When I go a library, the first thing I seek out is the oldest section of literature they have.
It always amazes me to hold books written over well 100 years ago. To have access to this is humbling. Many of them, even have penciled in markings from their long dead owners/readers. This is especially true in old bed and breakfasts with libraries. A scribbling from a kid on 1893? For me- Amazing!
There is one bed and breakfast, relatively close by, which Erwin Rommel visited pre- WWII to study civil war battlefields in Virginia. Although no books in it's library reference him, he was there, and a lot of the books are school books from the family that grew up there.
Even though a lot of the stuff is obsolete, it is still captivates me. I remember reading literature on shipbuilding from circa 1900. The math was incredible- as they had very complex calculations to determine hull flexion over waves and such.
Ever stuck in a library? Hit the archives!
