On Tuesday, September 23, Dr. Hudgins’ HIST 313 students walked to the Peabody Library in Mt. Vernon Square to see original editions of the books they’ve been talking about in class.  “Europe 1815-1914” has been reading Heroes of Invention by Christine MacLeod, wherein the author discusses how the great inventors of the Industrial Revolution were celebrated by authors like Samuel Smiles and Bennett Woodcroft.  Students got to handle original souvenirs from the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, and leaf through Victorian editions of the biographies of James Watt and others.  This was the first time this semester that the class got to touch original artifacts.  They are learning that, most of the time, the primary sources that they handle are either transcriptions, translations, or pixelated images on a computer screen.  The class thanks Mr. Paul Espinosa at the Peabody Library for his time and expertise!

A “fisheye” photograph of the library by Jeff Lee.