Have a look through your collection of books. Do they show evidence of what you were interested in and doing while you read them? Scientific books can contain intriguing historical crumbs – both figuratively and physically – from their past readers and owners.
We have found notes, possibly 109 years old, in one of our books in the Basser Library. Australian insects by W. Froggatt had two pieces of paper with cursive handwriting, from a previous reader, hidden within its pages. The initial A4 note (image 1) was matched almost verbatim to a 1916 newspaper article on Australian fire beetles. The article has no author listed but appears in 12 Australian newspapers from 1916 and 1917. The handwritten note, although legible, proved challenging to decipher because of a smattering of shorthand abbreviations. The key differences between the newspaper and the handwritten versions are that the note writer included the beetle’s scientific name, Merimna atrata, but didn’t include the names of people quoted.
Have a look: can you read the handwriting and decipher the shorthand abbreviations? You can view the typed article on Trove to check your accuracy.
The note writer might have been the newspaper author drafting the article, or a reader cross-referencing the information they had just read. Either way, this scientific book and handwritten notes demonstrate the manual research required by scientists before the advent of the internet. The book also contains handwritten notes about the Trogodendron fasciculatum beetle and another insert recording the scientific names of the jewel and fiddler beetles (image 2). Two names of previous owners, possibly T.D. Mutch and F. Wilbson, are written on the title page, showing how books were valued, lent out and passed on. The first name could refer to Thomas Davies Mutch – a prominent Australian politician who went on to become a journalist and historian.
All Fellows and researchers have open access to the books of the Basser Library, which was established in 1960. The body of books remains a rich record showing the breadth of scientific fields and research resources which were required by Academy Fellows.
Contact archivist Bethany Holland at library@science.org.au if you would like to visit the Shine Dome to search our holdings and hunt out your own discoveries between the pages.
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