84 JL 100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



Rare Books Room and Archives 



In fact, the Rare Books Room is one special and little-known feature of the 

 library. Accoutered with Louis AgassLz's intriguing leather-covered swiveling 

 table, this comfortable area houses many marvelous collections of photo- 

 graphs and archival materials as well as the extremely valuable rare books 

 and journals, many of them gifts from appreciative MBL alumni. One recent 

 addition came from T. H. Montgomery's sons and includes volumes detail- 

 ing Captain Cook's voyages. Few students find their way to this room, but 

 scholars wanting to check out the history of a subject or to find illustrations 

 of the MBL or of work done here can make arrangements with the archival 

 staff to use the materials. 



In 1986 WGBH, one of Boston's public broadcasting stations, sent a 

 team of photographers and writers to do a special show on the MBL. They 

 also chose the MBL to photograph for a different set of shows a number of 

 rare prints and book illustrations dating back to 1560. When asked why the 

 MBL, especially when Boston has its own libraries with some of the same 

 rare volumes, the crew replied that the MBL staff was so friendly and 

 helpful. Some of the Boston facilities wanted to close off their materials 

 rather than to make them available to the public even through film. By 

 contrast, the MBL Library's attitude of respectful sharing for purposes of 

 scientific research is historically typical of the MBL. 



One day not long ago, three topnotch scientists sat at Agassiz's desk in 

 the reading room of the Rare Books room. Photographs of former great 

 researchers hung on the walls. One of the scientists was redoing his cell 

 biology textbook and expanding the historical parts of the introductory 

 section by rereading the classic texts that reside in the Rare Books Room. 

 Another knew that work very much like what he was doing in his lab had 

 been done at the MBL in the 1890s by E. G. Conklin, and he was checking 

 the earlier papers in the bound reprint collections. The third was a visiting 

 historian looking for a photograph to illustrate an upcoming lecture in 

 Paris. At the same desk sat a first-rate science writer, pursuing his own 

 study of global ecology, quietly reading books by Agassiz, Alexander von 

 Humboldt, and other nineteenth-century writers who worried about the 

 history and dynamic process of the earth as a whole. The researchers spoke 

 briefly, curiously looked over each others' shoulders for a moment and 

 exchanged ideas, admired the rich written and photogi'aphic resources 

 around them, and then settled in for another typically intense day of research 

 at the MBL. 



