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• 1 media/Sanders_Item0176.jpg 2024-05-07T10:05:13-07:00 Sanders, The Power of Language 2 plain 2024-05-26T04:56:09-07:00 This Digital Humanities Project Lab class was very interesting for me to take. I did not expect the amount of time I would have to spend working on this project, nor did I expect the amount of knowledge I would gain from taking this class. I originally took this class because of how exciting it sounded wonderful to spend a lot of time in the Rare Book Room, and I also took it because of how much Professor Noonan cares about the understanding of book history and books in general. I came out of this class a different person than I was at the beginning. I had the chance to look at medieval manuscripts, at a real papyrus scrap from Egypt, and a cuneiform tablet that is nearly 5000 years old. Somehow, someway, these items found their way into the Rare Book Room here at Saint Mary’s College, and I think that is incredible that some small women’s college in Indiana has obtained these items through generous donations. As someone who loves history and languages, this class gave me the opportunity to further my knowledge on the history of book production and language while also experiencing firsthand the way these items have actually survived up to this point.
  
  Because we had the Rare Book Room acting as our very own lab, I was very excited. Initially, that was the thing that drew me to this class. I have loved the Rare Book Room ever since an earlier class I had that took me there because I love old items. I love to reflect and think about the trajectory that these old items, in this case the books, have been on and how they got here to Saint Mary’s. Though most of them do not contain any provenance information, I still like to think that other people had these books before and got something out of them like I do now. That connection is what makes this room so special to me: it is a repository of history, of things that have lasted the test of time. Though the people before it have long since passed, their understanding and appreciation of these artifacts live on. I think, to me, that is the most important impact I experienced from working with these items in the Rare Book Room, and that is what is so valuable to me. As a lover of history, I can appreciate the way that these specific texts have survived. I may not know the reason they have survived to today, but I do know that each and every one of them is important for understanding the way people interacted with each other and with the world around them. I love the Rare Book Room, and I love the underlying meaning of it as a space where students today can interact with students and people of the past. 
  
  I chose to look at specifically the three different editions of Johnson’s Dictionary that we have here at Saint Mary’s because of my interest in the English language and the history of words. As an English and History double major, these items were so interesting to me. At first, I only knew we had the 3rd Edition of the dictionary here in the Rare Book Room because that is the only one that I found in the vast shelves that contain so many books. However, after Professor Noonan pointed out the other two editions we have here, I thought it would be so interesting to compare them to each other, to see if any definitions had changed in the making of the next editions. I was so surprised to find out that we had not one, not two, but three different editions of Johnson’s Dictionary. One surprising thing about these different editions are the sizes of them. The facsimile 1st edition was the largest edition we have here, and it was so hard to carry them around the Rare Book Room because I am a small person. Still, these three different editions were so intriguing to me because of the way Samuel Johnson went about compiling this dictionary. My favorite thing about any of these editions, though, was the letter from Valters & Sons in the 1950s about the rebinding of the 3rd edition. I loved seeing that little piece of information because it tells me that those volumes were rebound, but it also provides a little information about who had these books before the Rare Book Room got them. I loved researching about Valters & Sons even though I didn’t find much of anything about them. Overall, Johnson’s Dictionary was something so interesting to me, and I loved researching about Johnson himself and the process he took to compile the dictionary. He understood that language is something that always changes, always shifts meaning, and that is what is so important about this project. 
  
  To my understanding, the significance of my work on this project is to help others comprehend the history of language and why these items are important here at Saint Mary’s. I want other people to look at the language we know today and want to know more about how it formed and how it has changed throughout the centuries. I want others to understand that language is something that changes and shifts, that it is something that is not static. Language is for everyone, not specific groups of people, and Johnson’s Dictionary provided that for the people of Britain, helping increase the literacy rate immensely. My work was significant for me because it allowed me to expand my knowledge about the history of the English language and the history of how some of Johnson’s Dictionary got here to Saint Mary’s in the first place.
  
  Now, I have spent countless hours in the Rare Book Room working on this project. My classmates and I enjoyed spending our days here in the Rare Book Room, finding all the surprises and craziest things that have survived today. And although if we spent this amount of time in the Rare Book Room, I realize that there are so much more that none of us found that deserve the attention that these other items have received. I hope all who look at this website get a better understanding of and introduction to the Rare Book Room here at Saint Mary’s College, and I hope you are able to understand the value of maintaining our books for future generations to enjoy just like I can.
  
  Brittney Sanders
  Creative Writing and History double major, Class of 2025