What sort of strange items to libraries keep in their special collections? This short article describes a few odd specimens from academic libraries around the world. For example:
• England’s Royal Astronomical Society owns a log, warranted genuine, cut from Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree.
• The University of California at Santa Barbara recently purchased a zodiac bone calendar, from Sumatra, with inscriptions carved in the thigh bone of a water buffalo. It’s part of the university’s collection of items that document the history of writing and printing.
• The Johns Hopkins University’s Institute of the History of Medicine keeps hair - framed, no less - from the cow Edward Jenner used to develop the smallpox vaccine in 1796.
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 October 2005) (online copy available from the "Search our Article Indexes & Databases" page)
