the ability to see what types of tools were used in the past by people who were in a similar situation as mine was fascinating for me. It was very difficult to select which pieces I was going to highlight in this project, as the options seemed to be limitless. I ended up choosing to focus on the children’s education book, The Child’s Book of Nature, and the activity book, Plays and Games for Little Folk, because these specific genres highlight some of the main aspects of a child’s life: learning and having fun. While all of the children’s books in the Rare Book Room have a story to tell about how the culture surrounding entertainment and education was implemented in the 19th century, my goal by selecting these particular books was to provide a broader perspective on multiple aspects of a child’s life. Even though these items represent only a small portion of the many items that played a role in a child’s life at one point in time, they still provide a window of interpretation into that life and allow us, today, to have a better understanding of the culture surrounding children in that time period. 

If I had to choose one thing for people to take away from my work in this project, it is that life is not built on one aspect, but rather is a coming together of many things. My decision to showcase different aspects of a child’s life through my book choices helps to represent the fact that children are not just their grades in school or their successes in sports or extracurricular activities. Experiences--both good and bad--impact the type of person a child grows up to be, and not every lesson that sticks with them is taught in an educational setting. Some of the biggest lessons are taught through the experiences of living life. While the concept of providing a well rounded lifestyle for a child has been a goal throughout multiple generations, there has been an evolution in how our growing understandings of the psychology and the different needs children have have been translated into practice. Being able to compare how society today incorporates multiple aspects of life into raising a child, and how this was done in the 19th century when these books were published, is made possible through the resources of the Rare Book Room, and I hope that people find this small portion of evidence from this evolution as intriguing as I did. 

Mia Belcastro
English Literature Major
Class of 2024